ã€ŠHunting and Herbalism: A Druid LitRPG [Book 2 Stubbed]ã€‹


 1 - Snowy valley

    Cold, sharp winds blew through a valley deep into the north of the world. There stood a forest of towering trees coated in a thick gathering of snow, the lands silent except for the whispering of the winds.

    Within this forest stood a small log cabin. The cabin wasn''t a well appointed house like most in this world would live in, instead containing only the bare basics necessary for survival. The cabins owner was a short woman in her mid thirties, her hair naturally grey with threads of white peeking through. Her eyes were a cold blue, her face some would perhaps describe as too sharp for conventional beauty. This woman wasn''t large but neither was she thin, simply having a healthy amount of muscle gained through her daily life living in the harsh northern lands.

    Amongst other things, the woman was a hunter. Skilled in many ways, she knew how to create and set basic traps, track various animals and, using a large hunting bow with broadhead arrows, she knew how to hunt well enough to keep herself fed. The skill was a necessity in the harsh environment she lived in, especially taking into account she lived alone. The woman was named Zalia.

    "These are definitely deer tracks," Zalia thought, smiling.

    She had run out of meat from her last catch three days past after she had fallen sick. She had been living off various foraged berries since then, slowly recovering her health and while it was enough to live off for a short time she was now starting to feel the ache of hunger quite painfully. Two days past a snow storm had come through and wiped out any tracks, drastically reducing her chance to find any prey to hunt but her bad luck over the past week turned to good as she found these tracks now,

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    "Best get to work then," she thought, settling her mind in for a long hunt.

    Three quarters of an hour later, Zalia found the animal she was looking for. It was a black-tailed deer, the only type she''d seen where she lived and the only type that lived there as far as she knew. It would make for a good catch if she could get off a decent shot.

    Zalia was currently wearing a very thick snow jacket coloured in mottled white and grey, its hood up to keep out the cold and a scarf wrapped over the lower half of her face underneath. In matching colour she also wore thick pants and a pair of black, heavy duty boots. In her hands she held a longbow with a draw weight of thirty kilograms, aimed with very slight tension on the string at the deer in front of her. The bow wasn''t the most advanced weapon in this world but it was definitely her preferred one.

    Exhaling as she drew and stood in a smooth, practiced motion, Zalia held for but a moment before noticing something quite strange. It was like a warping of the air, the fabric of reality itself moving and rippling in a small hovering ball. The deer seemed to notice it in the same moment too as three things happened at once. Zalia released the arrow, the deer dashed away in a sudden movement and the warping ball expanded in a rush enveloping her, the deer and a large chunk of land.

 2 - Aftermath

    Zalia saw as within the blink of an eye the approaching wave enveloped her, a single thought in her mind,

    "Well shit."

    What followed was a confusing sensation of movement, rushing and spinning. Her mind couldn''t understand the feeling but her body was telling it they were in motion making her feel incredibly sick. All she could see before her eyes clamped shut was a blur of white, dark green, black and brown as the colours swirled together. The sensation stopped with a feeling of sudden deceleration and a sound akin to a water drop hitting a still pond, only magnified a hundredfold.

    Zalia opened her eyes to see the same thirty metres of land she remembered yet it was as if it had been dumped on-top of another area of the snow laden landscape. The trees were half fallen, the land beneath split to the sides as it settled. Some trees from what the area used to be stuck out the top of the strange phenomenon, half buried beneath the new chunk of earth.

    Zalia looked around to gather her bearings. She couldn''t identify any familiar landmarks at all, which was quite concerning considering that she was no longer in a valley apparently.

    "Well fuck. What the ever living shit was that. Looked like some full blown magic, maybe an explosive or something," Zalia muttered.

    She quickly followed up her statement by throwing up on the ground, still sick from whatever had happened. She then checked and found her bow laying nearby, two arrows missing from the quiver at her hip. She still had her emergency bag, something she kept on herself when leaving the cabin at all times. Inside the thin backpack was a small assortment of her remaining nuts and berries, enough to last a day or two if she stretched it. Alongside the food was a lighter, a tightly compressed sleeping bag and a light, water resistant tarp. Hanging on the side was a few metres of rope, a single metal pan and a small handaxe she could use to cut down saplings or branches.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Zalia identified where one of the missing arrows was, quickly finding the deer dead with a single arrow sticking from its chest where its heart lay.

    "A lucky shot," she thought, "must have flinched to the side when that odd¡­ explosion went off."

    It was closing in on night time, which was odd to Zalia since she left her cabin in the morning and it had only been about two hours since then to her reckoning.

    "Maybe I got knocked out?" Zalia considered.

    As she inspected the dead deer, however, she realised that was not the answer. The body was still warm as it had been in life, though cooling quickly. With a frown, Zalia used her knife to retrieve the arrow, thankfully undamaged having missed any bone. She quickly field dressed the deer and buried the pieces before tying the legs together, putting the tarp around it as much as she could and hauling the animal up over her back.

    Zalia walked for about an hour in the direction her cabin should be before accepting that yes, she was no longer near her home. She backtracked ten minutes to a nice camp location she had found earlier. A small burrow cutting under a large tree''s root system, while not the most comfortable place in the world, would provide a nice reprieve from the night''s cold winds.

    All the equipment and clothing Zalia had on her were designed to camouflage in to a snowy forest environment to some degree, so after covering the deer body with her tarp and some snow over that, she rugged up in the sleeping bag, feeling at least a remote level of safety as she prepared to sleep.

 3 - Meeting the locals

    Zalia woke up to the sound of snow crunching and an animal sniffing. She immediately froze, breathing lightly and making as little sound as possible when she opened her eyes only a single idea came to mind at what she saw.

    "What the fuck is that," she thought.

    In front of her in the small clearing outside her cover stood what could be described as an extremely large, white, monstrous bear. Taking the shape and build of a bear, the creature varied a little in that it was twice as big as a normal brown bear, razor-backed with spines and six legs. After her observation, a sound resounded in her mind and a tiny message popped up in her eyesight at the top right. Paying attention to it, the message expanded.

    Congratulations! You have closely observed both your surroundings and a creature beyond your understanding. You have learnt the passive skill aura observation.

    Aura observation - passive

    Tin - you are able to identify what rank a creature is by sight, unless it has a method of hiding that information.

    "What!?" Zalia thought, confused and terrified at the same time, "what the hell kind of top secret military experiment have I been kidnapped into."

    Ignoring the message she looked at the creature once more noticing a little box appear above its head that said,

    ? - Silver rank

    The creature was now looking around, to Zalia''s realisation, looking for the freshly dead deer she had hidden in the snow on the other side of the clearing. It must have been following the scent of blood the body had left behind.

    For five minutes or so, the creature walked around the clearing, smelling the air. At one point it came up so close as to push its head over the top of Zalia into the small burrow she was in. She almost lost her shit in that moment but held it together by a thread. Thankfully, the creature moved away from the clearing leaving Zalia frozen and waiting, hoping it wouldn''t come back. She lay there for about half of an hour before finally deciding to get up, pack up and seeing where the creature had left, make her way as quickly as possible in the opposite direction.

    Immediately after leaving the clearing Zalia heard another sound in her mind,

    Congratulations! You have been the hunter and become the hunted, yet survived as both. You have unlocked the class, Hunter. Would you like to make this one of your classes?

    "What the hell?" She thought, "um.. sure? Yes."

    Congratulations! Your first class has become ''Hunter''. You have one more class spot available. Hunter. You are a hunter of beasts, animals and monsters. Through hard work, precise preparation and an instinctive understanding of creatures you hunt down and catch even the strongest of prey. At the same time, you know the ins and outs of hunting and know how to avoid becoming the hunted yourself.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ''Kill shot''.

    Active 1 - Kill shot - spell - targeted - execute

    Tin - Enhance an attack, go for the kill. This ability deals a tiny amount of damage. The damage of this ability scales exponentially with the target¡¯s missing health.

    Mana - high

    Cooldown - 30 seconds

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ''Hunter''s mark''.

    Active 2 - Hunter''s mark - spell - targeted - channel

    Tin - Marked by the hunter, there is no escape. This ability marks a creature you can see. A marked creature takes a small amount of extra damage when damaged by you. You know the general direction of marked enemies. Marking a second creature removes the first mark.

    Mana - very low/s

    Cooldown - n/a

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ''Escape''.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Active 3 - Escape - spell - cleanse

    Tin - The Hunter has become the hunted. This ability removes all slowing and restraining effects and prevents further slowing and restraining effects for the next five seconds.

    Mana - medium

    Cooldown - 2 minutes

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ''Hunter''s Sight''.

    Passive 1 - Hunter''s Sight - passive - body enhancement

    Tin - The hunter tracks their prey. You can track creatures easier. When tracking you learn very basic information such as number of legs, number of creatures and general size of creatures.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ''Survivalist''.

    Passive 2 - Survivalist - passive - body enhancement

    Tin - The body of a hunter shall not fail easily. Gain the heat resistance and cold resistance passive skills. They level alongside this ability. You are able to survive with less nutrition.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ''Heat resistance''.

    Heat resistance - passive

    Tin - You take reduced damage from high temperatures and heat related magics.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ''Cold resistance''.

    Cold resistance - passive

    Tin - You take reduced damage from low temperatures and cold related magics.

    Your ''Hunter'' class has linked itself with your ''Strength'' and ''Dexterity'' attributes. As your class advances so too shall the linked attributes.

    Zalia mentally pushed aside the host of notifications building up in her vision, to which they obligingly disappeared. She quickly started feeling a burning sensation in her body, not painful or uncomfortable in any way just.. odd.

    "Ok, ok ok ok. What the hell, what the hell. Magic? I swear one of those messages speaking in my head said magic. I''m going to need to read those through once I''m in the clear." Zalia thought to herself as she pushed away as fast as possible.

    Zalia travelled for as long as she could withhold her curiosity for, about one and a half hours. She found a large tree that she pulled herself and her deer up into, the snow coating providing an almost room-like feel to the large spruce.

    "Ok, let''s go through this assuming I''m not losing my mind. Class? I didn''t know I had a class or whatever. One more class spot remaining.. sure why not. Hunter, yeah I mean I do go hunting a lot I guess it makes sense. Wait ok I heard magic somewhere, do I have mana? Like in those games I played back when I was a kid." She thought.

    As she thought this, a message popped up in front of her.

    Profile - Zalia Taori

    Health - Excellent

    Mana - Full

    Stamina - High

    Class one - Hunter - Tin 1

    Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity

    Active skills

    Kill shot - Tin 1

    Hunter''s mark - Tin 1

    Escape - Tin 1

    Passive skills

    Hunter''s Sight - Tin 1

    Survivalist - Tin 1

    Class two - none

    Unity class - none

    General Passives

    Aura observation - Tin 1

    Heat resistance - Tin 1

    Cold resistance - Tin 1

    "Oooookay then. I have mana.. and skills.. aaand this is crazy. I''m on the floor in the snow having a seizure, for sure. This can''t be real." She thought, shaking her head, "strange way to live out your last minutes in your mind Zalia, real strange."

    She started reading through her abilities and trying them out.

    "Kill shot, edgy," she murmured.

    Activating it by thinking real hard about it in her mind, she felt something click and then tried punching the tree.

    "Ow, god damn it. You can''t just punch trees Zalia, still hurts," she thought.

    Despite her genius testing methods of punching a tree, she did feel like it had an effect. She had the distinct impression of mana flowing out of her body and the ability being locked from use.

    "Alright, so it works.. I guess. You know what, this is actually really fucking cool. Ignoring the horrible, alternate reality looking, monstrous bear this could make my life much easier out here. Wherever here is," Zalia thought.

    She tried using the Hunter''s mark on a small bird she saw fly past to land on a nearby tree.

    ? - Tin rank

    As she applied the mark, she could feel instinctively the general direction of the bird.

    "Interesting, could come in real handy with tracking down a kill as it bleeds out if I don''t get a lucky shot like that last one," Zalia thought, pondering her new abilities.

    "Alright, it''s time to get back to reality. If I''m going to survive out here I need shelter first. I have water aplenty around me and an alright supply of food for now," Zalia thought, stopping for a moment to consider, "I could build something but I think some exploration is a better idea for now."

    With that, Zalia got herself and the deer out of the tree she had hidden in and began exploring.

 4 - Herbs and berries

    During her exploration Zalia started paying a little more attention to her surroundings. She found a few herbs and berries that she actually did recognise, which was good. However, she also found quite a few she did not. Still, she took a select few with her as she went, wondering about their possible uses. Once her small herb pouch was full she looked at all the bits she had collected.

    Lavender - Tin rank

    Thyme - Tin rank

    Rosemary - Tin rank

    ? - Iron rank

    ? - Iron rank

    ? - Bronze rank

    ? - Silver rank

    "Quite a haul," she thought

    Zalia also took and ate the berries she recognised as she went, not really having anywhere to store them. While it did slow her progress down, it was worth it in the end to hold off starvation.

    Zalia had decided to head towards the single landmark she could see above the trees, bushes and snow. A large mountain reaching up into the sky, one she very much didn''t recognise and would know about if it were near her home.

    Along her way, Zalia had seen various tracks and prints of creatures walking through. Testing her ''Hunter''s Sight'' ability and her already formed foundation in tracking, she could very easily determine the number of creatures and the size of and number of legs each creature had. Some of these were quite concerning to her. A pack of a dozen four legged creatures had passed through one location, wolves she would have thought except they were ginormous. Much larger than they should have been, making them stand almost twice her height. After a few times using the ability, a notification popped into her head.

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    Congratulations! Hunter''s Sight has reached Tin 2.

    "Oh cool, rank up. Visible and audible notification of rank up. I can see that getting addicting, the very noticeable affirmation of progress," she thought.

    Eventually, as Zalia was travelling she was almost at what she would call the base of the mountain. At this point however, she heard a loud, resounding roar close behind her. She looked behind herself to see a few hundred metres away the giant monstrous bear creature charging in her direction. The thing smashed through a tree, slowing only slightly at the impact, the whole tree toppling as it did so.

    Zalia panicked. She put her Hunter''s mark on the creature, dropped the deer and sprinted away as fast as she could manage. She had a relatively big lead on the creature but it was huge and barely hindered by the snow, let alone even the trees. Her heart pounded in her chest as she ran, desperately looking for anything that could pass as an escape from the beast. She didn''t think climbing a tree would help.

    Zalia ran for what felt like forever, hearing the groan and crash of toppling trees, the pounding from the ground caused by the beast matching the pounding of her heart. She could sense the creature gaining on her as she ran through the spell she had cast. She flew out from between two trees into a sparsely vegetated area at the base of what was a small cliff face reaching up into the sky, the base of the mountain. Desperately looking around she spotted a crack in the face of the stone wall that looked like it led in at least some distance.

    Zalia bolted for the crack and slammed her body sideways into it, pushing further in as quickly as she could. The bear creature slammed against the mountain face with a resounding boom. She came into a small cave-like space, the crack reaching upwards to the sky above her. There was barely enough room to stand, maybe a metre in each direction of space before the crack narrowed again further into the mountain. Deciding it was far enough in, she was breathing hard as she watched the bear scrambling and crashing against the entrance. She saw with some concern that the creature was actually managing to rip apart the stone, digging further in.

    After a few seconds of the creature''s efforts, Zalia noticed a growing sound. The sound of stones tumbling and falling. The damn thing had caused a landslide. Mere moments later, a veritable flood of stone, snow and wood came crashing down on top of the creature, crushing it underneath. Dust and snow fell down the crack as the world went dark.

 5 - No Violence

    Zalia fumbled around with her bag for a moment before finding the small lighter that she kept. Flicking it on, she could see that the crack above her had been filled in with snow and debris. In front of her, the entrance had been completely blocked, only the head of the creature sticking out of the snow.

    Zalia moved up to the creature, looking at it through the flickering light of the lighter. As she pushed through the crack towards it the things eyes opened, staring at her.

    "Well damn, you''re still alive," she said.

    The creature tried to get up but failed under the weight of all the snow and debris atop it. The creature let out a sound akin to a whimper, still looking at her.

    "Don''t worry buddy, I''ll put you out of your misery," she murmured, looking sympathetically at it.

    She got out her knife and leaning down, activated her kill shot and hunter''s mark abilities before slamming the knife into the creature''s eye.

    Congratulations! You have killed ? - Silver rank. You have received extra experience for killing a creature three ranks above your own.

    Congratulations! Kill shot has gained six levels reaching Tin 7.

    Congratulations! Hunter''s mark has gained four levels reaching Tin 5.

    Congratulations! Escape has gained two levels reaching Tin 3.

    Congratulations! Hunter''s Sight has reached Tin 3.

    Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have reached Tin 2.

    Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Tin 2. Your Strength and Dexterity have increased.

    Zalia could feel the increase in her strength and dexterity. It was a minor thing, she wasn''t going to go around lifting mountains but being enough for her to feel meant it was at least an improvement.

    "Speaking of mountains," she said, "I just happen to be trapped under one."

    "What the hell am I going to do now," she thought, "killing that thing increased my levels by a lot but that isn''t going to help me down here."

    "Damn, bringing that deer with me was a stupid ass idea. Especially after this thing tracked me because of it once already," she thought to herself.

    It was a stupid decision yet she had needed the meat that deer would have provided. Now she was stuck under a damn mountain and eating was no longer her biggest problem.

    "Guess I''ll have to see if it goes deeper," she said out loud.

    Zalia ripped a small piece of wood out from the snow and debris blocking the entrance and used her hand axe to cut it down to a rough torch shape. Pulling up her snow jacket and thick undercoat, she cut a small section off of her thermal shirt underneath. She then cut some of the razor-like fur from the top of the bear creature''s head. Using the section of cloth she bound the fur to the top of the piece of wood and lit it up. It probably wasn''t the smartest thing to do since it would eat up her air and create smoke but without light she wouldn''t be able to find escape and would die here anyways. The smell from the burning fur was horrendous but she soldiered on and pushed her way further into the cave.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    For twenty minutes Zalia pushed through the tight tunnel before it widened up enough for her to walk properly. Some sections she had to almost crawl sideways through they were so tight. Ignoring the panic and fear within herself she pushed on. The fur had been enough of a starter to light the actual wood which now burned with a low light. As she kept on, a notification popped up.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ''Low light vision''.

    Low light vision - passive

    Tin - You see better in low light areas.

    Zalia''s vision suddenly got better, being able to see a few more metres clearly in the dark.

    "Well isn''t that just fancy," she muttered.

    As she travelled further into the cave, Zalia noticed that it was getting much warmer. Significantly so, much more than it should have just from being out of the winds. She stopped for a moment to take off her snow jacket and carefully fold it before mashing it into her backpack. She still had on her undercoat, a thick, black long-sleeve top and a thermal shirt under that.

    After another ten or so minutes, Zalia had to drop the stub that remained of the torch lest she burn herself on it. As she ground down the remains of the torch with her boots, she noticed a faint glow of light coming from the tunnel ahead. Moving slowly, she approached the light to find another tunnel, this one wider, intersecting her own. Peeking around the corner to where the source of light was, she saw a small round room with sparse stone furnishings, some covered with various hides. What drew her attention the most, however, was the centre of the room in which three humanoid figures sat facing away from her on rough-hewn stone stumps. Above them floated small streams of lava as if by magic.

    Zalia quickly drew back into the darkness, un-slinging the bow from her back and stringing it. Nocking an arrow, she decided to figure out if the creatures were aggressive or not before she attacked. She stepped out of her side tunnel, prepared to draw the bow,

    "Hey!" She called out.

    The three humanoids burst into motion, standing up and spinning around before freezing at the sight of her weapon.

    ? - Iron rank

    ? - Tin rank

    ? - Tin rank

    Now that Zalia could see them more clearly, she could identify that while humanoid they were definitely not human. Standing at about one point two metres tall they had sharp, angular faces, pointy teeth, disproportionally large eyes and were quite lanky. They wore hide clothes with hoods, almost like a hooded poncho.

    The creatures started chattering in some sort of communication, the language including many varieties of clicks. Just as Zalia was about to speak again, the centre creature''s eyes started glowing a deep red as the lava streams floating around the room formed into a dozen or so small spheres. As this happened she pulled the drawstring back, holding the bow at full draw.

    ¡°STOP, NO VIOLENCE, NO VIOLENCE,¡± a screeching voice called from behind her.

    The voice was odd, the pronunciation seeming off to her. It did however accomplish its goal, which was to give pause to both her and the other three creatures.

    Zalia saw as another creature similar to the three in front of her ran out from the tunnel''s other direction to stand between the two groups.

    ? - Bronze rank

    It said something to the three in their language before turning back to her,

    ¡°No, no no no no. No violence here. Yes, no violence,¡± it said, nodding along, quite thoroughly out of breath.

    ¡°If you want no violence, tell them to put down the freaky lava magic orbs,¡± Zalia said, nodding towards the three.

    The mediator turned to the other group, speaking before the centre one released its magic. The orbs turned back into flowing streams, a still quite terrifying sight. As the orbs slowly returned to this state, Zalia slowly released the tension on the bowstring but left the arrow nocked,

    ¡°So I''ve got a question,¡± said Zalia, ¡°where the hell am I?¡±

 6 - Glemp

    The creature mediating the conflict looked at Zalia with too large eyes for a good three seconds before responding,

    ¡°Under the mountain, yes yes. Very tall mountain yes,¡± it replied.

    ¡°Right, yes that explains everything,¡± Zalia thought.

    ¡°Alright, well how about a name, do you have a name?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Yes yes, a name. Humans use names, yes, Glemp!¡± Glemp replied, "and what name would be given to you human."

    ¡°Zalia,¡± Zalia replied, ¡°you know of humans?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes yes, of course. Humans, yes, very tall. A few I have met, learnt. Glemp speaks your language, yes?¡± Glemp replied.

    ¡°Are they.. Nearby?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°No no no, not anymore. Not since many, many passings of the sun,¡± Glemp responded.

    ¡°Well ah, do you know where I could go to find them?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Mmm no no, yes, no. Yes, a direction but not how far, yes,¡± Glemp said, nodding.

    Zalia slowly put away her bow, trusting enough in the small creatures not to immediately attack at this point. The three who she had initially met were talking amongst themselves, still suspicious of her.

    ¡°You are from the outside, yes?¡± Glemp asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Zalia replied.

    ¡°Oh good oh good, very interesting, yes. Did you bring any plants, or maybe some pieces of rare creatures, yes?¡± Glemp asked.

    ¡°I might have, why do you ask?¡± asked Zalia.

    ¡°Oh, oh well Glemp does much research, yes, hmmmm in the language of humans, alchemy maybe, science?¡± Glemp responded.

    ¡°Alchemy hey, I might be interested in learning a little bit from you,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°I did in fact bring some plants with me, maybe you could tell me how I can use them,¡± she continued.

    ¡°Oh good, yes Glemp can show, follow, follow,¡± Glemp said, before saying something to the other three nearby creatures and beginning to walk off.

    ¡°May I ask, what does your race call themselves?¡± asked Zalia.

    ¡°Oh yes, humans call us goblins yes, but we call ourselves hmm in your language those Born of Heat and Stone maybe, yes,¡± Glemp said.

    ¡°Born of heat and stone, explains the lava thing that other one had going on I guess,¡± Zalia thought

    Glemp led Zalia out of the tunnel onto a large outcropping in a giant cavern. Stretching far both up and down, the cavern had pools of lava at the bottom lighting up the large space, the heat of which she could feel even from here. All up the sides of the cavern spread tunnels, bridges and paths dug into and made of stone. Various streams of lava could be seen floating through the space following other Goblins as they clambered up treacherous paths. Looking further up Zalia could see a peak of sunlight coming through at an angle far, far above where the top of the mountain had a hole to the outside world.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Following Glemp, none of the other denizens of the mountain gave her much trouble apart from various stares and mutters in their language. From what Glemp had said she wasn''t the first human to have been in the cavernous city, however rare it was.

    They eventually arrived in what Zalia assumed to be Glemp¡¯s home. Various rough-hewn benches lined the walls of the circular room covered in all sorts of instruments, plants and most prominently, animal parts. A doorway at the far end led to what she thought was probably a sleeping space of some sort. Glemp¡¯s eyes started glowing a deep red as a stream of lava flowed into the space, lighting up the dark corners of the room.

    ¡°Welcome, welcome Zalia of the humans, to my home, yes,¡± Glemp said, spreading their arms to the side.

    ¡°Much like your other kin I don''t really get along well with humans, Glemp, call me¡­ Zalia of the snow,¡± Zalia responded, ¡°it''s a nice home you have here and you weren''t kidding about the research stuff. What is all this?¡±

    ¡°Tools and pieces, pieces and tools, yes. Much you would have to learn to understand, above your rank, yes,¡± Glemp said. ¡°of the snow you say, do not the beings of ice attack you?¡±

    ¡°Beings of ice? Not that I''m aware of. Did get attacked by some big bear thing though, if that''s what you mean,¡± Zalia answered.

    ¡°No no, bear things, no. I do not know what a bear is. No, us of Heat and Stone are attacked by the elements of ice, come to life, when we stray from our home, yes,¡± Glemp said.

    ¡°Huh, never saw any of those while I was there,¡± said Zalia

    Glemp looked at her for a few seconds before turning to some of the benches, clearing a space.

    ¡°Place the plants, yes?¡± Glemp asked.

    Placing down all the plants she had brought from outside, Zalia looked at Glemp as they looked over them.

    ¡°Hmm, yes, yes I know most of these, yes. Tin rank ones, not much magic, no, no. These two of iron rank, Snow-leaf, very common, very. Good for many snow and ice magics, yes. The other, yes Bitterbalm, can use for some rituals, yes, rituals to put curses on others, good for cooking too. From what Glemp has heard it is in many places of the world, yes,¡± Glemp said, looking at the first five.

    ¡°Curse rituals?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Shh shh, yes. Let me finish before you begin your questions, yes,¡± Glemp admonished.

    ¡°Now, bronze rank, yes. Quite rare, yes, very. Good for injuries yes. Some call it Frozen Heart, yes a good name. Good for rituals of healing yes, and many potions, very good use. Will slow down bleeding, diseases, all kinds of ailments, yes,¡± Glemp said.

    ¡°But this last one, oh no, yes. Silver rank I have not seen, must be very rare, unheard of,¡± Glemp continued, looking up to Zalia.

    Congratulations! You have picked various herbs and learnt of their uses. You have unlocked the class ¡®Herbalist¡¯. Would you like to make this one of your classes?

    ¡°Ooooh, that I can get behind. Later though, later,¡± Zalia thought.

    ¡°I wonder, Zalia of the snow, would you hunt for Glemp?¡± asked Glemp.

    ¡°Hunt for you?¡± said Zalia, answering the question with another.

    ¡°Yes, yes, Glemp needs many materials from creatures beyond the mountains, yes,¡± answered Glemp.

    ¡°Hmm, you know I wouldn¡¯t be opposed to it but what do I get out of it? How about you teach me what you know of herbs in this region?¡± Zalia asked.

    Glemp thought for a moment,

    ¡°This can be a deal, yes,¡± answered Glemp.

    ¡°Anything you want me to hunt for you in particular?¡± asked Zalia.

    An unnerving gleam appeared in the eyes of Glemp.

    ¡°Oh yes, yes indeed but not yet. Zalia of the snow needs to become much stronger, yes much,¡± Glemp said, ¡°for now, whatever you find, yes it will do.¡±

    ¡°Alright Glemp, it sounds like we have an arrangement. Do you have any food?¡± asked Zalia.

    ¡°Yes, yes food. We have much, may I ask to keep this Silver rank plant to¡­ experiment with?¡± asked Glemp.

    ¡°Only if you give me something in return. Do you have any like.. Healing potions? Is that a thing?¡± asked Zalia.

    ¡°Hmmm, yes indeed, yes. You may have one for this, agreed? It is very strong for someone of your power Zalia of the snow. You must only use in an emergency, when you are safe from outside danger. Very likely make you pass out,¡± Glemp replied.

    ¡°Agreed,¡± said Zalia.

    Glemp went to fetch her potion and Zalia packed away her other herbs and plants. Coming back to her with a small vial, Glemp handed it to her and took the Silver rank herb before moving out the door into the cavern once more.

    ¡°Let us find you food, yes, food we shall,¡± said Glemp.

 7 - Herbalist and Healing

    Zalia looked at the healing potion as Glemp led her through some more tunnels.

    Healing potion - Bronze rank

    She put it in her bag as Glemp led her through a large opening near the middle height of the city that led into a large hall-like room. The room was filled with many small circles made of stone, each surrounded by mats made of hide. A few of the circles had various artful displays of lava swirling around inside, the shape ever changing. Most of those circles were occupied by other Born of Heat and Stone, some few empty as the occupants were busy gathering plates of food. Around the edges of the room stood various stalls built into the walls, each displaying startling varieties of what looked like mushroom based foods.

    Glemp led Zalia to a circle, gesturing for her to sit down as they spoke a small chant. The stream of lava flowing above Glemp¡¯s head moved into the circle and started swirling around much like the other circles in the room. As they moved away, Zalia looked again at the message that had played earlier in her mind.

    Congratulations! You have picked various herbs and learnt of their uses. You have unlocked the class ¡®Herbalist¡¯. Would you like to make this one of your classes?

    Giving her mental affirmation, Zalia felt the same odd sensation as when she first accepted her Hunter class.

    Congratulations! Your second class has become ''Herbalist''. You have no more class spots available. Herbalist. You are a collector of various magical and non-magical herbs and other flora. You use these ingredients to perform rituals and create ointments to various effects. You are a collector of herbs, berries and useful flora. Using your knowledge of plants you identify and refine various plants to heal, poison and feed yourself and others.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ¡®Flora identification¡¯.

    Active 1 - Flora identification - spell - targeted

    Tin - Poison, cure or food, you''ll know. You may identify whether targeted flora is poisonous, helpful, nutritious or all of the above.

    Mana - very, very low

    Cd - n/a

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ¡®Preparation¡¯.

    Active 2 - Preparation - spell - targeted

    Tin - The careful preparation of herbs, poisonous or healing, can enhance their effects. You may magically dry, cut or otherwise prepare various foods, herbs and other similar items that are plant based.

    Mana - very, very low

    Cd - n/a

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ¡®Stasis¡¯.

    Active 3 - Stasis - spell - targeted

    Tin - Can put a small amount of herbs into stasis.

    Mana - low

    Cd - n/a

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ¡®Harvester¡¯.

    Passive 1 - Harvester - passive - skill enhancement

    Tin - The herbalist harvests herbs and other flora, with which they do what they will. You gain an instinctual understanding of how to harvest flora of your rank and lower. When harvesting flora of your rank or lower it has increased potency.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ¡®Herbal magic¡¯.

    Passive 2 - Herbal magic - passive - varied

    Tin - Minor herbal based rituals are a keystone of magical herbalists. You gain an instinctual understanding of herbal rituals of your rank or lower. Herbal magic you use of your rank and lower has slightly increased potency.

    Your ''Herbalist'' class has linked itself with your ''Resilience'' and ''Vitality'' attributes. As your class advances so too shall the linked attributes.

    Congratulations! You have activated both of your classes. Your two classes have combined to form the Unity class ¡®Druid¡¯. You are a protector of nature and the natural cycle of life and death. Through your instincts and knowledge you understand both the flora and fauna of the wild places of the world. You use this ability to preserve the balance as you see fit.

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ¡®Nature¡¯s wrath¡¯.

    Active 1 - Nature''s wrath - spell - area

    Tin - You invoke the wrath of nature. Nearby enemies are bound by vines, sinking sand or other area related hazards. Enemies are also subjected to a damage over time effect relevant to biome that lasts until the restraint has ended. The damage over time effect deals moderate damage per second.

    Mana - extreme mana

    Cd - 6 hours

    Congratulations! You have learnt the active skill ¡®Protection of the wilds¡¯.

    Active 2 - Protection of the wilds - spell - area - counter execute

    Tin - You call upon the protection of the wilds. You and nearby allies are protected by a biome specific shield and are subjected to a moderate heal over time effect. The heal over time heals exponentially more based on how low the target''s health is and remains until the shield is broken.

    Mana - very high mana

    Cd - 6 hours

    Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill ¡®Healing presence¡¯.

    Passive 1 - Healing presence - passive - aura

    Tin - Your very presence grants life to all around you. You, nearby allies and any flora and fauna you so choose within your aura are affected by a heal over time effect. The heal over time effect heals for low health every second.

    Your ¡®Druid¡¯ Class has linked itself with your ¡®Wisdom¡¯ and ¡®Intellect¡¯ attributes. As your class advances so too shall the linked attributes.

    The strange warm sensation rose to a painful heat as the second class acted out its own changes too. Struggling through, the sensation eventually faded and Zalia was left with a host of messages explaining her new abilities.

    ¡°Alllright. Various abilities to identify, harvest and prepare herbs, pretty much what I expected. Stasis¡­ hmm, I¡¯ll have to test that one out, no idea what it means by that. Instinctive understanding of herbal rituals. I don''t feel like I have any understanding, maybe that will come later when I try and do it? Oh and a second class, explains the extra pain that time around. Druid. Looks like some extra strong abilities compared to the other two, maybe because it''s this ¡®Unity class¡¯ it''s talking about. Healing presence¡­¡± Zalia thought, reading over everything.

    Now that she focused on it, Zalia could feel the faint healing permeating her body and the area around her.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s just super cool. Never knew I wanted an ability like that until now, I won''t be bothered by small cuts, grazes¡­ or mosquitos during summer. Now that''s what I call overpowered. I wonder what level of injury it could bring me back from,¡± She thought

    Zalia looked around for a moment at the others around their separate circles of stone to see if any had noticed her class activations but they didn''t seem to have, or at least didn''t care if they had. She pulled out her knife and with a few seconds hesitation, cut her finger a little. She watched in fascination as it slowly closed, a small bit of blood escaping.

    ¡°Wow, I¡¯m not going to have to worry about a hell of a lot of small injuries anymore. Splinters, stubbed toes, paper cuts and a whole lot more," Zalia muttered to herself.

 8 - Back on the hunt

    Glemp came back with two small stone plates filled with various types of saut¨¦ed mushrooms covered in a sweet and spicy type sauce. Zalia wolfed hers down with a voracious appetite before her little alchemist buddy was even part way through.

    After they had eaten, Glemp led Zalia back down the cavern closer to what would be the level she came in at. They showed her the main entrance to the cavern from the outside, two massive stone doors at the end of a long hallway, barred with three large obsidian beams. At a motion from Glemp, two nearby guards started chanting in unison, their eyes glowing the deep red Zalia now associated with lava magic. The three beams of obsidian melted, flowing away and reforming nearby before the two pushed open the doors.

    ¡°I might be a week or two Glemp, I¡¯m quite unfamiliar with these lands and don''t know how long a hunt will take,¡± said Zalia

    ¡°Yes, yes, as long as you will need of course, yes. It is shocking one at such a level as you can survive at all out there, yes,¡± replied Glemp.

    ¡°I appreciate the faith you have in me,¡± said Zalia sarcastically, a smile on her face.

    ¡°Oh and hey, if you travel down that crack that you first found me having come out of, you¡¯ll find a big creature you might have an interest in studying.. It''s kind of trapped under a tonne of ice, snow and rocks though,¡± Zalia added on.

    She held out her fist to the small alchemist. Glemp looked at her with a confused expression.

    ¡°Like this,¡± Zalia said, fist bumping her own hand with the other, holding it back out.

    Glemp gave her a fist bump with their small three fingered hand, their own face holding a sharp toothed smile

    ¡°Yes, I will look for this creature you speak of, yes, yes,¡± Glemp said, before turning back and walking into the cavern as the two doors closed shut with a muffled boom.

    She could barely see where the doors had closed, the opening seamlessly disappearing into the rockface. She turned her back to the doors looking out at the snow laden land as a gust of cold wind blew across, tussling her hair,

    ¡°Home, sweet home,¡± Zalia whispered to herself, before putting on her snow jacket, wrapping her scarf around her lower face, putting the hood up and with a smile, she set off.

    Zalia returned to where the bear creature had chased her into the mountain in the first place, finding that there was very little chance she would dig out that entrance any time soon. She followed the path of destruction back to where she had dropped the deer she had caught on her first moment in this place. To her disappointment she found that some creature had come by and feasted on the deer in her absence.

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Piece of shit, that was my catch,¡± Zalia muttered, looking at the tracks around her.

    She collected her rope and slightly chewed tarp before properly checking out the tracks.

    ¡°Five creatures, about half my size, four legs and the shits were here not so long ago,¡± Zalia murmured.

    Deciding against hunting them down immediately, she got out the few sprigs of lavender, thyme and rosemary she had and used her preparation skill on them. She watched in awe as the leaves stripped off the hardy wood stems and dried immediately, neatly separating themselves into piles. Unlike most of her hunter abilities, this was a very visible effect and it really brought home the fact that yes, magic was real. She then pulled out some of the Bitterbalm she had and used stasis on it. The herbs went eerily still, not being affected by the wind or movement. She realised it would most likely keep the herbs fresh, more important for some uses than others but definitely a good skill. She quickly used it on all the other herbs she had on her, keeping them as fresh as possible.

    Congratulations! Stasis has reached Tin 2.

    ¡°Damn that''s addictive,¡± she thought, smiling a little.

    Zalia saw a bush with some of the berries she didn''t recognise on her first time through and went to go have a look

    ? (Poisonous) - Tin rank

    Picking some and looking again it said,

    ? (Poisonous)(Potent) - Tin rank

    Then using preparation on them she watched as they crushed, the husks being thrown away before an almost slimy substance was left behind which promptly plopped to the floor as she didn''t want to catch it. Looking down at it, a message read,

    ? (Poison)(Potent) - Tin rank

    She got a few more and this time held up her emptied quiver underneath them, letting the substance fall in. Pushing all her arrows into the quiver, she took one back out again and to her delight it had the poison coating the arrowhead.

    ¡°Oh that is just cool,¡± Zalia said.

    Grabbing a few more berries, Zalia used stasis on them and put them away in the small pouch at her side.

    Congratulations! Preparation has reached Tin 2.

    Congratulations! Harvester has reached Tin 2.

    Congratulations! Aura observation has reached Tin 2.

    The three abilities ranked up as she used her skills and read the information they provided for her. She set off through the forest, using her skills as much as she could, finding a few more berries that were edible. She must have left a trail of nicely cut and dried herbs and berries as she went, not really having anywhere to put them.

    As it got closer to midday, Zalia decided to set up a hunting blind. Less for what its actual purpose would be but more as a home base to come back to. Using three nicely spaced trees as posts, she spent most of the rest of the day cutting down lengths of wood and using the back of the hand-axe to hammer them into place between the trees. She left space for an entrance and one small window on one side. She found a nearby river and thoroughly washed her tarp in it before tying it to the top of her makeshift home as a roof, a few pieces of wood to provide support underneath. She then piled up snow on top and around the thing to camouflage it in a bit. It was not very spacious but she didn''t need much, just a somewhat safe place to sleep. She gathered a few more berries from nearby, eating them as she sat in the small blind in her sleeping bag. With her harvester skill, they were much more filling than she would have thought and she fell asleep on the ground, rugged up.

 9 - Size doesnt necessarily matter

    Zalia awoke to a message in her mind,

    Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have reached Tin 3.

    Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Tin 3.

    She felt a very slight increase to her strength and dexterity as it happened. All it was, was a slight feeling of increased strength and how fast her body could react. While not much to speak about she felt it would definitely have an impact over time. Now that she thought about it, Glemp, who was bronze rank, moved quite fluidly. She hadn¡¯t thought about it at the time but she put it down to the attributes being much higher. She would bet that the little fella was also a lot stronger then they showed as well.

    Zalia felt good about where she was at this point. When she had left her original home, the town she grew up in, to move far into the north and live in the snow and ice by herself it was a much different story. The first few weeks had been one big icy hell on earth, each shortcoming or problem that happened snowballing into the next. It had taken her a while to come out even and stabilise in the cold north. Now however, she had a new friend, magical powers and a head start on all the vital skills that she very much didn''t have last time around. While her situation still held an edge of improbability or insanity to it, she was actually quite happy with how her life was going.

    Zalia decided to leave her sleeping bag in the small home she had made, opting to have more room for herbs and berries she found. Heading back out into the cold, frozen landscape, she started looking for tracks. She wanted to start off with something small and much less dangerous than a giant six legged bear from icy hell.

    A few minutes of looking later, Zalia found the tracks of a small creature that her abilities told her was probably something like a rabbit. She followed its tracks to a burrow down into the snow and set up nearby, bow strung and nocked. It wasn''t long before a small head popped up above the burrow, before the rest of the body followed. The animal looked like a rabbit with big floppy ears except its fur had an almost metallic sheen to it. Following her fluid motion born of years of hunting she stood, exhaled and drew at the same moment before shooting off an arrow at the thing. As the arrow flew, she noticed one additional detail,

    ? - Bronze rank

    Which meant that the creature was on a level similar to Glemp.

    The arrow practically bounced off the creature, leaving only a small cut. The two looked at each other for a single moment before both burst into movement. Zalia dropped the bow and drew her small dagger, using preparation to refine and apply some poison to it as she stepped backwards a few steps. The bunny however, flew at her like a tiny, fluffy missile. It hit with much more force than it should have been able to output with such a small body, bowling her over. It hit just a moment after the poison applied and she stabbed down at the creature as they fell down backwards. The knife glanced off its fur just as the arrow had, leaving only a small gash,

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ? (Poisoned) - Bronze rank

    Much to her relief, the poison was at least being applied. The bunny-like creature started smashing its head down into her chest as she kept stabbing. Zalia felt a rib break as she threw the creature off of her, standing up. She then applied her Hunter''s mark and used both her Nature¡¯s wrath and Protection of the Wilds abilities in tandem. She watched as spiked, icy roots and vines sprang from the ground, wrapping around the creature and constricting. At the same time, a cocoon of ice formed around her and she felt a warmth much stronger than her healing presence flow through her.

    Zalia watched as the creature struggled and pushed against the ice holding it still, cracks slowly forming in the magical vines and roots. She felt her rib crack back into place, letting out a pained scream as it did. She could visibly see the creature weaken as it struggled but not enough before it broke out of the vines and came flying at her once more. Within her cocoon, she quickly put away the knife before pulling out her hand-axe, activating kill shot and waiting.

    The bunny hit the icy cocoon with a loud slam, cracks forming in its surface. Further cracks appeared in the ice as it slammed its head a few more times into the surface. After a few moments, its head smashed through the ice and Zalia swung down with as much force as she could muster, slamming the axe into the bunnies head and finally killing it.

    Congratulations! You have killed ? (Poisoned) - Bronze rank. You have received extra experience for killing a creature two ranks above your own.

    Congratulations! Kill shot has gained two levels reaching Tin 9.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s mark has gained three levels reaching Tin 8.

    Congratulations! Escape has reached Tin 4.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s sight has reached Tin 4.

    Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have gained two levels reaching Tin 5.

    Congratulations! Hunter has reached Tin 4.

    Congratulations! Preparation has reached Tin 3.

    Congratulations! Herbal magic has reached Tin 2.

    Congratulations! Nature¡¯s wrath has gained three levels reaching Tin 4.

    Congratulations! Protection of the wilds has gained three levels reaching Tin 4.

    Congratulations! Healing presence has gained two levels reaching Tin 3.

    Congratulations! Druid class has gained two levels reaching Tin 3.

    ¡°Holy fucking sh-¡± Zalia started, before coughing up a little bit of blood.

    ¡°I really need to check my assumptions about small prey being weak or vulnerable or prey at all,¡± she thought.

    ¡°Just almost got my ass put six feet under by a fucking bunny,¡± she said.

    ¡°Check rank before you attack, check rank before you attack, check rank before you attack,¡± she repeated over and over in her head a few times.

    She really hadn''t expected the bunny to be at such a high level. She had no doubts in her mind that if it were a bigger creature at that level she would have been dead in moments. Luckily, it seemed that what you¡¯re born as seemed to give at least a starting level of power depending. One rank higher and that bunny would have been her end, it didn''t even have magic, just pure, raw bun strength.

    Zalia cleaned off her knife and axe, retrieved her arrow, slung the bunny over her shoulder and started her walk back.

 10 - Progress... to who knows what

    On her way back to her blind, Zalia again cut off and took as many herbs and plants as she could,

    Congratulations! Flora identification has reached Tin 2.

    Congratulations! Stasis has reached Tin 3.

    Congratulations! Herbalist has reached Tin 2.

    She found quite a few more bits of Bitterbalm and Snow-leaf but no more of the rare bronze rank Frozen Heart or the silver rank one she had left with Glemp.

    Reaching her blind, Zalia quickly set up a small fire, field dressing and skinning the rabbit she put it on a spit above. Actually skinning the thing took a considerable amount of time because cutting through the metallic hide was quite hard. While it cooked she used some of the Thyme, Rosemary and Bitterbalm sprinkling it on. It wouldn''t be the best meal she¡¯d ever had but it would do. She kind of wished she had some salt somewhere but out in the snow you do what you can with what you have.

    ¡°Probably can''t fight any creature above iron and especially not if I don''t have my long cooldown abilities,¡± Zalia thought, ¡°Mmm Glemp wasn''t lying that the Bitterbalm is quite good for cooking... and I''m poisoning myself by eating this but healing presence is countering it¡±

    Now that she didn¡¯t have the emergency back-up of those two abilities for six hours she was feeling a bit less comfortable going out for another hunt just yet. As such, she spent the rest of the day collecting herbs and trying out what she could do with them. Chewing on a bit of Frost-leaf she found that it quite significantly cooled down her body temperature but didn''t do much else. The Bitterbalm just tasted nice, speaking to its use in cooking. When she decided to eat a little bit of the Frozen Heart, she found that it did feel like it healed her a little. Though she couldn''t speak to its ability to slow down any disease or bleeding it could be useful in the right circumstance.

    Zalia didn''t have any experience in alchemy like Glemp did, and neither did she have any interest in learning it. She was more interested in very simple applications of what herbs could do quickly. She decided to fold up the hide of the bunny and give it to Glemp as a gift next time she went back that way.

    The next week and a half were spent testing out and finding the limits of her newfound magical powers. Zalia found a few more of the bunnies, these all of an iron rank however and relatively easy to take down without her use of the high cooldown abilities. Her bag was packed with as many herbs as she could find so she had taken to leaving it at her blind now. She came across a few more pieces of the Frozen Heart and had to use some in one of her fights where a bunny had gotten in a particularly savage headbutt. Coming in closer to the week and a half mark, Zalia decided to hunt something a bit bigger. She was sticking to her iron rank only rule, making sure not to attack anything higher than that and running from anything that decided to give chase. Before going on this final hunt, she checked her progress,

    Congratulations! Kill shot has gained five levels reaching Tin 14.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s mark has gained four levels reaching Tin 12.

    Congratulations! Escape has reached Tin 5.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s sight has gained five levels reaching Tin 9.

    Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have gained five levels reaching Tin 10.

    Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Tin 5.

    Congratulations! Flora identification has gained five levels reaching Tin 7.

    Congratulations! Preparation has gained five levels reaching Tin 8.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Congratulations! Stasis has gained three levels reaching Tin 6.

    Congratulations! Harvester has gained five levels reaching Tin 7.

    Congratulations! Herbal magic has gained two levels reaching Tin 4.

    Congratulations! Herbalist class has gained two levels reaching Tin 4.

    Congratulations! Nature¡¯s wrath has reached Tin 5.

    Congratulations! Protection of the wilds has reached Tin 5.

    Congratulations! Healing presence has gained four levels reaching Tin 7.

    Congratulations! Druid class has gained two levels reaching Tin 5.

    Congratulations! Low light vision has reached Tin 2.

    She was quite happy with her progress, although Herbal magic was falling behind a bit because she didn''t find any Tin rank herbs she could do rituals with. Nature¡¯s wrath and Protection of the wilds had the same issue where they weren¡¯t levelling as fast since she couldn''t or didn''t use them as often. From what she thought, they all seemed to gain at least some experience from each kill, thus levelling even when not used. Some of the higher level skills were also slowing down a bit as they got higher and she got used to fighting what she had dubbed the Ironfur rabbits. Her healing presence however, actually leveled from healing the slight poisoning she got from eating the animals she killed. Each fight had gotten easier as her abilities grew in strength too, dealing more damage, healing more and having more effect in general. She also grew somewhat stronger and faster, being able to take more punishment before a long cooldown ability needed to be used. She didn''t know why the bunnies themselves were so violent but she assumed it was part of why they grew to such strengths. She had a sneaking suspicion that they were also carnivorous and probably what had taken her deer in the first place. The last thing she had discovered was that if she dried up, crushed and mixed some of the Snow-leaf with the poisonous berry gel she had started calling My very own poisonous berries of hell, the effect of the poison was heightened and caused whatever was poisoned to move a little slower.

    Zalia¡¯s new target was whatever creature was making a new set of tracks she had found. A large four legged creature it was about her size from what Hunter''s Sight told her. It seemed to move by itself, not in a pack, which was good for her. At least, she thought it was. She had tracked it down to what would be called a den of some sorts. Not wanting to go in, she had set a trap out the front of the den, pushing a bunch of sharpened spikes into the hardened earth in front of the entrance and covering them again with snow, she waited with bow strung. This time around she knew to have both her axe and dagger pre-poisoned just in case.

    An hour later, Zalia caught sight of the creature. Dog-like, the creature was four legged and looked like it could run plenty fast. It had two tentacle-like protrusions coming out from either shoulder, quite thick furred with cold blue eyes. As it came out of the den, it sniffed at the air before looking in her direction.

    ? - Iron rank

    Luckily for her, iron rank. It was exactly what she was looking for. It met her eyes as she stood, activated hunters mark and shot, the arrow lodging into the creature''s shoulder. It yelped before looking her way again, this time its eyes glowing. She felt herself slow down and freeze as the two tentacle-like protrusions lifted up and three crackling ice spears growing between them. Just as the ice spears shot towards her, Zalia used her escape ability and threw herself out of their way. Receiving just a scratch for her efforts, quickly healed, she nocked another arrow as the creature ran towards her. As it ran over her trap, it slowed making some more angry growling sounds as its feet were stabbed into by the poisoned spikes.

    ? (Poisoned) (Slowed) - Iron rank

    Zalia fired off another shot, hitting it in the leg before it went down at speed, tumbling towards her in a pile of limbs. She hopped out of the way once more, activating kill shot before delivering one more arrow to its head as it tried to get up.

    Congratulations! You have killed ? (Poisoned) (Slowed) - Iron rank. You have received extra experience for killing a creature one rank above your own.

    Congratulations! Kill shot has reached Tin 15.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s mark has reached Tin 13.

    Congratulations! Healing presence has reached Tin 8.

    ¡°Doesn''t seem like there are many other Tin rankers out there,¡± Zalia said, ¡°Maybe other humans are closer to my rank, though this seemed easy enough since I dodged most of its magic with one ability.¡±

    She quickly removed her arrows, of which she had only six left of her original twelve. Many had broken on the Ironfur rabbits during her week and a half of hunting. This creature had actually used some magic so she thought Glemp might take an interest in it. She could visibly see the creature''s veins discoloured from where her arrows and spikes had poisoned it. It turned out the constant damage amplified by her hunter¡¯s mark did significant damage, as did arrows to the head. Hauling the thing up onto her shoulders she made her way towards the goblin city.

 Book 3: 1 - What?

    Zalia quietly crept through the woods, bow in hand and Boreal by her side. She had left the desert behind some two days ago and had encountered the first of the demons that roamed Endaria. Similar to the winged ones she had fought back in Cormaine yet smaller, much smaller.

    They had been easy to kill, only Tin and Iron ranked, the strength of her Healing presence aura enough to counter their own weak corrupting ones, rendering them helpless. Unfortunately, killing them had brought attention from something not so easy to kill.

    A Silver ranked winged demon much like the one that had¡­ that had killed Delphi. Seeing it had brought that memory back from the vault where she kept it stored.

    They had fled, vanishing into a patch of woods. There, Zalia and Boreal had the home ground advantage. There, they had been able to lose their enemy, disappearing further into the kingdom.

    Things were bad but¡­ not as bad as she expected. The little news she had received from the woman, Sazcha, in the desert had made it seem like everything was on fire, destroyed by demons and humans warring.

    There was some of that, patches of land withered and dead, towns with chunks missing from their centres where an explosion had gone off. Or worse yet, towns where a group of the roaming demons had appeared and slaughtered everyone. Signs of battles having taken place, entire swaths of land trampled, burnt and broken.

    It was at one such ritual site that she first discovered land corrupt. What was once perhaps a beautiful bubbling brook was now the scene of a dried up riverbed, withered trees and soundless, still, noxious air. The stark comparison of the corrupt land which formed an almost visible border between life and death served to increase how bad the corruption looked, but to Zalia it was nothing compared to Cormaine. Her healing aura swept over the patch of land, trees shifting and cracking, their twisted shapes returning to ones of health and vigor. Dead, grey grass grew green again, sprouting upwards as flowers shot from between once dead blades. The toxic air was blown away in a fresh breeze smelling of earth and green growth. The land was alive once more, thrumming with the energy of life. It felt... right.

    She continued onwards, doing what she could, using her healing to wipe away the patches of corrupted land, burying the dead where she was able if their numbers weren''t too great.

    Despite all the bad she found, there were still large chunks of land unaffected by the battles being fought. Green forests, endless plains, rushing rivers and still lakes. She had missed all of it so, so much. The sky above was blue and the air fresh. Her time in Cormaine had made her forget these things but the beauty of the world brought joy back to her mind.

    Too bad it was overshadowed by the sights she saw and that¡­ memory.

    She was focusing on making her way to the north. By her best guess she was in the south east of Endaria, which was a shame since she wanted to get north west. Fortunately, she could first travel north and see if the rebellion was still camped up where she had last seen them.

    She highly doubted that. Last she had spoken to them they had plans to launch an assault on the centre of Endaria, the capital and home of the king. Still, it was as good a destination for now as any. Until she found some other trace of life, that was.

    So far all of the towns she had come across had been empty, devoid of life. Whether they had been unoccupied due to the occupants fleeing or the death of the entire population, empty they were. She was still on the outskirts of the kingdom though so she had hopes that some bigger towns would have survived.

    "Ready to keep moving?" Zalia whispered to Boreal.

    They were currently sitting in the boughs of a large tree, hidden amongst the higher up branches and leaves. She''d decided that flying wasn''t worth the risk of drawing the attention of another Silver ranked demon, or worse. They were quick enough on foot that it wouldn''t make a huge difference.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Boreal looked up from where she rested, head on paws, tail dangling down.

    "Sleep?" Boreal asked, blinking her eyes slowly.

    "Not here, we have to keep moving," Zalia said.

    Boreal breathed out a slow breath.

    "You don''t even have to sleep more than once a week or so," Zalia added.

    Boreal looked at her as if to say, "not having to doesn''t stop wanting to."

    Zalia lithely stepped over and poked Boreal in the nose. Boreal promptly covered her face with a paw.

    "Come on, let''s go. You can sleep a whole day when we find some semblance of a resistance to this whole demon invasion if you want to," Zalia promised, knowing full well Boreal would be too excited to sleep when they saw the others again.

    It worked though and Boreal finally got up.

    They travelled for a few hours before finally finding the first signs of human life. It looked to be a group of refugees, maybe two dozen with four guards in armour that looked a little worse for wear.

    She quickly moved back and stepped out onto the game path they were travelling single file down.

    "Hey there!" She called out, somewhat quietly.

    The lead guard froze and looked around, searching for the voice whilst the few behind him looked at him in confusion like they hadn''t heard her.

    "Who''s out there?" The first guard called.

    In a manner quite unlike when meeting Sazcha, they couldn''t see her despite being maybe ten metres down the narrow track. Maybe they had no perception abilities?

    Remembering some of her early testing with passives, she willed the Stealth passive to stop.

    It still took a second before the first guard''s eyes caught on her and she quickly removed her helmet just in case.

    "Stop right there. You with the ''king'' or the rebellion?" He called out, disdain entering his voice at the word "king."

    He now had his beaten down wooden heater shield held up, hand on his side sword. The soldiers behind him were similarly on guard, the civilians beginning to murmur.

    "The rebellion, I''ve spoken with General Faian and General Ballast, if you know them. You?" Zalia asked, though she hardly needed to.

    "Aye, the rebellion. What are you doing out here by yourself?" He asked, more relaxed but still somewhat on guard.

    "Trying to find the army, I''ve been out of Endaria on a little bit of a mission for quite some time. Since the day the glowing beams hit the sky really," Zalia explained.

    The first guard was Bronze rank and she could tell by the way he stood, despite the worn down armour, that he was an experienced soldier.

    "Well you''re close, they''re four days walk north and west. If you''d like to come back down south so we can deliver this group of refugees, you can come back with us north. Groups are better than alone these days," the guard suggested.

    "I''ll be alright, I need to get what I know to the Generals, might help with the war," Zalia explained, "hh, and I saw one of the Silver ranked flying ones some two hours back, might be worth taking a detour around east ways."

    "Thanks and that we will, a little lost time is better than losing all of it," he said.

    "Good luck on your journey, what''s your name? So I can tell the generals you''re alive," Zalia asked

    "Hendrik, and you?" He asked.

    "Zalia," she said.

    "Good luck on your journey Z-" he cut off, staring at her, "not the Zalia that died stopping the ritual from working?"

    "Well I''m not dead and the ritual still worked, but yes that Zalia. Why?" She asked in confusion.

    Then, to her surprise, he knelt.

    "Thank you for the sacrifice you made," he said solemnly, like he was speaking an oath.

    "What?" Zalia said, even further confused.

 Book 3: 2 - Saviour

    Zalia eyed the kneeling man wearily.

    ¡°Please stand up,¡± she said.

    Hearing the conversation, some of the townspeople behind the guard were muttering to each other and giving her looks ranging from confusion to admiration.

    The guard stood up at her request.

    ¡°It¡¯s an honour to meet you, though I don¡¯t understand how you¡¯re alive,¡± he said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand why you think I was dead, or even why you know who I am,¡± Zalia said.

    The guard was starting to look a little confused as well.

    ¡°Well, we¡¯ve all heard the story. You, Lady Indis and Ember went to the top of the tower at Endelbyrn and when the kingdom wide ritual took place, you sacrificed yourself to cause a chain reaction that shut down the whole thing. Some of the demons got through and other ritual sites exploded from some type of feedback yet it was stopped. All thanks to you. Except, you¡¯re not dead,¡± he explained, a frown forming on his face.

    ¡°You know of Indis and Ember? Are they alive? What of Zen and Larel, they were on that tower too, are they alright?¡± Zalia asked, a frown also forming on her face. It seemed there was some sort of misunderstanding.

    ¡°They are alive and well, last I heard. Lady Indis has become a great leader but Ember we haven¡¯t seen in a while. She has a tendency to run about on her own anyway. I¡¯m not sure who Zen or Larel are but I heard the story from Lady Indis¡¯ mouth herself, I¡¯m sure she would have mentioned if there was someone else on the tower that day,¡± the guard replied.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure she would have,¡± Zalia said coldly. Indis would have some explaining to do when Zalia found her.

    There was a moment of silence as the two of them regarded each other before Zalia put her helmet back on.

    ¡°Best get going again. Safe travels Hendrik,¡± she said, waving an idle hand, ¡°come Boreal!¡±

    Boreal emerged from the treeline causing quite a few of the people listening to jump in surprise.

    Zalia allowed her stealth passive to take effect once more and the two of them stepped back into the woods, moving around the group of refugees.

    ¡°Safe travels to you too!¡± the guard called out, followed by a muttered, ¡°like a forest spirit or something.¡±

    Zalia thought about the odd conversation as she walked. The way the man had knelt and spoken made it seem like he thought of her as some sort of war hero or something. She wasn¡¯t really surprised that Indis and the others had thought she was dead. In all fairness, there were quite a few moments where she would have died but had been saved by luck or the fact that her powers were strongly based around survival.

    The part of the conversation that confused her the most was the guard saying he had heard the story from Indis herself. Did he know Indis?

    Well, she would get an explanation when she found Lady Indis either way.

    The guard had said there was a camp four days walk north and west, which would put them closer to the capital then they had previously been but definitely not as close as they should have been if all had gone to plan. Unless the plan had changed. Or the plan they had told her hadn''t really been the plan in the first place.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    It made sense to her that that would be the case. The chances of her group being able to lie with any success to the Hidden was a ridiculous notion to her now. That was an opinion she held now only because of the absolute failure their attempt had yielded. She felt like she had learned a lot in the time she had spent in this new world. A lot of things about dealing with people that she hadn''t previously needed in her old life.

    The whirlwind of stress and emotion that had been her life previous to Cormaine had been cause of not a small number of bad decisions. Going forwards she just needed to learn from those decisions.

    It was two more days of travel, healing corrupted land and killing small groups of demons when necessary. Two more days before she came across the next living person.

    She and Boreal were travelling across a plains, keeping to the long grass and low bushes as cover. They had just come from another town that had been empty, though this one had shown no signs of combat or damage. It had simply been empty, evacuated perhaps.

    A scream resounded from the treeline to their right. It was shrill, high pitch. Both Zalia and Boreal froze, staring towards the origin of the sound until its source came into view. It was a child, a young girl, running out of the treeline.

    They didn''t move at first, watching as the girl ran through the long grass across where their path would have led.

    Then they saw what the girl was running from. It was a new type of demon from the ones they had seen before. It had four legs and much like Boreal, it blended into the woods and surrounds like it was born into them. It''s jaw split much further than looked natural, it''s head and body sleek yet covered with a¡­ slimy substance.

    The creature was stalking the child, almost toying with her in a manner not unlike a cat with a mouse.

    Neither Zalia or Boreal said anything as they moved as one. Boreal ran out to the right, vanishing into the grass as Zalia ran straight towards the demon. She used her teleport to gain as much distance as she could before releasing two arrows in quick succession.

    The arrows took it by surprise, both nailing into its torso just behind the front shoulder. Its head jerked to the side, spotting Zalia as a deep growl resounded. Rather than running at her, it slunk back into the woods and vanished.

    Zalia stopped, carefully watching the treeline as the child kept running.

    "Run to your left child," Zalia said into the girl''s mind.

    Luckily, the child did as she was told, running closer towards Zalia as she crept carefully forwards.

    "Do you see it?" She asked Boreal.

    Her question was promptly answered as the demon came flying from the treeline followed soon after by Boreal in her armour. The two thrashed and clawed at each other in a ball of metal and flesh as they rolled through the plains.

    The two smashed through the long grass near the fleeing child and Zalia ran forwards to help. The demon was Bronze ranked, an even match for Boreal though the heirloom armour she wore gave a distinct advantage. While the demon bore deep wounds, Boreal was fairly unharmed, only her armour bearing any damage.

    Closer now, Zalia could feel the aura of corruption and countered it with her own, pushing her healing presence into Boreal to keep her safe.

    The child finally reached her and she pushed the girl behind herself, trying to find a good shot as the other two brawled. Boreal finally disengaged and Zalia shot the demon in the back leg, crippling it. The wounded demon limped back but was frozen to the floor by ice summoned by Boreal.

    That spelled the end for the creature as Boreal pounced, slamming the demon to the ground, her jaws grappling onto it''s head. A crunch and an unearthly sound resounded before all was silent.

    The silence broken only by the crying child behind her.

    "You''re alright, you''re safe now," Zalia said, quickly turning and taking her into a hug.

    The girl tried to say something but failed through the sobs.

    "Where are your parents?" Zalia asked gently, holding the girl by the shoulders.

    The only response was the girl''s eyes locking onto the body of the demon behind her.

    "Oh you poor child," Zalia said, hugging her once more

 Book 3: 3 - Camp

    Zalia picked up the child and moved away from the dead demon until the long grass covered it up. She put her down and kneeled.

    ¡°Where did you come from, is your town nearby?¡± she asked the kid.

    She shook her head.

    ¡°Did you leave home to try find somewhere safer?¡± Zalia asked.

    The girl gave a little nod, her hands rubbing at her eyes as she continued to cry.

    Zalia stood looking around. They couldn¡¯t stay here for long, the sound the demon had made when it died was much too loud to not have brought some attention. First she needed to go check something.

    ¡°Boreal, come protect her for a moment please,¡± Zalia sent.

    A few moments later, Boreal pushed through the grass, her armour stored away. The girl jerked away at seeing Boreal but Zalia caught her by the shoulder again.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s ok. This is Boreal. She¡¯s very friendly and a real puffball when you get to know her. She¡¯s going to protect you for just a little time while I have a quick look around alright? Do you have a name?¡± Zalia explained.

    Boreal sat down a few steps away.

    ¡°Aylie,¡± the girl said in a small whisper.

    ¡°Alright Aylie, would you like to give Boreal a hug?¡± Zalia asked, ¡°She''s very fluffy.¡±

    Aylie gave a small nod so Zalia walked up to Boreal with her and put the girl''s hand on Boreal¡¯s side. Boreal began quietly purring to help.

    ¡°See? Nothing to worry about. She will protect you while I¡¯m gone for just a moment ok?¡± Zalia said.

    Aylie pushed herself into the fluffy side of Boreal, giving her a hug.

    Zalia stepped away and made her way to the treeline where Aylie and the demon had first come from. It took only a few minutes of searching to find what she had been hoping not to find. Further into the trees, there were bodies. Well, what might have once been bodies.

    There were maybe five, though it could have been one more or less. It was hard to tell.

    It looked like the demon had taken its time tearing the people apart one by one, a nauseating sight. She didn¡¯t look to even bury these people, the time needed to figure out which piece belonged to who was too time consuming and gruesome a task to undertake. Instead, she used a quick Flame-root ritual and her control to burn the remains to ashes, making sure to heal any damage she accidentally did to the plants around.

    They had been what Zalia assumed to be the family of the child, now all dead. She left the ashes behind, leaving it to the effects of rain and time to bury them now.

    Making her way back to Boreal and Aylie, Zalia managed to get her onto Boreal and the three of them continued the journey. A war camp was no place for a child but there wasn¡¯t really much else Zalia knew to do. Perhaps a new family could be found for her or she could be taken down south with a group like the one she had run into two days past. There were options, just none of them were something a child should have to go through.

    Zalia left her armour off, stored away in her glove but easily accessible through Druid Grove¡¯s storage ability. The appearance of the armour and the incorporealness it gave her lent a somewhat inhuman look. Something real and human was perhaps what Aylie needed right now.

    Wildlife was scarce as they travelled, either having fled or been killed off by the various demons now roaming Endaria. That said, the wildlife wasn¡¯t entirely defenceless itself. Along their travels, Zalia found a few bodies of demons that had been left to rot, their meat not something that any creature seemed to want to eat, Boreal included. From inspecting a few of the bodies, Zalia found a few types of injuries that she recognised. One was entirely withered, with no drop of water remaining in its body, probably as a result of a run-in with one of the huge centipede creatures Zalia had run into once. Others had differing claw marks, bite wounds and other similar injuries as a result of a run-in with some particularly dangerous wildlife.

    That said, the amount of demon bodies she found was a much smaller number than the amount of dead animals she found.

    Over the course of the next two days of travel, she could feel a familiar sensation building. An odd sense of danger. It struck her, the realisation of what exactly it was, late on the second day. It was the corruption, the aura of it at least, so weak as to be unrecognisable to begin with yet growing stronger the further she travelled.

    As Zalia, Boreal and Aylie crested the top of a hill, they were able to see down the other side across a huge plain. Close to them, was something of a fortress. It was a huge compound surrounded by tall crenellated stone walls. Carved into those stone walls were various glowing runes emitting an almost palpable power. A shimmering translucent light of some sort stretched up from the walls forming a dome over the bustling camp within.

    The camp was an extremely well-organised affair of stone buildings, open areas and canvas pavilions. Zalia knew that this was the camp of the rebellion, one of them at least, due to the flags flapping in the wind. Dark green and brown, a crossed sword and staff with a crown broken in half underneath.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    Far, far into the distance, she could see the capital of Endaria. She wasn¡¯t sure if the city had a name as everyone simply called it the capital, even maps had it labelled as such. It made the organised camp of the rebellion look small and weak.

    Its walls were higher, made of a stone that themselves shimmered with power. Though she couldn¡¯t see from here, she knew there would be the flags of the king hung on the walls.

    The source of the corruption she felt, different to the spots of corrupted land she had been healing around the place, was most definitely the capital. She could tell that because of the red haze that hung over the city. Seeing that brought her dread, her memories of Cormaine flashing through her mind. She was terrified of what it meant for the people who had lived there. She knew firsthand what that aura could do.

    First, though, she had to go down to the fortified camp.

    The trio went down the other side of the hill, travelling with ease down the grassy slope. It was only another half hour of walking before they arrived at the gates. Zalia knew they had been spotted, all plant life having been removed from a good area around the walls to allow for visibility.

    The camp was a significantly more intimidating sight than the previous one had been. That one had only had wood log walls and was much smaller than the one before her now. This one was four, or five times bigger and most likely held both a large number of soldiers and refugees.

    ¡°Stop there for inspection!¡± a voice called down as they stepped up to the large gates.

    The trio stopped and weren¡¯t kept waiting long as the gate opened and two people walked out. One was a knight in full plate, something oddly familiar about the figure, and the other was a short, nervous-looking man.

    As they approached, Zalia checked them with Aura observation.

    Knight Alara - Silver rank.

    ? - Silver rank.

    ¡°Alara?¡± Zalia thought.

    It took her just a moment to realise what that meant. This was Alara, the knight she had met when she first came to Endaria. The one that had fought for the king. She had only been Bronze rank back then but had obviously managed to reach the next milestone. Had she defected?

    It looked like Alara had tried using her own Aura observation on Zalia because her hand went to her sword.

    ¡°Zalia, long time,¡± Alara said, coming to a stop in front of her.

    ¡°You were fighting for the king last I saw you,¡± Zalia said, ignoring the greeting.

    ¡°Things changed,¡± Alara replied.

    ¡°That they have,¡± Zalia admitted.

    Zalia gently lifted Aylie down from Boreal.

    ¡°What does inspection entail exactly?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°We need to determine if you¡¯re an enemy or not,¡± Alara said.

    ¡°Well, you know I don¡¯t fight for the king, that¡¯s for sure,¡± Zalia pointed out.

    ¡°Yes, but they have a¡­ method of disguising themselves as us. And you¡¯re meant to be dead,¡± Alara explained.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard,¡± Zalia said.

    Alara turned to the nervous man beside her who still hadn¡¯t spoken.

    ¡°All seem good?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Y.. yes, definitely not one of them,¡± the man said.

    ¡°Them?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°And who is this?¡± Alara asked, ignoring the question, ¡°I don¡¯t remember you having a child last we spoke.¡±

    ¡°This is Aylie, I found her being hunted by one of the demon creatures. Her family is¡­ well, didn¡¯t make it,¡± Zalia explained, ¡°And this is Boreal. She has been my companion for a while, though she is much larger now than she used to be.¡±

    Aylie was staring up at Alara with round eyes. She hadn¡¯t spoken much more since their first meeting but Zalia didn¡¯t want to try the mental healing she had developed just yet. Using it on a ¡°god¡± was one thing, using it on the fragile mind of a human, a child even, might be dangerous. She wanted to try it on some of the broken men the rebellion was trying to heal first. There wasn''t much more damage that could be done to them.

    ¡°Any weapons we need to know about?¡± Alara asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got one, an heirloom that can change between bow and sword. And Boreal of course,¡± Zalia said, ¡°Is General Faian and Lady Indis at this camp? I need to speak to them both.¡±

    ¡°Both, yes. You are allowed to enter, though please keep Boreal from killing anyone,¡± Alara said, turning about.

    ¡°She¡¯d never,¡± Zalia assured.

    They were led into the camp and the small amount of corruption in the air was washed away as a result of the defensive dome. Not that it was needed with how significantly Zalia¡¯s Healing presence overpowered it here.

    Within, the camp felt almost like a city, though not one that had grown naturally. It had perfectly ordered roads in a square grid, each space used efficiently. Four-man patrols marched by on different routes, all in unison and perfect form. Others went about various camp duties, a hunting party moving to leave the camp, messengers running by with rolled pages or envelopes.

    Despite the face-level organisation and cleanliness of the camp, looking closer Zalia could see the real state of things. The guards had armour that wasn¡¯t yet cleaned of blood or had damage to it. The hunting party was larger than normal, each person armoured rather than wearing lighter clothes designed for hunting, dark patches under their eyes. The buildings were orderly yet there were refugees sitting in corners or under eaves, as if there wasn¡¯t enough space for everyone despite how large the camp was.

    Zalia also noticed odd glances coming her direction, ranging from confusion to admiration. She thought she might have some idea as to why she was receiving those.

    Boreal was definitely part of it, back in her armour and showing off, Aylie on her back once more. The full meaning behind the glances came when they moved through a central square in the camp.

    ¡°What the hell is that?¡± she asked, pointing to the centre.

    Standing there atop a rocky base was a life-sized statue of herself, bow in hand, with a much smaller Boreal at her feet.

    ¡°Ah, Lady Indis is responsible for that I believe,¡± Alara said.

    Zalia stared at it in utter disbelief.

 Book 3: 4 - Answers

    ¡°Why am I so small?¡± Boreal asked, looking at the statue.

    ¡°Why exactly is there a statue of me in the middle of the camp?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°For an answer to that, you¡¯re going to have to ask Lady Indis I¡¯m afraid,¡± Alara said.

    ¡°I think it best you take me to her right away then,¡± Zalia said, looking at the statue with a mixture of confusion, annoyance and disbelief..

    A statue of her was the last thing she wanted, she wasn¡¯t some damn war hero to be celebrated for their heroic deeds. Well, if her actions were spun in a certain way and key facts, like her being alive, were ignored or unknown, her actions might be shown off as such but the reality of it was much different.

    Boreal was up at the statue gently tapping the small version of herself with a paw.

    ¡°Why so small?¡± Boreal asked again.

    ¡°That is how small you used to be,¡± Zalia explained.

    Alara looked at her weirdly.

    ¡°Oh, she speaks to me with her mind,¡± Zalia added.

    ¡°Rrright,¡± Alara said.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t smaller, world was bigger,¡± Boreal told her.

    ¡°I- yes, sure. Can we go now?¡± Zalia asked.

    The statue was making her a little uneasy. The unease was made a little worse by the wide-eyed Aylie staring at the statue, like she believed Zalia was a hero too.

    Boreal hopped down, some passers-by looking between Boreal and the statue, then Zalia and the statue. This was not good.

    They continued onwards, deeper into the camp. Before long, they arrived at what was a miniature fortress mixed with a bunker within the camp. Thick stone walls of a large circular building greeted them, three small doors set into the walls through which a flood of activity moved. Alara moved forwards and began trying to push through the crowd into the building and quickly found her way free once Boreal tried making her way in. She received a few alarmed looks as she allowed her fear-inducing aura to slip through, people moving quickly out of her way. Boreal wasn¡¯t a wait in line kind of girl.

    Zalia followed closely behind, garnering not a few odd looks herself.

    They entered into a bustling room filled with various administrative types, at desks and not, using magic to note down information or messages. Pieces of parchment were then handed to a few people who sent it flying through the room to various locations. Alara pushed through, the bustle stopping, for just a moment, as Boreal strolled through the middle of it all following after her.

    They left that entrance room through a door at the back, entering another similar yet less busy room where people were reading through pieces of parchment that landed on their desks and noting down parts of them before they were filed away at their sides. Some of the pieces were wiped entirely, the clean sheets put aside for reuse.

    ¡°Seems a little inefficient to have all that at the door,¡± Zalia noted.

    ¡°Stops people from getting through to speak to the leaders personally unless it¡¯s actually important,¡± Alara said.

    Zalia shrugged, the explanation not making a huge amount of sense to her. She wasn¡¯t a leader or an administrator though so it wasn¡¯t really her forte. She did take note of the guards posted all about the place, more so than she would have thought necessary for the building despite its importance. Had something happened to warrant those measures?

    Finally, they left that room via a door to the right, entering another room with three tables set in a U shape. At the middle table sat General Faian, General Ballast and another she did not know. On the left was a group of three who could have been the administrators in the room they had just left for all Zalia could tell the difference.

    At the final table were two people she didn''t recognise and Lady Indis, on her feet, hands flat on the table, in the middle of a heated argument.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care if we don¡¯t have the resources, there must be a way to house these people!¡± Indis was almost yelling.

    ¡°I might be a magician but I am not a miracle worker Lady Indis, expanding the wall would mean taking down the defences and we simply do not have the manpower to do that right now. Especially so if the enemy takes note of our actions and chooses to attack at that time. We have simply run out of space!¡± the first of the three closest to Zalia on the administrator table replied.

    ¡°We-¡± Indis started.

    ¡°Lady Indis, everyone. I believe we should take a short recess to cool down and deal with other more important matters at this time,¡± General Faian interrupted, having seen Zalia walk through the door.

    ¡°What matters are more important than the-¡± Indis cut off again, having turned to Faian before following her gaze to the door.

    Zalia had to admit to herself that she enjoyed the torrent of emotions that crossed over Indis¡¯ face as she saw her. Surprise, worry, confusion, shock, worry again before finally settling on joy.

    ¡°Zalia?¡± She whispered.

    ¡°Hello Lady Indis,¡± Zalia said, giving her best dramatic bow.

    Boreal jumped forwards, basically throwing her body weightily at Indis¡¯ in a greeting. Indis stumbled, catching herself and looking at Boreal with an equal measure of shock as Zalia had received.

    ¡°Yes, I happen to be not dead. May we talk in private?¡± Zalia asked.

    The administrators were talking between themselves while the three generals were walking around the table. The two others that were at Indis¡¯ table were staring at Zalia as well.

    ¡°You¡¯re certain this isn¡¯t one of them?¡± Faian asked Alara.

    ¡°Most assuredly, Fin was the one to check,¡± Alara replied.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    ¡°Good, you may return to your duties then. We will be fine from here,¡± Faian said.

    ¡°As you command,¡± Alara said stiffly, a clank of plate armour sounding as she turned and left.

    ¡°How are you alive?¡± Indis asked, watching Boreal inspect the room, Aylie still on board.

    ¡°I have a few questions of my own, somewhere private first,¡± Zalia insisted.

    ¡°Zalia!¡± Ballast exclaimed, coming up to give her a shake of the hand, his giant hand covering her own.

    ¡°General, good to see you still around,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°And you! I told them you weren¡¯t dead, you¡¯ve got the look of a survivor about you,¡± Ballast exclaimed.

    ¡°Through this way please,¡± Faian said, gesturing to a door.

    Ballast led the way, Faian saying something quietly to the other general before he walked off. Zalia followed Ballast, Boreal and Aylie close behind and Indis after that, her stare boring a hole in the back of Zalia¡¯s head. She had never really known much to shock Indis into silence before but if anything were to do so, coming back from the supposed dead would be it.

    Ballast led the way through a corridor, past a few doors into the one at the end, arriving in a sparsely decorated office. A desk sat front and centre, the walls bearing the banner of the rebellion as well as some decorative weapons, and some not so decorative ones, hung upon hooks or sitting on shelves.

    There were only two chairs in addition to the one on the other side of the desk so Zalia forfeited taking one and lifted Aylie off Boreal to sit her down instead. Ballast leant against the wall to the left after taking a bowl of some type of nut from the desk. Indis stopped behind Zalia and she turned around to finally greet her friend.

    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you,¡± Zalia said, meaning it despite all they had been through.

    ¡°We thought you died,¡± Indis said, her voice cracking.

    ¡°You should have known me better than that,¡± Zalia said, moving forward and giving the younger woman a hug.

    ¡°Where have you been?¡± Indis asked, still in an embrace.

    ¡°All in good time,¡± Zalia assured her.

    Faian came in and sat in the chair on the other side of the desk with a deep sigh.

    ¡°Right, let¡¯s be about it quickly then. Still much to discuss,¡± she said.

    Indis sat down in the second chair, almost dropping down in contrast to her usual controlled movements.

    ¡°First and most importantly, this is Aylie. She has lost her family and needs to be taken care of. I¡¯m no parent nor am I really cut out to be but I would still like to see her safe. Can that be arranged?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Certainly, shouldn¡¯t be too difficult,¡± Faian assured.

    ¡°Good, I¡¯d like to be kept up to date on that,¡± Zalia added.

    ¡°Very well. Zalia, where exactly have you been and why are you not dead?¡± Faian asked.

    ¡°Ah, yes. Well, that is a very long story. I don¡¯t know if the others knew this but the only idea I could come up with at the time as we were fighting atop that tower was to use a certain herb that has a reversing effects on rituals in a hope that doing so would disrupt something badly enough to break the whole thing across the continent. It looks like that succeeded, to a degree. It had the unfortunate side effect of dragging Boreal, Juniper and I into Cormaine however,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Cormaine!?¡± Indis said aghast, ¡°that¡¯s where you have been this whole time?¡±

    Zalia nodded, pacing around a bit.

    Boreal was staying close to Aylie, as a comfort.

    ¡°And Juniper?¡± Faian asked.

    ¡°Dead, then dead again,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°... dead again?¡± Faian said questioningly, looking towards Ballast with a raised eyebrow, who just shrugged.

    ¡°Have you come across the undead here yet?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°We have not, I assume there were many in Cormaine then, being the realm of the dead,¡± Faian said.

    ¡°Well, Cormaine isn¡¯t the realm of the dead but yes, there were many. An entire city of undead Bathar, actually. Juniper became one when she died there, turned by the aura that pervades the entire place,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°The aura yes, we can feel it when we leave the defensive barrier and again in the parts of the world that seem to have died by the rituals. It is quite annoying,¡± Faian said.

    ¡°Annoying is one word for it. The one you feel here is weak, like an echo of the real thing. There it has the power to kill you if you do not have a type of healing. It can raise those it kills to become the walking dead. It comes from those that live in Cormaine see, thousands upon thousands of shades, and the¡­,¡± Zalia trailed off, shuddering at the memory of the god-like entities that emitted the debilitating aura.

    ¡°And the what?¡± Indis asked, concern in her voice and expression.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not speak of them, just yet. The aura killed Juniper and I released her soul from its undead prison shortly thereafter. I had to spend a lot of time there simply surviving but I¡¯ve learnt much about fighting our enemies. I¡¯ve also learnt a lot about where they actually come from and what their purpose here is. Before we get into that though, I need to know. Indis, Faian, Ballast, whoever can answer the question. What the hell is with the statue of me?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Ah,¡± Faian said, giving a low chuckle.

    ¡°Well, you-¡± Indis started.

    ¡°You¡¯re a bloody hero,¡± Ballast said.

    Zalia looked at Indis who was a little bit flushed and very embarrassed.

    ¡°Well, after you¡­ died, I didn¡¯t want to let the memory of what you had given for a kingdom that isn¡¯t even your own die as well. When I arrived here and after the initial days of fighting, I told anyone who would listen what you had done. One thing turned to another and the soldiers began seeing you as a war hero, praising your name and fighting harder for it. After all, if a stranger can die saving your kingdom, why shouldn¡¯t you be able to do the same? The statue, well, it turned from a matter of keeping the memory of your actions alive to a matter of morale. They seem to look up to you,¡± Indis explained, avoiding eye contact and looking down.

    ¡°And where is Ember and Zen? I couldn¡¯t help but notice that Zen has not been mentioned by any of the people I¡¯ve talked to so far.¡± Zalia said, a little coldness in her tone.

    ¡°After the ritual went off, we thought it was all done. The one you disrupted didn¡¯t explode or summon creatures like the others did you see. Zen asked that he be left out of anything to do the rest of the war and left for his home, his farm. Oh, Ember was able to heal him from the wound he received thankfully, though a scar does remain. No, he wanted to leave it all behind and be left out of it so I promised he would be. Once we realised things were very wrong, we backtracked to go find him but found his home destroyed. There were no signs of him or his family and we haven¡¯t seen him since,¡± Indis started.

    ¡°As for Ember, well. She and I had a disagreement about the way I went about praising your name and actions. She said that you would not have wanted it, which is true I realise now. I guess I felt guilty about my part in your death and that blinded me to what you really would have wanted. I¡¯m sorry for that too,¡± Indis finished, getting quieter over the course of the explanation.

    Zalia felt relief at hearing Zen was alive, then dismay at hearing he was missing. Indis seemed as much of a constantly in motion train wreck as she had been when Zalia had left, which didn¡¯t surprise her.

    ¡°And where is Ember now?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Don''t know. She returns every now and then with a group of refugees or important information before leaving again. She doesn''t really work well as part of a chain of command and prefers being out there, helping however she can. You know her,¡± Indis said.

    ¡°Yeah, I suppose I do. I¡¯m not surprised by that at all,¡± Zalia said, giving a smile and letting out a deep sigh, ¡°it¡¯s good to be back in this world again. It¡¯s a beautiful place.¡±

    ¡°What happened to you in Cormaine?¡± Indis asked.

    ¡°One day I¡¯ll tell you the whole story. For now, Faian, we need to go over a few things that might help with the war,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°I was hoping you¡¯d have something for us,¡± Faian said with some hope.

    ¡°I might just,¡± Zalia said.

 Book 3: 5 - Location Hunting

    After a long-winded conversation, Zalia was able to tell the others in the room everything she knew about their enemy so far. That began with a deeper explanation of the undead, the shades everywhere in Cormaine, the corrupting aura and where she thought it came from, the low-ranked four-legged spiked creatures, the Bronze creature that had chased Aylie, the flying demons that she had first seen outside her cave home and finally, the larger god-like ones.

    ¡°They¡¯re¡­ they¡¯re horrible. They have four legs that end in spikes, a twisted torso covered in thousands of eyes, and wings like a bat yet covered in a dark flame. They have no head, only a gaping maw where their neck should be. Despite all that, the most terrible thing about them is the aura they have. It¡¯s like the corrupting aura yet so, so much stronger. It feels almost alive, a little different to the one the others all have, controlled by the twisted creatures. When it comes down on you, you feel as if all hope is lost, the meaning in fighting gone. If you¡¯re strong enough you can fight it but the effect it would have on the army if one of these did decide to join the fight would be.. disastrous. And there is one in the capital, I can feel its aura even here, though so weak at such a distance, the fact it reaches this far is terrifying. I would hold no hope that the people in that city live anymore,¡± Zalia explained.

    There was silence at her proclamation, the people present all very aware of what that meant for the kingdom. Many of Endaria¡¯s most important or most powerful people have been living in that city but more impactfully, many people that the soldiers would have known. Friends, family, loved ones. All most likely dead, even more likely to be undead now if Zalia was right.

    ¡°But, you must have been able to survive it somehow if you¡¯re here now. You have a way to fight them right?¡± Indis asked, hope in her voice

    ¡°No. A friend, Ro-ak, otherwise known as Nateysta, god, spirit, whichever you choose, of nature and mystery. He was the one to save me, a divine being whose own aura matched that of these monsters. I don¡¯t know if he is now dormant once more, reduced to an afterthought by the very beings he saved me and Boreal from. Perhaps he lives, though the chances of that being true and him being able to find his way to this world are slim,¡± Zalia said.

    She had to very carefully remember select parts of her last hour in Cormaine, avoiding the big painful lump that sat amongst the memories.

    ¡°Well, that is unfortunate,¡± Indis replied, deflating back into her seat.

    ¡°Yes, though some might be able to fight still, such as any Gold rank and above, if we have any. Larel would probably fare better than any of us, for one. Speaking of, where is Larel, did she survive her fight with the Hidden. What happened with him?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°After Juniper vanished, he surrendered and told us we couldn¡¯t trust him. Obviously in agreement, he allowed us to¡­ imprison him. He now lives crushed into a tiny cube deep below this building, where he will stay until this is over. As for Larel, she is well but busy. As one of the only Gold rankers amongst our ranks, she is kept moving any second we can get her to be,¡± Faian explained.

    Zalia didn¡¯t really know how to feel about that. She had been close, or had thought she had been, to the Hidden. To Hidey. His betrayal was a deep wound yet not one that was really his fault. Juniper had been the real hand behind that particular shadow puppet.

    The fact that he had allowed himself to be imprisoned rather than run the risk of him doing any more damage definitely pointed to him really being on their side. Perhaps he had even been the one that had left the note for Larel to come save them in the first place.

    ¡°Well, that is one worry to put aside at least,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°One of a flock, unfortunately,¡± Faian added with a grimace.

    ¡°I overheard one of those issues and I might be able to help, just a little,¡± Zalia offered.

    ¡°How so?¡± Indis asked curiously.

    Zalia explained the Druid¡¯s Grove ability as well as her ability to grow plants that were more nutritious than normal. That part of it wasn¡¯t anything super special but the Grove itself was very unique, or so the other¡¯s reactions told her.

    ¡°Very interesting, how long would you need to set it up?¡± Faian asked.

    ¡°A day, maybe? Things would be sped along quite a lot if you could provide me with various plants and seeds that are edible rather than me having to collect them myself,¡± Zalia replied, shaking her hand in a ¡®maybe?¡¯ gesture.

    ¡°That can be done easily enough if you would provide extra space for people to live,¡± Indis said immediately.

    ¡°I must warn you it won¡¯t be a huge space. It could fit maybe twenty, thirty people comfortably? Forty if you really stretched it but it needs space for plants to grow for it to work,¡± Zalia quickly explained.

    ¡°Done, we will have some plants and seeds ready for you by the time you¡¯ve finished finding a place to set it up. Is there anything else you can think of that will help?¡± Faian asked.

    ¡°Immediately? No. I learnt a lot about the history of Cormaine that I would like to go over but it can wait for now. Something about the Bathar that you would definitely enjoy learning,¡± Zalia said, turning to Indis at her visible excitement at the word ¡®history¡¯.

    ¡°Thank you Zalia, if there is anything we can do for you for the help you are providing and the help you have provided already, let me know,¡± Faian said.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°I¡¯d love to know what exactly happened with the army after we left for Endelbyrn. Did you know we would fail?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°We didn¡¯t know but we did plan for it. I can explain it all to you later if you wish. For now we have to get back to the meeting you walked in on,¡± Faian said with a sigh.

    Indis looked like she was about to protest but didn¡¯t say anything, General Ballast crunching on a nut with an unhappy look.

    ¡°Well, you aristocrats enjoy your meetings, I¡¯m going to go walk in the sun and fresh air,¡± Zalia said with a smile. Things were bad, but they were better than not so long ago when she had appeared in Cormaine.

    ¡°Would you like to come find a nice place to set up a magic forest?¡± Zalia asked Aylie, leaning down.

    Zalia had noticed she had been staring into nothing the entire conversation, as if she wasn¡¯t really there. She definitely needed a distraction and the creation of Zalia¡¯s Druid Grove was a very pretty sight.

    Aylie nodded uncertainly.

    ¡°Come on, it¡¯ll be good. We can find a place with a nice source of water and safety from the weather. You¡¯ll love the Grove, it¡¯s a good safe place,¡± Zalia encouraged.

    Aylie looked at Boreal.

    ¡°Boreal will come too, of course. I wouldn¡¯t want to set up our home without Boreal¡¯s agreement,¡± Zalia promised.

    That seemed to convince her so Zalia lifted her onto Boreal¡¯s back and they left, the trio behind looking miserable at the prospect of re-entering their previous argument.

    They had a little more trouble forcing their way out than they had entering, partly due to the people being less surprised by Boreal and partly due to the fact that there was a group of people waiting there for Zalia to come out. Whispers spread like wildfire as she walked into the room, the crush of people that were not all there for a purpose.

    ¡°Are you Zalia?¡± someone called out.

    Some of the low talking paused as they waited for a response, Zalia having stopped to consider the task of shoving through so many people. Many of the administrative people were looking at the packed group of people in annoyance. Zalia understood that quite well.

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she answered warily.

    A burst of chatter came from the crowd, a few questions drowned away by the noise.

    ¡°Can you take this outside please?¡± an administrator to her left asked.

    ¡°I¡¯d prefer it not be happening at all,¡± Zalia retorted, ¡°I don¡¯t know how to get them out of here.¡±

    The administrator stood up.

    ¡°If everyone would please leave the premises, Zalia will be leaving now and will answer your questions outside,¡± he said.

    It took a little bit for the message to spread through the crowd but they began filtering out through the doors. Zalia gave the administrator a look that was a mix of thanks and accusation.

    He just shrugged like it wasn¡¯t his problem and went back to what he had been doing.

    She followed the crowd out, Boreal close behind. As she left the building, she was bombarded with questions mixed with thanks for what she had done for the kingdom. What the hell had Indis told these people?

    She opened her mouth to answer one of the questions but thought better of it. She wasn¡¯t responsible for this gaggle of idiots, she wouldn¡¯t be the one to deal with them.

    ¡°Lady Indis will provide answers to all your questions in future, please be patient while they deal with the information I¡¯ve brought. For now it¡¯s best you all go back to your duties,¡± Zalia yelled over the crowd, before walking off.

    She ignored the protests, people asking how she was alive, where had she been, how had she stopped the ritual and could she reverse it. Some tried to follow but the fear inducing aura of Boreal stopped them from doing so. She was the best friend a woman could ask for.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get the hell out of here,¡± she thought to Boreal.

    ¡°Stinky people,¡± Boreal agreed.

    Zalia gave that a quiet chuckle and moved away from the group of people as quickly as she could without running.

    She made her way through the camp, giving her statue an evil look as she passed, before finding the gates once more. She was allowed out but was informed that she would have to undergo inspection again when re-entering, a reasonable precaution. She gave Alara a nod on her way out and stepped out onto the plains before the walls.

    She wanted to find somewhere nice for her Grove, definitely somewhere that put the camp between herself and the city in the distance. The hilly landscape behind the camp would also have a high chance of having a river she could set up near as well. While not necessary, it would make life a lot easier if she was going to provide shelter for some people.

    She was second guessing that decision a little but enforcing a ¡®no crazy person¡¯ rule wouldn¡¯t be too hard. Her Grove was meant to be a safe space, no nuts people who thought her a hero allowed.

    It took a little while before they found a place they all agreed on. Aylie definitely got into the role of critical eye, only agreeing to a location with a silent nod when Zalia told her she would be able to move some of the earth around to form a better space for planting.

    It was a small gorge with water trickling down the stone wall within, leading into a small waterway that formed a pool near the entrance of the gorge. That entrance had a good clear area around it, trees dotted about the place but not too thick. The gorge was formed where the bottom of two steep hills met, forming a little V section that would provide good cover from the wind.

    After Zalia widened out the little gorge a bit and made its walls steeper so it formed into something more akin to a wide crevice at Aylie¡¯s insistence, the first words she had spoken since telling Zalia her name, the spot was ready. Zalia would need to plant a few things as well before being able to form the Grove but it was a good start. It was only ten minutes walk from the camp to its east, putting the camp between it and the city.

    ¡°Ready to see how a Grove is made?¡± Zalia asked Aylie.

    She nodded excitedly, a little bit of joy forming in Zalia¡¯s heart to see her still able to be so after what she had been through.

    Zalia began pulling out plants from her storage.

 Book 3: 6 - Blue Sky, New Grove

    It took Zalia some time to set up what was necessary, especially with the odd shape of the space she was working with. She set up one of her living rituals, much like she had in Cormaine, but had found a way to combine them into one. The protections on the Grove had been three separate living rituals that blocked senses, spiritual senses and spiritual attacks respectively. Here, Zalia made good use of Adastem as well as the components of each individual ritual to create a single large one that would adjust itself as needed.

    Aylie seemed fascinated by the process as Zalia planted various cuttings of the plants required and moved on, letting her Healing presence grow the plants and using Preparation to trim them to her needs as she planted the next. This kind of multitasking was something that she wouldn¡¯t have been able to accomplish if not for the Bronze rank mental attributes she now had.

    The hardest part came when she had to form five separate components for the initiating ritual and then apply the entire thing across the large area she had planned out. Dried, crushed, cut and whole herbs drifted through the air, forming from nothing but mana as Zalia focused on her intent. Boreal, helpful as ever, started running around, smashing through gathered patches of herbs even as they collected where Zalia commanded. Aylie, who was currently riding the large feline, actually let out a joyous laugh as Boreal did so.

    Once everything was in place, Zalia had to pour quite a large chunk of her mana into the ritual before it settled over the area, the plants grasping the magic as their own and beginning to fuel it even as it fueled them.

    Zalia could visibly see the dome formed by the ritual go up before it altered itself, slowly becoming less and less visible until it seemed nothing but a part of the nature around it. She could feel the very weak corrupting aura disappear immediately, the initial ritual easily strong enough to counter it. She had a feeling it even made that part of its function weaker to allow the other parts more strength.

    With her planted Adastem, Bitterbalm, Manifest and Dodge-vine, the area looked a little nicer, the plants well cultivated and in an aesthetically pleasing pattern. The area within otherwise held a few trees around the place and the little gorge of course.

    Zalia began the process of forming the Grove now that the prerequisites to it were complete. She walked around the perimeter of the space she had chosen, lightly brushing her hand over the trees and looking up into the bright blue sky above. The chirping of the birds faded into the background as she closed her eyes, letting the ability and her instincts take over. She walked up the slight slope to the gorge and walked along the small stone path to where the water dripped down the wall at the end. She cupped her hands and caught some of it, drinking it before moving back out.

    She went to the centre of the space and knelt, hands against the sapling that grew there. At once, the power of the Grove began growing outwards, forming the land and space to her needs.

    The sapling before her grew in a matter of moments, becoming a large tree with a thick trunk. From that trunk, a curving staircase grew to its boughs above.

    Other trees in the area grew similarly, forming their own staircases, railings with leaves growing from them and within the branches, paths began to form. Little winding walkways were formed by the branches as they grew larger and intertwined with their neighbours. Within the treetops, small homes grew. Small homes that held nothing more than beds grown from the walls yet made comfortable by the warm lights that began appearing.

    All across the ground, dome-like huts made from earth pushed from the earth, grass growing across their surface. Warm light came from small windows set into their sides, revealing an interior decorated with wooden furniture similarly grown from the roots of the trees that now formed smooth yet patterned floors.

    All along the perimeter of the Grove, sharp and tall hedges formed, leaving only a single small archway that people could move through.

    The tree that Zalia had her hands on grew an archway of its own, set right into the trunk, that would summon the entrance to her vault should she will it so.

    Finally, the pond that sat near the gorge deepened, blue lights appearing in its depths as it did so. The lights moved around, bringing back memories of Zalia¡¯s first time seeing the collective''s old home. The comparison brought tears to her eyes but she stayed focused on the growth of the Grove as it continued into the gorge itself. The walls were shored up and far at the back, a little cave was dug into the wall behind the trickling water, turning it from a running river to a small waterfall. Behind that waterfall, the cave grew until it was big enough to hold an altar, an altar that grew from the ground, an altar that she knew oh too well.

    It was the altar of Nateysta, the story of his origin written along its surface, along with the story of his sacrifice to bring Zalia to safety once more. A story that Zalia herself was trying so hard to avoid remembering.

    With that final touch, the changes to the space finally finished. Each one of them was visible within Zalia¡¯s mind as if she had seen them herself, even as she remained kneeling in front of the tree, eyes closed.

    She opened her eyes, taking in the sight of the Grove that was itself connected to her. Aylie and Boreal were running around, exploring the changes for themselves, dashing up a flight of stairs into the treetops to explore the homes now built there.

    The warm and protective aura of the Grove settled over the space, providing the healing and boost to resilience. The trees now much larger threw shade across the entire space yet little beads of yellow light floated around, providing more than enough light to see by. Further away from where the homes had been built near the gorge yet still within the hedge, land had cleared in preparation for the planting Zalia wanted to undertake.

    She smiled, happy to have finally set up the Grove once more. There really wasn¡¯t anywhere she felt safer. Despite¡­ despite what had happened in the last one.

    The memory flashed through her mind, a small body crushed in a large hand.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    She stood up quickly with a jolt.

    ¡°Hey guys! We should go grab the seeds so we can begin planting food,¡± Zalia called out.

    ¡°Have to?¡± Boreal asked.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Zalia said, a little bit of the anguish she felt making its way into her tone.

    Boreal came running down a different staircase, Aylie hot on her heels yet definitely not keeping up. Boreal slid to a stop in front of Zalia and bumped her head into her.

    ¡°Zalia ok?¡± Boreal asked.

    ¡°I was thinking about Delphi,¡± Zalia whispered.

    ¡°Delphi was good friend,¡± Boreal said sadly.

    Zalia hadn¡¯t shown the memory of what had happened to Delphi to Boreal, nor had she explained it. She had only said that the collective had died during the fighting to save them. The very visual memory of their death was not something that Zalia wanted Boreal to have in her mind. It wasn¡¯t something she wanted to have in her own either.

    Aylie finally arrived as well, puffing even as she slammed into Boreal¡¯s side, sinking into her fur.

    ¡°Right! We should go get some of the plants they¡¯ll have ready for us,¡± Zalia announced, helping Aylie back onto Boreal¡¯s back for the journey.

    There was quite a bit of farmable land within the bounds of the Grove, perhaps not by the standards of her old world, but with the extreme growth the plants would experience due to the Healing presence always present in the place, it would be more than enough for the odd thirty or so people that would be able to live there.

    They made their way back to the army camp and were let in after a short inspection by the same nervous man as before. Zalia managed to get him to explain what the inspection was actually for.

    ¡°We have encountered a type of Cormaine creature that is able to disguise itself as others. It was something we didn¡¯t really figure out until an officer got his head ripped off by one of the damned things. Let me tell you, they are not happy when they¡¯re discovered,¡± he explained.

    Well, it explained his nervousness at least.

    The way he was able to detect the things was through an ability he had, something Zalia unfortunately wouldn¡¯t be able to replicate. She just hoped that her Healing presence would have some sort of effect on the creatures as that would allow her to discover them too, if necessary.

    She found a couple wagons and a group of people waiting for her as she made it through the gates.

    ¡°You¡¯d be Zalia then eh?¡± a weathered looking older man asked.

    ¡°Uh, yes. You have the seeds and other plants Faian is giving me I see. Shall we get going then?¡± Zalia asked back.

    ¡°You don¡¯t look much of a hero,¡± he said, ignoring her question.

    She immediately liked the man.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s good because I¡¯m not. I¡¯d prefer not to be treated like one either,¡± Zalia replied.

    The man grunted.

    ¡°Alright lads and lasses, let¡¯s get this thing rolling shall we?¡± he called out.

    He had a gruff voice, as weathered as his own skin was, doubtless a result of long years spent working the fields in the sun.

    ¡°You¡¯re a farmer?¡± Zalia asked as the others in the group began taking up the leads of the animals hitched to the wagons.

    Paying attention to them, she realised they were the thick furred cow creatures she had seen so long ago in the farm.

    ¡°That I am, my whole life. Not about to stop that and become a soldier just because the kingdom hit a little rut in the road,¡± he said.

    Zalia smiled, finding the rough positivity to be nice.

    ¡°That¡¯s good, a kingdom can¡¯t live without people like you,¡± Zalia replied.

    The man looked at her from under bushy eyebrows as if reconsidering his initial assumption of idiocy.

    ¡°Well ain¡¯t that refreshin to hear,¡± he said with a huff.

    ¡°You don¡¯t happen to be from the north, closer to Alston, do you?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Why d¡¯ya ask that?¡± he said.

    ¡°I think I¡¯ve met one of those cows before,¡± Zalia explained, looking at one of the beasts hauling the wagon.

    ¡°Not sure what a cow is but that Burris there has been with me for a good many long years. Ole feral won¡¯t let a little apocalypse stop her,¡± he said with a chuckle.

    ¡°Did you just call her Ole feral?¡± Zalia asked in surprise.

    ¡°Yep! Found her stomping a Garroi¡¯s head in once you know. She¡¯s a mighty beast,¡± he explained proudly.

    ¡°Ole feral,¡± Zalia muttered.

    They were let out of the gates and Zalia began inspecting each of the members of their small expedition. The farmer she had been speaking with was Bronze rank, expected from an older man like him. The others were a smattering of Tin and Iron ranked youths, all of whom Zalia figured to be farmhands of the older man. The way they seemed to defer to him gave her the impression they had been working with him for a while. He didn¡¯t strike her as the kind of person to deal with nonsense.

    ¡°Got a name I can call you by?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Jus call me Mate like everyone else does,¡± he said.

    ¡°Alright Mate, you and your lot plan to move into the Grove or are you just delivering all this for me?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Thought I¡¯d have a look, I¡¯m real sick of having to live in the war camp, being of no use to anybody,¡± Mate said.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯d like to set a few rules then. Firstly, no one is to touch my plants. My plants happen to be every single plant that is in the Grove at the moment. They¡¯re quite important and a part of the defences that are set up. Understood?¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Yeah fair enough, I¡¯d do the same,¡± he replied, nodding as if the request was completely normal.

    ¡°Good. Secondly, if you or any of your people ever call me ¡®hero¡¯, you¡¯re out,¡± Zalia finished.

    ¡°I¡¯d take myself out before I¡¯d let it happen,¡± Mate assured her.

    ¡°Sounds like we¡¯re going to get along just fine then,¡± Zalia said, giving him a warm smile.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bloody smile at me,¡± he grumbled, not entirely in a serious manner.

    Zalia gave him a low chuckle.

    ¡°Fair enough,¡± she said.

 Book 3: 7 - An old friend

    The small line of carts trundled through the arch in the hedge, the younger farmhands spreading out to take a look at their new home just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.

    ¡°How long you been building this place then?¡± Mate asked.

    ¡°Just today,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°That¡¯s some pretty heavy enchantments you¡¯ve got running in the place for ¡®Just today¡¯,¡± Mate said disbelievingly.

    ¡°It¡¯s an ability, mostly,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Got some pretty rare class then do you?¡± Mate suggested.

    ¡°Something like that,¡± Zalia agreed.

    Mate looked around, then up the hill towards where the homes were built.

    ¡°Just take any of the buildings then?¡± he asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s the idea, none of them are occupied just yet,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Good, I¡¯m not goin¡¯ up in the trees. Too many stairs for my liking, though some of the youngin¡¯s will be thrilled I¡¯m sure,¡± Mate replied.

    He didn¡¯t look that old, but Zalia guessed that¡¯s what happened when you had Bronze rank physical stats to keep you moving. Juniper hadn¡¯t looked that old either, now that she thought of it.

    ¡°Fair enough, and hey, Mate, you¡¯re in charge of these lot. Make sure they don¡¯t break anything please?¡± Zalia said, turning to him.

    ¡°Yeah I¡¯ll do my best, no promises with these heavy handed fools though,¡± Mate assured her.

    Despite his less than assuring words, Zalia could tell that he would make certain of it. His farmhands were probably not as bad as he made them out to be either.

    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s me then. Get settled in and take tomorrow to have a look around. Or get started planting if you¡¯d like. This big section near to the entrance and in a semi-circle around the buildings is all yours, barring the small sections with herbs I¡¯ve planted,¡± Zalia explained.

    He just gave the space a grunt of acceptance, eyeing it with a critical eye as he walked up the hill.

    Zalia looked around, feeling a little like she had been running at full tilt so long she didn¡¯t know what to do now that there wasn¡¯t any immediate danger. Sure, there were some demons in the world now but the atmosphere wasn¡¯t trying to kill her and there wasn¡¯t some prophesied danger she was trying to prepare for. Did she relax? She had once enjoyed little wood carving projects in the evenings when it got dark out before going to sleep, previous to Endaria, maybe it was something she could pick up once more.

    ¡°I¡¯m a little lost on what to do next, got anything in mind Boreal?¡± Zalia asked, turning to where Boreal was keeping a watchful eye on the farmers.

    ¡°Explore?¡± Boreal suggested.

    ¡°Might be good to get a solid sense of the land around the Grove,¡± Zalia agreed.

    Boreal took that to mean doing so at that second and started leaving.

    ¡°Wait just a second. Aylie, are you feeling tired at all?¡± Zalia asked, ¡°or, now that I think about it, do you need to eat something?

    Aylie shook her head to the first question, looking a little sheepish at the second.

    ¡°No need to feel bad about it, you¡¯re going to need to eat a lot more often than Boreal or me. Not that I remembered that,¡± Zalia said, internally reprimanding herself.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    She walked past Boreal towards the entrance.

    ¡°Come on, what are you waiting for?¡± she asked.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    A half hour later, the three of them were sat around a small fire controlled by Zalia as a little creature cooked above it. It was the first time in a long while that Zalia felt bad about a kill she had made. While it was necessary to feed Aylie, it had also been almost unfair in how she had done it. The thing had tried to hide away in its burrow but Zalia had just used the intangibility from her armour and the vibration sight to push her arm down through the earth and pull it straight from the ground. Like pulling a potato from the earth.

    Still, she couldn¡¯t very well feed Aylie just off the berries and nuts she found around the place so little potato it was. She used Bitterbalm and a few herbs she found about the place to season the meat before cooling it enough that it would be easy for Aylie to eat. She¡¯d used preparation to properly butcher the creature and sat next to Aylie as she handed her stripped green wood sticks with skewered meat on.

    It was nice, sitting by the campfire under the stars. As she looked up into them, she felt a tingle go down her spine as the stars began glowing a little brighter. She felt the presence shortly before she saw the one responsible for it. A large, translucent, starlit wolf, winding its way through the trees towards them tailed by its pack of smaller wolves. Zalia put her hand on Aylie¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s a friend of mine,¡± Zalia assured her, noticing the girl had gone stiff.

    The wolf came and sat by the fire, towering over them.

    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again,¡± Zalia greeted, bowing her head in respect.

    ¡°And you, Zalia of the Druids. You have progressed much since we last met and have another blessing from a good friend of mine. A friend that I had thought lost,¡± the wolf said.

    ¡°They live within Cormaine still, though they were fighting against dire odds last I saw them. They may have returned to dormancy, I¡¯m not certain,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Ah, so that is where you went. I did not see you below the stars for quite some time. I had thought you to be trapped out of their sight somewhere, and I suppose you were,¡± the wolf replied in understanding.

    ¡°Seeing the stars once more brings me more joy than I can explain. I¡¯m sorry Nateysta could not be with me here to see them,¡± Zalia said, her voice filled with sadness.

    ¡°As am I, young Druid,¡± the wolf agreed.

    They sat in companionable silence for a time, watching the stars above as the fire crackled quietly by their feet.

    ¡°The land is fouled by corrupt creatures¡¯ presence. I have tried to move some of the others to action yet they languish in their resting spots, becoming more and more dormant, returning to their natures. I do what I can but there are just so many of the demons. Some of which, I am not strong enough to fight,¡± the wolf said, looking towards the capital of Endaria.

    ¡°Returning to their natures?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°We cannot die, but we can fade, becoming so deep within our natures that the line between the two turns from blurred to non-existent. Feeling the blessing you have gave me hope that Nateysta had returned, he always was one of the strongest willed of us,¡± the wolf explained, letting out a deep sigh.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be here without him,¡± Zalia murmured in agreement.

    ¡°A story I¡¯d like to hear some day,¡± the wolf said.

    ¡°One I will hopefully be ready to tell. Where do the others rest, maybe I can convince them to action,¡± Zalia suggested.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not child, not all of us are so accepting of humans. I fear many would wipe the land clean of your race as soon as they would save them. Most simply do not care for your people either way,¡± the wolf explained.

    ¡°Why, are we not a part of nature as well?¡± Zalia asked, frowning.

    Inside, she knew the answer. It was just something different to hear it from a creature that was meant to be like a god. A god that was really just a person with much power, when it came down to it.

    ¡°Because humans, amongst a few other races such as the Astar to the east, do not live with nature, they live despite it. This does not bother the others so much, yet they do not care to protect you as they would otherwise because they do not understand that this is your nature. I try to tell them that it is not you they should fight for but the nature being destroyed, but they believe it is one problem taking care of another. They will not help,¡± the wolf replied.

    ¡°That is not such good news,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°No, and though I will do what I can myself, my power comes in guidance from afar, not directly such as many of the others,¡± the starlight wolf explained.

    Zalia nodded thoughtfully.

    ¡°And what guidance have you come to give this night?¡± she asked.

    ¡°That is the question, isn¡¯t it,¡± the wolf said warmly.

 Book 3: 8 - Little friend

    Zalia sat watching the starlit wolf as members of its pack appeared and disappeared amongst the nearby trees. Aylie had finally untensed yet sat still, hands shaking ever so slightly.

    ¡°A question you¡¯ll answer?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°If only it were so simple. Guidance is not about answers, it is about showing someone the path they might take to find those answers themselves,¡± the wolf explained.

    ¡°So you are here to help lead me in the right direction, then,¡± Zalia stated.

    ¡°Lead you in the right direction? No, that is not the way I would describe it. Rather, I wish to help you see the paths so that you might choose one for yourself. I fear that if you do not, you will be put on a path not of your choosing but by the powers around you,¡± the wolf further explained.

    ¡°And who is to say that you are not one of those very powers trying to put me on a path you would prefer me to take?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Of course I am. I would see you travel a path that would save this world from those invading it. Nateysta, if they are still as I remember them, would see you travel a path that would save his world. Your human friends would see you travel a path that preserves the kingdom and the demons would see you travel a path that leads to death. What path would you travel, Zalia?¡± the wolf asked.

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really know yet. I want to rid both worlds of the demons and their corruption, that is for sure. To do that, I will need to grow strong enough to combat the creatures that spread that corruption yet reaching that seems so far from where I am now. I want to return the favour given to me by Ro-ak¡­ Nateysta and save him just as he saved me. I want to see my friends safe and those friends who have been harmed avenged. I think, above all that, I want the wild places of the worlds to stay that way. I want nature to keep its beauty and its freedom,¡± Zalia explained, trying to put her jumbled thoughts into words.

    ¡°Then you already know where you wish to end up, it is only the path there that you must find. As is my duty as the spirit of the stars, my guidance is yours. You will find the beginning of what you look for in the north, where heat meets stone meets ice,¡± the wolf told her, standing from its settled position.

    Zalia knew better by now than to ask what exactly the wolf meant by ¡®find the beginning of what you look for¡¯. She was more than used to the crypticness from dealing with Delphi.

    The wolf turned to Aylie.

    ¡°I am sorry for your hardships young one, and while I cannot promise the future holds any less pain than the past, I can give you the means to light your own path. Do you accept this blessing? I seek nothing in return for this gift,¡± they said.

    The wolf leaned down closer to Aylie and she turned to Zalia.

    ¡°It¡¯s up to you Aylie, I have accepted a blessing like this myself,¡± Zalia told her.

    Aylie turned back to the wolf whose muzzle was now only a few feet from the girl and nodded nervously. The starlight wolf touched its nose to Aylie¡¯s forehead and there was a bright flash of light. Once it faded, there was no sign of the wolf or its pack, the forest lit only by the crackling fire and the stars above once more.

    Zalia turned away as Aylie stared wide-eyed into the distance. She turned her attention inwards and for the first time in a long time, read through the notifications of her level ups. She had been ignoring them ever since¡­ that day.

    Congratulations! Kill shot has gained two levels reaching Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s mark has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Fight or Flight has reached Bronze 2.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s sight has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have gained two levels reaching Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Preparation has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Druid¡¯s Grove has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Herbal magic has gained two levels reaching Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Healing presence has gained two levels reaching Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Aura observation has gained eight levels reaching Iron 15.

    Congratulations! Low light vision has gained four levels reaching Iron 13

    Congratulations! Mobility has reached Bronze 2

    Congratulations! Teaching has gained two levels reaching Iron 9.

    Congratulations! Flight has gained seven levels reaching Iron 12.

    Congratulations! Weapon proficiency - Bow has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Weapon proficiency - Sword has reached Bronze 2.

    Previously, having gone almost a week of ignoring level ups, especially over the course of such a fight filled time, would have resulted in a large amount of level ups. She didn¡¯t know if the reduction in levelling speed was a result of being in the Bronze rank or if it was because she had been right about the theory of catch-up experience due to taking a class so late in life but it was definitely slowed.

    Aura observation had gained a large amount of levels though, a result of being bombarded by godlike being¡¯s auras she thought, so hopefully that would reach Bronze soon too.

    ¡°You alright?¡± Zalia asked Aylie.

    The girl jumped, as if she had forgotten Zalia was there. She gave a quick nod and Zalia turned her head to see Boreal looking grumpy.

    ¡®What?¡± Zalia asked.

    Boreal let out a low¡­ grumble, and turned her head away.

    Zalia stood up, rolling her eyes. She walked over and tapped Boreal on the head.

    ¡°Come on, out with it,¡± she urged.

    ¡°Blessing,¡± Boreal said.

    ¡°What, you want one too?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Blessing!¡± Boreal yelled.

    She turned in a flash, launching a surprise attack and whacking her nose right into Zalia¡¯s forehead, a mirror to the starlight wolf¡¯s own blessing. Zalia fell backwards, Boreal following after, landing and knocking the wind out of her.

    ¡°Ow,¡± Zalia complained, letting out a half wheeze, half laugh.

    Boreal rolled off of her, giving her a gentle bap to the side of the head on her way out. Zalia rolled over and launched her own attack, using her strength and a little bit of wind magic thanks to a Zephyr ritual to throw herself onto Boreal¡¯s back. Boreal gave a surprised yowl and Zalia wrestled her to the ground, avoiding the soft swiping paws. Boreal used some of her own magic to freeze Zalia¡¯s arms to the ground and managed to escape but Zalia¡¯s own control of the element allowed her to break free quickly. She stood up, giving a light laugh before a little missile latched onto Boreal¡¯s side. Aylie had tried to knock Boreal over with her top speed but Boreal barely seemed to notice.

    Zalia wasn¡¯t quite sure what caused her to stop and turn around. It might have been an instinct or her brain subconsciously reading the vibrations now easily visible to her. As she turned and stared into the dark forest beyond the halo of the campfire¡¯s light, she didn''t see anything at first. Then, as she could see just fine in the dark, she saw a little bird come flying towards her, landing right on her shoulder. She turned her head to look at it, and it looked right back at her.

    ¡°Um, hello?¡± she said in its mind.

    The message that came back was not words but more akin to how Boreal first communicated with her. It was a sense of a concept, and this concept was danger.

    ¡°Danger where?¡± she asked out loud.

    Boreal was looking at the bird like it was a flying snack but Zalia gave her a warning look. This bird was friend not food.

    Danger, the concept came again and the bird flew off. Zalia extinguished the campfire with her abilities, lifted Aylie onto Boreal and ran after the bird.

    ¡°Get Aylie to the Grove, into one of the treetop homes and come find me,¡± Zalia communicated to Boreal.

    Boreal sprinted off towards the Grove entrance and Zalia continued following the little bird, flying at speed through the forest. She idly remembered the part of the Grove¡¯s description that said animals in and near the Grove would sometimes provide aid, and wondered if this was a result of that.

    ¡°Fly little bird, fly,¡± Zalia thought.

 Book 3: 9 - Fire

    Zalia followed the bird for a little while, finding herself quickly approaching where the Grove stood. What danger could be near the Grove? She had searched the nearby area already before setting it up, though not as thoroughly as she might have.

    The bird took her up the hill just behind the Grove until flitting down to sit upon the grass.

    ¡°What is it, little friend?¡± Zalia asked.

    Danger, the concept came. The bird began pecking at the ground to emphasise.

    Zalia frowned, walking over to see what it was doing. There, in the side of the hill was a little crack. She knelt down, summoning her armour onto her body as she did, and put her face next to it.

    Looking through, she could see there was a wider space inside. She tapped on the dirt, watching the vibrations carefully. It looked like there was a passage that led even further in.

    ¡°What is in there?¡± Zalia asked the bird.

    It didn¡¯t answer, hopping about nervously, pecking at the ground.

    ¡°You may go, thank you,¡± Zalia told it.

    It immediately took off, as if it had been waiting for her to release it. She watched it go, wondering as to how humane the ability was. Did it force the animal to do that? Did it coerce it?

    She would have to test that more at a later time, for now she had a danger to solve. Another one.

    Boreal came hurtling up the hill, sliding to a stop beside her.

    ¡°Fight?¡± Boreal asked, looking at the dirt.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Zalia whispered.

    She began moving the earth with her manipulation skill, Boreal helping the process along. The entrance soon became wide enough for her to squeeze through. She was incorporeal, so it was much easier than it might have been as parts of her simply passed through the dirt. The little chamber that she had to crawl through led deeper into the hill and she began to notice that the walls were marked. As earth became stone, those marks became clearer, more defined. They were scratches, like the claws of something digging into the hill.

    The first thing that came to mind was the Silver centipede she had encountered back in her first months in Endaria. She almost started backing up but realised there would be a good amount of the poison it commonly dripped all over the walls if that had been the case. Steeling herself, she pushed further in, Boreal shoving her way behind.

    They actively worked to widen the passage as they crawled, the tunnel behind them becoming much more comfortable to travel if a quick escape ended up being necessary.

    ¡°Any ideas what it could be?¡± Zalia communicated to Boreal.

    ¡°Smells¡­ corrupt,¡± Boreal answered with a low, quiet growl.

    A shiver ran up Zalia¡¯s spine, memories of all the times she had fought or encountered the various corrupt creatures flashing through her mind. She started to feel it, the aura of corruption, oozing out of the tunnel further in. Perhaps it was a good thing she had set up the Grove where she had, if she had discovered some hidden¡­ nest?

    She cast a few rituals, minor ones that gave both her and Boreal protection from senses and harm. She also tried to restrain her Healing presence as much as possible to prevent them from being detected.

    ¡°Ready for a fight, if need be?¡± she asked Boreal.

    ¡°Always,¡± Boreal¡¯s reply came.

    With that, she pushed forward.

    Zalia¡¯s sight widened, the vibrations within the earth and air providing all the clarity and confirmation to what her sight told her. Within the chamber that the small tunnel led to, was most definitely a nest. A nest of corruption, dozens of creatures swarming about. As she watched, she could tell that none of the creatures within were of a high rank, many still only Tin. Was it some sort of breeding ground for more of the corrupt?

    As she watched, a few of the small bug-like corrupt, similar in form to the other flying demons she had encountered, cracked obsidian skin and six wings, yet not humanoid, entered the chamber. They might have been the young of the larger and more powerful versions from all she could tell.

    The little bug corrupt were dragging a body behind them. It was an Ironfur rabbit, the metallic sheen of its pelt unmistakable. As she watched, it was swarmed and pieces of the animal were torn off and shared between the nest. Zalia had seen quite enough.

    Knowing that no higher ranked were in there but not knowing if they resided nearby, she decided on a quick blitz tactic.

    She marked ten of the creatures, cast the spreading cursed fire ritual, and threw herself from the hole.

    Fire erupted and screeches echoed through the space. She set off an explosion ritual on the opposite side of the chamber even as she began cutting down as many of the corrupt bugs as she could. Boreal was close behind, tearing through them with a single bite, swipe or pounce each. Ice spread out like the roots of a tree, occasionally lancing upwards to impale one of the bugs and holding it there as if a morbid piece of art.

    Boreal quickly moved off and began stopping the creatures from leaving but Zalia was quicker. She used Nature¡¯s wrath, gaining control of the very elements making up the nest. The tunnels closed off, the air rushed towards the cursed fires, fanning them and fueling their power.

    Soon, there was no oxygen left in the chamber but Zalia did not care as she held her breath, controlling the fires, fueling their power now only with her magic. She made them burn ever hotter, spreading it across the entire nest.

    A flash of memory, a hand, closing.

    The heat grew further, the ashes of the dead beginning to fall.

    The hand closed with a crunch.

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    The heat grew to a point that even she began to feel it. Still, she continued pushing more and more power into the fires.

    The two allies Nature¡¯s wrath summoned, elementals of stone, began their own slaughter. They quickly became charred and cracked as the heat rose yet they continued on their path of destruction. Each of the elementals was now Iron rank, rather than Tin, and a force in their own right.

    ¡°Zalia,¡± Boreal said in her mind.

    She ignored it for the moment, feeling the fires burn ever stronger, cleansing the corruption as thoroughly as she could.

    The top of the nest exploded as two Bronze ranked demons entered the space. She sealed the entrance they had made immediately, condensing the flame around the two newly arrived creatures as their screeches of pain filled the chamber too.

    They didn¡¯t last long, Zalia now hanging suspended by earthen arms as she performed her grizzly work.

    ¡°Zalia!¡± Boreal said louder.

    What did she want? Couldn¡¯t Boreal see that she was busy?

    The smell of scorching flesh reached her nose as the momentary burst of fresh air cast smoke across the room and yet she fueled the fires ever onwards. Nothing remained of the corrupt but ashes and melted stone, lava pooling along the floor, the roof turned to a scorched mess.

    ¡°Zalia!¡± Boreal said once more, the sound a yell in her mind.

    Another flash, the dead collective littering the floor

    She felt a pressure building within her as the flames burned brighter, scorched earth cracking.

    Ro-ak, surrounded by two horrible creatures.

    "Zalia!!" Boreal yelled a final time.

    Nature¡¯s wrath ended.

    The earthen arms holding her in the air broke apart and she dropped to the floor, panting. She realised the smell of scorched flesh was her own as her skin began flaking off, already healing by her own power. She knelt there, breathing heavily as new air filled the chamber through a hole in the ceiling as the molten stone collapsed.

    Boreal appeared at her side, ice gently covering her and cooling her.

    She was unharmed but Zalia could see the concern in her body posture.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s over,¡± Zalia croaked.

    Her two elementals collapsed in a pile of cracked, scorched and melted stone.

    She leaned heavily against Boreal as exhaustion took over her body, a deep headache pulsing within her skull.

    ¡°Do- Don¡¯t worry,¡± Zalia repeated, her voice slowing and her mind shutting down.

    Her vision started narrowing and she collapsed onto Boreal.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    Zalia woke up, blinking bleary eyes at the canopy of leaves overhead. She didn¡¯t remember going to sleep, where was she?

    Memories came back, a tunnel, the cave, fire burning.

    It all came back in a flash and she sat up straight, her head pounding still.

    ¡°Boreal?¡± she called out telepathically.

    A head popped into sight from above her, Boreal looking down from a little icy perch a little behind her own piece of floor.

    ¡°Zalia!¡± Boreal exclaimed.

    She hopped down and circled around in front of Zalia, sitting calmly.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Zalia said, scratching at her arm a bit.

    Boreal exhaled sharply, like an exasperated breath.

    ¡°Zalia out of control,¡± Boreal pointed out.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡­ yeah,¡± Zalia conceded.

    She didn¡¯t know where it had come from. It was the first time she had ever actually used so much mana that she had passed out. Usually her abilities didn¡¯t use quite enough mana, especially with her having the attribute that increased her mana pool significantly, to cause it. Nature¡¯s wrath was able to burn through it all now, apparently. In a very literal sense.

    She frowned. She hadn¡¯t felt out of control at the time but thinking back to it, she definitely had been a little¡­ overzealous. She¡¯d turned those two Bronze rank demons to ash in moments. That shouldn¡¯t have been possible for someone of her rank but, well, her abilities were a little different to most.

    She looked around, realising she was in one of the treehouse homes that were a part of her Grove. The little bird that had first warned her of danger flew through the doorway, landing on Zalia¡¯s arm.

    ¡°Hey there little friend, how are you?¡± Zalia said to it.

    It chirped a few times, inspected her arms, then flew off again. It was cute, only palm-sized with red and blue colourings. Zalia particularly liked the two little horns it had.

    She stood up with a groan, Boreal stepping up next to her in case she needed help.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about me, just getting into my later years now,¡± Zalia said jokingly.

    Boreal bumped her gently with her shoulder, then walked outside.

    Stretching her arms, Zalia followed.

    ¡°How long was I out for?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Two days,¡± Boreal said.

    ¡°Two days!?¡± Zalia exclaimed.

    ¡°Sleepy Zalia,¡± Boreal informed her.

    ¡°Yeah, apparently,¡± Zalia agreed.

    She walked out into the light, looking out across her Grove and was struck by the changes that had happened.

    Dozens, if not hundreds, of birds flitted through the treetops, singing their songs. Far below, various animals were grazing, from Ironfur rabbits, suspiciously not attacking anything, to one of the magical deer creatures she had hunted once. Something akin to a badger was digging a little home in the ground.

    ¡°What happened while I was asleep?¡± Zalia asked incredulously.

    ¡°Friends!¡± Boreal said.

    Zalia slowly walked down the stairs to the forest floor below and was shocked by the sheer amount of life she found. The farmers had obviously been busy as many rows of sown ground already had plants sprouting from them. A few Ironfur rabbits looked like they were helping sow more earth further along as the farmers worked using various magics.

    A large cat, one like she had seen on her first day down from the north hunting an Ironfur rabbit, sat contentedly in the boughs of a tree, keeping an eye on the entrance to the Grove. Zalia, in a daze, wandered over to where Mate was.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Was hopin¡¯ you¡¯d tell me that,¡± he said.

    ¡°Where did all the animals come from?¡± she asked instead.

    ¡°They just wandered in the day after you came back all unconscious, and started helping,¡± he told her.

    ¡°Started helping?¡± she asked, still confused.

    She knew the Grove description said that animals may form bonds and help but this was¡­ odd.

    ¡°Yeah that¡¯s what I said. Some help us farm, the birds ¡®ave been bringing us seeds from all over, others help us sow the earth. Some like that one in the tree there seem to keep watch. I dunno what you did but they certainly seem grateful to ya,¡± Mate explained.

    ¡°Huh,¡± she said.

    ¡°That¡¯s all the explanation you¡¯ve got for me? Huh?¡± Mate asked, some incredulity entering his own voice.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Zalia said, still looking around in wonder.

    He just stared at her with an odd expression on his face.

 Book 3: 10 - Remembering

    Zalia wandered about the Grove, greeting many of the animals who very calmly greeted her back. Birds landed on or near her to carefully inspect her before flying off to their comings and goings once more. Ironfur rabbits hopped around her feet before dashing off. The large feline animal that was lounging in the boughs of a tree didn¡¯t greet Zalia but stared very intently at Boreal. It was Bronze rank, none of the other animals reaching that rank, and definitely a dangerous creature.

    Zalia left Boreal similarly staring down the other feline, the target of her gaze more akin to a cheetah, less fluffy, more lithe. Boreal was larger and definitely more muscular but Zalia had a feeling the other feline would outrun even her.

    As she didn¡¯t detect any hostility, more mutual curiosity, Zalia wasn¡¯t worried about a fight breaking out. Boreal would win that fight even if it did anyways.

    For now, she had something a little more important to look into, something she had perhaps been putting off for longer than she should have. Part of the reason for that was her memory of receiving this memory was also stored away.

    Before the collective had¡­ died, a jumbled mess of memories had been shoved into her brain.

    She hadn¡¯t yet tried to decipher those memories, not wanting to bring forth the memory of, well, the memory of what had caused it to be there in the first place.

    Now, she was safe in the Grove, relatively safe at least, and wanted to attempt figuring out the odd memory.

    She walked through the Grove until she reached the secluded little waterfall, walking behind it to the small space that held the altar dedicated to Ro. Leaning against it, she closed her eyes and tried to recall the memory.

    It felt similar in a way to the memory she had first seen upon using the gauntlet, the end of the life of a Bathar researcher. That memory had not been her own, disjointed and without place in her mind, yet the collective had used their own power to help guide her mind to an understanding of the memory, allowing it to fit into place.

    She had no such help now.

    There were flashes, images seen through eyes that were not her own, a very different way of seeing things.

    She saw herself in the keep of the city of Hetheir, fighting a battle against undead. A flash of the city from afar yet in its former glory, bustling with life and buildings intact. A river flowed nearby and there was no sign of the floating islands in sight. Another flash and the same city from the same view point yet as it was now, destroyed and desecrated, filled with the roaming undead.

    Her eyes opened and she slid down the altar to sit on the floor, head aching as recalling the memory made her recall another. The battle for survival and the death of the collective.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    Tears came to her eyes in that secluded waterfall hideaway, her own memories of times spent with Delphi flashing through her mind. She could feel that the memory given to her by the collective was much, much more than the three images she had just seen yet even trying to decipher more made her head pound.

    "Why did you do it?" She whispered, a shiver passing through her body as a tear fell to join the waterfall.

    Had it been the only path they had seen to take that would lead to her return to Endaria? They had mentioned something about the future of their world, did they foresee that she would free Cormaine from the corruption?

    She knew the collection of memories the collective had been reduced to would hold the answers to those questions, if only she was able to see them.

    She sat there in silence, allowing the memories to fade away once more into the vault where they lived.

    She stood, running her hand over the surface of the altar.

    "I hope you still live, wherever you are," she thought.

    Ro was strong, if anyone she knew had the power to survive fighting two of those monsters, he was the one. She thought she could almost feel him, holding her hand to the altar. He was intrinsically connected to it in a way she didn''t fully understand. The power of faith was something that stretched across worlds, apparently.

    She left the cave, returning to the Grove proper. There, Boreal and the other feline were busy being in the middle of a fight. Her heart jumped for a moment before she realised it was a playful fight and they were not attempting to kill each other.

    Shaking her head at her silly friend, a bright point in the darkness of her memories, she walked to the entrance of the Grove. She needed to talk to Indis and Faian about meeting with the Hidden. Not only that but she needed to tell Indis quite a few things about the history she had discovered while in Cormaine. Unfortunately the only things she had brought back in her vault was a sword, a demon''s body and a few shiny collectibles belonging to her crow friend.

    "Boreal," Zalia sent to her friend.

    She must not have heard Zalia as she continued her fight, wrestling the other feline to the ground.

    "Boreal," Zalia tried again.

    The two of them rolled about in the grass, crushing it underneath.

    "Borreeaaalllll," Zalia yelled.

    She finally noticed and stopped fighting, standing up and cleaning herself inconspicuously.

    "I''m going back to the camp, want to come with?" She called over.

    Boreal bounded over and the other feline watched her go. Zalia was tempted to invite Aylie along but when she found the girl sitting on a log surrounded by small cute animals that she was telling a story to, Zalia decided against it.

    She waited a moment for a pause in the storytelling.

    "I''m just going to head back to the camp for a little bit, you''ll be ok?" Zalia asked softly.

    She received a small nod of the head in answer and Zalia left the girl to her important activities, leaving the Grove with a wave towards Mate.

 Book 3: 11 - History

    Zalia and Boreal re-entered the war camp after another inspection by the person on duty, not the nervous man this time. They made their way, as stealthily as possible to avoid any attention, to the large building that Zalia knew to find both Faian and Indis at. Assuming they stayed there at night, that was.

    It was dusk, most people thankfully now in their various homes if they had any. This meant that they had an easy time of getting in the building, the doorways not near as packed as they usually were. As they moved past into the second room, Zalia was surprised to find that Indis was seated at one of the tables there amongst the other administrators. Indis looked up at the same time as Zalia entered, her eyes holding something akin to rage.

    ¡°Where have you been?¡± Indis asked in an angry whisper.

    ¡°Passed out from overdrawing my mana pool. Why do you seem so upset?¡± Zalia asked back.

    ¡°Well for one, we¡¯ve been waiting for word that we can send more people up to your little Grove for housing and two, I¡¯ve had to spend the majority of my last two days answering questions as to your whereabouts, where you have been before this, what you have been doing, so on and so forth. Endless questions to which I have only the bare bones answers to,¡± Indis hissed.

    ¡°A problem that you started and that you will be dealing with. I will absolutely not be spending my time dealing with idiotic masses asking my every movement because you decided to literally put my image on a pedestal,¡± Zalia retorted.

    That seemed to give Indis pause, Zalia feeling slightly victorious at having made a solid point in an argument with Indis that wasn¡¯t immediately dismantled.

    ¡°You know, for someone who is usually so good at controlling what emotions they display, you really suck at not being angry at me,¡± Zalia pointed out.

    ¡°You¡¯re an incredibly frustrating person, at times,¡± Indis muttered.

    ¡°As are you sweetheart,¡± Zalia said sarcastically.

    Indis looked at her with an expression of offence plastered on her face.

    ¡°Now, if you¡¯re done quietly yelling at me, I have come back to tell you some of the things I¡¯ve learnt in my time away, if you¡¯re interested. I learnt some things that wins an argument you had with Ember a long time ago,¡± Zalia explained.

    That immediately got Indis¡¯ full attention. She thought it would.

    ¡°Let us go somewhere a little bit more private,¡± Indis suggested.

    ¡°Fine by me,¡± Zalia agreed.

    They moved out of that room, to one of the doors they had walked past on their way to Faian¡¯s personal office last time. It was a small sitting room, though still set in a utilitarian way. It was somewhat more of a space for private conversations of importance rather than idle chatter to pass away the time.

    There, Zalia told Indis all she knew about Hetheir, the Bathar and the fall of their world. What she knew disproved Ember¡¯s idea that the Bathar had once been the owners of the land that the kingdom of Endaria now resided in. They had been something of an ally to the kingdom of Endaria in its very earliest days and had evacuated many of their number there before Cormaine fell. She even drew out a map of Hetheir as best she could from the memory of it stored within the vault.

    Through all of this, Indis was mostly silent, only asking questions when she needed further clarity on something. She even pulled out a little notebook and started taking notes.

    When Zalia mentioned that there were a lot more documents back there in the keep that she hadn¡¯t read, Indis managed to get angry again.

    ¡°How could you not bring them back with you!¡± she said, voice raised in agitation.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t really have much time,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°That is priceless history, history that could help us now with the invasion of our own world. It could explain what is happening here and help us stop it,¡± Indis said.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Please, I know you have a lot of pressure on your shoulders right now but calm down,¡± Zalia pleaded.

    Poor choice of words.

    ¡°I will not calm down. We have tens of thousands of homeless people relying on us to take back our kingdom from these invaders. Countless are dead, more every day. Refugees stream to us on a daily basis, bringing news of more and more towns devoid of life. The land dies around us and you could have found something there that could help our efforts greatly if you had read it all!¡± Indis yelled.

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand what it was like there. The very air tried to kill us, the landscape was filled with death and the dead. We were alone, finding only a few others there who were even alive, let alone willing to help us. I had to kill and struggle my way through every day, every moment spent breathing poison. I didn¡¯t know each day if that would be my last, if I would finally be killed by some demon or a twisted being, flying across the sky with a thousand eyes. I saw a kingdom, shattered and turned to dust, the citizens nothing more than tortured souls trapped in undead bodies. I had no way out, no respite from the life and death struggle. Then, I saw one of the two friends I made in that hell crushed into paste before my eyes. The other might be in as bad a state for all I know. I was violently torn from that world and thrown back to this one as a last-ditch effort by my only remaining friend there. Don¡¯t yell at me for not thinking about a few stupid pieces of parchment. You have no idea what it was like,¡± Zalia said, starting out coldly but her voice turning ragged towards the end.

    The memory surfaced, unbidden, as she tried to explain what exactly life had been like there and Zalia found herself holding back tears.

    ¡°I''m sorry Zalia, I didn¡¯t think-¡±

    ¡°No, you didn¡¯t. You¡¯re not the only one that has been through some shit so stop acting like I¡¯m trying to wrong you at every turn. I¡¯m doing my damn best.¡±

    Indis fell silent, looking both a bit guilty and thoughtful.

    ¡°Who did you mee-¡± Indis started.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to talk about it. I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m not ready,¡± Zalia interrupted, desperately trying to push that damned memory back into the vault.

    Taking in a shuddering breath, Zalia tried to compose herself. Boreal was sitting silently on the floor near her feet, wise enough not to say anything.

    ¡°You can start sending people to the Grove. The farmers will also be ready to start harvesting as well, the nature of the Grove means things grow there very quickly,¡± Zalia said, changing the subject. Anything to get away from that memory.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll get it organised,¡± Indis promised quietly.

    Zalia stood to leave.

    ¡°Zalia,¡± Indis called.

    She turned around.

    Indis stepped up and gave her a quick, light hug, stepping away once more.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be. I chose my own path and have come to terms with what that has meant for me. You should too,¡± Zalia said, before leaving.

    She didn¡¯t blame the young woman, Indis did have a lot of pressure on her shoulders for someone so young, from the collapse of her house, the loss of her closest childhood friend and the events of the past few months, anyone would be stressed and quick to strong emotion. She didn¡¯t blame her, but she also needed to understand that she wasn¡¯t the only one in a similar situation.

    As she left, Zalia decided against finding Faian. She had wanted to talk to the Hidden while she was here but the stress and emotional exhaustion from her conversation with Indis¡­ well, she wasn¡¯t feeling up to it. The conversation with the Hidden, Hidey, would probably be similarly exhausting.

    Instead, she asked one of the administrators where she could find the building holding the mentally scarred. She didn¡¯t ask if there was one, she knew there would be.

    She was directed to a nearby building and made her way there. There was a theory she had come up with in Cormaine that she wanted to test. A combination of Frozen Heart major and Living Trapvine minor that would create a healing ritual focused on the mind. It hadn¡¯t had a super strong effect on Nateysta, though it hadn¡¯t really been him at the time, just a piece of his power given semi-sentience. Regardless, the scale of power she was able to produce relative to someone like Ro-ak compared to an Iron or Bronze ranked human, well, it wasn¡¯t even comparable.

    She entered the dimly lit building and found pretty much exactly what she expected to find. Rows of white linen beds, separated by hanging curtains, in which soldiers in various states of mental shock or trauma lay. Some muttered to themselves, others stared sightlessly into nothing and others yet scratched the walls or tapped patterns on their knees. Regardless of whatever mindless behaviour they were doing, they all had one thing in common. Their minds weren¡¯t quite all there.

    With the small amount of Living Trapvine she had, Zalia wouldn¡¯t be able to heal them all. Hell, it might not even work in the first place but she needed to try. So, she walked up to one of the doctors that saw to the needs of the traumatised soldiers and asked if she would be allowed to try the experimental healing ritual she had devised.

    With a little explanation, she was granted permission and she soon got to work.

 Book 3: 12 - Mind

    Zalia knelt next to the low bed of the soldier closest to the door. He was sat facing down, knees to his chest, hands over the back of his head, rocking back and forth. He was muttering something, gibberish or a language so dissimilar to Endarian that her translation powers didn¡¯t work on it.

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m going to try something to help you, okay?¡± Zalia told him gently.

    He didn¡¯t reply or even make notice of her words from what she could tell. Deciding to go ahead, Zalia summoned the few materials she had. She was a little worried about causing more damage to the mind of the man so decided to include Adastem into the mix. Not only would it weaken the overall strength of the ritual, it would also provide it with an adaptability that might be more than necessary for what she was attempting.

    Frozen Heart desiccated in an instant, floating up and crushing to a fine powder that hung in a swirling ball in the air. A good amount of it too, a small handful. Living trapvine was next, a little cutting of the giant bulbous plant that lived in Cormaine. This one crushed slowly into a paste, little more than a small drop that floated next to the Frozen Heart.

    Finally, came the Adastem. The ever changing plant was left as it was, already in a form useable for her magic.

    The Frozen Heart and Living trapvine, at Zalia¡¯s command, gently floated over to form a little ritual circle in the air between her and her patient. It began glowing a light green, the colour of new growth and life reborn.

    The Adastem soon joined it, twisting and forming until it made a slightly larger ring around the central one, its shape still changing yet glowing a deeper green than the centre ring, the colour of old growth and times past.

    Zalia activated the ritual, yet managed to slow the speed at which it was released. Gently, the materials turned to a fine mist over the course of a few seconds, flowing towards the man whose head was lowered.

    It spun around him before sinking into his skull, vanishing from sight. The rocking and muttering stopped.

    Zalia waited a few tense minutes, unsure whether she should disturb the man. She decided not to, knowing that the mind was a brittle thing and interrupting the ritual may not be a good idea. Better to let it do its work.

    Finally, the soldier raised his head, blinking bleary eyes as if truly seeing for the first time in a very, very long time.

    ¡°Hello,¡± Zalia greeted him softly.

    ¡°I- I¡¯m. Who, where. Where am I?¡± he asked.

    ¡°You¡¯re in a ward for people who need healing. What do you remember?¡± Zalia explained gently.

    ¡°I- I was, I mean, we were just¡­ we were just following orders. The blood, oh gods the blood,¡± he croaked, his speech devolving into sobs.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright, you¡¯re safe now. It¡¯s alright,¡± Zalia comforted, awkwardly giving him a pat on the shoulder.

    ¡°W-what happened to me? Everything is so¡­ so blurry. How long?¡± he asked, his words jumping between too quick thoughts.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about all that. You¡¯ve been out for a while but you¡¯re in a safe place. The people here have been taking care of you. Rest, get some rest. You can tackle it all in the morning.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ gods. I knew it was wrong. We knew it was wrong¡­ but the king. Orders. We had orders.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think about it, alright? Rest and when you wake up tomorrow, you can go see the sun once more,¡± Zalia urged.

    ¡°The sun. I¡¯d like to see the sun again,¡± he murmured, already falling backwards to sleep.

    Zalia focused a little bit more of her Healing presence on the man, letting its comfortable warmth pull the man into the embrace of sleep.

    She let out a deep sigh, utterly exhausted after healing just that one man''s mind.

    ¡°Excuse me, Zalia? How did you heal his mind?¡± The doctor who had been hovering over Zalia¡¯s shoulder asked.

    ¡°Magic, herbs and a little bit of hope,¡± Zalia replied.

    Zalia looked around, trying to find Boreal but finding her nowhere in sight.

    ¡°Could you teach us how?¡± The doctor asked.

    ¡°Not really, unless you know herbal ritual magic?¡± Zalia inquired.

    ¡°Well, no. We could learn though,¡± the doctor suggested.

    ¡°Well, you¡¯d have to find someone who knew how to teach you. I certainly couldn¡¯t. It¡¯s all part of the class,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Damn,¡± the doctor muttered.

    Zalia agreed with the sentiment but she had also just healed the mind of a man who had been so thoroughly broken that time and words meant nothing to him. Well, healed might be an overstatement. It was more akin to picking up the pieces of a shattered glass, putting them back in their place and telling them to fix the cracks on their own. She wouldn¡¯t be able to do that part for them. She could help, sure, but for the next steps others were now a better alternative than she was.

    ¡°I¡¯ll come back another time and heal who I can. I don¡¯t have much of this plant left and want to see if I can grow more before I use it all,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°What is it? We can get some more for you,¡± the doctor asked.

    ¡°I highly doubt that,¡± Zalia said.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    There was only one place she knew of to find the plant and she sure as hell wasn¡¯t going back to Cormaine anytime soon.

    She left the ward, following the instinctive knowledge of where Boreal was at all times that was a part of the bond they held. She kept all her stealth abilities active, blending into the darkness now the sun had fully set.

    She found Boreal in the process of assaulting someone who had just entered the war camp with a barrage of body checks and paw taps. It looked like she was trying to determine if the person was real or if she was imagining them. Zalia had to make sure she was seeing right as well, as she saw Ember.

    ¡°Boreal? What in the name of the gods are you doing here? You¡¯re huge! Is¡­ is Zalia with you?¡±

    Ember was looking well from what Zalia could see. She still had her old twin bladed sword and heater shield, though it looked like she had managed to acquire a new set of armour somewhere. She had always worn a lighter set of armour made for mobility, a set with even less protection than Zalia¡¯s first set of armour had. Now though, she wore what was essentially a full suit of plate armour. Despite what must have been an extremely heavy set of armour, she moved in it as if she had been born to it, lithely and with ease.

    Zalia felt a little¡­ nervous. She hadn¡¯t been nervous meeting Indis again but Ember had always been a compassionate and caring person. Someone who had shared a deep part of her past with Zalia that she had not shared with any other.

    Putting her nerves aside, she made her way towards the two.

    ¡°Where have you been?¡± Ember was saying to Boreal.

    ¡°Hey Ember,¡± Zalia greeted.

    Ember¡¯s head shot up and she stared at Zalia.

    She blinked, once, twice.

    ¡°How the fuck are you alive?¡± she asked.

    Zalia laughed and gave the woman a long hug.

    ¡°Good to see you too,¡± she said warmly.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ different,¡± Ember noted, pulling away and holding Zalia at arms length, giving her a critical look.

    ¡°As are you,¡± Zalia said, pointedly looking at the full plate Ember now wore.

    ¡°We¡¯ve all had to adapt a bit as of recently,¡± Ember said grimly.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°But seriously, how the fuck are you alive and where have you been?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Long, long story. The short of it is when I messed with that ritual, it dragged me, Boreal and Juniper into Cormaine of all places. Juniper is dead now, while I survived. We can have a long chat about the whole thing another time and place,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Fair enough.¡±

    ¡°And you, I heard you are going about on your own as usual, saving people and giving all you can and whatnot. Had much trouble out there?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Have you been out there at all?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah I have. It¡¯s a welcome respite from the experiences of my past weeks? Months? I¡¯m not even really certain how long I was there for,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°A welcome respite? Bloody hell Zalia, it¡¯s a nightmare out there. How bad was it in Cormaine?¡± Ember asked in concern.

    ¡°Bad.¡±

    ¡°You and I need to go get a drink,¡± Ember decided.

    ¡°Alcohol doesn¡¯t really do anything to me, remember?¡± Zalia pointed out.

    ¡°Oh ho, no? Well, I¡¯m certain Harrick¡¯s brew will mess you up something good if you aren¡¯t careful,¡± Ember disagreed, moving off into the camp.

    ¡°Harrick?¡± Zalia asked, following along.

    ¡°Gold rank chef with the brewer specialisation. Can you believe that? Gold rank!? It¡¯s almost unheard of in a class like that,¡± Ember said.

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°Why is that?¡± she asked.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Why is it that it¡¯s so rare to find Gold rankers of any type, but especially non combat focused ones. Not to mention I¡¯ve not seen an Emerald or Diamond ranked person at all. I would have thought if such people were to make a showing now would be the time,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Well, as you know, levelling is much, much easier when you go about fighting things. It¡¯s hard to get enough levels to reach Gold within a normal person''s lifespan through a non combat class. Harrick though, well I managed to get the secret out of him. He has found a way to make an age slowing drink! Won¡¯t let anyone else have it though, too dangerous he says. As for higher ranked people, well¡­ you know I¡¯m not really sure. I¡¯ve only ever heard tale of people reaching that rank, I¡¯ve never actually seen any,¡± Ember said.

    Zalia pondered it. She knew that Ro-ak and the thousand eyed demons were far beyond those ranks and there had been some Emerald rank elementals popping up towards the end of the rituals yet still, no humans of that rank to fight them off.

    ¡°Have the elementals still been attacking?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Nah, not since the ritual happened.¡±

    ¡°I wonder why that is,¡± Zalia muttered.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter much at the moment, does it? One less thing to worry about,¡± Ember said cheerfully.

    Zalia gave her an odd look.

    ¡°You¡¯ve definitely changed. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve heard you talk this much ever.¡±

    ¡°Well, a lot has happened, you know? Indis has gone and drowned herself in even more responsibility, from some kind of guilt she has around your death. Well, supposed death. Zen, ah man, Zen. Fuck knows where he ended up. I still hope I¡¯ll find him out there¡­¡± Ember explained, trailing off.

    ¡°How much impact have you had out there?¡± Zalia asked.

    She had noticed that Ember was also Bronze rank, unsurprisingly.

    ¡°I¡¯ve made a big difference in some people''s lives. Saved a lot of people from horrible fates. It never feels like enough though. I¡¯ve come pretty close to meeting one of those fates myself a few times too. There are a lot of terrifying creatures out there.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that there is.¡±

    They arrived at a dingy little building that had a surprisingly pleasant interior. There were only a few tables with three other patrons inside, all of them having a casual drink.

    The warmly lit space also had a little bar fit into a corner where a large, jolly man leant against the wall, idly twiddling his moustache.

    ¡°Harrick!¡± Ember called when they entered.

    ¡°Ahh, Ember. Back from your little escapade again I see. Same as usual?¡± Harrick asked.

    His voice was pleasant, smooth and neutral with a slight accent to it that Zalia didn¡¯t identify as Endarian.

    ¡°Of course, the same thing for my friend here too.¡±

    ¡°Coming right up!¡±

    They sat at a little table against one of the walls, nobody blinking an eye as Boreal pushed through and between the tables to sit next to them. Having a look around the room, Zalia realised the other patrons were all Silver rank. They had probably seen crazier things than Boreal in their time.

    ¡°I¡¯m surprised Harrick doesn¡¯t have more patrons for a Gold rank brewer,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°He prefers it this way.¡±

    ¡°Right, fair enough.¡±

    ¡°Now, tell me all about where and what you¡¯ve been doing,¡± Ember said, leaning forward intently.

    For the second time that day, Zalia began telling the story of her recent experiences.

 Book 3: 13 - Catch-up

    ¡°Damn Zalia, that is one wild of a story,¡± Ember said with a low whistle.

    ¡°Yeah, it has definitely been an experience. I¡¯m glad to be out of there, back to fresh air and lively forests,¡± Zalia agreed.

    They were still seated at the little table in Harrick¡¯s bar, amongst a few other higher ranked people minding their own business. Ember was drinking a brightly coloured cocktail with the top of a plant Zalia didn¡¯t recognise sticking out of it. She had her own, though was making her way through it significantly slower than Ember was.

    Ember was uncharacteristically peppy, joyous even, which confused Zalia a little bit having known her before the entire kingdom went to shit.

    ¡°Now, do you want to explain to me why you¡¯re so happy?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Happy? I wouldn¡¯t say that. I am feeling a lot more hopeful, though.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, why is that?¡±

    ¡°Well, as bad as things look, I¡¯ve been out there helping people, saving lives, basically since you vanished. Before the demons appeared, people were selfish, greedy, indulgent. They would kick down their neighbour if it would give them an advantage, more often than not. Now though, I see people helping others despite danger, despite having next to nothing themselves. This shared adversity has brought many of the people out there together, as if they understand that this isn¡¯t about personal gain but the survival of the kingdom, perhaps the world. That gives me hope,¡± Ember explained.

    Zalia mulled it over. While that certainly was true, she was a little bit surprised to find that Ember had found hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. She hadn¡¯t seen what Zalia had seen, though, so maybe that would change. She hoped not.

    ¡°Alright, fair enough. What now? Are you going to go back out there?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll give it a day, get some supplies and make my way down south west this time.¡±

    ¡°Might I convince you to come north with me instead?¡±

    ¡°Oh? Possibly, why do you want to go north?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Well, remember that starlight wolf god spirit thing that blessed my bow a while back, it told me that the first step to achieving some of my goals lies in the north, in the snow. I figure that means with Those Born of Heat and Stone,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Oh shit, I forgot about them in all this. I wonder if they¡¯re doing ok,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°I hope so. They did have one of those ritual sites on the mountain above them. Though, they were united as a race even before this happened, I¡¯m sure they¡¯re doing just fine,¡± Zalia said.

    The conversation brought back memory of the other types of races similar to Glemp¡¯s. Those Born of the Watery Depths and¡­ Those Born of Wind and Sky? She didn¡¯t quite remember the exact names Delphi had given them. Delphi¡­

    Shaking her head, she absently tapped on the table.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll come north with you. I want to go by all the towns we can on our way there though, deal?¡± Ember said.

    ¡°Deal,¡± Zalia agreed.

    Having Ember along would be helpful, as she was a healer herself. One that could do a lot more healing in a shorter time than Zalia could, though she was more of an extended fight kind of fighter herself.

    ¡°What happened with Zen?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Zen? I don¡¯t know. Haven¡¯t you asked Indis about him?¡±

    ¡°I did, she said that Zen wanted nothing more to do with it, that he asked to be left out of everything,¡± Zalia explained.

    Ember nodded.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Though I wish she had kept you out of her scheming and political bullshit as well. I assume you¡¯ve seen the wondrous statue of yourself in the centre of the camp?¡±

    ¡°Uhhhh, tell me about it. It¡¯s a nightmare come true. Do you know there was a mob of people asking me where I¡¯ve been and what I was going to do about the demons on the first day I arrived here?¡± Zalia asked incredulously.

    ¡°I¡¯m not surprised, the way Indis has been talking you up,¡± Ember said with a chuckle

    ¡°So I told them all that Indis would answer all of their questions and she¡¯s had one big headache for the past two days. Definitely glad I did that,¡± Zalia said, smiling as well.

    ¡°I¡¯ll bet she hated that. Did she know where you had been yet?¡±

    ¡°Nope.¡±

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Even better!¡± Ember said, laughing.

    Zalia laughed too, happy to be in good company.

    Boreal was busy attempting to sneak up on Harrick to perhaps steal some food or drink from the man but no matter what she tried, the man saw her and stopped her. Zalia would have stopped the behaviour but Harrick didn¡¯t seem to mind, simply laughing at Boreal¡¯s antics.

    ¡°You do know that what I¡¯ve discovered means that Endaria didn¡¯t steal these lands from the Bathar, right?¡± Zalia asked Ember, after a short moment of silence.

    Ember shrugged.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not worried about that, quite the opposite really. It¡¯s good to hear that my own kingdom hasn¡¯t committed a huge crime against an entire people and in fact, actually took in those said people as refugees. I¡¯m just a bit confused as to how that history has been lost. Surely someone should have known about this, where are all the documents and tales or anything that points to these events in history? That¡¯s what I¡¯m more concerned about,¡± Ember explained.

    Zalia frowned, it was a good point.

    ¡°Hmm, maybe when they evacuated some of the demons got through with them? Maybe this isn¡¯t the first time that something like this has happened before?¡± Zalia pondered.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s a little concerning.¡±

    ¡°Also a good thing. If this has happened before, then the invasions were fought off those times too,¡± Zalia pointed out.

    ¡°But if that were the case, the state of the kingdom left behind must have been so dire that no history or recollection of those events endured. That doesn¡¯t bode well,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°Hmm, well maybe not then. I don''t know, maybe they didn¡¯t write things down back then. From what I¡¯ve read and seen, it looks like these events happened a very long time ago, closer to the formation of Endaria as a kingdom at all. Who knows what has transpired since then?¡±

    ¡°Possible. No point wondering about it, it¡¯s not like we can find any answers to those questions right now,¡± Ember sighed.

    ¡°Actually, I might be able to. The starlight wolf would have been around then, maybe they know something. I wish I¡¯d asked Ro-ak when I had the chance¡­¡±

    ¡°He sounds like a good friend,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°He wa- is a good friend. There was much I could have learnt from him, I just had so much to think about in those last days in Cormaine that I didn¡¯t get the chance,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°I can see why, I think I might¡¯ve been the same way,¡± Ember empathised.

    ¡°Oh, you should come by and see my Grove,¡± Zalia exclaimed.

    ¡°Your Grove? I thought you said that was in Cormaine?¡± Ember asked in confusion.

    ¡°Well, the first one was yes. Looks like I can kind of um, move it around a bit. Well, if it is destroyed I can set another up. Or if I release the magic¡­ anyway you get the idea. I set the Grove up nearby, Aylie is there along with a whole bunch of ani-¡±

    ¡°Aylie?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Oh, right. Yeah, I found Aylie being hunted by a demon, a type like a feline with a disjointed jaw and slime coating it.¡±

    ¡°Ah yeah, I know the type. I¡¯ve killed a few, nasty fuckers.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of, what kind of abilities did you get from becoming Bronze?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Besides everything becoming more¡­ well, more, one of my Healer class abilities transformed to help me a lot in my recent activities. It is a little uh, strange? Or well, reactive, I guess, to what I¡¯m doing at the time. It is kind of a bit odd. It¡¯s a little bi-¡±

    ¡°Ember, please, just read out what it does,¡± Zalia interrupted.

    ¡°Ok so, when I activate it, the ability helps a community in an impactful way dependent on what I am doing at the time,¡± Ember explained.

    ¡°That¡¯s a little vague,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°I know right? It is very, very vague. But I¡¯ve found it really helpful! This one time, I was trying to get a group of refugees to safety from a group of Iron demons. I could have taken them on my own but with their numbers¡­ let''s just say they were getting around me. One second, a whole bunch of them were moments away from killing the people I was trying to protect, the next, they were protected by a large dome. Another time, it created a whole bunch of food for a town I was trying to help feed. It does things like that, always to help whichever community or person I¡¯m trying to help. It really has helped take care of a lot of things I wouldn¡¯t have been able to help with previously.¡±

    ¡°It does sound very useful,¡± Zalia admitted.

    ¡°What about you?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got a few nice bits and pieces. The extra five abilities I have on most others have been shining as of late. I¡¯ve got away with a few stupid moves that I wouldn¡¯t have otherwise simply because I am stronger than your conventional Bronze ranker.¡±

    Zalia went on to describe the basics of what her abilities could now do and how they were slowly evolving to create synergies between classes.

    ¡°I¡¯ve had similar experiences, such as my combat passive gaining an ability that increases the amount of healing I receive based on how wounded I am,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°Hey I¡¯ve got one that does that too.¡±

    ¡°Healing abilities used often in combat usually get something like it.¡±

    ¡°That they do. Want to come see the Grove now? I¡¯ve got a spare bed or twenty,¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind if I do, lets go!¡± Ember agreed, standing from the table with a little wobble.

    Zalia felt it as well, just a bit tipsy from the one drink she¡¯d had. She wasn¡¯t surprised Ember was wobbling based on the four empty glasses in front of her.

    Since they¡¯d already paid, or rather Ember had and a not insignificant sum at that, as expected from a Gold rank brewer, they left the bar with a wave and a stumble.

    With Boreal helping hold up Ember, they left the camp. With Zalia lithely leading the way and Ember wobbling after, they found themselves at the Grove.

    ¡°Woahhh, look at that,¡± Ember said in awe as they walked through the entrance arch.

    While during the day, the Grove was a beautiful sight, the nighttime was absolutely stunning. The warm lights floating about under the treetops cast dancing shadows amongst the boughs and trunks. In the leaves of the canopy above, little worms were emitting a light blue glow that was somehow both conflicting yet complimentary with the warmth of the lights and a reflection of the stars glittering far above.

    ¡°Welcome to the Grove,¡± Zalia said, the warmth of the lights entering the tone of her voice.

 Book 3: 14 - Fun in the Sun

    ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding about the Grove,¡± Ember said a little breathlessly, turning about in place.

    They were standing in the centre of the Grove now, staring up at the glittering starlight worms above.

    ¡°It¡¯s a place of safety for nature, me and my friends, above all else,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°It definitely seems like it. This feeling¡­ is it healing us?¡±

    ¡°It is, it also helps protect everyone inside against harm.¡±

    ¡°And there is¡­ something else here. Another aura maybe? I can¡¯t quite tell,¡± Ember said, looking about curiously.

    ¡°It is a living ritual that helps protect and hide the Grove. It is something I figured out how to do separately, a way of using the natural aura of all living things to a certain effect,¡± Zalia explained, pointing to a few of the plants around that were components of the ritual.

    ¡°How did you figure out how to do that?¡± Ember asked, turning to her.

    ¡°I learnt a great many things in Cormaine, not much other choice really,¡± Zalia said, shrugging.

    ¡°Well, we¡¯ll definitely be better off because of it.¡±

    ¡°I hope so. Oh, hey, I purged some kind of demon nest further up the hill two days ago, should I have told Faian or someone about that?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Ah no need, they pop up all over the place. Another will find its way somewhere else in these hills before long. They¡¯re all across Endaria now, it will take a long time to remove them all once this war is over,¡± Ember assured her.

    ¡°That¡¯s horrific.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it is,¡± Ember agreed. Then she frowned, ¡°how did you and Boreal manage to purge one of those nests by yourselves? I usually have to find a few others to help.¡±

    ¡°I pulled it off mostly by myself,¡± Zalia replied, a little distracted by a light that was trying to land on her face.

    ¡°You did what?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, Nature¡¯s wrath has become quite a um, how do you say, powerful ability,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°You did it with a single ability!?¡± Ember asked, her expression becoming even further shocked.

    ¡°Well no, it was a mixture of that plus a Herbal magic ritual to light the fire. Though, I guess I could have started a fire without the ritual.¡±

    Ember stared at her.

    ¡°What?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you''re back!¡± Ember said with a chuckle, ¡°anything else I should know about that you picked up while you were there?¡±

    Ember looked pointedly at the decidedly plant-like artifact attached to Zalia¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Oh yeah. Well, Boreal got her own set of heirloom armour, as did I, along with this heirloom storage device. It kind of merged with one of my abilities and also has the properties of the Grove, as well as being able to store a good amount of things.¡±

    Ember looked down at her own ordinary plate armour with a slight clank, then looked back up at her.

    ¡°Your cat has heirloom armour,¡± she stated.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Ember looked down at her armour again.

    ¡°Can I have the next set?¡± she asked, looking back up.

    Zalia laughed.

    ¡°Sure, sure. Next one is yours, if I find one. Want to check mine out?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Absolutely!¡± Ember agreed excitedly.

    Zalia summoned her armour onto her body and stood still as Ember did a circle about her, inspecting it.

    ¡°Very, very cool. What does it do?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Well, it gives me incorporeality, suppresses my aura so people can¡¯t see my rank or find me through it, silences my movement entirely aaand lets me step through a plant to a nearby similar plant. Pretty good overall,¡± Zalia explained.

    Ember gave a whistle.

    ¡°Daaaamn, that is something else. I¡¯m quite jealous,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°You¡¯ll get your own one day,¡± Zalia assured her, giving her a silent pat on the back.

    ¡°The absolute silence is a little unnerving,¡± Ember muttered.

    ¡°Imagine how unsettling it would be if I was trying to kill you!¡± Zalia exclaimed.

    ¡°Thanks for the mental image,¡± Ember said, sounding a little bummed out.

    ¡°Hey look, if you want to go through a month or two in the realm of the dead, as Indis put it, and all you get out of it is bad memories, dead friends and a few cool trinkets, be my guest,¡± Zalia offered.

    Ember raised her hands in a surrendering gesture.

    ¡°Woah woah, wasn¡¯t getting on your case about it. You have been through a lot for the things you¡¯ve gotten, I know. Don¡¯t need to come out the gate on the offensive like that,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°Sorry, just had a little bit of a bout with Indis earlier on a similar topic,¡± Zalia apologised.

    ¡°You? And Indis? Having a bout? Nahhh, wouldn¡¯t have guessed it. I¡¯ve had my own gripes with the woman recently as well,¡± Ember said.

    Zalia snorted a laugh.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Yeah I heard. I also heard you were against her martyring me, which I appreciate greatly.¡±

    ¡°It was wrong of her to do that.¡±

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°Yeah, maybe so. I don¡¯t mind it that much if it helps the soldiers fight harder. Did they have to build a statue though? I mean come on,¡± she complained.

    ¡°Of course! A great big statue for the great big hero of Endaria, Zalia! Stopper of rituals! Killer of demons! Tamer of Boreal¡¯s!¡± Ember announced, waving her hand like she was revealing a grand sight.

    ¡°Please stop that,¡± Zalia groaned.

    ¡°Alright, alright. I should probably catch some sleep. See you in the morning?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, see you in the morning.¡±

    ¡°Oh hey, do you even need to sleep anymore?¡± Ember asked as she was backing away towards the stairs of one of the trees.

    ¡°Not really,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Huh, cool. Enjoy your free time then I guess,¡± Ember said with a wave, ¡°goodnight!¡±

    Zalia waved goodnight as well, then went to find where Boreal had gotten off to. She found her with the guardian feline, the two of them cleaning each other.

    She gave them a smile and a wave before walking off to the cave behind the waterfall, where the temple to Ro-ak was situated.

    She opened up her vault and pulled out a few little shiny trinkets that were sitting in one of the closest vault slots and put them on top of the altar. It was a coin, a shiny pebble, a piece of tin foil and a shiny damaged spoon. The little sparkly bits and pieces that Ro-ak had brought her before he had awakened to his form of Nateysta once more.

    ¡°I¡¯ve not forgotten you my friend, I will find you once more, one day,¡± Zalia said under her breath, kneeling at the altar with her eyes closed.

    She felt like she could almost feel his presence beside her, the little crow with his gravelly voice and shiny trinkets.

    ¡°Stay safe, keep fighting.¡±

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    Zalia woke up, blinking at the sun just rising above the horizon. She had fallen asleep lying on the grass within the Grove, more comfortable beneath the stars than she was inside. She yawned and stretched luxuriously, feeling relaxed. Boreal, who was acting as her pillow at that moment, made a complaintative growl.

    ¡°Oh I know, the others will be up and disturbing us soon anyways,¡± Zalia mumbled.

    Boreal rolled out from under her and Zalia''s head dropped to smack the ground with a dull thud.

    ¡°That was cruel,¡± she complained.

    Boreal let out her own complaint at the world before standing up, looking down at Zalia¡¯s face.

    ¡°Do I have to get up too? Maybe you could just scare them all away from me while I lay here for a bit longer?¡± Zalia suggested.

    Boreal started licking her forehead with a raspy, sandpaper tongue. Fighting away the skin-shearing weapon of destruction, Zalia managed to make her way to her own feet.

    ¡°I¡¯m up, I¡¯m up.¡±

    Boreal gave a big, long stretch before looking up towards the treehouses.

    ¡°Want to go wake up Ember as well? It¡¯s been a while since we got to do that,¡± Zalia suggested.

    Boreal bounded forward with glee, making her way up the stairs at a significantly faster pace than Zalia cared to manage.

    She arrived just in time to see Ember under assault, blankets flying and the sounds of battle resounding. She ended up lying on the floor, plate armour was strewn about and her blanket essentially tying her up as Boreal was flopped on her chest, holding her down.

    ¡°Good morning Ember,¡± Zalia greeted.

    ¡°Ge thih fuffy deah sirit off e,¡± Ember complained, her voice muffled by the ton of fur burying her.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Zalia asked innocently.

    Ember spat out some fur before replying.

    ¡°Get this fluffy death spirit off me please,¡± she repeated.

    ¡°Boreal get off her please,¡± Zalia said.

    Boreal pretended not to hear.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Ember but you must have slain the beast in your battle. We need to work together to move the corpse,¡± Zalia informed her.

    Ember groaned.

    Zalia stepped over Ember¡¯s breastplate and put her hands under Boreal. Together, the two of them managed to shove Boreal off of Ember and she stood up.

    ¡°Such a shame for such a majestic creature to die such a painful death,¡± Zalia said mournfully, shaking her head.

    ¡°You two are ridiculous,¡± Ember stated.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you me-¡±

    Zalia was interrupted as Boreal leapt from the ground in a sneak attack, hitting Zalia and throwing both of them out the door, off the walkway and all the way down to the ground below. Zalia managed to get off the Zephyr ritual halfway down which slowed their descent enough that she wasn¡¯t crushed under Boreal¡¯s weight.

    ¡°Boreal,¡± Zalia said as Boreal jumped up and started running away.

    She stopped and slunk back.

    ¡°Gotta be careful playing so rough you know, not everyone can survive being thrown from that height,¡± Zalia reminded her.

    ¡°Zalia strong!¡± Boreal reminded Zalia.

    Zalia rolled her eyes.

    ¡°Yes, yes, but you have to be more careful with, say, Aylie. Alright?¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Aylie cute, no throwing,¡± Boreal scolded Zalia.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t saying to throw her!¡± Zalia said indignantly.

    Boreal gave Zalia a judgemental look and Zalia stared back at her.

    ¡°You little rascal,¡± Zalia said in a playful growl.

    ¡°Big rascal!¡± Boreal announced, before sprinting off.

    Zalia watched her go with a shake of her head. She was just the same as she had been growing up. She had been a little more serious in Cormaine but it seemed like being back in her natural world was having a relaxing effect on Boreal too.

    Zalia was drawn from her thoughts as Ember jumped the last few steps down from the treehouse and rushed over.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked.

    ¡°It¡¯ll take more than a surprise attack from Boreal to take me out,¡± Zalia assured her.

    ¡°She is a menace, no surprise with you raising her,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°What¡¯s that meant to mean!?¡± Zalia asked.

    Ember gave her a look like, ¡°Seriously?¡±

    ¡°Alright, fair, I take your point. She¡¯s a fun menace though,¡± Zalia countered.

    ¡°That she is,¡± Ember agreed with a laugh.

    ¡°Should we start getting ready to leave?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Hmm, maybe. Thinking it over last night I believe we should take Aylie with us,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°What? Why?¡± Zalia asked, her humour vanishing to sobriety.

    ¡°I actually talked to her last night, she looks up to you a lot. She even told me the story of how you saved her life. I don¡¯t think she¡¯d be very happy being left behind,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°You managed to get her to talk?¡± Zalia asked, surprised.

    ¡°Yeah, a bit. She¡¯s been through a lot but¡­ well, so had I when I was that young. I feel a bit of a kindred spirit in her,¡± Ember explained.

    Zalia mulled that over for a minute.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we should take her out into the world though. It¡¯s damn dangerous out there. The Grove is safe. Besides, Faian said she would find a home for her,¡± Zalia objected.

    ¡°Phh, she¡¯s going nowhere. I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be able to be rid of her,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°Well- I- Ember I can¡¯t raise a child!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll have to. She¡¯s already had a strong pull into reality, I think she¡¯s already significantly more mature than Boreal. Though, saying that¡­¡± Ember said, drifting off as she looked over Zalia¡¯s shoulder.

    Zalia turned around to see Boreal running in circles with Aylie firmly attached to her tail, being dragged around in the grass.

    Zalia sighed, closing her eyes and settling her thoughts. It didn¡¯t seem like she would be handing off Aylie to a family after all and she didn''t know if that made her happy or not.

 Book 3: 15 - About old friends

    "A war camp is no place for a child either Zalia, at least if we take her with us we know she will be safe. If we leave her with some family here who knows what will happen," Ember urged quietly.

    ¡°Look, I don''t like it but I''ll let her decide, okay?¡± Zalia said to Ember.

    ¡°Fine, we''ll let her decide.¡±

    ¡°But, here and now, her safety takes priority over everything else,¡± Zalia added.

    ¡°I agree. I don¡¯t think I could take it if something did happen to her because I convinced you to take her with us. You want to ask her?¡± Ember asked.

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go. We should probably be off soon.¡±

    They walked over to where Boreal and Aylie were still playing, Boreal thankfully being extremely gentle. Apart from dragging her around on the grass but that was fine. A little dirt never hurt anybody.

    ¡°Boreal, Aylie, we¡¯re going to be leaving for the north soon,¡± Zalia informed them.

    Boreal sat still, looking at Zalia as Aylie pulled one of her whiskers.

    ¡°Aylie, you can either stay here or come with us, I¡¯ll leave the decision to you. It¡¯s very important you understand that it will be dangerous though, alright? We¡¯ll try our best to take care of you but there are many creatures out there like the one we saved you from. Otherwise, you can stay here in the Grove until we get back.¡±

    Aylie looked a little unsure, nervously twisting her hands in front of herself.

    ¡°Will you be long?¡± she asked in a small voice.

    ¡°It will be perhaps a few weeks. It depends on if we get slowed or interrupted,¡± Zalia said.

    Aylie looked like she might be about to cry.

    "What''s wrong?" Zalia asked.

    "You... you said to that General lady to find a family for me. Please don''t leave me too," Aylie said, her soft voice falling apart as she began to cry.

    "Oh, no darling. I won''t, not ever," Zalia promised, pulling the young girl into a tight hug.

    They stayed there for a while, Zalia trying to comfort Aylie while the girl cried. She really shouldn''t have had Aylie there for that conversation and she berated herself for her idiocy in that matter. She just forgot to take things like that into account.

    "Aylie, I''m sorry for saying that. I''ll always be here if you need me, okay?" Zalia said softly, still holding the girl.

    She felt Aylie nod against her shoulder and she hugged the girl even tighter. Zalia really did feel like an idiot.

    She pulled back and held the girl by the shoulders.

    "If you want to come with us, you can. Would you like to?" she asked.

    Aylie looked at Ember over Zalia''s shoulder, who nodded encouragingly, before giving a nod as well.

    ¡°I¡¯ll come,¡± Aylie said, voice still trembling.

    ¡°Alright, but you have to listen to us when we''re out there okay? We''ll avoid any trouble as much as we can but it is important.¡±

    She nodded once more so Zalia didn¡¯t push the matter any further.

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll have to get you some travelling clothes as well as some much warmer ones for the north. We will probably need a tent as well, though, no, we can sleep in the vault. I can probably store some¡­¡± Zalia¡¯s rambling faded away to thought.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go with Aylie to get some clothes then Zalia, I know a good tailor at camp,¡± Ember suggested.

    ¡°Sure, yeah. There are a few things I need to get stored into my vault¡­ oh hey, did you ever get my bag back?¡±

    ¡°Your bag?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°You know, the one they took when they captured us,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Oh¡­ no. We kind of left it there, we didn¡¯t really see any point in taking it,¡± Ember said, scratching at her neck a little self consciously.

    ¡°You¡­ nevermind. Do you have some gold I can borrow then? All of mine was in that bag.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sure, yeah. Gold ain¡¯t nothing much these days though. Most people will trade for food, clothes, that kind of thing. Gold won¡¯t help you much in these times,¡± Ember explained.

    ¡°Right, maybe I can find something to trade then. I got this cool sword and¡­¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°Nothing, I just remembered I need to go speak to the Hidden before we leave,¡± Zalia said.

    Ember¡¯s expression darkened.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°We haven''t been able to get him to say a thing, bloody traitor,¡± she hissed.

    ¡°He might talk to me,¡± Zalia said quietly.

    ¡°What makes you think that? He won¡¯t talk to any of the rest of us,¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Just a feeling. Go on, I¡¯ll come around to the camp later. I¡¯ve got a couple things to do first,¡± Zalia urged.

    Ember walked off and Aylie followed after, sparing a glance backwards at Zalia like she was making sure Zalia wouldn¡¯t leave without her.

    Giving Aylie an assuring smile and a wave, she turned about to Boreal.

    ¡°Right, we¡¯ve got some errands. If you could hunt something nice for us to trade, I want to go take a look at the nest we burnt out,¡± Zalia said.

    Boreal licked her lips, an excited energy entering her body at the thought of a hunt. She ran off out of the Grove as well.

    Zalia smiled, casting the ritual of flight on herself, the wispy air wings forming across her back. She took off, flying towards the burnt nest. She¡¯d gained a level in Nature¡¯s wrath from burning it down, though she hadn¡¯t seen the message until some time after waking up and checking.

    She flew low up the hill, finding herself at a scorched hole in the ground before long. She looked down into it to see a spherical chunk missing from the land, the sides and base frozen solid in the image of flowing liquid. She really had done a job here.

    Flying down, she found herself wondering at the power of the ability. She had pumped her entire mana pool into it, true, but it seemed absurd. It reminded her of the strength of the abilities the shadowy twins had, the two whose abilities were stronger working in tandem with each other. They had summoned an acidic rain and shadowy arms that had helped take down the Gold rank elemental that the mine had become. She wondered how those two were doing, all of Endelbyrn for that matter. The other two leaders of the Morning¡¯s Shade were surely still there, Hildebrandt and¡­ Marcus? She didn¡¯t remember the other man''s name.

    Still, the fact that the strength of her abilities stood up to that of two other Bronze rankers working in tandem gave her a little bit of confidence she sorely needed. Sure, she had managed to survive against some steep odds in Cormaine but the things they were fighting¡­

    She recalled the emotion flowing through her as she had fueled the fire ever higher. Anger, a pure rage at the demons for their invasion of Endaria, their corruption of nature, for killing Delphi.

    A pair of eyes and a crunch.

    Zalia shook herself back to the present, ignoring the little flames that had ignited around the place and the floor that was beginning to melt again, and taking off back into the open air. She flew back down into the forest, following along the tug of the bond that let her know where Boreal was. Making sure to have her armour on so as not to create any sound, she gently alit upon a high tree branch, watching Boreal stalk her prey below.

    It was only that tug of the bond that let her even see Boreal, the sight, sound, heat signature and vibrations of Boreal so well hidden that she had trouble even then.

    She seemed to be hunting a strange four legged animal with a low hanging body and a neck that pointed forwards, a diamond shaped head on its end. It was one of the more bizarre creatures Zalia had seen in her time in the new worlds, and that was saying something, yet she felt bad about its soon approaching fate. Almost bad enough to call out to Boreal to stop, yet, with a quick pounce and some frenzied movement, it was soon over.

    ¡°Good catch!¡± Zalia called down.

    Boreal looked up proudly, a little bit of blood dripping from her maw. It was blue, another oddity about the creature.

    ¡°I¡¯ll store it in the vault,¡± Zalia informed her, jumping down and doing just that.

    The two of them left the forest and went to the war camp, having to go through the inspection process again. It was becoming a little tiresome, though it was performed by the extremely nervous man again who was at least quicker than the other person had been.

    They walked through the camp, Zalia keeping her armour on to try and maintain some type of anonymity. It was kind of hard to do that with the large wildcat at her side but while she looked like the smaller Boreal on the statue, it was at least enough to deter some assumptions. Not all of them though, as they still received awed looks here and there.

    They found General Faian in the administrative building, busy with a whole stack of paper she seemed to be struggling with.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think being a General would include so much paperwork,¡± Zalia commented, standing on the other side of her desk.

    ¡°Neither did I, though I¡¯ve become more of a camp administrator than a General these days. We can¡¯t assault the city until our other forces catch up from the other parts of the kingdom and we can¡¯t leave the city to go help them lest the garrisoned troops decide to leave and cause us other issues. It¡¯s quite frustrating,¡± Faian agreed.

    ¡°Certainly seems so.¡±

    ¡°Now, what can I help you with today?¡± Faian asked, putting down the sheet of parchment she was holding and looking up at Zalia.

    ¡°I want to talk with the Hidden,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°I thought you might, at some point. I¡¯ll get Indis and we can go down to see him then.¡±

    ¡°No, just us. I¡¯d prefer Indis isn¡¯t there.¡±

    ¡°And why would that be?¡± Faian asked, raising an eyebrow.

    ¡°We had¡­ a bit of a fight and things need to cool down. I¡¯ll see her before I leave for the north most likely but that can wait for now,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to the north?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I believe I might be able to find some help and¡­ something else I¡¯m looking for. I have a friend up there I need to see.¡±

    ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t say no to more help, though I¡¯ll admit you¡¯ve got me curious,¡± Faian said.

    ¡°Have you heard of Those Born of Heat and Stone, I believe your people call them goblins.¡±

    Faian furrowed her brow at Zalia¡¯s use of the term ¡°your people¡± but didn¡¯t comment on it.

    ¡°Yes, I know of them. Are they the help you speak of?¡±

    ¡°Correct. They are quite powerful and are quite a bit more accepting than most people I¡¯ve met. They would be a valuable ally,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Curiosity sated. I¡¯ll lead you to the Hidden now if you wish,¡± Faian said, standing up.

    ¡°That would be appreciated.¡±

    ¡°Very well, this way,¡± Faian said, walking towards the door.

    She led them out of the office and back through the calmer administrative building, through another door in that chamber to a large locked iron gate that Zalia could tell was definitely magically reinforced. They weren¡¯t taking any risks on him escaping it seemed.

    Faian took a key from her coat pocket and unlocked the door, swinging it open on quiet, smooth hinges.

    She led Zalia and Boreal down a steep set of winding stairs deep into the ground. It ended at yet another door that Faian unlocked, moving into a circular chamber with a single pedestal in its centre. Atop that pedestal was a dark cube with wisps of shadow flickering around its edges.

    ¡°Hello Zalia,¡± the Hidden said.

 Book 3: 16 - Ready

    ¡°Hidden,¡± Zalia replied by way of greeting.

    ¡°It is good to see you¡¯re alive,¡± he said.

    Zalia paid close attention to his tone and words. She didn¡¯t want to miss a single hidden meaning or obfuscated truth in the conversation.

    ¡°Despite your efforts,¡± Zalia reminded him.

    ¡°... yes. I would explain but I believe you already know much of the truth. My predicament does not excuse my actions, however. I only wish I could have done more to help,¡± he replied sadly.

    ¡°If it helps settle your mind just a bit, Juniper is dead. You¡¯re free of her control now.¡±

    ¡°I am glad to be free of her control, though I feel sorrow at her death. Despite the actions she took towards the end of her life she was still a close friend and a good person for most of the rest of it. Thank you for delivering this information.¡±

    Zalia couldn¡¯t help notice the emphasis he put on the word ¡°her¡±. Within the context, it almost felt as if he was trying to say that she hadn¡¯t been or wasn¡¯t the only one with control over him.

    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you would be able to tell us your true name, so we can free you and bring you to our side?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I cannot, it is impossible for a shade to reveal their true name of their own volition. I would not have you release me until the war is over either way, however, despite the free will I currently maintain. The risk of the damage I would be capable of doing is not worth the reward of having me join this fight.¡±

    His emphasis on ¡°currently¡± confirmed Zalia¡¯s suspicions. He had obviously been ordered not to tell anyone of his status being controlled directly, yet it seemed the way it worked must have been by the letter of the order, not the meaning of it. He did not have to keep good faith with a command as long as its literal definition was not broken.

    ¡°Were all commands given to you by Juniper broken upon her death, or do some remain?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°The confirmation of her death does indeed free me from the restraint of her commands. I can see within you that you were the one to release her soul from her body. That is a mark not easily forged,¡± he explained.

    ¡°Good, then answer me this. What did Juniper hope to accomplish by her actions? Why did she perform that ritual?¡± Zalia asked.

    It was a question that had been in the back of her mind for a long time, something she didn¡¯t think to find the answer to.

    ¡°She¡­ discovered the rituals before many in Endaria, though she was not the one to initially begin performing them. She intended to subvert a part of the power of the ritual to summon Zayes from Cormaine, a plan ruined by you when you interrupted her ritual.¡±

    Zalia frowned at the way the Hidden had paused. Almost as if he didn¡¯t mean ¡°discovered¡± so much as ¡°was told about¡±. Zalia¡¯s mind raced at the thought, trying to figure out what that actually meant. Assuming, as their previous information told, that the king was the perpetrator of the rituals, had he told Juniper for some reason?

    The only logical path that train of thought took was that the king knew about Zayes being alive and had told Juniper in a ploy to get the Morning¡¯s Shade on his side through her interference. A gamble, but one that had obviously panned out, assuming it was the truth of the matter. The single point she could think of to counter that is why the king would take the risk of Zayes being summoned to Endaria. He was in prison in Cormaine for a reason, or so Zalia thought. The only proof she had of that was the visions and dreams sent to her by Zayes when she had been in Cormaine herself¡­

    Faian was watching Zalia closely, as if she was having the exact same train of thought. She knew everything that Zalia did about the situation as Zalia had told Faian herself. The General probably knew even more than Zalia, considering the manpower of informants and previous position she had held.

    ¡°Why would she put all of Endaria at risk to bring Zayes back. Couldn¡¯t she see what that would mean for the world?¡± Zalia asked, just a little confused.

    ¡°You underestimate what love can make a person do. She was also¡­ different in those final months. Not fully there anymore,¡± the Hidden explained.

    ¡°I don¡¯t quite believe that explanation. There must have been something else, something we don¡¯t know. What of Darren, her son, do you know where he is? Perhaps he knows more,¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Darren is with the king. I do not believe you will be able to reach him nor get anything from him of import if you do.¡±

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°That is¡­ unfortunate.¡±

    ¡°You are being a lot more forthcoming, care to explain why?¡± Faian asked.

    ¡°With the confirmation of Juniper¡¯s death, I am able to tell you what I know.¡±

    Boreal looked bored, pacing around the room giving the cubic Hidden the odd glance here or there. Knowing Boreal, she was probably trying to figure out if it was a good idea to eat him or not.

    Zalia had a thought.

    ¡°How old are you?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I do not know. I have no memories from before my awakening.¡±

    Unfortunate. She had hoped he would have some answers about the times long past when the Bathar had come to Endaria.

    ¡°It¡¯s been good seeing you again, Hidey,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°And you, Zalia. Do come by again soon,¡± he replied.

    Zalia moved to leave, motioning Boreal to come with her.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to stay here, ask him a few more questions,¡± Faian said.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be leaving for the north now though,¡± Zalia informed her.

    ¡°Understood, stay safe. I await your return with allies, should you succeed.¡±

    They left, leaving Hidey and Faian behind. Zalia had meant what she said, it had been good seeing him again. A little hole in her had healed slightly at realising Hidey really was doing everything he could to help. She saw no other reason for his turning himself in and readily answering her questions as much as he was able. Unless it was all some long ploy to gain their trust again. Well, before she put any complete trust in his words or actions again, she would find out his true name and pull the truth out of him that way. It was the only way to be sure.

    They left the command building and made their way back to the front gate, where Ember and Aylie were waiting for them.

    Aylie had a new set of clothes on, a comfortable looking set of travelling clothes, a light jacket and a broad brim hat. She kind of looked a little like a farmer.

    Ember was in her plate armour, as usual, but held a bag by her side.

    ¡°Hey, nice. Looks like you two found what you were looking for,¡± Zalia said in greeting.

    ¡°Sure did, my tailor sorted her out real quick. Got a little something for you too!¡± Ember said.

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    Ember pulled another of the big broad brim hats, the sides flopping a little bit, out of the bag and presented it to her with a big smile. Aylie looked at her hopefully so Zalia put aside her sudden regret at ever meeting Ember and took the hat, putting it on.

    ¡°Happy?¡± she asked dourly.

    ¡°Absolutely,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°I hope you got one for Boreal as well,¡± Zalia said hopefully.

    ¡°I did not, Boreal is just perfect as she is,¡± Ember said in a matter-of-fact tone.

    ¡°And you think I would be improved by this hat?¡± Zalia asked, only mildly insulted.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°What else have you got in that bag?¡± Zalia asked, changing the subject.

    ¡°Have a look,¡± Ember said, handing it over.

    Inside was some very small and very warm looking clothes that she had no doubt were for Aylie when they got into the snowier sections of the north. There was also a bigger set of clothes that matched what Aylie was wearing exactly.

    ¡°So you two can be matching,¡± Ember explained.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with my clothes?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Well, despite those extremely good self repairing and cleaning enchantments you have on them, you are somehow managing to damage them. Look, there are threads hanging out all over the place, your right shoulder has a hole in the shirt and the pants are looking a bit rough on the hems. Besides, you two would look cute wearing matching outfits,¡± Ember explained.

    Zalia was definitely going to find an inconspicuous way to get Ember back for this. It wasn¡¯t like she was about to wholeheartedly disagree in front of Aylie who was looking so excited about the idea.

    ¡°Alright, sure,¡± she agreed.

    She would change later and enjoy her last moments of freedom before they left.

    ¡°Anything else left to do? I wanted to get a few food supplies before we go to keep in the vault, as emergency supplies,¡± Zalia added.

    ¡°Nope, I¡¯m happy,¡± Ember said cheerfully.

    Zalia had the body of the animal Boreal had hunted in the vault still but wanted to get some herbs and spices as well. She quickly opened the vault, surprising Ember and Aylie who hadn¡¯t seen it yet, and went inside.

    ¡°What the fuck Zalia,¡± Ember said, stepping in after her.

    ¡°I did tell you I have a vault, didn¡¯t I?¡± Zalia asked absentmindedly.

    She took the body of the creature out from the storage and used preparation to butcher it quickly and efficiently. She took the pelt of the creature, storing all the meat back into the same slot.

    ¡°Yeah, but I didn¡¯t think it would be this big. It¡¯s cool, and it¡¯s got a herb garden at the back. Oh, hey, what are these swirling misty things back here?¡± Ember rambled, walking further back.

    ¡°They¡¯re¡­ I¡¯ll explain another time. Please leave them alone,¡± Zalia pleaded.

    ¡°Alright, alright, I won¡¯t pry,¡± Ember surrendered.

    Taking a deep, settling breath to calm herself, Zalia left the vault with the pelt, Ember close behind.

    She found a little market with the help of Ember and managed to trade the pelt for the few cooking herbs, salt and spices that she wanted. Storing those in the vault and with Ember having nothing else to get done, they left the war camp to begin the journey northwards.

 Book 3: 17 - Saint Ember

    Zalia finished pulling on the shirt Ember had bought for her, having just thoroughly cleaned herself in a bubbling river. She pulled on the floppy broad brim hat with a sigh, completing the farmer look that was a matching outfit with what Aylie was wearing back at their temporary camp. Her vault was open there, the others resting within its safe and comfortable confines. Zalia was actually considering if she could shape the plants in the herb section at the back to make seats or comfortable cots. Perhaps some living vines could be fashioned into hammocks.

    She bundled up her old clothes and walked back to the vault. Upon stepping through the door, Aylie dashed up to inspect her, looking up under the brim of her own floppy hat.

    ¡°Now we match,¡± Zalia said, managing to dredge up a pinch of enthusiasm to put into the words.

    Aylie grabbed her hand excitedly, dragging her to the back of the vault, Zalia managing to dump the old clothes into a storage slot in passing, to where Ember and Boreal were. There, Boreal was sitting sullenly and it took Zalia a moment to realise why. Some of her fur had been braided into twin braids running from behind her ears down the length of her neck. Twined into those braids were some little blue flowers.

    Zalia couldn¡¯t help but smile and chuckle to herself at the sight. At least she wasn¡¯t the only one suffering a makeover.

    It had only been two days of travel, another two weeks ahead of them at the pace they were moving at. With Ember and Aylie needing to sleep eight hours or so every day, it was slow going. Boreal and Zalia could probably have made the trip in a week to a week and a half.

    So far, there hadn¡¯t been any major run-ins with demons, though they had seen some from afar. Zalia had gone on cleansing the corrupted parts of the world, doing her best to make sure it didn¡¯t overcome the nature around them.

    Ember was sitting on the ground, still in her armour, smiling up at Zalia.

    ¡°Suits you,¡± Ember commented.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure it does,¡± Zalia grumbled.

    The beige shirt and thick brown pants were simple at least, that much was a comfort. It honestly wasn¡¯t that different to what she had worn before, though the hat felt a tad unnecessary.

    Boreal was giving Zalia a careful sideways glance that looked like she was asking for help. Aylie had sat down and started twining a few violet flowers into the braids now.

    ¡°Looking good Boreal, I like the flowers,¡± Zalia said cheerfully.

    Boreal lay her head down on her paws in surrender, letting out a sigh. When had she learnt that mannerism?

    ¡°Alright, alright. We better get going again then. Ready to walk a bit more?¡± Zalia said, directing the question at Aylie.

    She seemed reluctant but didn¡¯t complain or argue, standing up to leave the vault.

    Ember also stood up with a clank, picking up her sword, sheathing it and slinging her shield. Zalia remembered when she had needed to carry around her bow, sword and armour with her. What a hassle it had been. Her armour was visible on a mannequin at the back of the vault, something that had only formed at Zalia¡¯s constant use of the space to store the armour.

    They left the vault, Zalia closing it with a little popping sound, a whole bunch of flowers dropping to the ground from the closed portal. The ones Aylie hadn¡¯t had time to tie into Boreal¡¯s braids.

    They began their travel again, ever northwards towards the mountain home of Zalia¡¯s friend Glemp and whatever unknown goal the starlight wolf had hinted would be there.

    Aylie, for her part, was thoroughly enjoying the trip, inspecting many of the plants they passed by. Zalia often used Flora identification to read a little bit of the history and uses for the plants Aylie took particular interest in and told her about it. When Ember started to give Zalia looks like she was wondering if she was making it up, Zalia informed her that it was a Bronze upgrade of one of her abilities.

    Things actually started to look a lot better the further north they travelled. Less areas of corruption were showing up and the ones they saw were smaller than normal. Zalia started to see the tracks and traces of more active wildlife, as if they weren¡¯t being hunted so thoroughly here as they were back south. She wondered if that was because the point of disruption for the ritual had been as far northwest as you could get while remaining in Endaria, while she had entered in the southeast. It was a reasonable conclusion to make.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    They actually ran into a town that still had inhabitants on the fifth day.

    It was a tiny town, no more than twenty buildings in all, by Zalia¡¯s count. They could tell there were still people about because the few people still in the town ran at the sight of them, slamming doors behind their retreat.

    ¡°Well, that wasn¡¯t what I expected,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°These are some pretty dangerous times, I¡¯m not that surprised. What if we were here to steal their possessions?¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Then a few doors wouldn¡¯t stop us.¡±

    Ember walked down the street.

    ¡°Hey! There¡¯s no need to fear us, please. We want to provide any help we can,¡± she called out.

    At first, there was nothing but slowly, ever so slowly, a few people began to come back out of hiding.

    ¡°Y-you, wait, are you- are you the Saint Ember?¡± a man called from a doorway.

    ¡°The what?¡± Zalia thought.

    Ember paused for just a moment.

    ¡°That would apparently be me, yes,¡± she agreed.

    Perhaps she didn¡¯t feel like arguing with the townspeople on the specifics, simply wanting their cooperation so she could help however she was able.

    ¡°A passing refugee told us you could perform miracles,¡± another townsperson, a woman, called out.

    Many of the people were leaving their doorways now, moving out into the open and towards the small group. Aylie looked like she was starting to get a little anxious so Zalia picked her up and onto Boreal. She always seemed to feel safer there.

    The people slowly gathered around them, asking questions and making comments, all of which Ember bore with infinite patience, answering calmly and politely. Zalia was in awe, seeing something that she would never be able to do, not if she were Silver, Gold or Ascendant. Deal with that many people with such patience.

    After some time of Ember asking her own questions and drawing out of the people what troubled them and what they needed, Zalia felt a warping in the air. It was originating from Ember, an ability perhaps?

    She watched as the few injured townspeople had their wounds healed, a table with a bounty of food and water appeared, some of the houses had mild repairs made to their frames, holes in walls or damage from what was obviously from some type of fight. An old woman had a cane put in her hands and it looked as if she stood a little straighter, perhaps having some injury healed.

    It was, well, without better words for it, a miracle as the townspeople had said. Ember had listened to each and every complaint and need of these people and when activating her ability, it had apparently tried to resolve all of those issues.

    Looking at the finer detail though, Zalia could see that it was still a bit past the strength of the ability to deal with everything. Some cuts were only scabbed over, not fully sealed. The food was mostly very basic rations that weren¡¯t anything fancy, though they would last. Some of the houses didn¡¯t get repaired, one still with a hole in its roof.

    ¡°Please, I cannot do more for you now. I urge you to take what I have given you and leave this town to go south. Five days travel there is a camp being run by the rebellion and those fighting back against the invasion. They have food, supplies and most importantly, defences that can keep out the demons. We have just come from there ourselves and there was not much danger along our path,¡± Ember said, the townspeople listening with expressions of¡­ hope on their faces. There was a little bit of awe, they still looked exhausted with bags under their eyes and dirt on their faces, yet there was hope now, too.

    After her little speech, Ember turned to walk away as the townspeople began talking amongst themselves, arguing the sides of listening to Embers'' plea.

    Zalia helped as she could as well, letting her Healing presence finish healing the rest of the wounds, even catching some type of growth in one of the men¡­ was that¡­ cancer?

    Filing that revelation aside, she let the Healing presence flow into a pair of fruit trees nearby as well, the trees blooming and fruits growing.

    Then, she did something that she hadn¡¯t really been expecting to do herself.

    She knelt, pulling the tiny altar to Nateysta she had in her vault out using the Druid¡¯s Grove ability. She placed it on the floor in front of herself and summoned some of the cave fungus as well, placing it atop the altar, using preparation to turn it to dust, dust that floated about the altar and began glowing a light purple.

    ¡°May the lord of the forests keep you hidden amongst the boughs of his trees, within the roots and behind foliage. Let the animals of his domain keep you safe from the invaders that seek to eradicate life on this world. Let the stars of the shining wolf guide you in your travels to whichever destination you so desire. This is my will,¡± she intoned.

    The light purple dust formed both sparkling deep blue motes and misty dark patches within. Slowly, the entire formation dissipated into the air and Zalia put the altar back into her vault.

    The townspeople were giving her odd looks as if they didn¡¯t exactly know what to make of whatever she had just done. She didn¡¯t really know what to make of it herself, to be honest.

    ¡°What was that?¡± Ember whispered.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got no idea,¡± Zalia whispered back.

    Ember gave her a look that let Zalia know she would be interrogated for it later. But, for now, Ember waved goodbye and they left the town, returning to their journey.

 Book 3: 18 - Idle Chatter

    Zalia looked sideways at Ember, quickly looking away again when the woman caught her staring.

    She looked again, Ember once more turning at her gaze.

    ¡°What!?¡± Ember asked, her voice a little louder than she might have intended.

    ¡°So¡­ Saint Ember, hey?¡± Zalia said innocently.

    They were walking down a little path that led down the length of a fence. It might have once held a herd of animals but was now empty.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even start,¡± Ember warned.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s not fair, you gave me a little bit of heat about the giant statue in the middle of the war camp. I think I owe a little back.¡±

    ¡°Ugh, it¡¯s started happening the past few towns I¡¯ve gone through. Unbelievable, really. Like someone actually just helping out others makes them some kind of mythical saint or something,¡± Ember complained.

    ¡°I¡¯m not surprised people here are a little bit more superstitious, with magic existing and everything,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Well, a lot of impossible things can already happen, gods have a very proven state of existence even. It isn¡¯t a much bigger step from that to you being a saint, or me some kind of war hero I guess,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°The place you¡¯re from sounds quite weird. No magic you say? I couldn¡¯t imagine life without it.¡±

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t so bad, though magic is absolutely an improvement in all regards so far. Well, we didn¡¯t have demons, I guess, but there were plenty of other things that weren¡¯t so different from them.¡±

    ¡°Really? How could you have had something as bad as them without magic?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Mega Corporations,¡± Zalia said with a shiver.

    She wasn¡¯t exactly sure how that translated for Ember but the woman gave her an odd look.

    ¡°Is that¡­ some kind of beast from your home?¡± she asked.

    ¡°The worst kind,¡± Zalia said, nodding her head.

    ¡°Maybe we can hunt one down one day, to help free your world?¡± Ember suggested.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Zalia said, considering that prospect.

    What would she do if she ever managed to return to her old world? Would she keep her magic and abilities?

    If so, she wouldn¡¯t necessarily have some kind of huge advantage at her current level of power. A gun would probably still be enough to kill her, not to mention the huge variety of military weapons with more destructive power than something like a handheld gun.

    Well, either way, if she did end up back in her old homeworld with no way back she would just live on the edges of civilization again. She had no intention of rejoining that particular society again.

    They came up on a large patch of corrupted land, though it was small compared to what was down south, and Zalia began to cleanse it away with Healing presence.

    ¡°I¡¯ll never get used to that,¡± Ember commented.

    ¡°Hmm?¡± Zalia hummed questioningly.

    ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ stunning to see the nature come back to life and begin thriving again with such little effort,¡± Ember explained.

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°You could do it too, if you had a healing ability that was more of an area thing than the extremely targeted healing you have now,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Maybe, but I don¡¯t think so. None of the other healers I know, some of those having area healing abilities, can do it. I prefer the stronger single target healing anyways so I¡¯m not so bothered.¡±

    Ember had an extremely strong targeted healing ability that required her to be close to the target, as well as an emotional healing ability. Something that Zalia had definitely noticed her using on Aylie from time to time. She was more grateful than words could express for that.

    She was also able to detect injuries and their severity, something that Zalia could not do, as well as having an aura that increased the healing received of allies in the area. That tied extremely well with Zalia¡¯s own Healing presence, leading to an even stronger passive healing for them all.

    ¡°Have you lost a limb in battle yet?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I have actually, not a fond memory,¡± Ember said, scrunching up her face at the question.

    ¡°Not a very fun experience,¡± Zalia agreed, ¡°how long did yours take to grow back?¡±

    ¡°A leg, and it took all of about five seconds. You?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°I wish mine took as little time as that. A couple minutes for me, though I wasn¡¯t quite Bronze at the time. My healing ability was though, so not much difference there,¡± Zalia replied.

    ¡°Damn, two minutes would have been torturous,¡± Ember said, wincing.

    ¡°Not so much, actually. I was in shock for most of it, still in battle for a good amount of the time as well. It was mostly just¡­ itchy. The emotional trauma was the worst of it. I still get a phantom stabbing pain from when that one undead shoved their sword through my chest.¡±

    ¡°From when they what?¡± Ember asked, a little shock on her face.

    ¡°Sword, chest. All the way through. Would have taken my head as well, if it weren¡¯t for the protective ability that activates when I¡¯m going to be killed,¡± Zalia explained.

    Ember shivered.

    ¡°Maybe don¡¯t say that so loudly,¡± she whispered.

    Aylie and Boreal were only a dozen steps behind them, playing some kind of game that involved a lot of hopping.

    Zalia grimaced, having forgotten herself. She would have to be a little more careful with her words. Luckily, Aylie hadn¡¯t seemed to have heard.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine now, at any rate. Just have a collection of bad memories,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t we all,¡± Ember agreed.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    They fell into silence, each of them deep in thought. Zalia didn¡¯t miss that Ember started using her emotional healing on her, however, as a calm soothing blanket fell on her mind. She didn¡¯t ask Ember to stop, though she didn¡¯t feel like she particularly needed it at the moment. Well, except for that one memory¡­

    She came to, shaking her head and finding Ember looking over at her.

    ¡°What was that?¡± she asked.

    ¡°What was what?¡± Zalia asked back.

    ¡°You forget that I can detect injuries. That includes emotional ones Zalia.¡±

    ¡°Yes, and?¡± Zalia asked, genuinely confused.

    ¡°Well, I just felt a huge emotional wound appear and disappear,¡± Ember explained.

    ¡°Oh, right. That¡¯s just a memory from my last few moments in Cormaine.¡±

    ¡°You never did tell me how you got back,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°It¡¯s not important.¡±

    ¡°I feel like it might be a bit more important than you¡¯re letting on,¡± Ember said softly.

    ¡°Drop it,¡± Zalia said sharply.

    Ember fell silent, and so did the giggling Aylie behind them.

    Zalia turned around and found her looking with wide eyed worry.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Ember said soothingly.

    Zalia immediately felt a stab of regret. She shouldn¡¯t have snapped at Ember, especially not with Aylie around.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said quietly.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright. I can see it¡¯s a sore spot for you. I¡¯m here if you ever need to talk about it,¡± Ember said, her voice still soft.

    Saint Ember indeed.

    ¡°I¡¯ll keep it in mind. Thank you,¡± Zalia said.

    Aylie and Boreal had gone back to their game but Zalia could see by the expression on Aylie¡¯s face that she was still worried. She would have to explain later.

    ¡°Keep walking, I¡¯m going to see if I can find something to eat for tonight,¡± Zalia said, beginning to walk off.

    ¡°Are you going to be alright?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine, I just need a little time alone,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°I¡¯m just going to go find something for the others to eat tonight, keep Aylie safe,¡± she sent to Boreal.

    She got a mental confirmation and so walked off to the left, where the small trail led off into the forest.

    She let her mind focus on the task, reading the tracks and tells of the forest. She had told herself that when she got somewhere safe that she would allow that¡­ memory back into her mind. That she would process what had happened in a calm and safe environment. The Grove would have been the perfect place to do just that yet she found herself here already, walking into the dangerous wilds?

    Did she really have to process it? Couldn¡¯t she just leave the memory in the vault?

    It already popped up whenever a topic surrounding the memory came up, the experience fresh as the moment it had happened. Perhaps leaving it in the vault would not be a possibility. Well, she would deal with it later. For now, she didn¡¯t have the time so she would just bottle it up for a time that she was able to deal with it.

    It didn¡¯t take long for her to find food for the evening, the sun already beginning to reach the end of its daily journey and dipping below the horizon. The forest was dim and cold, neither of those things even mild annoyances to Zalia anymore, with her abilities allowing her to ignore both.

    An Ironfur rabbit was her reward for a short hunt, a small Tin ranked one that would be enough to feed the voracious Ember and the small Aylie.

    Zalia and Boreal had already eaten three days prior, probably not needing to eat for another day or two.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s sight has reached Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Harvester has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Low light vision has gained two levels reaching Iron 15.

    She was also awarded a couple levels, as she used preparation to harvest the few herbs she walked past. They were all very common ones, Bitterbalm and Dodge-vine the most common amongst them. Nothing special to talk about but also free experience to level her Herbalist abilities so she wouldn¡¯t say no.

    She found her way back to the others who had set up camp just off the small path and in the forest a little bit. Her internal compass that pointed directly to Boreal helpful as always.

    She wordlessly walked up to the camp and, using her passive Heat resistance, lit the small fire that one of the others had already set up for her. She quickly prepared the meat and skewered it onto a few sharp sticks as small chunks.

    Congratulations! Preparation has reached Bronze 3.

    She used a bit of salt and Bitterbalm to garnish the meat. It wasn¡¯t anything fancy but better than nothing. She had been considering if any of her current Herbal magic combinations would allow for some type of flavour enhancing ritual but hadn¡¯t come up with anything just yet. She might have to find a new herb for that one. Or perhaps would need to use the base effect combination from Herbal magic¡¯s Bronze ability. Though even that didn¡¯t seem to have any combinations that would work. How was it that she was able to come up with any number of powerful harming effects but something so simple as making food more tasty was unachievable?

    Well, she would have to keep an eye out. For now though, neither Ember or Aylie complained as they chewed their food.

    ¡°So, Aylie, are you ever going to tell me what that blessing the starlight wolf gave you was?¡± Zalia asked, trying to spark conversation.

    ¡°Oh? You didn¡¯t tell me about this,¡± Ember said, turning her gaze to Aylie as well.

    The girl shrunk under their combined gazes but had a mischievous look to her eyes.

    ¡°Yeah, the starlight wolf came to find me shortly after I returned to Endaria. Aylie here was given a blessing by it, somewhat unlike the blessings I¡¯ve received so far I might add. My two blessings have been on heirlooms I own, whereas the wolf blessed Aylie herself,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°You were blessed by a god?¡± Ember asked Aylie.

    The girl nodded, still chewing.

    Zalia eyed Boreal who had decided on a surprise boop to the forehead at the time the blessing had happened. She wouldn¡¯t be caught off guard again.

    ¡°Are you going to tell us about what it did?¡± Ember asked.

    Aylie looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head.

    ¡°You won¡¯t?¡± Ember asked, faking an aghast look.

    ¡°You won¡¯t keep it from Ember forever will you? She doesn¡¯t like mysteries and secrets,¡± Zalia explained wisely.

    Neither did she, but she wasn¡¯t about to explain that to Aylie. That would just make the girl do it more. She had learned a lesson or two about cheeky younglings from Boreal.

    Ember looked at Zalia with a real aghast expression while Aylie looked at Ember with the expression of a pyromaniac who just found a flamethrower.

    Zalia just shrugged at Ember and picked up a chunk of wood that had missed the fire. She turned it around in her hands before storing it in her vault using the ability from Druid¡¯s Grove. She would need to find some whittling tools. Times like these when she had an entire night on her hands where these two would need to sleep would be perfect for picking up wood carving again.

    Aylie jumped up and ran over to Zalia, whispering in her ear.

    Zalia nodded, then nodded again.

    ¡°I see, I see,¡± she said sagely.

    ¡°What did she tell you?¡± Ember asked as Aylie went back to her little seat fashioned from stone. Zalia had made those.

    ¡°Oh, just the secret about her blessing,¡± Zalia said innocently.

    ¡°You told her before me?¡± Ember asked Aylie, mock hurt in her tone.

    Aylie nodded sharply like, ¡°of course!¡±

    ¡°Ouch,¡± Ember said, holding a hand to her heart.

    Aylie started to look regretful so Zalia turned to her.

    ¡°Can I tell her?¡± she asked.

    Aylie looked at Zalia for a moment before nodding her assent.

    ¡°Aylie said her blessing will give her a class option when she is the right age for the choosing,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Oh?¡± Ember asked, her mock hurt turning to genuine interest.

    ¡°Yeah, she didn¡¯t say what the message actually said to her except for that but it could be really powerful I think. I mean, a class granted by the blessing of a god? That is something anyone would want,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°You can say that again. A class? I¡¯ve never heard of that happening before,¡± Ember mused.

    ¡°I guess most people don¡¯t tend to attract the attention of a god for any reason without already having a class,¡± Zalia suggested.

    ¡°Yeah that would be right I suppose. Still, I¡¯d be interested to see what that ends up to be,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°As would I.¡±

 Book 3: 19 - Aura

    A week later, they were walking through another forest, Aylie trudging along slowly and the others keeping pace. She was valiantly continuing on but after upwards of a week of constant walking, Zalia could see that she was getting exhausted. Every now and then, she would get so tired that Zalia had to lift her onto Boreal for a rest.

    They were in a part of Endaria that Zalia recognised from the first time she had met the rebellion. They were soon approaching where the old war camp had been and she was a little surprised to find that there was no sign of their passing. Shouldn¡¯t an entire army moving across the land leave more of a mark?

    She remembered when they had first met General Ballast, how his army had mages to move the terrain out of the way and then place it back untouched. Perhaps that is what they had done here.

    ¡°How much longer,¡± Aylie asked.

    ¡°Another week or so,¡± Zalia said.

    Aylie let out a long pitiful groan, looking for all the world like she was about to collapse.

    ¡°Let¡¯s take a rest,¡± Zalia suggested.

    Aylie obviously agreed as she immediately dropped. Zalia hopped forwards and caught her, forming a stone seat for her to sit in. It wouldn¡¯t be super comfortable but better than the ground.

    There was still another three days of walking before they would hit the snow, though Zalia thought it might be soon approaching winter as she noticed ice forming across the landscape during the nights, their breath puffing into little clouds in front of them. Zalia herself didn¡¯t notice the cold, still wearing the outfit Ember had bought for her but Aylie wore her warmer clothes, a giant puffy coat with a hood, the whole thing made out of extremely soft wool.

    Zalia did what she could to help as well, using the heat manipulation given by Heat resistance to stop Aylie from cooling down too much.

    ¡°How you doing?¡± she asked Ember.

    ¡°Yeah, fine. It¡¯s a bit of a journey, hey?¡± Ember said.

    ¡°Yeah, for sure. I wish we could fly but I don¡¯t want to risk attracting any of the Silver demons. They seem to watch the sky. Maybe when we are closer to the mountain, if there appear to be less demons around.¡±

    ¡°That would be magnificent,¡± Ember said, smiling.

    While she could definitely cast the flight ritual on all of them, she probably couldn¡¯t keep it up for long before running out of mana. That was something she definitely didn¡¯t want to risk. If it came to fighting a Silver ranked demon, which it might with Aylie as slow as she was, she would need every drop she could get. She wasn¡¯t certain, but she felt like herself, Boreal and Ember would be able to take one. They were a pretty strong trio.

    They had come across a few demons on their way so far, each of them swiftly put down by the three of them. Aylie was terrified of the demons but Zalia always stayed by her side during the fights, using the distraction of Ember and Boreal to release arrow after arrow.

    ¡°How old are you Aylie?¡± Zalia asked.

    It wasn¡¯t something that had occurred to her to ask, yet it popped into her mind as she started thinking of what class opportunities the starlight wolf¡¯s blessing would provide.

    Aylie looked at Zalia, then held up her hands with fingers splayed.

    ¡°Ten?¡±

    Aylie shook her head, holding up two more fingers.

    "Twelve?"

    From what she remembered talking with Zen and the others previously, people usually were able to take classes from around fourteen onwards yet could take one as early as when in Ember''s case. She might have to wait a while to find out what classes Aylie would be able to take, then.

    Zalia summoned the little chunk of wood into her hands from the vault, looking it over again. It had occurred to her that she might not need whittling tools to shape it, that perhaps she could do so with her Healing presence.

    She pushed her aura into the wood but tried to focus it on one side in particular and found that she was indeed able to promote growth in a specific area. It wasn¡¯t perfect but perhaps would be enough to make some rudimentary shapes.

    She tried using Preparation on it and, to her pleasure, found that she was able to carve it down. With this she would basically be able to change a singular piece of wood into any shape she desired. Interesting.

    Unfortunately, as she tried to carve something a little more deliberate out of it, she found herself failing entirely. It felt like she should be able to change it to whichever shape she wanted yet she lacked¡­ control. A skill to learn, then.

    She sat down, forming a chair under herself as she did so, right next to Aylie. Boreal walked off to investigate the immediate area and Ember stayed standing, looking towards the north.

    ¡°Do you think we will be able to convince Glemp and his people to join the fight?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, to be honest. They don¡¯t really like to leave their cave. Maybe they wouldn¡¯t be opposed to taking in some refugees though, that would provide another escape for some of the people further north here,¡± Zalia suggested.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Hmm, that would help I guess. What about this other ¡®start to your goals¡¯ the starlight wolf mentioned?¡±

    Zalia had, of course, told Ember about why she wanted to travel north. The reasons were twofold, she hadn¡¯t explained in detail the conversation she¡¯d had with the wolf though.

    ¡°Well, I told the wolf I wanted to walk the path that led to my friends being safe, or avenged, Endaria being preserved and nature being kept¡­ well, nature. Apparently the first step to that large range of goals lies in the north where heat meets stone meets ice. Or, something like that,¡± she explained.

    ¡°Right. I hope it isn¡¯t the avenged part of that. I hope Glemp and his people are ok,¡± Ember said, frowning a bit in worry.

    ¡°So do I,¡± Zalia agreed quietly.

    Just then, she felt something strange.

    It was kind of like the aura she had grown oh so used to in Cormaine but¡­ different. It was hard to explain. Maybe it was just the feeling of power great enough to create a physical feeling.

    This one, unlike the one in Cormaine, didn¡¯t feel as¡­ angry. The aura of the horrific creatures Zalia had come to know in this world''s hell felt angry and it attacked with a very real power.

    This new one felt uncaring. It didn¡¯t seem to give off any emotions or feelings, simply being an enigmatic well of power.

    She stood up alert, noticing Ember did just the same as Boreal came running from afar to group up. Aylie didn¡¯t seem to notice, yet looked at the three of them with alarm either way.

    ¡°What is that?¡± Zalia asked in a whisper.

    The strange feeling had a direction to it, she could tell it was coming from the treeline some fifty metres away.

    ¡°Never felt anything like it. Want to run?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°No, not yet. I want to know what this is.¡±

    They waited, ever so patiently, as the aura grew stronger. She had started to notice slight auras around people with Aura observation reaching higher levels. It wasn¡¯t anything significant, most people unconsciously kept their aura contained to a high degree, unless they were in a heightened emotional state.

    She hadn¡¯t really found a use for the ability as such and had only really noticed it four days ago when Ember had been laughing at Aylie and Boreal.

    The auras were very obviously stronger based on the power on the creature it came from. Even some higher-ranked plants emitted auras. This one felt like it came from a creature of Silver or Gold rank.

    That should have made Zalia scared, as fighting a creature like that would undoubtedly be a life-or-death fight for them. She wasn''t though, for whatever reason, looking towards that treeline with curiosity.

    Finally, she saw the owner of the aura. A humanoid creature with a dark blue complexion, floating serenely with toes pointed to the floor. It had runes inscribed across its body, long, black hair flowing down its back slightly further than its feet.

    Another left the treeline, looking quite similar to its brethren yet with slightly shorter hair.

    What made the creatures otherworldly to her eyes were the lack of mouth or nose they had. They had featureless faces, only two eyes that, even from this distance, looked as if pits into an endless abyss.

    ¡°What the hell are they?¡± Zalia whispered.

    ¡°I think¡­ I think those are the Astar,¡± Ember whispered back.

    She had heard of the Astar, Indis had spoken of them some time back. They were a race that lived to the east of Endaria of which very little was known. That was because they didn¡¯t leave their lands and did not take kindly to humans encroaching upon their lands. At least, they weren¡¯t supposed to leave their lands.

    ¡°What the hell are they doing here?¡± Zalia whispered.

    She let the little chair she had made for Aylie melt and crouched down to reduce her profile. Ember did the same, with Boreal already being as low to the ground as she could get. Aylie was laying down.

    ¡°Why are you asking me?¡± Ember whispered tensely.

    Zalia summoned her armour, Boreal doing the same, not wanting to get caught off guard by the creatures. She swore they must have been quite high rank but as they serenely floated closer, she noticed they were only Bronze.

    ? - Bronze rank.

    How could that be possible?

    Their auras were so strong, rivalling that of someone like Hidey had he not kept his aura very well hidden. They weren¡¯t even close to the strength of Ro-ak or the thousand eyed demons, but they were still far above Zalia or Ember¡¯s own auras.

    ¡°Should we talk to them?¡± Zalia whispered, unsure.

    They had the power advantage, three Bronze against two, if it came to it. That made the situation a little less worrying. Unfortunately, she was unsure what exactly Bronze meant for this race. It meant something entirely different for Zalia than it did for Ember.

    ¡°They aren¡¯t really known for being talkative,¡± Ember whispered, uncertain.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like they would just attack us outright, would they?¡±

    Ember didn¡¯t reply. A possibility then.

    ¡°Alright, maybe they will. Still worth a try though? Maybe they sensed the demons and have come to figure out what is happening in Endaria. Maybe we could get their help with the war!¡± Zalia said urgently.

    If that was possible, and with the absolute strength of aura even the Bronze of this race had, they would have a much better chance of winning. Even a single Gold or Emerald ranked Astar would probably outmatch a thousand eyed demon for raw strength of aura.

    ¡°Alright, fuck it. Why not? Let¡¯s go,¡± Ember said, giving in.

    ¡°Stay here Boreal, take care of Aylie,¡± Zalia said to Boreal, before standing up.

    Ember stood as well and they walked towards the Astar. It took a surprisingly long time for the two to notice them, turning their endless gaze upon the duo.

    Zalia looked at Ember and she gestured for Zalia to go first.

    ¡°Um, hello?¡± Zalia said.

    The two stared at them wordlessly. Hmm.

    Seeing as they didn¡¯t have mouths, maybe they didn¡¯t communicate verbally?

    ¡°Hello,¡± Zalia greeted mentally.

    Still, they stared. A deep thrumming began building within the two creatures chests. It was like nothing she had heard before, not a purr like Boreal or a groan like a human. It was an endlessly reverberating bass.

    ¡°Uh, Ember, I don¡¯t like that sound,¡± Zalia said quietly.

    ¡°Neither do I.¡±

    The thrumming grew louder and Zalia was about to summon her weapon when space folded, the two Astar disappearing in a flash, the sound of a water drop hitting a still pond permeating the air.

    ¡°Oh what the fuck?¡± Ember swore.

 Book 3: 20 - Love for the Warm one

    Boreal watched as Zalia stood, staring into the empty space where the Astar had been.

    ¡°They just vanished on us, not a single word,¡± Ember said, looking a little pissed off.

    Boreal stood, wondering if the Astar were tasty.

    ¡°Maybe they weren¡¯t here to talk?¡± Zalia wondered out loud.

    Boreal started walking over, Aylie following suit, no longer seeing any need for secrecy.

    ¡°I think they have terrible eyesight,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°What makes you say that?¡± Ember asked, finally looking away from that empty space.

    ¡°Did you catch how long it took them to notice us?¡±

    ¡°Well yeah, but that could have just been them not caring until it was obvious we were approaching them,¡± Ember pointed out.

    ¡°Could have been,¡± Zalia admitted.

    ¡°Always asking questions you can¡¯t answer,¡± Boreal thought, shaking her head at Zalia.

    Her dear friend was very powerful, that was true, but she wasn¡¯t very good at thinking the right things. Like how the Astar would taste. That was the real question.

    The first thing Zalia had said was ¡°hello¡± not ¡°what do you taste like¡±. What kind of thing to say was that? Hello?

    Well, she couldn¡¯t blame Zalia, she was limited by the form she inhabited.

    She watched as Aylie pottered up to the two warm ones. Boreal wasn¡¯t entirely sure how most warm ones created new children but she didn¡¯t think that saving one from a not very tasty demon was the normal way. What did she know of the subject though? It wasn¡¯t the right question to be asking anyways.

    As Ember and Zalia continued talking about what had just happened, Boreal padded off to scout out the road further ahead. She had definitely felt the power of those creatures yet she thought she could take one on in a fair fight. Even higher chance if she ambushed one, which would be easy enough considering how long it had taken those things to see Ember. Ember wasn¡¯t even sneaky at all.

    Boreal scented the air, breathing in the varied forest smells of earth, greenery, trees and sun. She loved those smells, much better than the acrid and sulphurous smell of Cormaine. She didn¡¯t know why Zalia had taken so long to get them out of there but was very happy when she had. It was unfortunate that their little mind friend Delphi had fallen along the way. She would honour the small cold one each and every time her hunt took her in the direction of the foul tasting creatures that had killed them.

    Padding into the forest edge ahead, she smoothly navigated her way through the undergrowth. It wasn¡¯t her natural environment, that being the snowy mountains where the warm one Zalia had saved her. She still remembered that day, her first mother laying dead from the attack of the flying creature. That creature had seemed so big back then but she knew that the world had shrunk since. She looked forward to paying them a visit soon.

    For now though, she had to make sure that Aylie stayed safe. She knew Zalia got very easily distracted, knew it intimately from when the world was bigger and she had slipped away many times for adventures. Aylie wasn¡¯t as prone to that but knowing her warm one, Boreal knew she would misplace her somehow.

    She discovered no animals or Astar hidden in the trees, much to her displeasure. She was hoping they had just teleported a short way to hide but that wasn¡¯t the case. She just knew that those strange glowing runes would make the floating ones taste way better.

    She walked up to where Ember and Zalia were and found them still talking about the Astar. Silly warm ones, what did they think they could achieve by talking about it so much? They could have walked far enough to find some more by now if they tried.

    She moved up and sat right in front of them and meowed.

    ¡°Boreal?¡± Zalia asked.

    Boreal stared into her eyes, focusing as intently as she could.

    ¡°What?¡± Zalia said.

    She waited.

    ¡°Is something wrong?¡±

    Then, Boreal stood up and walked off.

    Aylie was still with those two, so she would be safe. Boreal just wanted them to stop talking finally.

    ¡°Yeah alright, we¡¯ll keep going,¡± Zalia called from behind.

    Finally.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    They travelled for a time, Boreal didn¡¯t really know how long. She didn¡¯t pay attention to those things such as the passing of the warmest one far above. Zalia usually took care of those kinds of things. She had needed to keep count when Zalia had accidentally slept for two days and that had taken all of Boreal¡¯s attention to make sure she got the number right. She knew Zalia would want to know the right number when she woke up.

    Time passed and along their travel, they found another town where both Ember and Zalia said their words to the people and the people said their words to them. Boreal didn¡¯t find much meaning in those words, much of it was conveying things that could already be seen. Of course they were lacking for food, you could see it in how skinny they had grown. Of course you could see that their homes were damaged, some of the people wounded and their clothes worn down. Couldn¡¯t Ember already see those things? Why did she have to ask what troubled them?

    Well, eventually they moved on again and Zalia asked Boreal to hunt something for the others to eat that day. Finally, something fun to do. She was feeling a little hungry herself, though she felt like she didn¡¯t get as hungry now as she used to, when the world was bigger.

    She slinked off into the woods, scenting the air and watching the tracks just as Zalia had taught her to do.

    Zalia had told her only to catch something small, so she ignored the very obvious tracks of a big four-legged creature and found the tracks of something big enough that it would feed them all but small enough not to break Zalia¡¯s directions.

    She hunted it for a time, following its winding path through the undergrowth until finally she saw it. It was round and Boreal knew that meant it would be good eating. Round things often were.

    She was downwind from it where she sat, an obvious advantage for the hunt. She wanted to try something a little funner today though.

    Where she was, she used the passive given to her by the bond she shared with her warm one to create an icy replica of herself that shifted and crouched into the undergrowth, remaining perfectly still. Then, Boreal stepped through the shadows so that she was upwind of the round creature. She purposefully made a little noise as she charged pounce.

    The sound along with the sudden scent she allowed to drift downwind alerted the round one and its tiny head popped up. Boreal sprinted forwards and it immediately took off away from her. It was pretty fast for something so edible, managing to outpace Boreal herself in the short term.

    Unfortunately for it, the little creature ran straight to where Boreal had left the trap and it got caught by the icy replica, her own pounce following shortly behind to finish it off.

    She picked up her slightly mauled round snack in triumph, making her way proudly through the forest back towards Zalia.

    Her warm one could be pretty stealthy when she wanted, perhaps even stealthier than Boreal herself. That was something she definitely appreciated about her. A warm one like Ember was great and all but she just couldn¡¯t sneak as well as Zalia could. She couldn¡¯t hunt as well either. Those were two very, very important skills, or so Boreal thought.

    She came out of the trees, blood dripping down her maw and kill held tightly, dropping it on the floor in front of Zalia.

    ¡°Nice catch Boreal, what is it?¡± Zalia said, whistling in appreciation.

    What is it?

    ¡°Round snack,¡± Boreal informed her.

    Zalia looked at her through the corner of her eyes

    ¡°You could be a little more specific. What did it look like before it got completely mauled?¡± Zalia asked, looking at the mess of flesh.

    Boreal looked down at it too, then looked back up. What did it look like?

    ¡°Snack, but round?¡± Boreal suggested.

    Zalia rolled her eyes at her but Boreal wasn¡¯t really sure what else she wanted to know. It was food, that was all.

    While Zalia went through the process of cooking the meal, Boreal went off into the trees to find a puddle. There, she cleaned herself thoroughly. Blood was all well and good but being presentable was important. Plus, she didn¡¯t want to make Aylie uncomfortable at all.

    When she came back, Zalia was still cooking so Boreal walked over to Aylie and sat down. The little warm one seemed to take comfort from her presence, much as Boreal took comfort in Zalia¡¯s presence.

    Zalia said they were going to see her friend, Glemp. Boreal just vaguely remembered the thin one that the name belonged to but it was so soon after the death of her first mother. A lot of her memories surrounding that time were quite vague.

    Well, if the thin one was able to help them fight the foul tasting ones, Boreal wouldn¡¯t object.

    Once food was cooked, Boreal waited patiently as some was given to the little warm one first, then Ember.

    ¡°Hungry,¡± she informed Zalia.

    Zalia handed over a bit for her as well and Boreal gladly chomped it down. It was good, not the best that Zalia had ever cooked but she seemed to have a very small number of things to make it taste better with. Still much better than eating it raw, though that had its appeal as well.

    It was approaching night time now and Zalia opened her vault for the other two to sleep in and pulled out a chunk of wood. Boreal had noticed that she had been fiddling around with it recently but made no comment on the pastime. Boreal herself liked making little scenes out of ice every now and then as well. How different from wood was it really?

    Well, she didn¡¯t want to sit around while that happened and so decided to climb a tree. She easily clambered up the surface, her sharp claws digging further into the wood than might have been normal. She managed to get far up enough into the branches of the tree that she was able to see out over the top of the forest. There wasn¡¯t much to see up there but she did notice a little dot flying far off in the distance. It looked like¡­ one of those that had killed their friend Delphi. A foul tasting one.

    It was flying away, a shame really. She was looking forward to paying those creatures back for what they had done. Another day perhaps.

    She sat there for a time but got bored pretty quickly. There wasn¡¯t really anything to see up here other than trees and more trees. The odd break in forest as a small hill rose out of it or a less heavily overgrown area stretched but nothing of real interest.

    She yawned and climbed back down. Zalia was still there fiddling with the chunk of wood, bits falling off and other parts growing back. Maybe fiddling was the wrong word as Zalia wasn¡¯t even holding the thing, the chunk floating in front of her as she focused intently on it.

    She loved her warm one, for all the oddities about her, the strange questions she asked or the odd manners in which she acted sometimes. Despite it all, she was caring and compassionate, a great friend and an even better teacher. A second mother to her, one who had taken her in after her first mother had died.

    If it wasn¡¯t for her warm one, she probably would have been a snack to one of those flying creatures long ago.

 Book 3: 21 - Old places with new sights

    Zalia sighed, putting down the chunk of wood. She was getting better at fine tuning her control, she could feel it. If she just kept working at it she knew she would get it eventually.

    Boreal was laying on the ground nearby staring at her, having climbed down from the tree not five minutes after climbing up it. While Zalia definitely had more patience than her furry friend, she did understand how she felt. The odd eight hours they had to sit around while the others slept was quite boring. She was almost tempted to walk off and climb some trees herself but it was safer if they ensured the other two could sleep safely within the vault.

    Meeting the Astar had been odd in a way that meeting the people of Endaria hadn''t been. The Endarians were still human at least. These people had been odd, serene, quiet yet with an intensity about them that spoke in volume. Her own aura wasn¡¯t something that had ever been visible to her, probably due to it being slightly reined in due to the Stealth passive and even further so with the effects of her armour.

    She sighed.

    ¡°Boreal, do you have anything interesting to do?¡± she asked.

    Boreal looked up at her, rolled over, closed her eyes and put her paw over her face.

    ¡°Alright then,¡± Zalia muttered.

    Cheeky little cat.

    She stored her chunk of wood, having given up on practicing with it for the day already.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    The next few days were spent in similar boredom, the plains and forests turning to the denser snowy forests as they entered a section of the north cold enough to sustain a coating of snow. Zalia had to work harder to keep Aylie warm yet her eyes were kept on the mountain that grew ever larger on the horizon. That was the goal of their journey, the home of Those Born of Heat and Stone and the first friend she had made in this world, Glemp.

    She was the same rank as them now, though they very well might have ranked up to Silver in the time she had been away. It wouldn¡¯t surprise her, with the amount of time they spent meticulously measuring and performing their alchemical studies was astounding. There wasn¡¯t really much else for them to do all day though, stuck in the mountain.

    She could see far, far above the mountain where the little wispy trails were left behind the wings of the flying creatures far above. She had thought them simply a formation of clouds the first time she had seen the mountain but knew them for what they were after travelling there for a short time. She also swore she saw the occasional flicker of movement on the mountaintop, though while her sight was excellent, it wasn¡¯t quite good enough to see that far clearly.

    She also noticed that Boreal often looked up at the wispy trails as well. Zalia wondered if she remembered the creatures that had taken her mother from her, the large birds that breathed ice, the ones responsible for the trails of clouds.

    It was another two days before they finally reached the mountain, yet some odd sights she had seen from afar were confirmed as they did.

    Along the outside of the mountain, many various structures had popped up. They looked to be made of obsidian, formed as if the flowing lava had cooled into the shape by design. That was very likely, considering the abilities of the race of people that lived inside. They also apparently lived outside the mountain now too, as she saw forms move between the structures along winding paths. There were also the odd streams of lava that flowed through the air behind the people moving along the mountain face.

    Her astonishment at the new buildings was overcome by further surprise as they made it to the entrance she remembered. Well, it was definitely not as she remembered, that was for sure.

    Where there had once been a smooth invisible door, sealed from the inside by stone bars that the people within controlled with their powers, there was now a fortress. High obsidian walls with towers atop, the crenellation spiked and the wall face rippling. It was a daunting sight, one she might have reconsidered approaching if she didn¡¯t already know the people who lived inside.

    ¡°That¡¯s a little different,¡± she murmured, staring from the edge of the forest towards the fortress.

    It seemed that without the ice elementals scaring them away from the surface, Those Born of Heat and Stone were more than willing to spread their wings as it were.

    ¡°Just a little,¡± Ember agreed.

    Aylie just shivered a little and Zalia helped warm her up, pulling the heat dissipating from her body and pushing it back into her body. Like a magical blanket.

    ¡°Well, we should go up and knock right?¡± Zalia suggested.

    ¡°Why would we knock?¡± Ember asked in confusion.

    ¡°So they know we¡¯re there.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t we just yell at them?¡±

    ¡°... We could do that too,¡± Zalia conceded.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    She left the treeline and walked towards the walls. It was getting a little tiresome having to enter through all these walled fortresses as of late, but that was what happened when everything went to shit, demons roamed the lands and the world was being killed piece by piece.

    ¡°Hey, we would like to enter!¡± Zalia called up.

    A little hooded head popped over the wall, looking down at her.

    As the other three stepped up beside Zalia, the large gates began to glow slightly. They then swung open and a torrent of lava flowed from the entrance, forming a jagged wall around them. A dozen Heat and Stone denizens rushed out after it, each of them chanting in unison and controlling their own streams of lava. Then, to her surprise, six humans ran out and formed a shield wall, slowly approaching with spears pointed fowards.

    Not having missed the little squeak Aylie had let out at the surprise, Zalia instinctively put a comforting arm around her head and shoulder, pulling her close.

    ¡°Um,¡± Zalia managed to get out.

    ¡°We really mean no harm!¡± Ember called.

    ¡°From where do you come?¡± one of the women in the shield wall called out.

    ¡°We¡¯ve come from the rebellions war camp some distance east of the capital. I¡¯m looking for a friend here, Glemp is their name. Have you heard of them?¡± Zalia asked.

    The humans said nothing as some of the Heat and Stone denizens began chattering amongst themselves in that language Zalia didn¡¯t understand. Then, one of them came forwards, lava still flowing around them.

    ¡°Have heard, yes. I will bring, yes, straight away,¡± they said.

    ¡°Ahh, ok, sounds good,¡± Zalia agreed.

    She waited as the one that had talked ran off. The others stood still in formation, six humans in front and the Heat and Stone denizens split to either side.

    ¡°So, what exactly are other humans doing here?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°We¡¯re here for our own reasons. Surely you¡¯ve noticed what the hell is happening in Endaria,¡± one of them said.

    ¡°We have,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Hey, do any of you know a Zen, by chance?¡± Ember asked.

    There was silence for a long while, until the woman who had spoken first spoke up again.

    ¡°How do you know that name?¡± she asked.

    Zalia¡¯s heart skipped a beat. That was almost a confirmation.

    Ember took a step forward.

    ¡°He is our friend, part of our team, once. Is he here? I can¡¯t believe we didn¡¯t think to look here when we were trying to find him. Of course he would have brought his family to somewhere safe,¡± she rambled, lost in her own thoughts.

    As she took that step forward however, Zalia could see that the entire contingent of¡­ soldiers in front of them tensed.

    ¡°Hey Ember, just relax a minute yeah? If he is here, he¡¯s waited this long,¡± she said carefully.

    Ember finally seemed to snap back to reality.

    ¡°Right, yeah.¡±

    Soon, the Heat and Stone denizen that had run off came back, with another figure in tow. A figure Zalia remembered quite well.

    Glemp - Silver rank.

    ¡°Glemp!¡± she called out.

    ¡°Zalia? No, no no no. I was told of your fall, yes, not alive,¡± Glemp said, walking up past the other Heat and Stone denizens.

    ¡°Very alive, actually. Come on, you know me better than that!¡± she said.

    ¡°Yes, if one was to perform something quite unlikely, yes, you would be them,¡± Glemp agreed, walking all the way up to her.

    ¡°Can we come in, then?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Mmm, possible. Your hand, yes,¡± Glemp said, gesturing.

    She hesitated, took her arm from Aylie¡¯s shoulder and held it out palm up.

    ¡°What is this abou-¡± she started, ¡°Ow fuck!¡±

    Glemp had drawn a jagged obsidian blade and drawn it across her hand in a sharp gesture, staring into her eyes as they did so. Her healing quickly took care of the wound but she still shook her hand vigorously.

    ¡°What the hell?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Yes, not one of them. Real, yes, very real,¡± Glemp said.

    She could hear their tone change from wary to warm, a little wobble in their voice. Had they missed her that much?

    The thought brought warmth to her heart, so much so that she ignored the oddity of being stabbed and put her hand gently on her friend''s shoulder.

    ¡°Of course I am, I wouldn¡¯t die without saying goodbye first,¡± she said warmly.

    Glemp let out a little clicking laugh and the other humans and Heat and Stone denizens let down their guard. She¡¯d passed some kind of test.

    ¡°I¡¯m a cousin of Zen''s. I''ll take you to him. I¡¯ve heard quite a lot about you lot, though I didn¡¯t dare believe it was actually you. From what he said, you¡¯re meant to be dead Zalia,¡± the woman who had first spoken called over.

    ¡°A cousin!¡± Zalia exclaimed.

    She didn¡¯t know Zen had cousins.

    ¡°One of many, come on I¡¯ll show you the way,¡± she said, gesturing for her to follow.

    ? - Iron rank.

    While she wasn¡¯t Bronze rank, the woman seemed to hold her weapon with practiced ease. A result of good training, or so Zalia thought.

    She led their whole group through the cave entrance, one that Zalia remembered well, into the mountain. Aylie let out a sigh of relief at the warmth inside, actually going so far as to take off the thick jacket she wore as it got too hot. They were led up through winding passages until they came out of the mountain to the buildings on its side. Zalia gave a light laugh as Aylie had to put her jacket back on.

    Around the mountain a short way, single file along a winding path, they were led to one particular building that was much larger than most. Zen¡¯s cousin led them inside to a bustling hive of activity. There were at least ten people in the main room, some cooking, others cleaning, a few seated about. One older-looking fellow that reminded Zalia of Zen was sitting in the corner, working on a piece of leather with a thick needle and twine.

    The person that brought Zalia¡¯s attention almost immediately after catching all that, and kept it, was Zen. He was sitting on a chair with a young child that he was rocking to sleep.

 Book 3: 22 - Family

    The entire room bustling with motion came to a stop as everyone in there stared past their guide at Zalia and Ember.

    ¡°Um, hey. Zen?¡± Zalia said into the silence.

    The entire room turned towards Zen as he looked at her with disbelief.

    ¡°You¡¯re alive?¡± he asked incredulously.

    ¡°Wish people would stop saying that,¡± Zalia muttered.

    The entire room went back to their separate tasks at Zen¡¯s confirmation of knowing the visitor. He stood up, passed the child off to one of the other adults in the room and stepped carefully past a few people on his way to the door.

    ¡°How are you here?¡± he asked, giving her a hug that she returned with more strength than she intended.

    She¡¯d missed him more than she realised, the worry for his state after her last sight of him being a blade through the chest dissipating in one tight embrace.

    ¡°It¡¯s a long story,¡± she said into his shoulder.

    ¡°I¡¯ll bet, come, sit down,¡± he said, pulling away and gesturing to the room.

    ¡°Space for a furry friend?¡± Zalia asked.

    He looked past her towards where Boreal was standing, an almost fully grown feline that reached up to Zalia¡¯s chest now. She would probably grow just a little bit more from Zalia¡¯s estimation.

    ¡°Boreal?¡± Zen asked in surprise.

    ¡°She¡¯s a fast grower,¡± Zalia explained.

    Ember grabbed Zen in an embrace as well.

    ¡°Good to see you¡¯re alright Zen,¡± she said.

    ¡°And you. I wanted to try and find you and Indis after realising how wrong things had gone but had to get my family to safety,¡± Zen said.

    He pulled away and moved into the room behind, gesturing to a couple free seats.

    ¡°This is my father Anton, my mother Annette, twin younger siblings Harry and Jaz, my grandmother Polina and my cousins Jasper, baby Ingrid, Terrance, Garrett and Fiona, who you have met,¡± Zen said, introducing each person in the room in turn.

    Zalia was overwhelmed by the list of names she definitely wouldn¡¯t remember but tried her best to return the courtesy.

    ¡°I¡¯m Zalia, this is Ember, Boreal and little Aylie,¡± she introduced weakly, giving an awkward wave of greeting.

    Despite the somewhat large room, she felt just a little bit claustrophobic at the sheer number of people in the room already.

    ¡°We¡¯ve heard that you died, by Zen¡¯s accounting. I hope you¡¯ve got a good story to entertain us with,¡± the older man who was working some leather, Zen¡¯s father Anton, said.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s probably not what I¡¯d call entertaining,¡± Zalia explained, stepping past the young twins Harry and Jaz as they ran up to meet Aylie and Boreal.

    Deciding Boreal would be able to keep Aylie somewhat safe from the joint harassment of two terrible twins, she took a seat pointed out to her by Zen.

    ¡°What happened after we left you to walk the rest of the way to your home?¡± Ember asked Zen as she sat crushed up next to Zalia, armour still on.

    It was quite uncomfortable yet somehow, comforting.

    ¡°Well, when I got home everything was fine for all of half a day. I caught up with my parents, got to see my little siblings again. Even cousin Fiona was there, a pleasant surprise,¡± Zen started.

    ¡°I managed to avoid the mass drafting for the war. I used to be a guard in Alston,¡± Fiona supplied.

    ¡°Yes, so I was happy to find that she was alive and well, not some thrall as part of the king''s army. Well, it didn¡¯t take long for the first of the demons to find us. We fought them off easily enough, a small group of the flying Tin ranked ones. I knew what it meant though, that none of Endaria was safe,¡± Zen continued,¡± I sent Fiona to go get her family while we packed to leave. Dad didn¡¯t want to leave his farm for anything, he¡¯d lived there his whole life after all. Well, that changed when Fiona came back some hours later with her other siblings in tow, all of them bathed in blood. The demons got to them too and their parents didn¡¯t make it out.¡±

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    There was silence in the room as Zen explained, Zalia noticing the downcast expressions of Zen¡¯s cousins. They had experienced the death of their parents to those monsters then.

    ¡°That convinced dad well enough and we left. I brought them here because it is the closest thing I knew to be safe. I didn¡¯t want to go to Endelbyrn as I had no trust in the Morning¡¯s Shade any longer, nor did I wish to try and travel through half of Endaria to reach the army, an army I didn¡¯t know whether it was destroyed or not. So, I came here. Glemp was kind enough to take us in and we started helping out how we could. A few times I¡¯ve been back to Endaria to see if I could discover what was happening there and have brought back groups of refugees fleeing one town or another. The rest you can probably figure out from there, really,¡± Zen finished.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you got out safe,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Not all of us did,¡± he replied.

    That left Zalia in silence. It would be a long time before the kingdom recovered from the recent events. If it even survived them.

    ¡°What about you Zalia, where in the worlds have you been?¡± Zen asked.

    ¡°Ember first,¡± she said, not quite ready to retell the story again.

    Ember went on to explain how after her and Indis had encountered their first pack of demons they had gone back to find the farm where Zen lived. The farm had been destroyed and no sign of the family in sight. Having no idea as to where Zen had gone, they had then left to see if they could help the army in any way, not wanting to abandon their people. She explained how the army was still holding on and had in fact managed to put up quite a fight, now trying to find a way to take back the capital so they could launch a cleansing campaign against the demons from there.

    In most ways, Indis and Ember were two very different people. Their temperament, actions, way of thinking and many other facets of their personalities were different if not at odds. One thing that they had in common, however, was the urge they had to help the people of Endaria. Indis because she saw herself as a leader of the kingdom, somewhat rightfully so as one of the previously largest political families and childhood friend of the king and Ember because of her kind-natured heart and her moral compass.

    it sometimes seemed that the current events within the kingdom were one of the only reasons they could still stand working with each other.

    Once her side of the story was done, Zen and the rest of his family turned to Zalia. Apparently, these people liked to sit in circles and tell each other stories. Even the twins had stopped inspecting Aylie and were sitting on the floor by the warm fire crackling in the fireplace.

    Zalia started out a little self-consciously, some memory of Indis¡¯ reaction to her retelling of events sitting in the back of her mind. At the lack of interruption and a gentle mental thought of support from Boreal, she finished retelling what had happened to her and Boreal, what they had been through and how she had made it back. She left out some of the detail of the more gruesome or traumatic parts, partly because of the children present and partly because she couldn¡¯t emotionally handle it at that moment.

    ¡°Quite a story lass,¡± Zen¡¯s father said, once she was finished.

    Lass? She wasn¡¯t that much younger than he was. She definitely wasn¡¯t a young woman either.

    ¡°It has been a rather eventful few months, yeah,¡± she agreed.

    ¡°Not that I am not happy to see you, but why did you come north?¡± Zen asked.

    ¡°Zen!¡± Zen¡¯s mother, Annette, exclaimed.

    ¡°What?¡± he asked confusedly.

    Shaking her head at Zen, finding amusement at his somehow continued obliviousness, Zalia gave his mother a warm smile.

    ¡°I actually came to see if the Heat and Stone denizens would fight with us,¡± Zalia explained.

    Zen frowned.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t speak for them but I don¡¯t think they would leave this mountain to be honest. Why would they? It¡¯s defensible, not surrounded by enemies, secluded and, most importantly, safe.¡±

    ¡°Because if the army fails, those demons aren¡¯t going to stop with Endaria. They will take over this whole world, consume it piece by piece. I¡¯ve been to Cormaine, I¡¯ve seen what happens when they are left unchecked. It is not something anyone wants to experience, I promise you that,¡± Zalia argued.

    ¡°Well, I can understand that but they might not see it the same way. They have lived in relative safety within this mountain for a very long time, from what I can gather.¡±

    ¡°Not as long as you might think. They did not originate in Endaria. Glemp¡¯s people come from Cormaine, in fact,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°What?¡± Zen said.

    ¡°Delphi, the oracle friend I mentioned, told me of a memory they and their collective had kept stored for many, many years. A memory of Glemp''s own people and other types of the same race that came to the collective to ask questions. The collective were created on Cormaine, back when it was not a hell but a thriving, living world,¡± Zalia explained.

    Most of the people in the room were quiet, processing the information she brought. It heavily challenged the beliefs of a lot of people, the fact that Cormaine wasn¡¯t the afterlife but a sister world to their own, one that had fallen to the very demons that were invading Endaria at this moment. Where those demons had come from in the first place, neither Ro-ak or Zalia knew.

    ¡°For what it¡¯s worth, us and the other Endarians living here are behind you. We would love to do what we can to help in this war. I think I can speak for us all when I say we want our homes back,¡± Anton said.

    ¡°Well, will you come with me and try convince the Heat and Stone denizens to fight for this world as well?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°We¡¯ll do what we can.¡±

 Book 3: 23 - Druids, Stars, Dreams

    Zalia stood outside the house, breathing the fresh, cold, mountain air. After she had told her story, the claustrophobic space had become too much for her, so she¡¯d left to take a breather.

    Having found Zen, she finally felt like things were back together again. Her team was all alive and well, even if they weren¡¯t technically a team anymore and might never be again. Glemp was alive and well and she planned to go find them again later. They hadn¡¯t come to Zen''s house, probably having some other duties to attend to. Well, she remembered where their house was, unless it had moved to some other part of the caves.

    The starlight wolf had said that the first part of her goals would be in the north where heat met stone met ice. She had assumed that meant the home of the Heat and Stone denizens and in part it made sense. One of her goals was to see her friends protected and those who had already been harmed avenged. Had the starlight wolf meant for her to find Zen here?

    For some reason though, she didn¡¯t feel like that was all it had meant. Sure, protecting Zen was part of those goals but it seemed like he was doing just fine. Hell, the people here were doing better than most of Endaria was from what she could tell. They were relatively safe from the goings on of the kingdom, perhaps even far enough that the demons didn¡¯t come here at all.

    She turned as she heard the crunch of feet walking on snow behind her to find Zen walking up.

    ¡°Hey,¡± she greeted.

    He walked up to lean on the tree next to her, looking her up and down.

    ¡°You seem healthy.¡±

    ¡°Hard not to be when you have healing constantly flowing through your body,¡± she pointed out.

    ¡°Fair point,¡± he said, letting out a quiet chuckle.

    ¡°What happened with the ritual site up on the mountain here?¡± Zalia asked.

    Zen frowned.

    ¡°You know, I never asked. It didn¡¯t seem like Glemp¡¯s people even knew about what was happening until we showed up on their doorstep.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps I¡¯ll ask them later.¡±

    They fell silent for a while, looking out over the snowy landscape filled with trees interrupted by the odd spike of a mountain here and there.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you got most of your family out safe,¡± Zalia said, interrupting the silence.

    ¡°Most,¡± he echoed.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you did all you could,¡± Zalia comforted.

    ¡°I did but¡­ it wasn¡¯t quite enough. It feels like a running theme in my life of late,¡± he murmured.

    ¡°None of us have had a good time recently. You¡¯ve done well for yourself and your family considering what we¡¯re up against.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell the full story in there, did you?¡± he asked.

    ¡°No, no I didn¡¯t. I left out the worst of it or glossed over the details. It¡¯s nothing the younger ones need to hear.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re stronger than you think, all of them are. They¡¯ve all been through their own share of horrors.¡±

    ¡°It feels like we¡¯ve all been changed by this. You have mellowed down, Ember has someone become more outgoing, Indis has gone from poised and in control to an absolute mess, though I suppose she always was but was just better at hiding it. At least Boreal is still a cute menace, I hope that never changes.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve missed all of you quite a bit. Boreal has grown a lot for the time you were gone,¡± Zen said.

    ¡°Yeah, she seemed to grow quite a lot as she got closer to ascending to Bronze rank. I wonder if those are related at all.¡±

    ¡°I believe someone actually studied that at one point. There is a link to the life stage of animals and the rank they have. One advancing quicker than the other can actually drag the slower one ahead,¡± Zen said.

    That made sense to Zalia. She had definitely advanced in rank significantly faster than was normal, that was for sure. She had thought it was because she had gotten her classes so late in life compared to the average person. Did the speed at which Boreal reached Bronze, certainly faster than was normal for her species, make her grow bigger quickly?

    If that was true, did that mean by ranking up Zalia was actually becoming older? Or did it only affect the growth not the real age of a person?

    Questions for another time, maybe.

    ¡°That¡¯s interesting. How old were you when you got your class again?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I was seventeen and I think I remember Ember saying she got hers at eleven, why do you ask?¡±

    ¡°Aylie in there was given a blessing by the starlight wolf and she said that it would give her a class option. I was wondering when she would be old enough to actually choose one,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Well, if it gave her a class option she should be able to choose it now. People should be able to take a class as soon as one pops up.¡±

    ¡°Really? Why hasn¡¯t she taken it yet?¡± Zalia said, more thinking aloud than asking Zen.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask her?¡± Zen asked.

    ¡°I will, I will. I just need another minute,¡± Zalia murmured.

    She really did enjoy the snow. It brought back memories of her time in her own world, living in the wilderness with no more worries than what she was going to be eating over the next week and what preparations needed to be made for the coming season.

    ¡°Do you ever just want to pack up everything and leave?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Sometimes. I kind of did that coming here, though I guess I still want to help the kingdom however I can. Where would you go?¡±

    ¡°North, further north. Maybe I could go east and find out what is up with the Astar. I met a nice woman in the south who could probably show me around the desert. Do I really need to be here to help the kingdom, won¡¯t it be ok without me?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, maybe not. You¡¯re the only one who has been to Cormaine, the only one who has come back with their mind intact at least. A feat that I still don¡¯t fully understand. You are also the only one who has been able to heal the damage that has been done to the land by the corruption,¡± Zen said.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    Zalia remained silent, letting out only a small sigh.

    ¡°Boreal, can you bring Aylie out here please?¡± she sent to Boreal.

    She got a mental affirmation and waited.

    A few moments later, Ember opened the door of the house from the inside and let Boreal and Aylie out, closing it behind. Zalia gave Zen a meaningful look and he gave her a nod before leaving. He walked past Aylie on the way to the house as Aylie came and stood next to Zalia.

    ¡°You told me that the blessing gave you access to a class. Are you able to accept that class now if you want?¡± Zalia asked.

    Aylie hesitated, looking up at her with wide eyes beneath a thick fur hood.

    Zalia could see the answer in her expression but still waited until she got the affirming nod.

    ¡°Why haven¡¯t you taken it?¡± she asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s scary,¡± Aylie whispered.

    ¡°How so?¡± Zalia asked, crouching down to Aylie¡¯s height.

    ¡°Mum never told me about this class,¡± Aylie explained.

    ¡°Well, maybe if you tell me what it is, I can help you understand what it means?¡± Zalia suggested.

    ¡°It says¡­ it says Druid and the only specialisation option says Starlight priestess,¡± Aylie whispered even quieter.

    Zalia was taken aback. She hadn¡¯t met anyone else who had the Druid class as it was a combination of her other two classes that formed a unity class. Aylie had the option to take it as her main class.

    ¡°Well, luckily I can help there. One of my classes is the Druid class. Do you want to know what mine does and what it means for me?¡± Zalia asked.

    Aylie nodded.

    ¡°Well, there are a few parts to it. The first thing is the abilities it gives me. Do you feel the calm and warm presence around me? That is an aura the Druid class gives me that lets me heal people. It also gives me access to two very strong abilities that let me control nature to fight my enemies and protect my friends. Those are only part of it as well, it gives me¡­ instincts that help me to understand nature a little better, which helps me protect nature in turn.¡± Zalia explained in an even, calm voice.

    She had noticed Aylie¡¯s expression light up at the mention of Zalia also having the class. Despite that, she still seemed unsure as to whether she wanted to take the class.

    ¡°Why do you hesitate?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Big decision,¡± Aylie murmured.

    ¡°It is, though I was much less indecisive to take the classes I did, I¡¯ll admit. I took the first ones I could get my hands on. Take your time, think it over. I think you should, though. Druid is a strong class and the specialisation is obviously part of the blessing given by the starlight wolf. It¡¯s not every day you get an opportunity like that.¡±

    Aylie hesitated still, then nodded, her face changing to resolution. It looked like she had decided.

    ¡°Are you certain? You can still think on it some more, there is plenty of time¡± Zalia asked.

    Aylie nodded again.

    ¡°Yes, I want to save people like you saved me,¡± Aylie whispered.

    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll be here with you the whole way. Whenever you¡¯re ready,¡± Zalia said, holding onto Alyie¡¯s arms now.

    She could see the moment Aylie accepted the classes, as her expression went through a journey. She remembered going through this herself, the slight burning sensation, the disorientation, and the many, many messages that appeared.

    She held her steady throughout, Boreal standing nearby looking mildly concerned.

    Eventually, Aylie blinked as if she had just woken up, looking about.

    ¡°Well?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°So much,¡± Aylie said quietly.

    ¡°It is a lot to take in. Do you want to share your abilities with me? I can try to help you figure them out if you¡¯d like,¡± Zalia asked.

    Despite that, she could already feel one of them. It was a feeling very much like one she knew so well, one that had kept her alive many times. She was glad that Aylie had it. A slight warm comfort permeated the area coming from Aylie, the effects of Healing presence.

    Aylie nodded and the second she did, a list of abilities came scrolling through Zalia¡¯s own messages.

    <h2>Profile - Aylie</h2>

    Health - Excellent

    Mana - Full

    Stamina - Full

    Class one - Druid - Tin

    Linked attributes - Resilience, Vitality

    Active skills

    Plant manipulation - Tin

    Nature¡¯s Wrath - Tin

    Dreamweave - Tin

    Passive skills

    Healing presence - Tin

    Spiritual connection - Tin

    Specialisation - Starlight Priestess - Tin

    Linked attributes - Wisdom, Intellect

    Active skills

    Starfall - Tin

    Starlit Portal - Tin

    Passive skills

    Astral Walker - Tin

    General Passives

    Cold resistance - Tin

    Weapon proficiencies

    Druid

    Active skills

    Active 1 - Plant manipulation - spell - targeted

    Tin - You are able to manipulate plants within a small distance from yourself.

    Active 2 - Nature''s wrath - spell - area

    Tin - You invoke the wrath of nature. Nearby enemies are bound by vines, sinking sand or other area related hazards. Enemies are also subjected to a damage over time effect relevant to biome that lasts until the restraint has ended. The damage over time effect deals moderate damage per second.

    Active 3 - Dreamweave - spell - varies

    Tin - You may weave the dreams of creatures that are asleep. The more familiar you are with the creature the further away you may use this.

    Passive skills

    Passive 1 - Healing presence - passive - aura

    Tin - Your very presence grants life to all around you. You, nearby allies and any flora and fauna you so choose within your aura are affected by a heal over time effect. The heal over time effect heals for low health every second.

    Passive 2 - Spiritual connection - passive - enhancement

    Tin - You have a strong spiritual connection to the world. You are able to interact with the spirit and soul of creatures and plants alike, living or deceased.

    Starlight Priestess

    Active skills

    Active 1 - Starfall - Spell - Area

    Tin - You may cause stars to fall in target area, dealing a high amount of damage to enemies in the area.

    Active 2 - Starlit Portal - Spell - Target

    Tin - You may teleport a short distance

    Passive skills

    Passive 1 - Astral walker - Passive - Enhancement

    Tin - Part of your soul walks the astral plane, allowing you insights into otherwise invisible or unknowable things.

    ¡°Oh, wow. You¡¯ve got a good set of abilities there. Some of them are a bit¡­ undefined but many of them seem pretty strong. Plus, I can see many of them becoming quite powerful with future rank-ups as well,¡± Zalia said, reading through a second time.

    Some of them were simple, abilities such as Nature¡¯s wrath one she had as well, Starlit portal probably being easy to use with just a simple activation. Others like Astral Walker, Dreamweaver and Spiritual Connection were a little more complicated. Zalia feared she wouldn¡¯t be able to help with those ones.

    ¡°Would you like to try out some of the abilities now, or would you rather wait a bit longer first?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Try!¡± Aylie said, the excitement in her voice spreading to the expression on her face.

    ¡°Alright, start with something small first. How about Plant manipulation? Focus on that tree and try and move it around,¡± Zalia urged.

    Aylie turned about as Zalia stood up and looked at the tree. Slowly, the branches began bending around and the trunk rippled, the entire thing changing shape as Aylie willed it. It grew thinner and taller, the branches forming wild patterns, before changing back to become exactly as it had been.

    ¡°Very nice,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Its soul. The shape changes but its soul doesn''t,¡± Aylie whispered.

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°Well, that must be one of your abilities showing you that. Want to try out some more abilities?¡±

 Book 3: 24 - Starfall

    Zalia stood by Ember as they watched Aylie from a short distance away.

    ¡°Whenever you¡¯re ready,¡± Zalia called out again.

    Aylie was looking a bit stressed, the cause of the emotion being that Zalia and Ember were waiting for her to use one of her abilities on them. Starfall, an extremely long cooldown spell listed at two days, was one of if not the strongest abilities Aylie had. The name of the spell along with the short description was more than enough for them to understand what was coming. That taken into account though, Alyie was still only at the very beginning of Tin rank and the chances of her spell, even such a long cooldown one, being able to do them serious harm was very unlikely. Take into account that all three of them were healers now and Zalia had an anti-death measure, it wasn¡¯t really as dangerous a situation as it might look at first glance.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Aylie called over, her voice still somehow quiet.

    ¡°We¡¯re sure,¡± Zalia assured her.

    Zalia could see Aylie muttering something to herself, the words too quiet for her to hear, before the sky darkened. It was daytime, yet the light from the sun faded away and the land was cast in shadow. Glimmering pin-prick stars began glowing in the sky yet as she looked up, Zalia noticed that a few of the stars looked like they were growing brighter. She knew what was coming yet couldn¡¯t help but feel a small amount of awe mixed in with a drop of fear as she noticed they weren¡¯t growing brighter but bigger.

    They hit, two glowing balls of solid light with a starry trail left behind them.

    Both Zalia and Ember were thrown to the ground with force and she actually felt some of her ribs crack, the stabbing pain arching through her body. She grit her teeth, not wanting to scream at the pain because she didn¡¯t want to cause Aylie any concern. It felt like the light of a star had been given the solidity of matter and had been thrown at her, a slight burning feeling accompanying the massive force with which the light hit.

    She rolled over and pushed to her hands and knees, getting one foot underneath her as she managed to stand, the healing already fixing the damage that had been done.

    Ember looked a little worse for wear but her condition was improving at incredible speed, her own healing working much quicker as well as benefitting from Zalia¡¯s.

    She looked up to see Aylie rushing over with panic written all over her face but Zalia just gave her a broad smile.

    ¡°Wow! That is a really strong ability. It should be able to take out most enemies of your rank on its own as long as you have time to cast it,¡± Zalia exclaimed.

    Aylie careened into her, hugging her with as much strength as she could muster.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re both just fine. I just wanted you to see that you have power now, a lot of strength for someone so young. It means you can defend yourself from some creatures in this world, better than even many Iron rank people might be able to. Even better again than those who have classes such as farmers or craftspeople.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Aylie said into Zalia¡¯s side.

    ¡°Oh don¡¯t be sorry, we did tell you to do it didn¡¯t we?¡± Zalia assured.

    Aylie pulled her head back and looked up at Zalia and she could see that the worry on her face had been replaced by something akin to excitement.

    ¡°It¡¯s good, isn¡¯t it. You have some control over your own future now. No one can take this from you, your powers are yours to use as you see fit. Just remember that it¡¯s important to help others when you can, as long as it won¡¯t cause you to be harmed yourself, alright? Can you do that?¡± Zalia said.

    Aylie nodded.

    ¡°I want to help people how you help people,¡± Aylie murmured.

    ¡°Well, now you can,¡± Zalia said, giving her a smile and a tight hug back.

    She was reminded how down-to-earth Aylie was for someone of her age. She had seen too much for someone so young, hell, for anyone at all. No one should have to go through what Aylie had.

    ¡°Right, now that one is out of the way, would you like to try some of the others? Starlit portal seems like it could be fun,¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I would like to see that one as well,¡± Ember said, still lying in the snow.

    ¡°What are you doing down there?¡± Zalia asked, turning her head to look at her.

    ¡°Just relaxing. It¡¯s comfortable,¡± Ember explained.

    Zalia rolled her eyes.

    ¡°We¡¯re trying to help Aylie experiment with her powers, remember?¡± she reminded Ember.

    ¡°And I can¡¯t do that while I¡¯m comfortable?¡± Ember retorted.

    ¡°Well Aylie, how about it?¡± Zalia said, turning back to the young girl.

    ¡°Sure, I can¡¯t figure out this one,¡± Aylie said.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Oh? What are you having trouble with?¡± Zalia asked, furrowing her brow.

    ¡°Seems strange,¡± Aylie explained.

    Ember sat up, putting her arms behind herself as support.

    ¡°You said you have a teleport now Zalia, why don¡¯t you show her? Maybe it will help?¡± Ember suggested.

    ¡°Good idea.¡±

    Zalia activated her own teleport skill, Mobility, shunting a short distance away with a rush of air, a small breeze created by the sudden disappearance and reappearance of her body.

    ¡°Just like that!¡±

    Aylie¡¯s face scrunched in concentration and a light starry portal appeared behind her and folded, swallowing her in a fraction of a second. She appeared in the next instant next to Zalia. Strangely, she didn¡¯t displace air like Zalia had.

    ¡°Well, you picked it up pretty quick,¡± Zalia said, happy with Aylie¡¯s natural skill at using her abilities.

    She hadn¡¯t really seen anyone else go through the process of learning their skills yet and while she hadn¡¯t had any trouble figuring out any of hers, she wasn¡¯t certain if that was normal. It seemed like most abilities came with a certain degree of instinctuality around them.

    ¡°Could see how you did it,¡± Aylie said.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Zalia asked.

    Aylie shrugged.

    ¡°One of your passive abilities then? The one that lets you see into the Astral maybe?¡± Zalia suggested.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Aylie said.

    ¡°You¡¯ll probably have to work on those two strange ones, and the dreamweaving, on your own though I¡¯d be happy to help however I can. I don¡¯t really know what they are either.¡±

    ¡°I can weave your dreams?¡± Aylie asked in a small voice.

    ¡°Sure, why not? Just don¡¯t make them anything bad alright?¡± Zalia said after a short pause.

    She didn¡¯t really want someone meddling with her dreams but she only slept for an hour or two every few days now so, why not?

    Congratulations! Healing presence has reached Bronze 4.

    Well, at least something good had come of being flattened by a falling star.

    ¡°Hey Aylie, want to come meet Glemp? They¡¯re a good friend of mine.¡±

    They were still out on the mountain, just off one of the lower paths. Boreal was nowhere to be seen, maybe exploring what was her natural home. She was sneaky enough when it came to normal terrain, an effect that was amplified when in her natural habitat. Even without magic, she would blend in extremely well with the snow and rock-filled landscape. With it, she would likely be impossible to find unless she wanted to be.

    Aylie gave a nod of affirmation so she started trudging through the snow towards a cave entrance.

    ¡°Hey, you just going to leave me lying here?¡± Ember called.

    Zalia looked over.

    ¡°Are you stuck?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Ember said, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

    Zalia rolled her eyes but walked over to help Ember up.

    She offered a hand and pulled Ember up to a standing position. Ember gave her a radiant smile and a hug.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± she said, then pushed Zalia over.

    Or, tried to.

    Zalia managed to keep her feet beneath her, months and months of experience against Boreal¡¯s shenanigans coming in handy as she managed to stay upright.

    ¡°That¡¯s just rude,¡± Zalia said, tsking at Ember.

    ¡°That¡¯s cheating! You must have used some kind of magic there,¡± Ember sulked.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m just faster than you,¡± Zalia teased.

    Aylie was already halfway towards the cave, having decided to walk on ahead so Zalia started walking off. She heard quick footsteps as Ember began to chase her so Zalia took off as fast as she could. They very quickly overtook Aylie who also joined in the chase, running after Ember and Zalia, albeit much slower than they could manage.

    Just as she was about to reach the cave entrance, the snow to her right exploded and a large furry form slammed into her and Ember, knocking them both over. Half buried in snow, Zalia saw Aylie appear from thin air at the entrance to the caves. She only got that one blink of sight as Boreal proceeded to try and bury Zalia in the snow using her powers.

    ¡°Hey, stop that!¡± Zalia yelled into the building pile of snow, struggling free.

    She managed to pull herself free to a standing position and used her own power to bury the struggling Ember just a little more, sprinting to the cave.

    She was overtaken by Boreal moments before making it over the line and the three of them watched Ember finally free herself and trudge towards them.

    ¡°See?¡± Zalia said as Ember made it to them.

    ¡°Aylie made it here before you,¡± Ember pointed out.

    ¡°She cheated,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°What!?¡± Aylie gasped.

    It was the loudest she had ever heard the little girl talk.

    ¡°Teleporting was definitely against the rules,¡± Zalia said sagely.

    ¡°And what about setting your big kitty cat on me as a delaying tactic,¡± Ember retorted.

    ¡°She did that of her own volition. Besides, she buried me too,¡± Zalia said, side-eyeing Boreal who was inconspicuously cleaning herself.

    ¡°Well, if you used your powers to bury me, Boreal used hers to bury us both and Aylie used hers to teleport, I think I win since I didn¡¯t use any of mine at all,¡± Ember said, a smug expression on her face.

    Zalia looked at Aylie and an understanding passed between them.

    ¡°No,¡± they both said at once.

    ¡°And do you agree with them?¡± Ember said, looking at Boreal who paused mid paw lick.

    Zalia and Aylie both stared at her as well and Boreal suddenly looked anxious under the weighted gaze of all three of them.

    Boreal vanished into a shadow, no doubt teleporting somewhere else through them.

    ¡°Looks like she has abstained from voting which makes it two to one,¡± Zalia declared.

    ¡°Fine, fine, Aylie wins,¡± Ember surrendered.

    ¡°Damn right she does. Now, let¡¯s go find Glemp.¡±

 Book 3: 25 - Repressed

    ¡°Hey Zen, we¡¯re just going to go see Glemp,¡± Zalia sent to Zen, still in the nearby house.

    ¡°Gah!¡± the reply came.

    Smiling at the reaction to the mental communication she acquired in Cormaine, Zalia followed the other three further into the caves. They were on their way to find Glemp and figure out what exactly it might take to convince the Heat and Stone denizens to join in their war. She thought it might be hard to accomplish considering the safety they currently had within the mountain they called home.

    She also just wanted to see her old friend, the first one she had made in Endaria. A bit of time spent with a friend she made when things were a lot simpler would do her good. She had been considering using the mental healing ritual she had used on the soldier back in the war camp on herself but had come to the conclusion that what she was dealing with wasn¡¯t worth the expenditure of materials. She hadn¡¯t tried growing the Living Trapvine just yet but had a sneaking suspicion she wouldn¡¯t be able to. The piece she had was only a small part of the larger whole, a tiny cutting of a living creature.

    Instead, she considered whether it might be worth offering to use it on Aylie but she didn¡¯t really know if there were any long-term effects of using the ritual. She didn¡¯t want to cause anyone any harm, the only reason she had used it on that soldier in the first place being that the man had been so broken as to be basically catatonic.

    As they walked through the caves and now that she wasn¡¯t preoccupied with the thought of seeing Zen again, she noticed that the caves had a distinctly more military feel about it. There were guards posted about and people walked with purpose rather than the idle meandering of a carefree society. Not for the first time, Zalia was in awe of the unity in which the Heat and Stone denizens lived. She had no idea if they had any ruling body or person of any kind and had never asked, yet these people still acted with joint purpose.

    She still remembered the day the three ice elementals had attacked the mountain and the people here had performed a joint ritual of some kind, combining all of their power to overcome two Silver and one Gold ranked elementals with ease. Some had died and others passed out from the effort but the speed at which they had accomplished the task was amazing. Even Larel, someone whose powerset was built for fights with a single slow enemy, took a long while to defeat a Gold rank. A human squad of an odd one hundred people from the kingdom of Endaria hadn¡¯t even been able to take down one of the Gold ranked elementals by themselves.

    Well, Zalia would need to find a way to make the joint purpose of the Heat and Stone denizens to cleanse the world of the demon invasion. She just hoped she was the right person for the job, she wasn¡¯t exactly known for her social or political prowess.

    They found themselves in the small workshop Glemp called home, benches all along the perimeter and centre of the room forming the workspace in which Glemp performed their many experiments, one of which they were currently engrossed in.

    ¡°Hey Glemp, how are things?¡± Zalia asked in greeting.

    ¡°One moment, yes,¡± Glemp said, focus unwavering.

    She waited, keeping an eye on Aylie as she wandered around the room. There were more than a few dangerous components and liquids in this room.

    A single drop fell from the dropper Glemp was holding in a steady hand, plopping into the stone vial they held in their hands.

    ¡°Right! Yes, Zalia. Ember of course, yes, a powerful name. Boreal, she of the ice and¡­ the small one,¡± Glemp said, greeting them one by one.

    ¡°Aylie,¡± Aylie informed them.

    Aylie was currently still rugged up in the thick hoodie and was standing before Glemp, managing to actually reach the same height as them.

    ¡°Aylie of the small humans, yes. Welcome,¡± Glemp said.

    ¡°Aylie is a child, Glemp. You know, a young of our race,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°A child¡­¡± Glemp said, trailing off.

    Zalia tried to figure out how to reply when something occurred to her.

    ¡°Hey, you know the language properly now?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Hmm, yes yes, learned from Zen,¡± Glemp said offhandedly, still looking with confusion at Aylie.

    ¡°Right, yeah makes sense. Two adult humans can have children if they wish and that child will grow up to be another adult human. How exactly do you make more of your race if not like that?¡± Zalia inquired.

    She had never seen any children Heat and Stone denizens but had just thought they might live somewhere deeper or safer in the mountain.

    ¡°Formed from stone, heat. Yes, no growing required,¡± Glemp explained.

    ¡°Huh,¡± Zalia said.

    She then noticed that Ember was glaring at her like, ¡°Really, you¡¯re talking about reproduction right now in front of Aylie?¡±

    Zalia coughed lightly into her hand.

    ¡°Mm, anyways. Glemp, I was wondering what it would take for your people to come help us fight back against the demons invading this world.¡± she said, changing the subject quickly.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Mmm, no no no. Our people will stay, resist. Fight we will not, no.¡± Glemp said, looking to Zalia.

    Her heart sank.

    ¡°There¡¯s no chance? None at all? This is something that affects us all, not just the humans of Endaria. If the kingdom falls, the demons will come after your people and all peoples next. This world will be consumed by them,¡± Zalia said urgently.

    ¡°Zalia, no you do not see. We are made of the stone, yes, the heat. Here we are born, yes, here we live. We do not belong in the outside, in the kingdom. Here we are safe. Our memories are long, we remember when the humans treated us without respect, yes. You may be a good one, but many are not,¡± Glemp explained.

    Zalia leaned against one of the benches, letting out a long sigh. It hadn¡¯t been good odds of them joining but she had really hoped there might be some kind of chance. The hard shutdown of the idea after the long journey really was painful. She might have come up here just to see if Glemp was ok anyway but she had definitely been hoping for more.

    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t say I blame you or your people. It¡¯s not a good place out there right now,¡± Zalia said,¡± ¡­ hey, what happened with your ritual site here up on the mountain, did it explode or did any creatures come from it?¡±

    Zalia sensed that Glemp was not going to change their mind, so dropped the subject. Perhaps she could come up with some way to convince them but had nothing as of yet.

    ¡°Ah, I remember you speaking of this. Nothing that we experienced at all,¡± Glemp said.

    ¡°What?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Nothing, yes yes,¡± Glemp repeated.

    Nothing at all?

    ¡°All of the ritual sites we knew of seemed to have done something, how could yours not have?¡± Zalia asked.

    The mountain was close to where Zalia had interrupted the ritual, yet it seemed like closer ones had still activated. If the one on the mountain hadn¡¯t did that mean it wasn¡¯t part of the main ritual, or did something else stop it from working?

    ¡°Well, good to see you were all alright at the least.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we live on ever as we have,¡± Glemp said, nodding.

    They had turned their attention back to the stone vial on the bench, perhaps observing it through an ability Zalia couldn¡¯t see.

    ¡°Do¡­ do you know that there were once others of your race? Those Born of the Water Depths and Those Born of the Wind and Sky?¡± Zalia asked.

    Glemps head flicked up to her, meeting her eyes.

    ¡°How do you know of them?¡± they asked.

    ¡°I was told by a¡­ a dear friend. They told me that your people used to visit them, long, long ago. Back when your people lived in the other world,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°No, no no no. Have you been there? Not possible,¡± Glemp murmured.

    ¡°Cormaine, yes, I have. What do you know of it?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I¡­ we must speak with the others. This news is important, yes, very important,¡± Glemp said.

    ¡°Important how?¡±

    ¡°It is told that we came from such a world as you say. A closely guarded secret, yes, very closely. Who is this dear friend, yes, of which you speak?¡±

    ¡°A friend I made when I was there, one who was part of a larger whole. The collective, small creatures on their own but powerful together. They kept the memories of Cormaine alive for a very long time,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°So you have met some of the¡­ the¡­ how would the word translate? The seers, maybe?¡± Glemp asked in awe.

    ¡°I did, yes they could see the future quite clearly. They¡­¡± Zalia cut off.

    The memory surfaced, Delphi crushed and the bodies of the collective strewn across the ground of the Grove.

    Zalia shook her head and smashed a fist down on the bench next to her causing Glemp to jump and the vial tip over. That damn memory.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she murmured.

    She could feel the eyes of Ember and Boreal on her back, their gaze burning into her skin. Aylie was looking up at her with worry and a tiny hint of fear.

    ¡°What is it Za-¡± Glemp started.

    But Zalia couldn¡¯t stand it. She vanished using her teleportation and fled from the room. Why did that memory keep coming back? Couldn¡¯t it just stay in the damn vault where she put it?

    She ran through too warm corridors, caves and up stairs. She just needed to breathe, why was it so hard to breathe in the mountain? The air was thick, tinged red with a sulphorous hint to it that made it so damn hard to breathe. Where was she? Had she really escaped or was this all a cruel dream?

    She burst out of an exit to the cool, fresh open air, taking in gasping breaths.

    Slowly, she began to calm but soon tears came to blur her vision of the expansive snowy landscape beyond.

    She felt a hand on her shoulder and twitched slightly at the touch.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Ember said softly.

    She was on her knees, she realised, sitting in the snow where she had fallen.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Zalia replied, voice choked with pain.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Ember asked, kneeling next to her and drawing her into a tight hug.

    ¡°They¡­ they¡¯re dead.¡±

    She hadn¡¯t told Ember about the death of the collective.

    ¡°Who are? What happened?¡±

    ¡°The collective. They died as I escaped Cormaine. They knew it would happen but they died so that I could escape. They sacrificed themselves because they knew there was no other way,¡± Zalia explained, her voice rough as she tried to hold back tears.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that happened. Losing a friend is always hard,¡± Ember empathised, gently rubbing Zalia¡¯s back with one hand as she held her in a hug still.

    ¡°Them and Ro-ak, they were the only ones there with me and Boreal. That entire world, there is no other life there. Now it¡¯s possible even Ro is gone too,¡± Zalia added, tears finally flowing only to freeze lower down her face from the frozen wind blowing across the mountainside.

    Zalia could feel a gentle aura that felt as if it were caressing her very soul, calming her, healing her.

    ¡°That¡¯s what that emotional injury that appeared before was, wasn¡¯t it. How are you hiding it like that?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°I¡­ Remember those swirling orbs in the vault? Those are memories. Memories stored from my mind. One of them is my last hour in Cormaine, stored away so I don¡¯t have to remember it only¡­¡± Zalia faded away but Ember seemed to understand what she meant.

    ¡°Oh Zalia, no,¡± Ember murmured softly.

    ¡°I¡­ I know, Ember... I know.¡±

 Book 3: 26 - Healing

    Zalia knelt in the snow as Ember comforted her.

    "Zalia¡­ how exactly does this memory storage work?" Ember asked softly.

    "It lets me store a memory and leaves only vague ideas of the memory behind. It also¡­ takes the emotions linked to the memory away."

    Ember didn''t say anything to that but Zalia could almost hear Ember calling her an idiot in the silence.

    A few moments later, she heard footsteps as Boreal and Aylie found them. Boreal immediately came up and flopped against Zalia, almost knocking both her and Ember over. She was then joined by Aylie as she dropped on top of Boreal to give Zalia a hug as well.

    "Hey you two," Zalia greeted.

    Her tears had stopped but she no doubt had red puffy eyes and her voice was hoarse.

    She received a complex set of thoughts and emotions from Boreal that conveyed her own grief at the loss of their friend followed by the words, "I miss them too."

    She hugged Boreal closer.

    For her apparent carefree stance to the world and the joy with which she performed every task, Boreal wasn''t unaffected by the loss of their shared friend either. She didn''t have a vault in which to store her memories either, though it had turned out to be more of a detriment to Zalia''s mental health than a benefit.

    She had promised herself that she would restore the memory when she reached a safe place and the Grove would have been an excellent place to do just that. When she''d been there though¡­ it had slipped her mind while she had focussed on telling the others everything she had discovered in Cormaine.

    Well, she was safe here, wasn''t she?

    "Why haven''t you restored the memory if it has been harming you like this?" Ember asked, mirroring her own thoughts.

    "I¡­ because it is so bad that I don''t know if I''ll be able to handle it," Zalia said shakily.

    "Well, why don''t you do it now? You have all of us here to help you," Ember suggested.

    Could she do that? Wasn''t there more important things to take care of right now?

    She needed to try and find a way to convince the Heat and Stone denizens to join the war¡­ but they had said no. Maybe she could convince them to take in more refugees though, a middle ground where they could maintain the safety of their mountain and save some people from horrible fates.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    "It can wait for later, we need to-" Zalia started.

    "Zalia," Ember said firmly.

    "Ember, I don''t know if I can do it," Zalia said.

    "You can, I know you and I know you can. I don''t know what it must have been like down there and I won''t pretend I do but if anyone can come through alright it''s you," Ember said.

    "I¡­ I''ll try," Zalia agreed.

    She could feel it there still, a memory on the edge of her consciousness waiting to be retrieved at a moment''s notice should she ever require. A memory with torn edges, one she had ripped out of her mind very shortly after it had formed.

    She grabbed it and fit it back into the hole in her mind where it had come from.

    She could feel the memory begin to settle as the torn edges started healing by a power flowing from Ember. Strength and support came from the bond she had with Boreal, shoring up her pained mind. And Aylie. Aylie clung on to her with all her newly increased strength. Aylie needed her to be well and strong.

    And¡­ it wasn''t as bad.

    The grief was there, the pain, the fear, the stress and the misery of that last hour in Cormaine were all there yet with the support of her friends, her¡­ family, something she hadn''t really had in a long time, it wasn''t as bad.

    Would you like to form a bond with ''Ember''?

    "What?" She thought.

    She hesitated. Her bond with Boreal had been incredibly useful in the past and she had no doubt that one with Ember would be just as, if not more, useful.

    She looked over at Ember who was watching her intently, and accepted.

    Congratulations! You have formed a bond with ''Ember''. You and Ember are now able to slightly sense each other''s location in reference to each other as well as gain a vague sense of each others emotions as long as the other person is willing.

    Congratulations! Your bond with Boreal has deepened. You and Boreal''s ability to sense each other''s location is more accurate in addition to a deeper sense of each other''s emotions as long as the other person is willing. You and Boreal are able to provide strength of the mind to each other.

    She shuffled around in the cuddle puddle of people to look at Ember, who just smiled warmly at her.

    "I didn''t know that could happen," Zalia murmured.

    "It''s not so uncommon between people. Much rarer to be able to form that kind of bond with another species like Boreal," Ember said in reply, her voice equally soft.

    She didn''t miss that Boreal''s bond had changed in its wording a little bit. It didn''t refer to it as a beast bond anymore, instead just being a normal one. Did that mean that whatever the mysterious system was now think of Boreal as a person not an animal? Or, was that due to Zalia''s own viewpoint?

    And, she could feel them there in her mind. Another presence, Ember, and a familiar one now stronger than ever. Boreal was still lending strength to her mind, helping take the burden of her pain.

    So, Zalia lent some back.

    The torn edges of the memory had started to heal, the hole in her mind now occupied by the wound, somehow less painful than the void it had left behind. She wasn''t sure why the memory had such a¡­ reduced effect now that she accepted what had happened and the memory itself. Maybe the manner in which she had roughly torn it out had lent to the strength of the pain she felt when remembering it through the vault.

    "Thank you," Zalia whispered, to no one in particular.

    They all helped her in their own ways and she was more grateful for that than she could ever put into words.

 Book 3: 27 - Fireside

    A few hours later, they were all seated in the large yet somehow small living room of Zen¡¯s family. After they had seen Zalia come inside a complete mess being supported by the others, the family had somehow found places to be that weren¡¯t in sight.

    Zen was there too, looking a little confused but supportive. A state of affairs that Zalia was more than used to seeing in the young man.

    ¡°What now?¡± Zen asked.

    They had just finished explaining that Glemp¡¯s people would not help in the war, something that didn¡¯t surprise Zen at all. Perhaps he had already tried to convince them.

    ¡°We go back, do what we can. Though¡­ we did see some of the Astar on our way here. I have a strange feeling that they are a part of this somehow. Why else would they be in Endaria now of all times?¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°The Astar? What were they like?¡± Zen asked, leaning forwards.

    ¡°Well¡­ strange. They had an aura that was much too strong for their rank, floated along and had runes covering their skin. The aura felt¡­ careless and cold. Sterile.¡±

    ¡°I would have liked to see them,¡± Zen murmured, leaning back in his chair.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t really anything special. They vanished as soon as we tried talking to them,¡± Ember added in.

    Zalia looked at Aylie who was looking strangely between her and Ember.

    ¡°What is it?¡± she asked.

    ¡°You¡­ both are different,¡± Aylie whispered.

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°Different?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Like there is a bridge,¡± Aylie murmured.

    Like there is a bridge?

    Then it struck her. Aylie was talking about the bond that had formed between them.

    ¡°Like there is a bridge?¡± Zen asked, his confusion deepening even further.

    ¡°A¡­bond,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Alright, someone better explain. What exactly happened in the short time between you leaving to see Glemp and coming back here?¡± Zen asked.

    ¡°A bonding experience,¡± Ember supplied unhelpfully.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not talk about it just yet,¡± Zalia added.

    ¡°Alright, sure. I just hope you¡¯re all okay?¡± Zen said.

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re good. Much better, actually.¡±

    ¡°Just working some things out Zen, nothing to worry about,¡± Ember explained, smiling warmly at Zalia.

    Zalia looked at that warm smile and found herself looking quickly away, a slight heat rising to her face.

    That was something she was not used to.

    ¡°Do you think the Heat and Stone people will be alright with taking in more refugees?¡± Zalia asked, changing the subject.

    ¡°I think so, yeah. They seem okay with the few people I do bring back when I venture out to Endaria now and then. They might have some problems with it if it becomes too many people though,¡± Zen answered, looking deep in thought for his own part.

    Zalia really should have asked him about the current situation between the refugees here and the Heat and Stone people before she went and asked Glemp about joining the war. He probably knew them better than she did now that he had spent so long in the mountain.

    ¡°Well, there is that at least. I think the army will be happier being able to send people here rather than south towards the desert. At least this is somewhat close to the kingdom and with a known place of safety. I¡¯ve no idea what destination the people going south are moving towards. Though, it is a longer trek I guess,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°And it gets less dangerous the further north you go. We saw fewer demons and corruption from the rituals coming up this way. It is way worse down south,¡± Ember added, her tone taking on a sadness.

    Zalia knew Ember did all she could to help the people of Endaria but she also knew Ember would never think it was enough.

    ¡°You do all you can Ember, no one can ask more of you,¡± Zalia said, finding Ember looking away from her own warm smile.

    ¡°I know, I know. I still see so much bad happening out there despite my best efforts,¡± Ember murmured.

    ¡°Did you know people have started calling her Saint Ember,¡± Zalia said to Zen.

    ¡°Saint Ember?¡± he asked incredulously.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Ember protested.

    ¡°Right? I mean they aren¡¯t wrong but still. It was quite funny to hear the first time,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°You¡¯re one to talk, walking around blessing them like some kind of priest,¡± Ember shot back.

    ¡°Priest?¡± Zen asked in confusion.

    ¡°Oh, I may have a friend or two who are gods and call on them to give guidance to people every now and then, but that doesn¡¯t make me a priest. Unlike Aylie, who according to her classes actually is a priestess,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°You have a statue!¡± Aylie announced.

    Zalia buried her face into her hands. Betrayed, betrayed by the one she saved.

    ¡°A statue!¡± Zen said, bursting into laughter.

    ¡°Yeah, a bloody statue. Guess who¡¯s fault that is?¡± Zalia muttered.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Indis,¡± Zen guessed immediately.

    ¡°Yep! You somehow managed to avoid all mention whatsoever though. Unfair I say,¡± Zalia added.

    ¡°Hey, that is unfair. Why don¡¯t you have to deal with any of this statue and saint nonsense?¡± Ember said, narrowing her eyes at Zen.

    ¡°Well¡­ some of the people here do treat me with an unnerving amount of respect,¡± Zen said.

    ¡°It¡¯s what happens when you save them, apparently. Just don¡¯t get to the point where they start worshipping you,¡± Zalia whispered, shivering.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I would call it worshipping,¡± Ember argued.

    ¡°No? They built a statue,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Well¡­ alright I¡¯ll concede that. At least they haven¡¯t started making sacrifices to you?¡± Ember said.

    Zalia stared at her.

    Ember stared back.

    ¡°Why would you even put those words out into the world?¡± Zalia asked.

    Ember just smiled.

    This time Zalia didn¡¯t look away, narrowing her eyes at Ember.

    They hadn¡¯t spoken about the bond yet, specifically what they could now do. Sensing each other''s emotions was¡­ somehow different to her being able to do it with Boreal. It felt a little more personal.

    Maybe that was because Boreal wore her emotions in the way she stood, through posture and positioning. She wasn¡¯t hard to read at all, to Zalia at least.

    People were different, she hadn¡¯t ever been very good at reading people so having the ability to now¡­ well, it was different.

    ¡°I guess we¡¯re going to have to walk all the way back down south now,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°Yeah, seems like it. Anything you want to check out on the way down?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Actually, yeah. There is that town¡­¡± Zalia trailed off.

    Damn her memory sucked sometimes.

    ¡°Ostoss!¡± she said, remembering, ¡°Ostoss. Tristan lives¡­ lived? There, remember?¡±

    ¡°Oh! Yeah, Tristan. Shit, I¡¯ve not been up this far north since the ritual went off. I do wonder if he is doing okay. From what I remember that town was pretty shored up, not a small number of guards there. They might be doing okay,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°There were a few good people there. Many of them I fought with against the first corrupted I met,¡± Zalia murmured.

    ¡°Bloody corrupted,¡± Ember muttered.

    ¡°What has happened to them anyways?¡± Zalia asked.

    She realised she hadn¡¯t seen any of the madmen since coming back to Endaria.

    ¡°Oh, you see them here and there. Most of them went back to the capital, I think, though some still run around committing atrocities,¡± Ember said, vitriol in her voice.

    Zalia couldn¡¯t just hear the emotion, but feel it from the woman too.

    ¡°We need to talk,¡± Zalia sent to her.

    Ember nodded very slightly, in agreement with her.

    Naturally, Zalia allowed her own emotions to get through to Ember as well. They hadn¡¯t just formed a bond in name but reality as well. Ember had been there for Zalia more than a few times, the most recent time being quite significant.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Ember sent back.

    Zalia sat back and got comfortable.

    ¡°We can sense each others emotions and locations¡­ how do you feel about that?¡± Zalia asked telepathically.

    ¡°I have no issue with it, I trust you¡­ as long as you have no issue with it?¡± Ember replied.

    ¡°None at all. It¡¯s just, well, a little new to me. We don¡¯t have anything like this where I come from. Even if we did I would have been the last person to form one. Coming here has changed me quite a lot, to be honest,¡± Zalia sent back.

    ¡°And less than you might think. I¡¯m glad to have formed a bond with you, you¡¯re one of the most caring people I¡¯ve ever met, despite your tendency to hide it,¡± Ember sent.

    Zalia felt her face flushing at the compliment.

    ¡°Thank you. I just didn¡¯t want to overstep my bounds with the bond is all,¡± Zalia sent.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. One wouldn¡¯t have formed if I didn¡¯t also want it. I¡¯d let you know if you overstepped,¡± Ember sent.

    ¡°Are you two okay?¡± Zen asked.

    Zalia blinked, realising she had been staring into Ember¡¯s eyes and Ember had been staring back. How had she not realised the vibrant brown of Ember¡¯s eyes glowed so brightly by firelight before?

    ¡°Yeah, fine, fine,¡± Zalia said.

    Boreal was currently so close to the fire that Zalia feared she might try and slide into it. She was also a little more scared that she might actually be able to do that without being harmed. With Aylie resting on Boreal''s side on the floor and two of her closest friends by her side, Zalia felt¡­ better.

    She had definitely had times in the past weeks in Endaria when she had felt good but with the constant background threat of that memory hiding in her vault gone, a weight had been lifted from her. Accepting it had turned it from an unmanageable misery sometimes, to a dampener she could cope with.

    Her friend had died, but they had died for a purpose they believed in, for a reason. She had to make sure that the purpose they had died for wasn''t abandoned.

    Delphi, Ro-ak and the collective had put their trust in Zalia to come back one day and restore Cormaine to the beautiful world it had once been.

    She could see it now, beautiful glittering lakes, expansive forests and the cities of the Bathar that were half stone and half plant. They had lived with nature unlike any race, other than the Heat and Stone denizens, in Endaria did.

    The image flashed away and Zalia realised it had come from the other memory in her vault, the one given to her by the collective before she had left.

    She would go back and she would free Cormaine. She would save Ro-ak once more.

    The starlight wolf had been right. Coming up north had brought her toward the first step of her goals. She knew what she wanted to do, now she just had to find a way to do it. The first step of that was to beat back the demon invasion in Endaria, she was sure of it. Then, she could convince whichever armies remained to continue the fight into Cormaine. To root out the base of the problem. To make sure another invasion never happened again.

    Ember was watching her again, perhaps having felt the decision she had just come to through her emotions.

    ¡°Zen, if we send refugees your way, will you make sure to take care of them?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I¡­¡±

    She could see what he wanted to say. He wanted to say he would come with them, help them in their tasks. He wanted to say he would fight with them for the kingdom.

    They both knew it wasn¡¯t true. In reality, he wanted to stay with his family and protect them. He was a lover not a fighter.

    ¡°I will, yes.¡±

    ¡°Good. When we go to Ostoss, we might end up sending quite a few people back your way if they still live. Otherwise, we might also end up having the army send refugees up this way just until we can manage to take back the kingdom. Obviously I¡¯ll talk with Glemp about it before we leave,¡± Zalia added.

    ¡°And¡­ when will you be leaving?¡± Zen asked.

    Zalia met Ember¡¯s eyes and an agreement passed between them.

    ¡°We should leave tomorrow morning. There is still much to be done and every day we wait will be lives lost,¡± Zalia replied.

    ¡°I thought as much, though I wish you¡¯d stay longer I do understand,¡± Zen said.

    ¡°I know, I wish we could stay longer too,¡± Zalia said softly.

    ¡°Besides, it¡¯s not like this is the last time we will see you Zen,¡± Ember said cheerfully.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like the way you say that,¡± Zen mumbled.

    ¡°Well, not to worry. I¡¯ll keep Zalia safe,¡± Ember informed him.

    ¡°Oh? You¡¯ll keep me safe huh?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Of course, who else?¡± Ember scoffed.

    ¡°Well, I look forward to it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll bet you do,¡± Ember teased.

 Book 3: 28 - Heat and Stone

    Zalia was sitting on one of Glemp¡¯s benches watching them work. It looked to her like they were trying to recreate whatever experiment they had been working on that she had destroyed the day before.

    They were due to leave today but Zalia didn¡¯t want to go without saying goodbye.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for knocking that over yesterday.¡±

    ¡°No, no worries are needed. Not the most of import, no."

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t ruin anything.¡±

    Glemp put down what they were working on and turned to her.

    ¡°I know you do not like that we will not join you but you must understand, yes, that we need to stay here."

    ¡°You¡­ must stay here?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    Glemp looked at her for a long time, their eyes flicking between both of hers.

    ¡°Come.¡±

    Zalia furrowed her brow, following the much shorter Glemp out of their workshop.

    ¡°What are you showing me?¡±

    It was a few minutes of walking before they replied.

    ¡°You need only see to understand, yes.¡±

    Oddly, they took her on a path that she recognised. The last time she had left the mountain Glemp had taken her down to the very bottom to grab some of the plant that was Flame-root before she had. Now, however, she could create as much of the plant as she wanted simply by growing it herself. They started descending down the stairs to the floor-level chamber.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see anything strange last time we went down here,¡±

    ¡°You did not know how to look, no.¡±

    ¡°I did not know how to look¡­¡±

    Last time Glemp had taken her down there they had said it was for a gift, or something of the likes. She had assumed that meant the Flame-root, but had it really been for something different? Had they been testing her?

    They both stepped up to the little doorway before the chamber and once again Zalia felt the heat from being this close to the lava source. It was significantly cooler than the last time she had been there though, a result of her Heat resistance being so much higher in rank rather than the actual temperature being lower.

    Rather than ask what Glemp wanted her to see, a question she felt they would not answer, she tried to look closely into the chamber.

    At first, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. The pits of lava were calm and still, Flame-root grew out of the stone and the air shimmered with heat.

    It was odd, not like she would expect a volcano to be like but she didn¡¯t really know how the laws and forces of nature worked in a world of magic. She knew enough to know that natural ecosystems formed their own sort of balance by the magic emanating from them. A place of nature was self sustaining.

    As she watched, she slowly came to understand what Glemp had brought her here for.

    ¡°Is¡­ is one of the spirits in there?¡±

    Glemp nodded.

    ¡°Like the starlight wolf?¡±

    ¡°The wolf has visited before, yes, like the wolf."

    It made sense to her then. The starlight wolf had said that the older gods, spirits, of nature were slowly becoming that which they encompassed in their power. This one must have been a spirit of fire and stone, something of the sorts.

    She could see and feel it now, a vague aura that was almost indistinguishable from the heat permeating the mountain. A force of nature, strong as the mountain it stood within, its heat creating the home in which Glemp¡¯s people lived¡­ perhaps even making Glemp¡¯s people themselves.

    They had said they were formed from Heat and Stone, just as their name states. She had never questioned that, assuming it to be themselves who created new Heat and Stone denizens. What if it was the powerful spirit that lived here who did that?

    ¡°Why were your people made Glemp?¡±

    Glemp looked up at her with unblinking red eyes.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ¡°Why? No why. No, no no there is no why except the why we make ourselves."

    Despite the revelation, it made a sort of sense to Zalia. They had always been more¡­ in touch with nature than the other races, even the Bathar. They were unified in purpose, as if each Heat and Stone denizen was only part of a greater whole. Perhaps that metaphor wasn¡¯t so much metaphorical as literal. Perhaps they literally were part of a greater whole.

    ¡°May¡­ may I speak to it?¡±

    ¡°You already are."

    ¡°Then, why, why really, won¡¯t you join the war?¡± she whispered.

    ¡°We are the heat and the stone, yes. We do not take part in wars or politics. No, no we are a force of nature, not an army to be commanded. You may take refuge in the heat and stone but the heat and stone will not rise to fight at your bidding, Druid. Not yet, at least.¡±

    The voice came from Glemp, except, it wasn¡¯t Glemp. The voice was different, deeper, much deeper. The voice grated and flowed, its timbre somehow both rough and smooth.

    ¡°Not yet?¡± she thought.

    ¡°Then¡­ will you rise to fight at another time?¡±

    ¡°You listen but you do not understand. We are a force, Zalia of the Druids, not a being to be bargained with.¡±

    Her brows furrowed, an anger burning within her much like the lava in the pits.

    ¡°Then will you let those demons invade this world and destroy all nature?¡± she snapped.

    ¡°We can not simply stand up and stop them, it is not in our nature. Stone moves slowly, over hundreds, thousands of years. Do not think of us as callous or cruel, Zalia of the Druids. We simply are as we are. We have been so since the beginning and we shall be till the end."

    ¡°Then is there nothing you can do? Nothing you will give to aid in this fight other than refuge for those who cannot?¡±

    There was silence then. A minute, two, passed before they spoke again. Slowly indeed.

    ¡°Bring the one you call Ember to me. Her namesake is that of heat and her morals are of stone, solid and unyielding. Protective of those in her care and a fiery demise to those who oppose her. We will grant a blessing. We can give no more than this.¡±

    A blessing. Another blessing, that was. She was pretty sure these blessings were an extreme rarity yet was about to witness her fourth one. No one had disturbed these spirits of nature for a long, long time however so that might be having an impact on events.

    ¡°I¡­ I will. I will return shortly.¡±

    Zalia turned about and dashed up the stairs.

    She sprinted her way up through the mountain, past Heat and Stone denizens that had greeted her with hostility when she had first entered this mountain but now treated her with respect at best, indifference at worst. Up she went until she burst out onto the mountainside where the houses built for refugees were placed.

    She wasn¡¯t sure why they were built out here in the cold and not the warmth within but now was not the time for such questions.

    She exploded into Zen¡¯s house and her eyes quickly found Ember¡¯s.

    Ember''s expression turned to one of worry and there was an edge to her voice.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±

    Zalia wasn''t even slightly out of breath despite the run.

    ¡°Nothing, come, I¡¯ll explain."

    As Ember joined her, she moved back towards the mountain with an urgent step, though walking so she could explain.

    As she did, Ember listened attentively and said not a word until Zalia told her that the spirit wanted to bless her.

    ¡°Bless me!?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°I... don¡¯t know how to feel about that,¡± Ember murmured.

    ¡°Will you turn it down?¡±

    ¡°Is that an option?¡±

    ¡°Of course, I honestly don¡¯t think the spirit will care either way."

    Ember''s step slowed for but a moment, confusion obvious on her face.

    ¡°Then why is it doing this?¡±

    Zalia had been wondering that herself.

    ¡°I think, despite its many assurances otherwise, there is a little bit of¡­ a person in there. Whoever or whatever that spirit was before, it has returned to the nature and power it was born from but I think a little bit of its self remains yet."

    ¡°And¡­ is it safe for me to accept this blessing?¡±

    ¡°I think if it meant to harm us, it could do so very easily whether we consent or not. I¡¯ve felt the aura of a being similar and I¡¯m certain it could have been rid of us at any time we were in its mountain.¡±

    ¡°That was before you bothered it though."

    Zalia didn¡¯t respond. She knew Ember wasn¡¯t wrong about that.

    ¡°Look, I know the starlight wolf sent us up here for a reason. I thought that reason was Zen and partly it is but maybe it knew I might have a chance of convincing this spirit to help. It told me that a few of the other nature spirits would rather be rid of humans than help them but I feel it would have told us if this was one of them. Besides, why would it allow all these refugees here if it didn¡¯t care and want to help in some way?¡±

    ¡°Alright, those are good points. I¡¯ll accept it. Anything that can help fend off this invasion is good,¡± Ember agreed as she moved down the steps behind Zalia,¡± besides, can¡¯t let you hoard all the blessings, can I?¡±

    Ember chuckled but Zalia could hear the nervousness in it so she turned around and took both of Ember''s hands, giving her an assuring smile.

    ¡°Look, it''s going to be alright. The blessings I have gotten so far have been beyond helpful and have most likely kept me alive. Besides, you might finally get that heirloom armour you wanted so bad."

    Ember smiled back.

    ¡°Well, now that you mention that, what are we waiting for?¡±

    Zalia dropped Ember¡¯s hands and they dashed off again.

    It wasn¡¯t long before they reached the bottom, Glemp still waiting for them there.

    ¡°Are you ready?¡±

    Ember, still wearing her armour, looked nervously at Zalia.

    ¡°Yes."

    ¡°Then let us begin.¡±

    A warm glow began to emanate from Ember as a halo of light formed around her.

 Book 3: 29 - Ember of the Flame

    Zalia watched in awe as stone grew oh so slowly up from the floor around Ember¡¯s boots. It sped up, beginning to flow more than grind its way into shape as it formed to the plate armour Ember was wearing.

    The glow brightened as the stone grew hot enough to turn a deep orange.

    All the while, Ember kept eye contact with Zalia, showing no sign of pain at the considerable heat now emanating from her.

    The stone began to cool, solidifying and turning to a dark glassy obsidian, the glow diminishing with the dissipation of heat.

    The armour was glossy and dark, not rough but sleek and form-fitting with jagged, pointed spikes growing from the shoulder pads. The joints were perfectly crafted to slide smoothly allowing a wide range of motion and barely visible lines of glowing lava flowed through the armour like molten veins.

    Still, despite noting all of this, Zalia kept the eye contact that Ember had held throughout the process.

    ¡°You look good in that armour."

    Ember stretched out, testing the range of motion she could now attain.

    ¡°I know.¡±

    Glemp walked up and tapped it in a few places.

    ¡°Yes, very good armour.¡±

    Their voice had returned to normal and Glemp made no comment on the fact a spirit had just spoken through them.

    Zalia noted the familiar look of absence as Ember read through the notifications that must have swarmed her vision and used her own abilities to see what she could about the armour.

    Flamekeeper Plate (Heirloom) - Bronze rank.

    She also noted the feeling of excitement and appreciation that filled Ember despite her relatively calm exterior.

    Zalia walked up and poked Ember in the side of the head.

    ¡°Now you gotta bond it!¡±

    Ember shook her head.

    ¡°Nope."

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®nope¡¯?¡±

    Ember smiled, her eyes flicking up to focus on Zalia¡¯s face.

    ¡°Nope, looks like the process of the blessing already did that for me.¡±

    Zalia chewed her lip thinking about it. She couldn¡¯t really call that unfair as both of her heirlooms had formed a deeper bond upon receiving their blessings.

    ¡°Well, what does it do?¡±

    ¡°Well, other than be an extremely strong suit of regenerating armour? Have a look.¡±

    A little screen popped up in Zalia¡¯s vision.

    Flamekeeper Plate (Heirloom) - Bronze rank

    Tin - You can choose to leave prints of fire behind you as you walk.

    Iron - While the prints of fire are active, you may stomp your foot to cause a small eruption of flame on a nearby surface.

    Bronze - While the prints of fire are active, you are surrounded by a halo of flame that burns your enemies and heals your allies.

    ¡°Woah."

    It was pretty impressive, certainly a more combat-capable set of abilities than her own armour. She was a little worried about what exactly leaving behind prints of fire would mean for Ember when fighting in a forest but it was something that Zalia herself would be able to both contain and make use of if it came to it. She would always be able to regrow anything Ember burnt down.

    Besides, the abilities fit very well to Ember¡¯s own namesake. Zalia liked that and even thought the abilities fit to Ember as a person somewhat. She certainly was as protective of her friends as Zalia tended to be. She was protective and helpful to anyone in need really. It was part of what Zalia loved about her.

    Zalia looked back towards the lake of lava.

    ¡°Thank you for providing this blessing!¡±

    No reply came.

    Glemp stepped up beside her, looking happily over the lava.

    ¡°They of Heat and Stone has returned to their slumber."

    ¡°Give them my thanks if and when they wake up next then would you?¡±

    Glemp looked up at her with those red eyes.

    ¡°That may be a very, very long time."

    ¡°Surely they can¡¯t sleep that long."

    ¡°This is the first awakening to be recorded in a few hundred years."

    Zalia turned away from Ember to look at Glemp.

    ¡°I stand corrected.¡±

    Ember poked Zalia back.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°We really should be going soon, I¡¯m sure Boreal and Aylie would be ready by now."

    Zalia turned around.

    ¡°Yeah, we should."

    Then she paused for a moment, thinking.

    ¡°Though, while we are here I would like to go up and see the ritual site further up the mountain."

    Ember looked at her in surprise.

    ¡°That¡­ is actually a good idea."

    ¡°Why do you sound and look so surprised?¡±

    ¡°Remember when you thought it was a good idea to reverse Juniper''s ritual and get yourself sucked into Cormaine?¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    Ember looked at her blankly.

    ¡°You don¡¯t think it was a bad idea to do that?¡± she asked pointedly.

    ¡°Nope, you¡¯re not the only one that gets to sacrifice for your friends and the kingdom as a whole."

    Ember didn¡¯t argue that, knowing that Zalia was definitely right about that one even if she didn¡¯t like it.

    ¡°Up the mountain we go then.¡±

    ¡°We can fly up, it won¡¯t take too long,¡± Zalia suggested.

    Ember basically jumped in excitement.

    ¡°I would love that!¡±

    Zalia smiled, eyes twinkling.

    ¡°As would I."

    ¡°Quite interesting, yes, very,¡± Glemp muttered.

    ¡°I''m sure you wouldn¡¯t be interested, what with you being a person of the stone and all."

    ¡°No, actually, it would be an interesting experiment, yes. Unfortunately, I have not the time to waste, no,¡± Glemp corrected.

    ¡°I still think we could have flown the entire way here,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°That would have drawn the attention of every other flying creature and demon in the area and it takes a lot of mana for me to sustain that on a lot of people at once,¡± Zalia explained. Again.

    Ember muttered a little.

    ¡°Well that makes some sense I guess."

    Perhaps she had been hoping for an easy method of travel back to the war camp.

    Zalia started moving quickly up the stairs.

    ¡°Sorry to disappoint darling, let¡¯s go!"

    ¡°Darling?¡± Ember asked, her tone teasing.

    Despite the tone, Zalia could practically feel Ember¡¯s heart skip a beat, a combination of her ability to sense vibration and the bond they now shared. She stopped for only a moment to turn and give Ember a sly smile before continuing her quick pace up the stairs.

    ¡°Hey, now that isn¡¯t fair!¡± Ember called after her.

    Zalia heard the sound of heavy footsteps as Ember clanked up the stairs after her.

    Smiling to herself and her own heart beating faster than it should have, Zalia led Ember on a chase towards the surface, purposefully staying just ahead of the significantly slower Ember.

    Up they went, until Zalia burst out into fresh air and snow once more. Ember came out behind by only a few moments, stumbling over a patch of thick snow.

    Zalia caught her by both arms, Ember grabbing onto Zalia¡¯s arms for stability and regaining her balance.

    She found herself standing close to Ember, both of them holding the other. A little bit too close, not because Zalia didn¡¯t want Ember in her personal space but because she found that she did want Ember there. A little bit more than she realised.

    Zalia stepped back, brushing down her clothes with a cough.

    ¡°Hmm, right. Let¡¯s go find the other two then shall we?¡±

    Ember smiled at her and nodded.

    ¡°Sure."

    Zalia could feel her face was flushed, because of the cold obviously, and yet found that Ember was completely at ease. Damn confident, intelligent, beautiful¡­

    She turned about and walked towards Zen¡¯s house, completely aware that Ember could feel her emotions just as she could feel Embers.

    ¡°Boreal come out here with Aylie please,¡± Zalia pleaded.

    It was but a few seconds before both Boreal and Aylie exploded out of the house in a puff of snow. Boreal slid to a stop and Aylie bumped off of her to get ahead, running towards Ember and Zalia.

    As the other two approached, Zalia called out.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to fly up the mountain, get ready!¡±

    She began channelling the wings of air ritual, using Hunter¡¯s Mark on herself and the other three so that the ritual targeted at herself would affect the others as well.

    Just before she took off, Boreal looked Zalia up and down, her ears aeroplaning a little bit and a thought of amusement drifting over their bond. Even Boreal was teasing her now?

    She jumped into the air, her wings strong where her legs were feeling weak.

    ¡°Come on, you two!¡± Zalia called down, watching as Boreal took off.

    Aylie jumped and attempted to control the wings, only barely managing to stay airborne yet getting better by the second. Ember on the other hand, didn¡¯t even manage that far.

    She looked up nervously and tried to fly up but failed, falling a short distance back to the ground.

    ¡°I.. I don¡¯t know if I can do this,¡± Ember called up.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got this!¡± Zalia called back down.

    Ember failed once more so Zalia flew down and landed.

    ¡°Just think of them like extra limbs, limbs that can make you fly. Flex them, flap them and join me in the sky,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡®You¡¯re going to have to carry me,¡± Ember said, her tone final.

    Zalia looked at her nervously.

    ¡°Carry you?¡±

    ¡°Mhm, I can¡¯t do this in a short time and we need to be off soon. Just carry me up. Here, I¡¯ll even store my armour to make it easier,¡± Ember added, her armour vanishing.

    Her bonding had given it its own storage space, something Zalia¡¯s armour didn¡¯t even have despite another of her abilities allowing her to do something similar.

    ¡°Should be easy enough,¡± Zalia murmured.

    Her heart was beating wildly but she steeled her nerves and scooped Ember up.

    Before she could question her own sanity, she flew up and began to travel up the mountain, going slowly as to allow Aylie a little more time to adjust.

    Ember clung to her, arms wrapped around Zalia¡¯s neck and her face pressed to her shoulder. Every point of contact sending little fiery beams through Zalia as if the blessing Ember had received made her hot to the touch.

    Zalia managed to maintain their course, however, as controlling the magic was an almost subconscious action to her now.

    She wasn¡¯t particularly worried about running into any of the Bronze birds that flew about, knowing full well that the three Bronze ranks in their own party could easily win that fight.

    They flew up for a long time, Zalia managing to settle her nerves and just enjoy the flight with Ember in her arms, before they arrived at the place she remembered the ritual to be. She made sure to keep Aylie warm with a little magic on the flight up.

    They landed and looked out at the ritual site to find that¡­ absolutely nothing had changed.

 Book 3: 30 - Theory

    Zalia stared at the wind torn ritual site.

    ¡°This looks¡­ entirely the same."

    Ember came up beside her, eyes scanning.

    ¡°Yeah, doesn¡¯t seem any different to me."

    It was exactly as Zalia remembered it, blood stains flaking away in the alcove set into the mountainside.

    ¡°Does it seem¡­ older than some of the other ones we have come across to you?"

    ¡°What?¡± Ember asked.

    Zalia kicked some of the flaking substance and watched it scrape away and shatter to dust.

    ¡°Well, the blood seems older."

    Ember knelt down and scraped some away with her hand.

    ¡°It could have been one of the first ones that were performed, plus it is in quite a hostile environment."

    ¡°Hmm, that could explain it,¡± Zalia murmured.

    She had a feeling that this ritual was different to many of the others she had come across. All of the other rituals had some effect, even the one that Zalia had disturbed in the first place. Well, she didn¡¯t know that for sure as she didn¡¯t know where every ritual had been placed but there were quite a lot of demons roaming the lands and many dead spots that she had to heal.

    Despite all that Ember said though, Zalia felt like she knew this ritual hadn¡¯t been activated. Whether it was an instinct or a subliminal power given by her magic, she just knew it.

    ¡°What if¡­ what if this is a ritual from a time before?¡± Zalia suggested.

    Ember turned to her, frowning.

    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±

    Zalia watched Boreal walk around the site, sniffing at the ground occasionally. Aylie was keeping close to her, one hand holding onto the hem of her shirt.

    ¡°Well, remember we theorised that this might not be the first time this has happened? What if this is a ritual site from another time,¡± Zalia explained.

    Ember turned back to the ritual and walked to the middle of the room, frown still present.

    ¡°I guess it could be but why haven¡¯t any other sites like this one been found? Remember the map of them that was being made by the Morning¡¯s Shade? This one fit perfectly into the huge circle that was being made by the rituals."

    ¡°Hmm,¡± Zalia hummed.

    She noticed Aylie shiver a little bit.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get down from here, nothing more for us to see really."

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Ember came over for another lift and before they left, Zalia looked at the site, closed her eyes and carefully stored the image of the site into the vault, a light mist leaving her eyes and twisting down her body to enter her hand.

    She met Ember¡¯s eyes, receiving a teasing smile that caused her heart to skip a beat before she scooped the woman up and began the flight back down the mountain.

    Aylie was already in love with the flight, twisting this way and that as she performed aerial manoeuvres that shouldn¡¯t have been possible for someone so new to the task.

    ¡°She¡¯s a natural,¡± Zalia sent to Ember.

    ¡°Definitely a lot better than me,¡± Ember thought back.

    ¡°I feel like you¡¯re better than you let on,¡± Zalia accused.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Ember replied innocently.

    This woman.

    She could see her smiling up through the bottom of her vision and Zalia held on just a little tighter.

    They landed and she put Ember down gently.

    ¡°Let¡¯s say goodbye to Zen and make our way towards Ostoss then shall we?¡± Zalia suggested.

    ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± Ember agreed.

    Aylie floated up beside her.

    ¡°Ostoss?¡±

    Zalia pointed in the general direction of the town.

    ¡°It¡¯s a town to the west and further south a little, back in Endaria."

    She let the wing ritual fade as Boreal landed, dropping Aylie into the snow. She could see that even just that short flight up and then back down for four people had pretty much emptied her mana. not enough to be in danger of passing out due to mana drain but it was still alarming to see how quickly that particular ritual drained it.

    They walked over to the big house that belonged to Zen and his family and entered, knocking the snow off of their boots as they did.

    None of them had boots made for the snow, though they were all thick and sturdy. For Ember and Zalia this wasn¡¯t really a problem, their increased strength and dexterity more than enough to make up the difference. Aylie wasn¡¯t so lucky and did slip about quite a bit.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Zen greeted as they pushed into the room, feeling a blast of heat pass over them.

    A lot of his family weren¡¯t there, probably out performing various tasks. Zalia had noticed that his parents were quite high rank and she assumed they were trying to find a way to farm up here on the mountain. That was what they had spent their lives doing after all.

    ¡°Hey Zen, we¡¯re about to be off,¡± Ember said as Zalia got lost in thought again.

    Zen looked up from where he sat.

    ¡°Time to say goodbye then."

    She could hear a hint of sadness in his voice.

    ¡°We¡¯ll see each other again,¡± Zalia promised.

    ¡°I know, just keep safe out there alright? Boreal, I trust you to make sure they don¡¯t do anything stupid,¡± Zen said.

    Boreal bowed her head and managed to pull off a smug expression.

    ¡°You really have faith in the wrong people,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Zalia silly,¡± Boreal sent.

    It came with an image of Zalia and Ember running toward the cave entrance as Boreal launched her surprise attack and buried them both in snow.

    ¡°Boreal sillier,¡± Zalia retorted.

    She didn¡¯t say anything back but Zalia noticed her tail flick aggressively. She¡¯d have to watch out for more surprise attacks in future.

    Zen came up to them, arms wide open.

    ¡°Well, see you later Zen,¡± Zalia said, stepping up to hug the large guy.

    Ember also received a hug, Boreal got some scratches and Aylie received a pat on the head that she looked mildly affronted by.

    They left, Zalia¡¯s mana recharged enough to allow for her to activate flight for the short distance to the bottom of the mountain. As they landed, Zalia put Ember down and they began their journey out of the snow.

 Book 3: 31 - Tornado

    It took about a week for the four travelling companions to reach Ostoss. Along the way they did have to fight one Bronze demon, an easy take down for the three Bronze in their group and Zalia messed around with her woodworking skills each night. This led to a gain in a couple skill levels.

    Congratulations! Kill shot has reached Bronze 4.

    Congratulations! Fight or Flight has reached Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Survivalist has reached Bronze 4.

    Congratulations! Flora Identification has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Preparation has reached Bronze 4.

    Congratulations! Harvester has reached Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Herbal magic has reached Bronze 4

    Congratulations! Herbalist has reached Bronze 2.

    Congratulations! Healing presence has reached Bronze 5.

    Congratulations! Low Light Vision has gained three levels reaching Iron 18.

    Congratulations! Aura Observation has gained four levels reaching Iron 19.

    Congratulations! Mobility has reached Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Teaching has gained three levels reaching Iron 12.

    Congratulations! Flight has reached Iron 13.

    Congratulations! Bow - Weapon proficiency has reached Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Sword - Weapon proficiency has reached Bronze 3.

    It was quite a lot of level gains for a few reasons. The first and main reason was that since she had arrived in Cormaine and even further since she had gotten back to Endaria, she hadn¡¯t had the time nor the mental capacity to continue her training very often. With the extra time she now had as the others slept, she practiced her sword and bow work, formed and broke apart the chunk of wood, set up protective living rituals, observed the auras of her friends closely and went for runs.

    It was a lot but it helped pass the time much quicker than her usual sitting around and waiting. She also sometimes used her wings to practice how her sword work and archery skills would need to change when fighting in the air rather than on the ground. Obviously, it wasn¡¯t as good practice as the real thing but every bit could count.

    Not only that but now Aylie had her class, Zalia spent a good portion of their days walking teaching Aylie about the skills they shared and trying to help her figure out the skills they didn¡¯t. She also taught some basic tracking skills, knowing they were useful for anyone really but especially another Druid. Additionally, she actually tried to help Aylie learn some simple mathematics and letters. It was at this time that she realised she didn''t actually know Endarian letters and Ember took over that half. With bonded mental attributes, it wasn¡¯t such a hard task but something she thought the young girl should learn. Maybe it wasn¡¯t the norm in this world but the education system within her own was something she took for granted. Aylie hadn¡¯t been taught anything at all and probably would have spent her life as a farmer or other trade worker in which she wouldn¡¯t have needed anything other than simple addition.

    Still, she learned quite quickly and Zalia wasn¡¯t surprised. She took to any task with fervor, as if she wanted to learn every little piece of information and advice Zalia had to give. It was simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. Zalia knew that Aylie clung to her words and what she had to teach with such strength because of what had been taken from her. Inside, the little girl was desperately clutching for any kind of grounding after having her life shaken so thoroughly to its core. Just old enough to understand what had happened yet not old enough to know how to deal with it. So, Zalia taught her all she could.

    Soon enough, time passing much quicker due to her busy nighttime schedule, they arrived at Ostoss. They had headed past what was Juniper¡¯s old farm on the way but had found it entirely burnt to ashes and Alston, the town nearby, still somewhat intact yet entirely devoid of life. The people had obviously fled, hopefully some having been saved by Zen and his group in the north.

    Ostoss itself though, was heavily fortified with walls and guards and as they arrived, Zalia found it still occupied. Occupied and under attack. There were guards up on the walls, slinging spells, arrows and valiantly defending from a veritable horde of flying demons as they tried to break into the town. The reason that the town had not fallen yet, or so Zalia assumed, was the big dome of energy that arced and crackled over top as demons tried to break through.

    ¡°Boreal, take Aylie and run around the other side of the town and see if you can¡¯t get in,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°I can help!¡± Aylie protested.

    ¡°I don¡¯t doubt you can but this isn¡¯t the time for that. This is too dangerous, there are too many of them. I won¡¯t be able to keep you safe down there,¡± Zalia quickly explained.

    Aylie looked like she was about to protest but Ember spoke up.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°Please, we can take care of this just fine,¡± Ember said softly.

    Zalia could see it in Aylie¡¯s eyes. The fear that she would be the only one left again, that even her saviour would die when she lived on. She didn¡¯t want to be left alone again.

    She knelt down to take both Aylie¡¯s hands in her own.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I lived in the homeland of these creatures and they couldn¡¯t take me down. I¡¯ll live through today and every other day and I will always return to you ok? One day you¡¯ll be big, old and strong enough that you can join me in these fights but for now I need to know that you¡¯re safe, alright?¡± Zalia explained calmly.

    Aylie nodded so Zalia lifted her onto Boreal.

    ¡°Keep her safe,¡± she whispered, giving Boreal¡¯s head a ruffle.

    Boreal sped off and Zalia activated the wing ritual for both her and Ember. They weren¡¯t far away from the battle but she wanted to get in there as quickly as possible. She recognised the enemies, the small Tin and Iron rank flying ones that would be absolutely no challenge to her. It was time to show Ember how exactly she had purged one of those dens practically by herself.

    They sped on wings of air towards the battle, Ember actually able to fly with ease despite her pretense at being unable to a week earlier on the mountain. Zalia smiled to herself as she shook her head, entirely sure the woman had just wanted Zalia to hold her.

    As they flew, Zalia was able to see with incredible detail due to her Flight passive and she spotted Tristan on the walls, yelling orders. She was glad to see her friend alive and kicking, looking like he was leading the towns defence force no less. Well, she would take these demons off his hands and help lighten the load.

    She dove from above and the speed of her drop allowed her to smash through a few of the demons before they realised what was happening. She dove straight to the centre of their ranks and as Ember was about to join her, Zalia activated Nature¡¯s Wrath.

    The elements became hers to command, two air elementals forming like twin whirling vortexes. They immediately flew out of the swarm and began using air to push the demons closer to Zalia at her wordless mental command.

    She took a hold of the very winds with her mind, pulling and pushing it into a much, much larger swirling tornado around her as the demons struggled to escape. Their attempts were futile however as wind speeds picked up and any little demon trying to escape was immediately shoved back in by the two elementals guarding the perimeter.

    Zalia wasn¡¯t done however. The winds themselves were not enough to harm the creatures greatly so she started ripping up chunks of earth from below and allowing them to be whipped up into the swirling maelstrom. Thuds of earth on flesh could be heard, the cries of the impacted whisked away in the wind. Blood and torn bodies soon filled the whirlwind and the effect was multiplicative as the broken bodies of the already dead demons caused chaos amongst their brethren.

    It was all over in a matter of seconds, perhaps half a minute of stone and wind and flesh colliding in a morbid tornado of pain. She allowed the winds and the stone to drop, the broken bodies of her enemies dropping with it.

    She looked up to see Ember hadn¡¯t joined the fight, simply floating in the wind above with shock and awe coating her expression and body language.

    Zalia dropped down to land, knowing that her mana would surely be close to out. She checked and sure enough it was at less than a quarter. Ember dropped down too, obviously having put two and two together about the very same thing.

    ¡°Zalia, what the hell was that!?¡± Ember exclaimed as she landed.

    Zalia used the heat manipulation to gather enough heat to start little fires that she used to burn the blood and gore from her armour with.

    ¡°That, was Nature¡¯s Wrath,¡± Zalia replied smugly.

    She felt good showing off for Ember, especially considering she hadn¡¯t really done much other than shoot the occasional demon since they had found each other again.

    ¡°I know, but¡­ how?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°It has an extremely long cooldown, remember? It also used almost all of my mana to do that. I could have achieved the same over a much longer time through other methods as I¡¯m sure you could too,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really have any¡­ area of effect abilities like that,¡± Ember said sullenly.

    ¡°Aw, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got enough for the both of us. Besides, it¡¯s nothing compared to what Aylie¡¯s Starfall will be like at Bronze rank. Mine is a six hour cooldown, hers is two days. It can already hurt us at Tin,¡± Zalia pointed out.

    She had a scary thought. What would that ability be like if Aylie ever reached ascendant? Would she be able to drop an actual star on someone?

    She hoped not. She didn¡¯t like the idea that anyone could have that kind of power.

    ¡°Come on, I saw Tristan from up there. Let¡¯s see if we can get inside shall we?¡± Zalia suggested.

    Ember still looked like she was recovering from Zalia¡¯s display so she stored her armour, grabbed Ember¡¯s hand in her own and started walking towards the gate.

    ¡°Are you two safe? Did you get inside?¡± Zalia sent to Boreal.

    ¡°Safe, inside,¡± Boreal sent back.

    A picture of the two of them walking down a dirty street with thin hungry looking people arrived with the words. Zalia had a feeling that Saint Ember would have her work cut out for her here.

    The gates opened as they neared and Zalia saw Tristan run out to meet her.

    ¡°Zalia!? By the gods, I thought I saw you in the middle of all that but I never imagined¡­¡± he yelled as he ran.

    ¡°Tristan! Long time no see,¡± Zalia said, smiling as she held Ember¡¯s hand tightly.

    ¡°How in the worlds did you do that?¡± he asked as he finally reached them.

    Zalia looked at the many, many kill notifications and the two levels Nature¡¯s Wrath had gained.

    ¡°Well, I have a loooong story for you,¡± Zalia said, getting ready to explain again what had happened to her and where she had been.

    ¡°That can wait, come inside. We¡¯d be happy to compensate you however we can,¡± he interrupted.

    ¡°I¡¯d love to.¡±

 Book 3: 32 - State of Ostoss

    Zalia found herself seated at a table in a long low dining hall with Tristan seated opposite her and Ember seated beside her. She could sense Boreal¡¯s location and knew that she was making her way through town towards them.

    On their way to the dining hall, Zalia had seen many sights such as what Boreal had sent to her. Starving people, disorder and absolute chaos reigned within the confines of the walls. Where the army camp was a symbol of order in the face of dark times, this town had become a cesspit. She had seen several younger people stealing from others and sprinting away, mothers in gutters with children barely alive next to them. She had even seen a man dead in an alley, a knife wound in his chest and blood pooling.

    She wanted to stop and help each and every person in need and she knew that Ember felt the same. She could feel that emotion as bright as daylight shining from the midday sun. She also knew that they would be able to help better by working with the military force within the city walls. The dining hall they sat in might have originally been set for that purpose but now looked to be a barracks for the military force, one half of the space cleared and containing various bedrolls and low bunks.

    Zalia leaned forward.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on in this city Tristan?¡±

    He shrugged.

    ¡°Same as what¡¯s happening in most of the rest of Endaria I guess.¡±

    ¡°No, no this is not the same. Things seem really bad here.¡±

    ¡°If I were one of the people on the streets I¡¯d rather leave than try live in this place,¡± Ember murmured, her eyes focused on the doorway.

    ¡°That¡¯s easy to say with a class like yours. Many of these people are farmers, cooks, clothiers and all other types of non-combat classes. They wouldn¡¯t last a day out there,¡± Tristan snapped.

    Zalia raised her hands placatively.

    ¡°Hey, we aren¡¯t trying to attack you in any way.¡±

    Tristan took in a deep breath and sighed heavily.

    ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s just that some of my soldiers actually did that. They got it into their heads that the others were holding them down and decided to leave on their own. I have no idea if they live or are dead but they left our defenses in shambles.¡±

    Ember''s gaze focused on Tristan.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that happened.¡±

    ¡°As am I,¡± he agreed.

    ¡°You said your soldiers. Are you in charge?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Sort of. I¡¯m the only one in town with actual military experience. Everyone else who now fights is either a guard or some type of adventurer who has stood up to help. The shield dome is created by a Silver rank Enchanter with the Barrier mage specialisation. That in itself has saved us time and time again. Well, since I was the only one with military experience I kind of ended up in charge. Nothing official mind you but people do listen to me.¡±

    Zalia leaned back, ideas flashing through her mind.

    ¡°A Silver rank Enchanter hey?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, they live centrally and are pretty reclusive. Part of the reason for the Barrier specialisation I¡¯d guess.¡±

    ¡°Do you have any food stores left?¡±

    ¡°That¡­ yeah, a bit but not much. While we have plenty of farmers we don¡¯t have much farmable land and no conjurers of any sort. While we have been thinking of expanding the dome to get a little bit of farmland they can work, we were stretched thin before those idiots decided to leave. Enough about us though, I want to hear where you¡¯ve been and what happened. You joined up with the Morning¡¯s Shade right? You must have some kind of idea what the hell has caused all of this.¡±

    Zalia turned to look at Ember.

    ¡°Yeah, we know a bit.¡±

    She went on to explain the entire deal around the rituals, the king, Juniper and what had caused this entire mess. Then she described their final fight atop the tower at Endelbyrn and her further¡­ adventures in Cormaine. She kept that all to a minimum, not seeing any reason he needed to know everything and while she found herself growing emotional when coming to her escape from Cormaine, she managed to get it out without breaking down entirely.

    Ember took over and explained what had happened after the rituals had gone off on her side, about the army still fighting down to the south and what she had been up to in the meantime. Hearing that, Tristan started to look hopeful but as Ember noticed as well, she told him she had not run into his missing people.

    Then they explained about the mountain to the north and Glemp¡¯s people, how it was a safehaven. There were major issues in bringing such a large population there however. Mainly in that these people probably wouldn¡¯t even fit within the mountain even if the Heat and Stone denizens weren¡¯t also living there.

    ¡°Well, you two have certainly been around a lot. I can see how you have such freedom of movement with you being so strong now Zalia,¡± Tristan said.

    She gestured to the doorway.

    ¡°And there is someone else for you to meet.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    Tristan turned around as Boreal and Aylie walked in the door, the latter riding the former.

    ¡°Oh shit!¡±

    Tristan stood up from his seat and summoned a large double-edged axe from out of nowhere.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Zalia exclaimed.

    But recognition had already dawned in Tristan¡¯s eyes as the blade vanished again.

    ¡°Is that Boreal?"

    ¡°Yeah she grew a little bit,¡± Zalia said nonchalantly.

    ¡°A little bit!?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°World just smaller,¡± Boreal sent to them all.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°What do you mean the world is smaller?¡± Tristan asked, apparently too overcome with the size of Boreal to be shocked at the mental communication.

    ¡°And this,¡± Zalia said, interrupting, ¡°is Aylie.¡±

    Aylie waved from atop Boreal¡¯s back.

    ¡°Aylie, this is Tristan. He is a friend of mine and a strong fighter,¡± Zalia introduced.

    ¡°Zalia?¡± Tristan asked.

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s child is this?¡± he asked.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Zalia asked, frowning.

    ¡°Well, last I checked you didn¡¯t have a child,¡± Tristan explained.

    ¡°Ah. It¡¯s¡­ complicated,¡± she said.

    ¡°Her family was killed, I managed to save her from a demon. She¡¯s been with me ever since,¡± she explained mentally.

    Tristan¡¯s eyes widened just a little bit at the explanation but he seemed to finally begin to relax, taking his seat again.

    ¡°Tristan, I¡¯d like to do what I can to help these people. Is there any way you can organise a small squad to give out food safely?¡± Ember asked.

    Tristan looked up sharply.

    ¡°You have food?¡±

    Ember explained her ability. It wouldn¡¯t feed everyone in the city by a long shot but it would definitely help some people. At this explanation, his eyes seemed to light up.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s excellent news!¡±

    He called over an older boy, perhaps fourteen years old, and asked him to go collect a few people he named.

    The boy ran off to do as instructed.

    "I can start today if you''d like?"

    ¡°Absolutely. Is there anything you need to get started?¡±

    ¡°No, just a minute or two to cast the ability,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°I actually might be able to help as well. Do you have any type of park or place inside the walls that could be farmed?¡± Zalia asked.

    The excited light in Tristan''s eyes dimmed just a little.

    ¡°Some farmers did actually try to take a central park and start growing food and were successful, until a group of thieves came and stole it all, killed one of the men too.¡±

    It was horrible, that people could do such a thing to the only ones in the city capable of growing food for everyone yet it was not unexpected. Zalia was actually surprised she hadn¡¯t seen more of that in the time since the rituals.

    ¡°Well, I can cause plants to grow at extremely increased speeds. Perhaps I can help?¡± Zalia suggested.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure some people would be willing to try again with your help,¡± Tristan agreed, ¡°especially with how strong you¡¯ve grown. Not a lot of people, if anyone, in this city that could contest you in a one on one fight.¡±

    That brought a little shock to Zalia¡¯s system. She was a lot stronger than she had been, but surely in a city this large there were many powerful people. The Silver ranked Enchanter for one but¡­ well, their powers would probably be more keyed around utility and enchanting items, rather than instant and powerful attacks.

    She tapped her chin in thought.

    ¡°Good, I¡¯d love to give it a go. I have some tricks up my sleeve that may help us out here. Some things that the Enchanter might be interested in working on as well.¡±

    A group of people made their way through the barracks towards their table and settled in next to them.

    ¡°Trist, we already ran a food tent today, what¡¯s this I¡¯m hearing about you wanting to run another?¡± one of the men asked.

    ¡°We¡¯ve got some good news. These are the people that took out the demons so quickly. One of them has an ability to conjure food on a daily basis! We can do more now,¡± Tristan explained excitedly.

    That set the whole table to murmuring and some of the other nearby guards turned to listen in.

    Tristan stood up from the table.

    ¡°Well, what are we waiting for!¡±

    The guards ran off and started gathering some items each. One of them actually pulled out a large fold out cover attached to four posts, others yet grabbed weapons and tables.

    They all moved out of the barracks and into the city and Zalia, Ember, Aylie and Boreal quickly followed.

    The group walked a little ways away, down a main street to what Zalia remembered as the city square where Tristan had made a call to arms speech so long ago. That had been the start of a lot of current events, for Zalia at least. It was the time she had seen her first corrupted man, made her first kill on a person and helped stop the raids on Ostoss and the nearby farmers. It only occurred to her then that the town probably hadn¡¯t recovered from those raids when this entire invasion had started. It seemed like a bad time for these people all around as of late.

    The few guards quickly set up the cover, tables and some nearby hungry-looking people started lining up. Some ran off to presumably get friends and family so that they could be fed too.

    ¡°Gather around, gather around! We have some good news!¡± one of the guards yelled out.

    Tristan gestured to Ember.

    ¡°From now until this woman decides to leave town, there will be an extra hand out of food every day! She is able to conjure some each day!¡±

    Murmurs spread like wildfire through the people gathering about and Zalia saw on their faces the dawning light of hope. These people had suffered a lot in recent times and she was glad that they could give something to these people other than more blood and pain.

    Ember started focusing and unlike how her ability had worked last time, a huge table behind the tent started shimmering into existence, a bounty of food outlined in the glowing visage.

    Zalia heard someone murmur, ¡°Saint Ember.¡±

    She wondered how word of Ember''s deeds had reached even here yet she also knew that some people did manage to make it across parts of the land unharmed. By the looks of it, there were definitely more people in Ostoss than there previously had been when she had come through on her way to Endelbyrn.

    The whispered words spread through the crowd even as more people pressed in from the nearby streets. They were obviously used to this kind of thing happening each day and managed not to attack each other in their fervor to get food.

    Ember finished casting the spell and stumbled a bit. Zalia quickly caught her as the table apparated behind them.

    It wasn¡¯t anything fancy, only very basic stews and bread, filling yet bland food. Zalia could tell that much by the smell and the appearance of it all.

    She didn''t doubt that Ember could make something fancier with her ability but the sheer volume of food she had summoned took away from the quality.

    People pressed forward and were quickly sent away with bowls of steaming stew and toasted bread. Zalia held onto Ember as the team of guards moved with practiced motion, smoothly and quickly handing out what they could.

    Despite the huge volume of food, there were still people lined up when it ran out, their disappointed and downtrodden faces bringing pangs of pain to Zalia¡¯s heart as they slowly walked or stumbled away.

    She had tried to push her healing through the people as they lined up and did notice that some people looked better for it. She hoped to be able to eliminate any disease or wounds that existed in the town, knowing that doing so would reduce the food and water requirement of the people. Being injured or sick was hungry work.

    Once it was all done, the table summoned by Ember vanished into a golden glowing dust that quickly disappeared as well. The guards solemnly packed up their things and began the walk back to the barracks. Zalia could see in their posture and expression that they wished they could do more, yet there wasn¡¯t anything to be done. At least the people would be able to eat better from now on and, hopefully, that would reduce the chances of people trying to raid whatever Zalia managed to set up in terms of a farm.

    ¡°Want to show me the way to the central park?¡± Zalia asked Tristan.

    ¡°Sure, yeah. Let¡¯s go now."

    He waved at the other guards.

    "See you back at the barracks.¡±

    He led them back through the town square and to the left, moving past some straggling refugees towards the east. The road led to what had probably once been a beautiful park but was now somewhat dead and devoid of life. The trees looked sad and wilted, the grass yellowed.

    ¡°Everything''s soul is so¡­ pained here,¡± whispered Aylie.

    Zalia hadn¡¯t been paying attention to Aylie, too deep in her own wandering thoughts and the things she was seeing. She wished Aylie didn¡¯t have to see any of this, the horrors happening to her people.

    She let her Healing presence flow out over the park and grass began to lift back up, looking lively and green again. The leaves on the trees unfolded and took on a glossy sheen, the boughs of the trees seeming to shake less in the wind.

 Book 3: 33 - Seek

    Zalia watched in satisfaction as the park was returned to beauty as she walked through it, pleased with her power''s ability to do something so¡­ simply good. A lot of her abilities were used for pain, death and assisting in that regards. At least, that was how she often used them.

    Healing Presence though, it was entirely about rejuvenating what was damaged.

    Tristan was walking slightly ahead of her to watch the plants being restored.

    ¡°Wow Zalia, I¡­ that is something else.¡±

    ¡°I never get tired of seeing it,¡± Ember added with a broad smile Zalia felt.

    Boreal, Ember and Aylie were all behind her as she did her work, though it was more of a casual stroll than an active effort.

    Tristan turned to her walking backwards

    ¡°You¡¯re different.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been a while,¡± Zalia pointed out with a smile.

    ¡°Not long enough for the change I see in you, not to mention you¡¯ve reached Bronze already!¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°I guess you could say that I¡¯ve been in a place that I had to change a little bit to survive in."

    They passed over a wooden bridge that was grown over a little bubbling brook.

    ¡°And where was that?¡± Tristan asked, now walking forward again as he admired her handiwork.

    ¡°Cormaine,¡± Zalia said.

    ¡°She would be the person if any to survive that place,¡± Ember chipped in from behind, a growl of agreement soon following from Boreal.

    Tristan stopped and turned to face her once more.

    ¡°How in the worlds did you get there?¡±

    Zalia leaned against the railing of the little wooden bridge.

    ¡°Well, I suppose you could guess it was because of that little ritual that went off,¡± Zalia said, breathing out a soft sigh.

    It was time to explain where she had been again.

    Tristan nodded his head a few times.

    ¡°Ah yes, that little ritual. Well, that explains it a bit."

    Then, he began walking off again.

    Zalia pushed off the railing and looked at Ember quizzically.

    ¡°Not going to ask about it?¡± Zalia asked, following after him.

    ¡°No. You¡¯d tell me if you needed to talk about it. Besides, I¡¯m sure it isn¡¯t a fun memory to recall,¡± Tristan said over his shoulder.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Zalia quickly stepped up beside him.

    ¡°No, it isn¡¯t."

    ¡°I get it, I have my own memories I prefer not to recall over and over,¡± Tristan replied, his wandering gaze seeming to stare into nothingness.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Zalia said, bumping her shoulder into his.

    They meandered through the rest of the park, coming out the other side and back into the dirty city filled with hungry refugees.

    Zalia stopped and sat against a tree, looking back out over the park.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± Tristan asked, leaning against a tree on the other side of the path.

    ¡°What do I think?¡± Zalia asked, looking up at him as the other three settled next to her.

    ¡°About the park. Think it can be done?¡±

    ¡°Easily, if you have enough people to work it into a proper field. I¡¯m surprised it isn¡¯t already with the state the place is in. I don¡¯t understand why anyone would have attacked the previous efforts to turn it into farmland,¡± Zalia said, frowning.

    Tristan turned to look across the people nearby.

    ¡°They¡¯re hungry and some heard there was grain being used to set up a farm and thought it was better served in their stomachs. Simple as that I think,¡± Tristan explained.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, it doesn¡¯t feel¡­ right,¡± Zalia murmured, looking down at the grass between her legs.

    ¡°It isn¡¯t right. Not much in war is.¡±

    ¡°On that, we agree.¡±

    They sat for a while longer before Tristan left to find some people to help work the field. He expected it wouldn¡¯t take long, considering how desperate people were for food.

    Zalia wasn¡¯t quite sure what was going on in the town of Ostoss but something didn¡¯t feel right. It was like a sensation nudging against her senses that she couldn¡¯t quite see. Something in the corner of her eye that vanished when she turned to look.

    ¡°You healed their souls,¡± Aylie murmured from beside her.

    Zalia looked at her and she was staring across the park in awe.

    ¡°You can do that too you know,¡± Zalia reminded her, giving her a little nudge with her shoulder.

    Aylie nodded, still staring at the park.

    Zalia knew that with this ability, Aylie would grow up in a very different way to most people. Seeing thing¡¯s souls and understanding parts of the world that no one else did must have an effect on a person. Especially one going through a stage of development like Aylie was, still a child.

    ¡°Let¡¯s take a walk through the city, hey?¡± Zalia suggested.

    The others agreed so they stood up out of their little pile of people and walked through the streets.

    Zalia was lost deep in thought, considering how to approach the reclusive Silver rank Barrier Enchanter that lived near the centre of town that Tristan had mentioned when she heard a yell. A yell, then the sound of a blade piercing flesh, followed by a gurgling.

    She broke out of her thoughts immediately and spotted the source of the disturbance. Ember quickly grabbed up Aylie as Zalia dashed forwards.

    A teenager had stabbed an older man in the throat and stolen his bowl of stew.

    Zalia watched the expression of pure shock followed by delighted surprise on the older man''s face as her healing swiftly closed the stab wound in his neck but the majority of her attention was on the chase.

    She felt something about this teenager that was off, some instinct telling her that everything wasn¡¯t quite right about them.

    In a dozen quick strides, she caught up with the person and grabbed their wrist.

    As she did, she finally understood what was wrong as she felt the corruption flowing through the person''s veins. They turned to face her, their face half melting as a feral snarl came from their mouth. Zalia reacted by using her leverage on their arm to pull them closer, grab them under the arm and use both her arms and legs to flip the person over her shoulder and slam face first into the ground.

    A few nearby people made themselves scarce as the stunned and shocked looking demon blinked up at her from the ground.

    ? - Iron rank.

    Its disguise had disappeared entirely, the face of a young teenage boy being replaced by that of a snarling monster in human clothing. Not wanting to let the thing recover, she quickly followed up the ground slam with a kick straight to its face.

    It slammed backwards and smashed its head into the ground yet was still not out so she gave it another kick to the head, finally knocking the thing unconscious. There was a few questions she wanted to ask this beast and she was not about to lose the opportunity to get answers.

 Book 3: 34 - Captured

    Zalia dragged the unconscious demon through the door into the barracks, her armour entirely covering her figure which was now very slightly translucent.

    Tristan looked up from where he was seated with a few other soldiers and stood in alarm.

    ¡°You there! Stop!¡± he called out, weapon appearing.

    The other soldiers in the room all stood as well, the sound of weapons being drawn resounding through the space.

    ¡°It¡¯s just me Tristan,¡± Zalia called out, allowing her helmet to disappear back to the Grove dimensional space.

    ¡°Zalia, what the hell is that?¡± he asked, stalking over.

    ¡°This is a good friend I just made with my boot. You need to start checking for the shapechangers at the gates,¡± Zalia said, dropping the leg she had dragged the demon by with a dull thud.

    Zalia had told Ember and Boreal to take Aylie back to the park while she dealt with this, not wanting the young girl to be anywhere near this creature.

    ¡°Got anything to bind it with?¡± she asked, sitting down at a table.

    Tristan nodded to two of the soldiers in the room and they ran off.

    ¡°So¡­ what exactly is this thing? A little bit more information than a friend you made with your boot,¡± Tristan asked once more, poking it with the hilt of his axe.

    ¡°Right. Apparently, some of the demons have the ability to shape change and blend in with people. This is the first one I¡¯ve met so far, can¡¯t say I¡¯m impressed. Though I guess I might have met more that were just better at hiding,¡± Zalia said as her arm went through the table she attempted to lean on.

    ¡°What the hell is that you¡¯re doing with your arm?¡± Tristan asked as he looked over at her.

    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m still getting used to the armour''s abilities.¡±

    ¡°What, your armour? Where in the worlds did you get that anyway?¡± he asked.

    The two guards from earlier came running back and securely tied up the demon.

    ¡°Take a guess,¡± Zalia said dryly, managing to rest her arm on the table this time.

    ¡°Right,¡± he said in understanding, a grimace forming on his face.

    ¡°You really need to start checking people for this kind of thing at the gates,¡± Zalia pointed out.

    ¡°We didn¡¯t even know about this!¡± Tristan protested.

    Zalia raised her hands in a placating gesture.

    ¡°I know, but you should start doing so anyways,¡± she repeated.

    ¡°How do I even do that?¡± Tristan asked, pacing back and forth.

    ¡°Um, sir? Are we just going to leave that thing on the floor? It¡¯s a little disturbing,¡± a man nearby asked.

    ¡°Well¡­ what else are we going to do with it?¡± Tristan asked.

    He looked around at the others that were crowding around and murmuring to each other but they looked equally as unsure how to act.

    ¡°Got a lockup or something?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°No, why would we?¡± Tristan said, looking back down at the demon.

    ¡°Because of criminals¡­?¡± Zalia said, trailing off.

    She hadn¡¯t really thought about it but she didn¡¯t know what kind of justice system they used in Endaria. Did they use capital punishment here? She didn¡¯t really know what could be done about a high ranked person that had committed crimes other than removing either them or their powers.

    ¡°Why would we imprison people?¡± Tristan asked with shock.

    ¡°Well I don¡¯t know, the Morning¡¯s Shade had a prison! Why wouldn¡¯t you!?¡±

    ¡°Anyone who commits a crime is put under house arrest until the king''s judgement can be rendered through one of his judges. Usually, that means they are made to work for the community. What use would there be in locking up a person who can provide for others?¡± Tristan said, looking closely at Zalia.

    She guessed it worked a little differently in a community that would have been small enough that everyone would have known everyone. Obviously, that was no longer the case with the king being corrupted and Ostoss being cut off from the rest of the kingdom.

    ¡°Well, what do you do now?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Tristan said, trailing off and avoiding eye contact.

    He didn¡¯t have to finish the sentence. She knew exactly what he was going to say.

    They were stretched thin, only a few guards left to protect the town from the demons that tried to destroy it. He had said as much already and she had no doubt that they simply didn¡¯t have the people to police the city. It was each to their own, she had seen that for herself already and should have known the answer before she asked.

    ¡°Well, maybe something can be made. I can control the stone to a degree, want me to see if I can make a prison for it?¡± Zalia asked.

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Yeah, I suppose. It isn¡¯t like this thing ever has any plans to contribute to our survival. One less mouth to feed at least.¡±

    ¡°Where can I put it?¡±

    She stood and picked up the legs of the demon, now bound together.

    ¡°Just out the back,¡± Tristan gestured and the crowd moved apart.

    He led her through a door out the other side of the hall where a toilet had been built in a small fenced area between buildings. She quickly worked, moving earth out of the way and filtering out stone until she could build a box out of it. She made the box around the demon, manipulating it into a sitting position where it had only a small opening where its face could be seen.

    ¡°Handy ability that one,¡± Tristan noted.

    The other soldiers were crowding the doorway but seemed reluctant to leave the hall.

    ¡°Yeah, it has saved me a bunch of trouble,¡± Zalia agreed, admiring her handiwork with one hand on her hip and the other on her chin.

    ¡°So¡­ why exactly is this thing still alive anyways?¡± Tristan asked, peering in on its smashed face.

    ¡°Well, I figure if it is able to disguise itself as one of us, it can probably speak our language right? This might be a chance to get some answers out of these creatures that we wouldn¡¯t get otherwise,¡± Zalia explained.

    ¡°Makes sense, want me to go get a bucket of water to wake it up?¡± Tristan asked, standing back up from the opening.

    ¡°Hmm, no I might be able to wake it. I want to try something anyways,¡± Zalia murmured, crouching down.

    She looked at the small demon¡¯s expressionless features and tried to push her Healing Presence into it.

    It awoke immediately with an ear splitting screech.

    Her aura was enough to hurt it but as soon as it awoke, she was unable to affect it any longer. So a creature that wasn¡¯t actively fighting against her aura was able to be affected by it, interesting¡­

    It stared at both her and Tristan with a look that could kill a Tin ranker.

    ¡°Hey buddy, good to see you¡¯re doing alright,¡± Zalia said cheerfully.

    It hissed at her.

    She hummed as she considered what to do next. She doubted it would be very forthcoming with information and she didn¡¯t really want to torture it. In fact, she definitely didn¡¯t want to. It might be a demon that was here to kill off the human race and take over not only Endaria but the world it belonged to but she just wasn¡¯t one to perform something like torture. She was more likely to just kill it and be done with it entirely.

    ¡°If you answer our questions we won¡¯t kill you. We might even let you out of the city if you tell us enough,¡± Zalia suggested.

    Tristan looked at her sharply.

    ¡°I¡¯m not even considering it, don¡¯t worry,¡± she sent to his mind.

    The demon didn¡¯t answer and Zalia sighed. She didn¡¯t know if it actually did understand her. That was just an assumption she had made.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it understands us, we might as well just kill it and be done with it,¡± Tristan suggested, picking up his axe.

    Smart man.

    ¡°Seems like it. Want me to do it?¡± she asked, summoning her bow.

    But she could see the twisted anger on the creature''s face begin to turn to fear.

    ¡°Sure, you can kill it without releasing it,¡± Tristan agreed.

    Zalia drew back the string of her bow, a glowing arrow of starlight appearing nocked and pointed directly at the demon''s head.

    ¡°Wait!¡± it screeched, its voice like nails on a chalkboard.

    Zalia slowly released the tension from the bow.

    ¡°So, going to cooperate?¡± she asked.

    It glared at her.

    ¡°Wonderful. What the fuck are you doing in this city?¡± she asked, voice turning venomous.

    ¡°You¡¯ll all die human,¡± it crowed, the voice still grating and cold.

    She could feel the corruption from it now, its aura no longer being held within. She made sure to press down on it with her own aura entirely and could feel that she was stronger. Not by a significant margin but enough that she could maintain the suppression with ease.

    ¡°I have a good friend who would love to know what you taste like so I suggest you try an answer. What are you doing in this city?¡± Zalia tried again.

    ¡°You will fall and we will come down upon you as death comes for all,¡± it chanted.

    Its eyes rolled up into its head and Zalia could see the veins beneath its skin begin to glow with a visible light.

    ¡°What is that?¡± Tristan asked, looking closely.

    But Zalia thought she knew what was happening and quickly closed up the opening in the stone.

    ¡°Get away from it!¡± she yelled.

    The soldiers quickly rushed away from the doorway and Zalia stepped back as far as she could in the fenced-in area. She summoned her armour and stood in front of Tristan who was only wearing some light clothes.

    An explosion tore through the stone enclosure, breaking apart the earthen wall she tried to hastily erect in front of herself, before hitting her with a solid force. Luckily it was slowed enough to not harm her, the few bruises she would have received healed in an instant.

    The wall of the hall was torn apart but luckily the soldiers inside had moved far back enough to be unharmed, the few scratches from stone shrapnel easily healed by her power.

    ¡°Shit, what was that!¡± Tristan exclaimed.

    ¡°I guess they really don¡¯t take well to being caught,¡± Zalia muttered, stepping forward to inspect the damage.

    She was pretty easily able to use the chunks of stone to repair the hole in the wall of the hall, cleaning up what debris was spread around by controlling the stone to flow back and repair itself. When she was done, it was as if the explosion had never happened other than the smoke still clearing away and a sulfurous scent in the air.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to have to remember not to keep the next one alive,¡± Zalia said, now inside with Tristan.

    ¡°I would prefer if you didn¡¯t bring an exploding demon into my soldier''s home, yeah,¡± Tristan agreed, sitting with head in hands.

    She could see how stressed the man was. Not only was he dealing with guarding the town with too few people but there was also an insurgent faction inside the city that undoubtedly had the goal of bringing down the town even quicker. It was a lot for one man to shoulder.

    ¡°We¡¯ll find a way out of this,¡± Zalia promised him, leaning down and putting a hand on his shoulder.

    ¡°It¡¯s a lot to deal with,¡± Tristan said quietly.

    ¡°I know. Look, I can help deal with these shapechangers and I can also help feed the people. You focus on keeping the demons out and I¡¯ll do what I can on the inside. Ember should be a good stopgap measure for starvation until we can get the farm up and running and I have an idea that might help take care of the shapechangers with the help of the Barrier Enchanter,¡± Zalia explained, hoping her optimism would help cheer the man.

    ¡°A plan?¡± Tristan asked, looking up at her.

    ¡°It involves a little something I learned how to do in Cormaine¡­¡±

 Book 3: 35 - Farmplanned

    Zalia told Tristan about how she had learned to counter the corruption with her ritual magic. It required the living rituals that she had also learned how to create in Cormaine as well as a power strong enough to overcome the corruption that was being subdued.

    ¡°My plan is to work with the Enchanter to weave this type of ritual magic into their barrier. It might take a bit of work to convert what I have learned to do to their type of magic but I hope that with the same type of magic fueled by a Silver rank person, they might be able to simultaneously weaken whichever shapechangers have made it into the town so far,¡± Zalia explained.

    They were seated at a table in the once dining hall that many of the guards of Ostoss called home. Zalia could feel that Boreal and Ember were on their way back to the hall after her brief spike in alarm when the explosion had gone off. She probably could have communicated that they need not worry but there was no reason for them to stay away any longer.

    ¡°Will that work?¡± Tristan asked, still looking weary and burnt out.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve been under the effects of a strong corrupting aura bearing down on me and it was pretty tough to do anything at all. Sure, this is only Silver where that was more akin to Emerald rank in strength but it should at least give us an advantage. Weaken them, disrupt their ability to shapechange, anything that gets us a step in front of them,¡± Zalia replied, shrugging.

    Maybe it wasn¡¯t the best plan but it would not only disrupt the shapechangers in some manner but also help defend against more attacks from the outside.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s something at least. Any progress we can make towards a better defence is a good one in my books. Should I try introduce you to the Enchanter then?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, not right now, no. maybe tomorrow morning would work though?¡± Zalia suggested, more focused on tracking her friend''s location and emotions than the conversation.

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Tristan agreed.

    He stood up and was about to leave when Zalia remembered something.

    ¡°Oh hey! Did you manage to get some people who would like to work on the food growing?¡± she asked, similarly standing.

    ¡°Yeah, actually I did. Not as many as I hoped for but a few experienced men and women. Some of them never recovered from those damn raiders way back and don¡¯t have much hope left now but¡­ Well, let¡¯s say they are desperate for something to do, some way to fight back.¡±

    ¡°Are they coming here?¡± Zalia asked, furrowing her brow.

    ¡°No, no I organised for them to meet about this time tomorrow, for Ember¡¯s food handout. Feeding them will go a long way to helping their spirits and hopefully speeding up how quickly we can get established,¡± Tristan explained, gesturing to Ember as she walked through the door.

    ¡°And you have enough grain to get started?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Enough, barely. If this doesn¡¯t work out then we¡¯ll pretty much be out of food soon after. Better to try and get things going now rather than starve in a couple weeks anyway.¡±

    ¡°Well, hopefully, me and Aylie¡¯s ability to grow plants faster combined should be able to get them established in minutes, harvestable not too long after that,¡± Zalia explained.

    She wasn¡¯t really sure of how quickly her ability was able to grow food, though it certainly was able to cause already established trees to bloom and grow fruit within a very short time. It was also able to, depending on the rank of course, grow the herbs she had stored within her Grove¡¯s dimensional space.

    ¡°I hope so. If this goes the same way as last time then we¡¯ll have people swarming the farm within a short time of us starting. Are you ready for that eventuality?¡± Tristan asked., crossing his arms.

    She hadn¡¯t considered that part fully. Of course she was absolutely against harming the citizens in any way, despite however they might act. Starvation would cause otherwise good people to do things they usually would never even consider. Well, she had a few ideas on how to deal with the people who came.

    ¡°I am certain I can convince them to allow us to continue with growing the food if I promise to feed them,¡± Zalia explained.

    Tristan seemed unsure but didn¡¯t comment on it.

    A bell resounded in the hall and a few of the guards inside groaned as they stood, gathering weapons and armour, preparing for what seemed to be their next shift.

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Zalia, though, had been carefully watching one particular person out of the corner of her eye. She had felt their presence, felt the corruption inside of them now that she knew what to look for. She hadn¡¯t told Tristan, knowing that the more people who knew the more likely it was that her ruse was to be discovered.

    Well, she had a feeling that the previous farm being attacked hadn¡¯t been coincidental or the cause of starvation entirely. In fact, after discovering the first shapechanger and realising what that off feeling she had been having was, she was certain that it was a result of their interference.

    She had thought about what cause that shapechanger had for stabbing the old man and stealing his food and had come to the conclusion that it was for a few reasons. To start off with, it seemed odd that the creature would out itself like that but if people didn¡¯t know about them and it was a common occurrence for such things to happen in the town then it would cause fear, unrest and distrust for one¡¯s neighbours. If you saw or heard about it happening regularly, you would be much less likely to work with others rather than cut them off and survive as best you could despite others.

    It was an intelligent tactic, a way of destroying the morale and hope of the people within the walls. Make it seem like even in the town there was no safety as the person just down the street might kill you for your food.

    So, she had spoken about her plans very openly with Tristan in hopes that the shapechanger in the room would listen and make their own plans to disrupt her. Well, they had and she watched that creature leave the room, hopefully to tell the others in the city. She genuinely did think that working with the Enchanter was a good idea yet this might be a quicker way of not only bringing out the shapechangers but killing them off. There were surely not too many in the city otherwise they would have taken over by force already, at least, that¡¯s what she thought.

    ¡°Right, we should go back to the park and get ready then,¡± Zalia said to Ember, Aylie and Boreal, all of who had only just arrived from there.

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you tomorrow morning then? Will you be alright finding somewhere to sleep, otherwise you can stay here,¡± Tristan called over from where he was putting his armour on.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine Tristan, thanks,¡± Zalia waved, leaving the room.

    ¡°So, what was all that about? What happened?¡± Ember asked as they left.

    ¡°Well, that shapechanger I caught decided to explode,¡± Zalia said theatrically, waving her hands in a wide gesture.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t know they could do that,¡± Ember muttered, scratching at her head.

    ¡°Neither! But, we know now,¡± Zalia said.

    Boreal was looking expectantly at her and Zalia sighed, knowing what she would want to know.

    ¡°I told it that if it didn¡¯t cooperate that I would let you find out what it taste like but the damn creature took matters into its own hands. You¡¯ll have to find out another time Boreal,¡± Zalia explained, patting her friend on the head.

    ¡°Silly Boreal,¡¯ Aylie murmured, comfortably laying across Boreal¡¯s back.

    Boreal huffed belligerently, obviously annoyed at the improper use of ''silly''.

    ¡°Well, you are a little silly sometimes,¡± Zalia pointed out, looking knowingly at Boreal, a hand on her chin as if in deep thought.

    Boreal turned to stare up at her and narrowed her eyes.

    ¡°Yes but taste is important,¡± she insisted.

    With the admission of silliness, Zalia had no footing on which to disagree. Once again, Boreal had smoothly won the argument seemingly without effort. Taste was important after all.

    Zalia quickly used mental communication with Ember to get her up to speed with what exactly her plans were and Ember agreed. She would set up a huge ritual around the park that would do exactly what she wanted the Enchanter to do. It would suppress the corrupting aura and hopefully give them an advantage.

    However, she didn¡¯t want the shapechangers to have any idea of this beforehand so she would have to activate it as the people came to disrupt the planting, assuming they even did. Then, she would activate the ritual.

    The only issue with the plan is it would use almost all of Zalia¡¯s mana, meaning she wouldn¡¯t be able to use Nature¡¯s Wrath or Protection of the Wilds. Of course, she could still shoot from afar but the main task would be up to Boreal and Ember to take care of the enemies. She wanted to keep Aylie in the Grove vault just in case, being the safest place in the entire town right now.

    She wanted to get Tristan¡¯s help as well. She knew that most of the guards would need to remain on the walls or out of rotation just in case an attack came so couldn¡¯t rely on them but Tristan was a Bronze rank soldier, someone who trained with the army. His fighting skills were significantly better than her own, or used to be at least. She hadn¡¯t sparred with him in a while, she might have caught up by now.

    Either way, he would be useful in their fight.

    She couldn¡¯t really set up traps either, knowing that should they activate on a civilian she would never forgive herself for that death.

    ¡°I agree with all that, sounds like you¡¯ve already thought well about this. I¡¯m surprised you came up with it so quickly,¡± Ember sent.

    ¡°I had to learn to react to situations quickly in Cormaine,¡± she replied simply.

    Ember nodded, well aware of pretty much everything she had been through in that place.

    They reached the park and Zalia led them down to the little wooden bridge and pulled out the chunk of wood she had been playing around with. During the bit of practice time she''d had to develop her skills of growing and pruning the wood by the use of Healing Presence and Preparation, she had come up with an idea. Something not necessarily that useful but still a good extension of her practice.

    She put the chunk of wood down on one side of the bridge and slowly, piece by piece, grew it outwards as a structure began to take shape.

 Book 3: 36 - Confidence

    Branches and roots spread out, some pruned and others yet branching out even further. When four particularly large pieces had grown out far enough, they began shooting upwards, forming the corners of the structure as yet more wood grew to fill out the walls.

    A doorway formed, windows, another doorway. A second room started to shoot off from the main one, yet another off the other doorway.

    ¡°What in the worlds Zalia,¡± Ember exploded, looking at the forming building in awe.

    The structure wasn¡¯t anything that fancy, the large scale control much easier to maintain than what was required to shape any finer details. If she were to form a perfectly smooth floor or properly squared building, decorations or an artful facade, it would be a lot harder to manage.

    Still, she had to stay focused, not having the attention span to reply.

    A sloped roof formed, leaves starting to grow out of it to create a foliage covering that grew ever thicker, thick enough that it would keep the rain out. The roots of the structure grew ever downwards and outwards, some tapping into the little stream running nearby and others into a well of water deep, deep below.

    A fourth room split off from the others and Zalia finally finished the structure. There were three rooms with beds that grew up from the floor, made of thin interwoven roots and softened with soft fresh leaves. Thin beams of light struck through various gaps in the wood and leaves, dimly lighting the space though even that wasn¡¯t necessary for her, Ember or Boreal anymore.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 6.

    Satisfied with the result, she used preparation to sever her chunk of wood from the structure and store it back in the Grove vault.

    ¡°When did you learn that?¡± Ember asked, coming up to rest an arm around her shoulders.

    ¡°I have a lot of free time when you two are snoring away,¡± Zalia explained, arms crossed.

    ¡°... snoring?¡± Ember asked, suspicion entering her voice.

    ¡°Mmmmhmm,¡± Zalia hummed.

    ¡°I do not snore!¡± Ember refuted.

    ¡°If you say so darling,¡± Zalia said placatively.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Ember protested.

    ¡°I can hear from far,¡± Boreal sent to Zalia.

    Zalia snorted in amusement, trying to cover it with a cough.

    She felt Ember turn her head to glare at Boreal, as if she had heard it too, so Zalia pulled her close with an arm around the waist.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it! We have a nice little home here that we can stay in while we are in Ostoss. I do need to get around setting up everything else though tomorrow is a long way away still,¡± she said.

    She could feel Ember stiffen, then relax, against her side before she rested her head on Zalia¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Maybe we could all just relax for a little bit,¡± Ember suggested.

    Aylie pushed past both of them, finally running out of patience, running up to explore the new house. Boreal, who was equally impatient and realistically actually younger than Aylie, followed close behind.

    ¡°That sounds nice,¡± Zalia agreed, revelling in the warmth of the woman beside her.

    She still wasn¡¯t quite used to enjoying other people¡¯s company, let alone enjoying someone¡¯s company so much that she started to consider a future with them. That was exactly what went through her head at that moment though, as she stood there with Ember¡¯s arm around her and her arm around Ember.

    ¡°I still think about leaving this all behind and going somewhere else,¡± she murmured, tightening her arm around Ember just a little more.

    ¡°I.. I¡¯d come with you,¡± Ember whispered.

    Zalia almost jumped with surprise. She knew that the kingdom meant a lot to Ember, the people more so. She was always not only ready but proactively looking to help her people. The fact that Ember would walk away from all of that to go with Zalia shocked her. Did that mean Ember was starting to think of her as she was of Ember?

    She could feel the emotions coming off Ember like waves, appreciation, happiness and attraction. She knew that Ember would be feeling all of the same emotions coming from her.

    Just because the emotions were there, it didn¡¯t mean that Ember was really up for something like that, mentally.

    There was no way to be sure other than to ask.

    ¡°Hey, I-¡± Zalia started.

    ¡°Zalia!¡± she heard Tristan call from somewhere far off behind her, cutting her off.

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°What were you going to say?¡± Ember asked, lifting her head of Zalia¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I should check out whatever this is,¡± Zalia said, pulling her arm away and turning to face Tristan.

    Ember dropped her arm as well but, much to Zalia¡¯s happiness, stayed close. Her confidence had gone away in the instant she was interrupted but that didn¡¯t change her feelings.

    ¡°What¡¯s up Tristan?¡± she called over.

    Tristan jogged over but something seemed off to her. His gait wasn¡¯t quite as smooth as normal and there was a very slight nervousness around him that set off alarm bells in her mind.

    ¡°Hey, I just wanted to know what the plan was,¡± he said, coming to a stop a metre and a half in front of them.

    Zalia adjusted herself very slightly so that she was in front of Ember just a tiny bit.

    ¡°What do you mean, I already told you,¡± she said, frowning.

    ¡°Yeah, you told me what you wanted everyone else in that room to hear, not what your actual plans are,¡± Tristan added, looking around as if checking no one else was nearby, ¡°I want to know what you actually plan to do about the people who will come. You don¡¯t plan on killing them, do you?¡±

    ¡°What? No, of course not. As I said, I believe I can get them to listen,¡± Zalia insisted, folding her arms in front of her.

    ¡°Well¡­ alright. Are you certain? You weren¡¯t there for the last one, there wasn¡¯t much convincing those people,¡± Tristan added, the nervousness having disappeared entirely.

    ¡°Yeah, absolutely. These are rational people, deep down. I¡¯m sure if we explain that the food is being grown for them, not to be hoarded for the needs of the few, they will leave us be. Maybe even help!¡± Zalia said excitedly.

    She could feel the confusion that Ember was experiencing and knew she would need to explain later.

    ¡°Ok! You know, you might be right. It¡¯s just so hard to be optimistic with our situation but¡­ maybe things have taken a turn for the better. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow yeah?¡± Tristan, no, the imposter, said.

    ¡°Yeah, tomorrow,¡± Zalia confirmed, going so far as to step forward and hug the thing.

    She felt it for sure, the corruption flowing through it. She had already felt hints of it but the physical contact made it certain in her mind. It had come to figure out if she did actually have some other plan in mind and could only hope that she had been convincing enough to trick it into a false sense of security.

    It ran off, perhaps a little faster than it should have to remain inconspicuous.

    She had a feeling that it was young, perhaps inexperienced in the art of deception. Why they had sent one that was both of those things to perform such an important task, she was unsure. Hopefully it wasn¡¯t a part of some kind of further plan.

    She could see far off that some of the people of Ostoss were beginning to walk into the park, as if the life flowing through it were attracting them.

    She spent the next four hours walking about the park and growing various plants in the locations she needed them to be for the ritual. It was hard work that required a lot of concentration and not a small amount of adjustment. She kept finding that she had made the distance between sections of plants too small, as if she was subconsciously trying to make the living ritual smaller. She had a feeling that she wasn¡¯t yet at the point where it should be possible to make such a large ritual, or rather, that it was dangerous for her to do so.

    Despite that, she pushed on, forcing the ability to give her the instinctive insight into placement that it usually did.

    It was all made a joyful experience by Ember joining her. They laughed together at Ember¡¯s attempts to plant a few of the plants, spoke about nothing yet everything at the same time and generally spent the time relaxing with each other.

    Aylie ran back and forth across the park inspecting different plants and using her ability Plant Manipulation to alter their appearances. Zalia knew she was using Spiritual Connection and Astral Walker to see things about these plants that Zalia couldn¡¯t. In a way, Aylie was better, or rather would be better, as a Druid than Zalia was and that was okay with her. It was Aylie¡¯s main class after all, whereas it was only the combination of Zalia¡¯s other two that made her one.

    So it was that it brought even further joy to Zalia¡¯s heart to see Aylie teleporting around and engaging with nature, Boreal following along on her adventures. It seemed like, despite the state of Ostoss, Aylie was beginning to open up to the world once more. She still stared off in dissociation every now and then but Zalia felt as if it was now due to the things Aylie could see that none of the rest of them could. She was learning and discovering things about the world that maybe no one else had before. Her class was a blessing given by a god, after all.

    Knowing that Boreal was keeping Aylie safe, Zalia allowed herself to open up to the world much in the same way. She had been feeling shut off ever since the death of Delphi but with the healing provided by Ember and the reconnection of the memory, she felt a lot better. The wound still wasn¡¯t healed and would leave a scar, but she would carry that if it meant remembering the collective, something that was the dying wish they had sent to her.

    That train of thought brought her to the memory still lurking in her vault, the one given by the collective. She had tried to experience it once, doing so had given her a killer headache and not much progress. That had been when she was still suffering from the repressed memory of the collective''s death however. She would try to decipher it once more, perhaps when she had helped stabilise Ostoss.

    After the plants were done and Zalia reached out with Herbal Magic, she could tell that the ritual would work. Well, it would work provided she managed to push enough mana and materials into it. She also finally built up enough confidence to talk to Ember once more.

    ¡°Hey Ember,¡± she started.

    They were sitting, leant back, on a little bench she had grown into the side of the house, just shaded from the sun by the leaves overhead. Ember was leaning into Zalia and she sat with hands in her lap, fiddling nervously.

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Ember murmured.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been meaning to ask, because I want to¡­ well, I¡¯m not sure how customs are for this kind of thing here but,¡± Zalia started, fumbling over her words a bit.

    She could feel herself starting to blush but soldiered on.

    ¡°I¡¯m interested in you. Would you be interested in pursuing a relationship? No pressure of course, if you¡¯re not.¡± she finished, turning her head to look at Ember.

    Ember sat up, turning to look at Zalia as well. She could feel Ember¡¯s emotions just as strongly as she could feel her own, as if the woman was projecting them into her very soul. Excitement, anxiety, nervousness. Relief.

    ¡°Yes, I am. I¡¯m very interested Zalia,¡± Ember said, taking both of Zalia¡¯s hands to stop her fiddling.

    She could feel how Ember felt, she knew that what she felt for the woman was shared back yet somehow, the answer still surprised her.

    ¡°Oh.¡±

 Book 3: 37 - Comfort

    Essen rushed away from the park, excited to get back to the elders with the news. It had been a risk going alone to talk to the interloper but he thought it was quite worth it. Not only would he now have proved himself worthy to be ascended, his skill obviously great enough to deceive the interloper, but he had proof that the foolish human had no other plans than to try and convince them to stop fighting.

    He couldn¡¯t blame the human, though. It was not their fault that their capability for deep thought was reduced to such a small amount. It was due to the bright sun in this world, or so was his theory. There was simply no need to have such a bright light shining so constantly. Did they not have powers to see without this ungainly orb in the sky?

    He nodded his head politely at a duo of guards who were walking the other way. It disgusted Essen that he had to be so nice to the humans when he was disguised but the knowledge that all of their hard work would pay off with a delightful feast at the end brought limitless motivation to remain in disguise.

    Increasing his pace, Essen continued the rush to the elders. They didn¡¯t have much time until the interloper started growing her nasty plants at a speed that would allow the tension and fear they had been building in the town to diminish. There was just no way that they could allow that to happen. Then, the elders would have the right of preference taken away for this city and the other clans would be allowed to move in. It simply couldn¡¯t be allowed. If the other clans were allowed to take part in the assault on this town, the feast would be split between too many mouths.

    Essen finally reached the house of the elders and was allowed in, though he did receive an angry glare from the guard on duty. Yelza was far too rigid to play the part of most humans but their guards did tend to be quite similar in attitude. Well, let Yelza play their part as a human guard and Essen would, as the more adaptable one, finally be granted the permission to ascend. Of course, he could ascend without the elder''s permission but that would result in a quick banishment if he was lucky, death if he was not.

    ¡°Elders,¡± he greeted, kneeling with arms stretched forwards and forehead placed on the floor.

    The room he had entered was large and dark, only lit by a few flames flickering in the air at the edges of the room. As always, the elders were seated in shadow towards the far end, cloaked not only in darkness but mystery.

    ¡°Essen,¡± the raspy voices of the elders spoke in unison.

    ¡°I bring news Elders, would I be allowed to speak it in your presence?¡± Essen asked.

    One day, he would sit up there amongst them, looking down on his own inferiors kneeling before him. The journey towards that day began today, the real journey.

    ¡°Speak,¡± the elders commanded.

    ¡°I have spoken to and fooled the interloper Elders,¡± Essen informed them.

    There was a silence, the flickering flames dimming as he felt an anger through the powerful auras the elders emitted.

    ¡°You did what?¡± they asked.

    Essen cringed.

    ¡°I overheard her and Tristan, the leader of the guards, speaking in the hall they live in. Then she left so I disguised myself as Tristan and followed. I pretended that I wanted to know the real plans, insinuating that she was hiding them due to the danger of one of us hiding amongst his guards. She told me that there were no other plans, simply that she was to talk the people into not attacking. I could barely read the interloper but her companion looked extremely confused with my questions! That must be their true plan,¡± Essen explained, shaking a little bit.

    However, he still did not lift his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the floor. He didn¡¯t close them, knowing that the elders would see if he did.

    Another silence ensued and Essen sat there nervously. He didn¡¯t quite know how the elders communicated with each other, a mental communication skill perhaps. However they did it, the silence that was left in the wake of their soundless conversation was unnerving.

    ¡°Very well Essen. We shall attack as planned then,¡± the elders agreed.

    Essen almost let out an audible sigh of relief but held back. Giving tell to his nervousness in front of the elders would not do.

    ¡°I am glad to hear it. If I may be so bold as to ask, would you allow me to ascend for the good work I have done?¡± Essen asked.

    ¡°We shall see, Essen, if your information is true. If this leads to a success for us, you shall be given that right. However, if you have doomed us, it will not be us that you answer to but the thousand eyed one who resides in the capital,¡± the elders said in unison.

    Essen shivered, not able to contain the feeling of terror that overcame him at their words. It was a risk he took but one well worth it. The permission to ascend would put him above many of the other clan members, bringing him to the fourth stage. Even Yelza was not that high ranked.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    ¡°Oh,¡± Zalia murmured, looking into Ember¡¯s eyes.

    Ember pulled her into a close hug, her arms wrapping around Zalia just as hers did around Ember.

    ¡°I''m glad you asked,¡± Ember said, the joy audible in her tone.

    ¡°So am I!¡± Zalia said, unable to contain the nervousness that escaped her body as laughter.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Ember pulled back and took Zalia¡¯s hands again.

    ¡°What do we do now?¡± she asked, a wide grin on her face.

    ¡°Exactly what we¡¯ve been doing I guess,¡± Zalia said, losing herself in Ember¡¯s joy.

    It matched her own, their shared emotions bouncing back and forth across the bond, each enhancing the others.

    ¡°And what is that?¡± Ember asked slyly, her smile teasing.

    ¡°Making each other happy,¡± Zalia said matter-of-factly.

    She could visibly see as Ember¡¯s heart pumped just a little faster, the vibration visible to her eyes. It had been a little unnerving to see that kind of thing to begin with but she had quickly grown used to it. It felt as natural to her now as either her normal or heat vision did.

    ¡°Is that so,¡± Ember whispered.

    ¡°It is,¡± Zalia said, before leaning in and kissing her.

    They spent the rest of the day together, almost locked to each other as they grew used to the new dynamic between them. It had been growing this way for a little while, as they both acknowledged, yet making it a verbally agreed matter changed things. It changed things even as¡­ it was the same as before.

    It was hard to explain, yet Zalia felt no differently about Ember, still had the same attraction and emotions yet with her feelings out in the open and Ember¡¯s similarly verbalised, the nervousness and anxiety that she felt around Ember was gone. She was free to relax and enjoy the company of her friend¡­ her partner, without worry.

    Zalia knew that Boreal was aware of what had happened, because she was still there through their bond, both of their emotions and thoughts bare to each other. Boreal was being silently supportive and kept her distance, allowing both Zalia and Ember to explore this newfound comfort together. She even kept Aylie busy for Zalia, playing games and generally entertaining her. She was possibly the best wingcat that a woman could ask for.

    Before long, nighttime came and they went to bed and while all three bedrooms were used, both Boreal and Aylie slept in separate ones while Zalia and Ember shared a bed, cuddled up and warm.

    The night passed quickly, Zalia dozing in and out while Ember slept soundly. While she didn¡¯t need to sleep for very long, Zalia still lay there holding Ember as she allowed her imagination to run free, thinking about the future and what she wanted to do when the invasion was finally over. She wanted to cleanse Endaria and take the fight to Cormaine, to take back the world that belonged to her friend Ro-ak.

    But now, another path had come up before her, another door that led towards a different life. Ember would obviously come to Cormaine with her if she asked, she would do it not only for Zalia but for the people of Endaria. Removing the demons as a threat permanently would mean that the people in Endaria could live peacefully without fear of another invasion. Not only would it bring that peace but it would allow people to move on from these events easier.

    The other path, however, was a life lived with Ember somewhere else. She had said she would come with Zalia if she chose to leave so what if after they helped free and stabilise Endaria, they went¡­ somewhere else. Settled in to live a nice life with Aylie and Boreal somewhere. Perhaps they could help Aylie grow into her power in a safer environment. After all, Zalia didn¡¯t want to take Aylie to Cormaine, not as a child. That would not only be incredibly irresponsible but unfair. Aylie deserved to have a childhood she could look back on fondly. A life filled with pain, fear and death left nothing to be proud of when one died. There had to be good times to balance out the bad.

    It was those thoughts that Zalia had as they lay there that made her begin thinking of this other life, one spent in a comfortable peace. Revenge for her friend was all well and good, but surely it could wait until Aylie was older and most importantly, stronger. Maybe she could even help Zalia to take back Cormaine. Aylie as a Bronze or even Silver rank Druid would be an incredible force of nature to contend with. Not only did she have Healing Presence, a great boon in current day Cormaine, but she had some soul related abilities that might be incredibly helpful, depending on how they evolved.

    Ember woke up in the morning, blinking blearily as her mind exited its unconscious state.

    ¡°Good morning sleepy,¡± Zalia murmured, pulling her in closer.

    ¡°You¡¯re still here?¡± Ember asked in a whisper, holding onto the arm Zalia had tight around her front.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    She could tell Ember¡¯s breathing began to slow again so she shook her lightly.

    ¡°Hey hey, you just slept basically forever.¡±

    ¡°Some of us need a lot of sleep.¡±

    ¡°Alright, a bit longer,¡± Zalia agreed.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Essen followed the others nervously. It was the morning after he had delivered the news to the elders and they had agreed to continue with the plans. The guards often gave out a morning breakfast to the people a few hours after sunrise and this time was the same. Essen knew from the plans he had overheard that it was taking place at the park, where the farmers were gathering to begin their work.

    The elders had decided to wait until the farmers had started, then the majority of their clan in the city would congregate, spreading the news to the people of the city that there was food in the park for the taking. He was a part of a group led by Yelza, the job of leading given to him simply because of his dull minded loyalty. Essen respected that decision, he would make similar ones when he was in charge of the clan. It was much easier to trust an idiot with loyalty than an intelligent person who feigned it.

    Still, despite his confidence in the plan, Essen couldn¡¯t help feel a little nervous. A little¡­ scared.

    He had seen the way the interloper had treated his clanmate, the one she had captured and dragged into the guard hall like a trophy. He had seen what she had done to the probing attack one of the other clans had sent to keep the guards of Ostoss busy while his clan worked. She was strong, much too strong for one of her rank.

    They entered the park and he saw the small wooden house from the day before. Near to it a little pavilion was set up with the guards giving food out to the farmers. Tristan was there, along with two others.

    The interloper and her companion were sitting on a bench, holding on to each other like they feared losing the other should they let go. Essen altered his opinion of the woman.

    Other groups were entering the park from different points along the city and soon there were four or five dozen of them walking towards the centre.

    However, the interloper had noticed as well. He saw a bright flow emit from her and spiralling leaves turned into a storm as they rose into the sky. They created a huge glowing pattern that burned brightly and in the instant it finished, Essen felt a force hit him like a hammer. It was her aura, yet stronger and coming from everywhere. He felt his disguise fade and all around the park his clan stiffened or dropped to their knees as well, many of them losing their disguises. It was a trap.

    Essen struggled to his feet, staring at the interloper as she too struggled to stand, the strain of the spell obviously having taken a lot out of her. The aura wasn¡¯t fading though, its force a painful weight upon his shoulders. He saw a wild cat start tearing through some of his clan on the other side of the park and panic took him. He turned to ask Yelza what to do but a bright, glowing arrow took him straight through the head. Essen watched in fear as Yelza dropped to the ground, dead. Then, he turned and ran as fast as his heavy body would allow.

 Book 3: 38 - Returned to the dirt

    Zalia watched as the growing crowd of people walked down the slopes towards the bottom of the park. They came from multiple sides, all looking like people yet she knew through the feeling in the air, the push against her aura despite their own being held back that these were not all people.

    Aylie was inside the house, further inside the vault that she had open in there. Zalia had told her to stay there and if things turned out to be more dire, Boreal would come and get her out and away from the city if necessary.

    She waited until only the trailing ends of the groups were still outside the perimeter of the large living ritual she set up before beginning to cast it.

    Masses of the herbs she required for the ritual began appearing from nowhere, flowing into the sky above and forming a huge glowing circle over the entire park. Her mana was ripped from her at a speed even Nature¡¯s Wrath didn¡¯t manage to achieve, most of it vanishing in moments.

    The ritual above glowed brighter as she activated it and with a final flash, a ripple went out through the air, forming a dome that vanished as soon as it appeared. As that ripple flowed through the crowds of people, however, many of them stopped, standing rigid.

    A large number of them dropped to their knees and clawed at their chests in pain as the disguises they had taken were torn away. Zalia only saw this for an instant however, as she too dropped to the ground in exhaustion. Ember managed to catch her before she fell over completely, holding her half on her knees.

    There was but a drop of mana left in her pool, enough that she would not lose consciousness thankfully. Her main contribution to this fight was this ritual, it would probably take her longer to regain enough mana to do anything more.

    She managed to get her feet under herself, standing up and leaning against the house.

    ¡°Go.¡±

    Ember nodded and ran off.

    Zalia noticed that Tristan was ordering the farmers into the house. A good idea, to keep them safe as well. Ignoring that and trusting him to do his job now that her plan had really been revealed, Zalia summoned her bow and turned her attention to the shapeshifting demons closest to her.

    Most had still not recovered, still trying to stand up from the ground where they knelt or lay, struggling. A few stood however, struggling yet not nearly as much as the others. Those must have been the Bronze rank ones. They definitely moved with a litheness that the others did not and had a certain¡­ dangerous look to them.

    She drew and shot, hitting one that wore a guard''s uniform straight through the head. This caused quite a few of the lower ranked ones around it to panic, a few even running away.

    Most however, looked at their fallen comrade and managed to build enough strength to charge.

    Boreal was in and out of combat, pouncing from shadows and tearing through enemies. Others yet were dragged screaming into patches of wildlife before being silenced by her ferocious furry friend within. She was so quick that many of the shapeshifters didn¡¯t have time to respond and the ones that did, didn¡¯t manage to get through her armour.

    Zalia shot off more arrows, not able to enhance them with any effects nor able to place Hunter¡¯s Mark on any of the enemies. Still, with the powers of her bow and weapon proficiency, the arrows punched through Tin and Iron rank shapeshifters as if they were made of paper.

    Ember was taking on her own group, some six enemies, by herself. With the halo of fire surrounding her, they were unable to get close without being blinded and burned, probably the only reason she was able to hold her ground so effectively. She deflected a blow with her heater shield and used the moment to stab her double bladed sword through the enemy''s chest. Another three of the group tried to take advantage of that moment but she sped up and with a blur, two of those found themselves with throats slashed as Ember pushed her advantage against the remaining three.

    Zalia took care of two of them, Ember switching to the defensive as Zalia¡¯s arrows dropped her enemies. The final one fell over backwards as it tried to scramble away but that only sealed its fate as Ember stomped her foot and a burst of fire exploded from the ground underneath it.

    Zalia quickly used her strength and air jumps to get onto the roof of the house. From there she could see Tristan and his guards fighting a much larger group with practiced proficiency. They worked extremely well together as a team, the guards forming a kind of backup point for Tristan as he moved in and out of combat. The shapeshifter'' failing in fighting them was not taking advantage of their numbers. They shoved and fought with each other, trying to be the ones to get into the fight next. Some even pushed their comrades in battle, causing their deaths at Tristan''s hands.

    Zalia could see that the shapeshifters were struggling to move properly within the confines of her ritual and more than a few had run off already. Despite their initial momentum in the fight, the higher ranked shapeshifters were taking back the initiative. The group Boreal was picking off started to wise up to her tactics and moved together as a ball, giving her a harder time of taking them one by one. After quickly disposing of that first group, Ember was quickly losing ground to a larger group of eight. She managed to pick one off but received a wound in return and though it quickly healed, she had to drop back quite a distance because of it.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Tristan and his guards were also struggling to hold ground. While they had moved up the hill quite a distance to begin with to meet the enemies, they now were at the little bridge near the house. Zalia fired off arrows wherever they were needed, taking out shapeshifters to give Ember some breathing room, disturbing the grouped up enemies for Boreal so that she could pick a few off.

    Then, the sun went out.

    The battle almost paused as everyone looked up at the twinkling stars that were growing ever brighter in the sky. Zalia looked down off the side of the house to see Aylie, tears flowing down her face and words whispered into the wind.

    ¡°Not my family, not again.¡±

    The stars came down, one for each of the shapeshifters in the park. Blazing lines were burnt into the air as they struck, many of the lower ranked shapeshifters dying from the impact. Waves of light burst out from where the stars had landed, washing the field ablaze with a starry fire.

    The sun returned.

    Tristan, his guards and the shapeshifters remaining alive were stood still in confusion and awe, yet Ember, Boreal and Zalia did not hesitate to take advantage.

    ¡°Back inside now,¡± Zalia sent to Aylie.

    She was both thankful and worried for Aylie.

    She didn¡¯t look to see if Aylie had listened, quickly taking out one of the Bronze shapeshifters and moving on to the next.

    They were significantly harder to kill, some managing to dodge her arrows or at least twist such that they hit less vital parts. Ember managed to take down the two Bronze ranked demons that remained of the once eight enemies she had faced, moving quickly across the battlefield to where Boreal fought.

    The group that Boreal had been fighting had fared the worst however. They had been grouped tightly together when the stars had struck and nothing much remained of them other than a squished patch of ground.

    Zalia marvelled at the power of a single Tin rank ability. It was much more powerful than anything she had been able to do at that rank. Granted it was a two day cooldown but it was still absurd. The power of a god blessed class was not something to dismiss, even a Tin rank one.

    Tristan and his squad similarly smashed down the remainders of his enemies, pulling themselves together before the shapeshifters did.

    With that, the battle was over.

    Zalia walked across the battlefield, doing the gruesome work of finishing off the shapeshifters that were still alive as she looked through her notifications.

    Congratulations! Druid¡¯s Grove has reached Bronze 3.

    The cry of a demon before she stabbed it through the throat resounded across the park.

    Congratulations! Herbal Magic has gained two levels reaching Bronze 6.

    She heard the whimpering of a lower ranked one and pulled aside the mangled body of a larger demon to find it alive yet missing its lower half. She put it out of its misery.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 7.

    Magic flared to life as she used a Flame-root ritual to burn away the pile of bodies, returning them to ash. A quick manipulation of the earth later and there remained only a patch of bare ground, Healing Presence quickly growing grass back over it.

    Congratulations! Bow - Weapon proficiency has reached Bronze 4.

    She could see Ember walking across her side of the battlefield performing a similar grizzly task. Using the bond between them, Zalia sent what was essentially an emotion hug. She received one back as they both continued on.

    Tristan was sitting on the bench with head in hands, his axe laying across his knees with the blade dripping blood. She knew what he had been through before and didn¡¯t disturb him, he would just need a little time.

    Boreal came over and started helping Zalia, finishing off the still alive demons as she burnt their remains and buried them. She didn¡¯t want Aylie to see what remained of them after her ability. She no doubt had received a disturbing amount of levels from what she had done and Zalia would need to talk to her later about it. These may have been demons but they probably had their own society, perhaps their own bonds between each other. She didn¡¯t know much about them on a level of society. Sure, she knew where they came from kind of, what they were capable of and the fact they were here to invade, yet she didn''t know how exactly they acted as a people. She had seen fear in their eyes this day, as the stars came crashing down. Did they love too?

    It was easy to see your enemy as a faceless abomination in war. A monster that had come to take your land, life and people. Perhaps that was true of the demons as a whole. It was definitely true of the thousand eyed creatures that haunted her dreams still. What about these shapeshifters though? What about the lower ranked of the demons, ones that showed so much fear? Were they here out of a bloodlust or out of fear for their own lives?

    All questions that she would need to answer in due time.

    ¡°You¡¯l- You¡¯ll all suffer for this.¡±

    A voice by her feet, one that Boreal had missed. Zalia kneeled down.

    ¡°What do you mean? You lost this fight.¡±

    The demon coughed, blood bubbling out of its mouth.

    ¡°With- with this lo- loss, the right of pref-preference has also been lost. Struggle against your f-fate all you want interloper but now- now you die.¡±

    It coughed up more blood, then its whole body jerked.

    Zalia grabbed it by the shoulders

    ¡°What is the right of preference?¡±

    It jerked once more, then lay still. She let go of its shoulders and it dropped to the ground limp. Fire soon swallowed it and the other nearby demons, her power then returning them to the dirt below. Their bodies would feed the plants that the farmers grew and the misery they caused to the people of Ostoss would be repaid, if only a little. This was the cycle of life and no matter how much they might try, Zalia would not allow them to break it.

 Book 3: 39 - Morals?

    After the clean up was over, Zalia checked to make sure Ember was ok, then found Aylie.

    She had gone inside the vault again thankfully, alongside a whole group of farmers. Zalia kicked the farmers out, sending them in the direction of Tristan hoping that having something to do would pull him out of his past.

    Zalia leaned against one of the benches at the back, watching Aylie manipulate a plant slowly and carefully.

    ¡°That was risky.¡±

    Aylie turned to look at her.

    ¡°So were you.¡±

    Zalia nodded once, accepting the point.

    ¡°How do you feel?¡±

    Aylie shrugged.

    ¡°Your ability did a lot, you don¡¯t have any feelings about that?¡±

    Aylie shrugged again.

    ¡°Their souls are different. They killed my family. They would have killed you.¡±

    Zalia sighed deeply. Aylie had almost whispered that last part.

    She walked over and sat next to Aylie, lightly caressing the plant that she was manipulating.

    ¡°They are different, yes. We don¡¯t know why they do what they do. Perhaps it is a mindless need for violence or some other malevolent reason. A creature of another race from their world did kill your family and if these ones had their way they would have killed us all as well. They will probably try to do so again. Do you know why they are doing that?¡±

    Aylie didn¡¯t respond for a moment, curling the plant around Zalia¡¯s arm before returning it to its original form.

    ¡°No, why?¡±

    Zalia leaned back, hands behind to support herself, and looked past the gently floating lights at the ceiling.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I have no idea why they¡¯re in this world at all. They are invading, for a reason unknown to me. Yet I still feel... bad that this fight happened.¡±

    ¡°Bad? Why?¡±

    ¡°They just lost their entire family. Yes, they attacked us, yet why did they do that? Do we know that they did that out of malice, or is there another reason behind it? What if someone is forcing them to, what if they do it out of fear, not hatred. Maybe, some of them are stuck between us and something else threatening their lives.¡±

    Zalia looked down and Aylie was staring at her with confusion and a little bit of anger.

    ¡°So you¡¯re saying we shouldn¡¯t fight back against them?¡±

    There was bite to her tone and Zalia didn¡¯t blame her.

    ¡°I¡­ no, that¡¯s not what I¡¯m saying. I think we should do what we have to do to survive, to get justice for our friends and family. But, I don¡¯t think we should be happy or careless about it. And I¡¯m not saying you are either of those things I just¡­¡±

    Zalia trailed off, unsure how to continue her thought. She wasn¡¯t the best at verbalising sometimes but wanted to pass over this feeling, this way of seeing things, to Aylie.

    Aylie didn¡¯t reply and luckily, the anger had gone from her expression. Maybe she was too young for Zalia to try teach her about this kind of thing, hell, Zalia didn¡¯t fully know what she was trying to say either.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s necessary to fight them. Whatever their situation is, they are trying to harm us and our friends and we can¡¯t let that happen. I don¡¯t want to let this entire thing turn me callous to the troubles of others though, to make me see any other living creature as lesser or monstrous. Does that make any sense?¡±

    Aylie nodded slowly, though she did look quite confused. Zalia didn¡¯t blame her.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m not explaining myself very well. I want you to have a normal childhood, to experience love, safety and warmth. Yet I can¡¯t lie to you about what is happening in your kingdom, your home and what I, and possibly you, will have to do to protect it. This whole situation is unfair to you.¡±

    Ayie quietly latched onto her side and hugged her tight. Zalia leaned forwards a little and wrapped one arm around her.

    ¡°I¡¯m doing my best,¡± Zalia whispered.

    She felt Aylie nod against her side.

    ¡°I know.¡±

    They stayed that way for a little while, until Ember came in and wordlessly pulled them both up into a tight embrace as well. Zalia could feel that Boreal was out there still, hunting down the tracks of a few of the shapeshifters that had escaped. Zalia probably should have joined her, to rid themselves of as many of the enemy as possible, but the dying words of that demon haunted her.

    It had said that the right of preference had been lost. The right of preference to what? The town?

    If that is what it had meant, it would mean the town was now open to attack from other demons as well, though hadn¡¯t it been already? There had been many of the Tin rank flying type attacking when she had arrived after all.

    She couldn¡¯t understand what it would mean unless she managed to catch another shapeshifter and ask it questions without it exploding, which didn¡¯t seem likely. They would just have to get the entire town protected better in that case, which meant she would need to talk to the Silver rank Enchanter as soon as possible to determine if her ritual would work on a larger scale with their type of magic.

    She sighed. Could it wait? Probably not.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Zalia was with Ember out the front of the house after they had left Aylie in the vault. It would do her good to think a little about things before Zalia complicated her thoughts again. The warmth and safety of the vault would be good for her as well, though Ember had said that her emotional state, while certainly not settled, wasn¡¯t tumultuous.

    Zalia leaned her head onto Ember¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°I¡¯m so tired,¡± she whispered.

    Ember stroked her hair gently.

    ¡°That¡¯s because you keep taking on such huge responsibilities silly.¡±

    Zalia closed her eyes, breathing in Ember¡¯s scent, now containing a little hint of woodsmoke. An addition from the blessing perhaps.

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t just leave the town like this. You wouldn¡¯t have either.¡±

    ¡°I know, that¡¯s part of what I like so much about you.¡±

    Zalia lifted her head back up and looked over at where the farmers were beginning their work. She could already see Healing Presence helping the planted seed to sprout, little stalks shooting their way out of the ground. This could be the beginning of a turning point for the town with a large number of the shapeshifters eliminated and food being grown. Those words still weighed heavily on her, however.

    ¡°One of the demons told me that we had sealed our own fate and that the right of preference had been lost. That now we will all suffer and die.¡±

    Ember frowned, turning to her.

    ¡°Maybe it was just trying to unsettle you?¡±

    ¡°... maybe. I didn¡¯t feel like it was lying though. What if we did just open up the town to attack from other demons? They never seem to work together from what I¡¯ve seen, maybe there is a reason behind that. I¡¯ve only seen different types working together in those last days in Cormaine and that was certainly not a normal situation.¡±

    ¡°None of this is a normal situation.¡±

    Zalia looked at her pointedly.

    ¡°Alright, alright. Well, what do you want to do then?¡±

    Zalia chewed on her lip, thinking about it.

    ¡°Well, I want to use this ritual on a larger scale for the whole town through the Silver rank Enchanters power for one.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s something, but Zalia if there really is a much larger number of higher ranked demons that will now come to attack the town, we won¡¯t be able to stop them all.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I know. There doesn¡¯t seem to be much that I can do about it. All I can think of is finding someone more powerful to come help but who is close enough?¡±

    Ember also stopped for a moment to think, though she didn¡¯t look happy when she spoke.

    ¡°We could see if anyone from the Morning¡¯s Shade will be able to come help. There are a few Gold rankers there after all.¡±

    ¡°Mmm. Maybe, I¡¯ll think about it. It¡¯s not a bad idea.¡±

    Ember pulled her into a hug.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like it either.¡±

    Zalia hugged her back.

    ¡°We can¡¯t let our personal feelings get in the way of possibly saving the entire town though.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    Zalia held on for a moment more before breaking away and striding towards Tristan.

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    Tristan looked over from where he was talking to his guards and met her in the middle.

    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°Firstly, sorry for not telling you the entire plan.¡±

    Tristan frowned.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    Zalia blinked at him.

    ¡°The huge ritual, exposing the shapeshifters and then taking them down?¡±

    Tristan shrugged.

    ¡°I thought that was just you being ridiculously strong again. You planned all that?¡±

    ¡°More or less.¡±

    Tristan sighed heavily.

    ¡°How exactly did you kill the sun and drop the stars on them?¡±

    Zalia scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

    ¡°Thaaaat¡­ wasn¡¯t me. That was Aylie.¡±

    Tristan stared at her blankly.

    ¡°The child. The Tin rank child.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Ok then, let me ask a different question. How did the Tin rank child kill the sun and drop the stars on them?¡±

    Zalia watched Boreal walk past towards the river, half coated in blood, before replying.

    ¡°She was blessed by a star god. Anyways, sorry for not clueing you in. I kind of needed you to be out of the loop to deceive the shapeshifters.¡±

    ¡°She was blessed by a wh-¡±

    ¡°I want to go see the Silver rank Enchanter now, to see if they can do what I did to this park to the whole town. It would be an extremely strong protection if they could.¡±

    Tristan sputtered.

    ¡°Cool, I¡¯ll wait for you over here whenever you¡¯re ready.¡±

    She walked off, back to the ever warm Ember.

    ¡°Zalia!¡±

    Tristan quickly gave his guards a few orders, then ran after her.

    ¡°You are going to have to explain things more sometimes you know.¡±

    Zalia considered it.

    ¡°No I don¡¯t.¡±

    Tristan grabbed her arm.

    ¡°What did you mean when you said she got blessed by a star god.¡±

    ¡°I meant it literally. Ember got a blessing too, stick around long enough and you might get one of your own.¡±

    She tapped her chin thoughtfully.

    ¡°Though, you¡¯ll have to get in line. I definitely owe Boreal the next one.¡±

    Tristan gave a resigned sigh which made Zalia feel a little bad.

    ¡°Look, I get tired of explaining all the things that happen all the time to multiple people. Sometimes I just want to be around people without having to explain myself.¡±

    Tristan eyed her, but accepted it with a nod.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡±

    He made off and Zalia quickly went inside to collect Aylie. Ember and Boreal followed along and the five of them re-entered the city. It was obvious that the passing of the demons had caused a disturbance because people were hiding, some inside and others in alleyways. There was a stench of fear hanging in the air and it made Zalia sick.

    Tristan soldiered on though, making his way to the centre of town. There, he stopped before a large, mansion-like house. The home of the Enchanter. She could tell, because there were several visibly glowing runes on the building and floating over it. There were even more out of her direct visual sight that her heat or even vibration sight picked up independently. This person was not messing around.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s scary.¡±

    Tristan gave her a crooked smile.

    ¡°Oh they aren¡¯t so bad. They¡¯re quite nice, once you get to know them and they forgive you for existing. And once you get over the fact that many of these runes are there specifically to kill people who want to speak to them. It¡¯ll be fun!¡±

    Zalia narrowed her eyes at Tristan, but didn¡¯t push for more information. Fair was fair.

    ¡°Alright, in we go then.¡±

 Book 3: 40 - Incompatible

    First, Tristan walked towards the house after insisting that they remain behind. Apparently, the Enchanter really didn¡¯t like to meet new people. Three new people and an only slightly tame wildcat were not exactly easy to get used to.

    Zalia watched him sidestep a glowing rune on the ground, then walk in an arc through a corridor of invisible runes that were only visible to Zalia as vibrations in the air. After reaching the door, he knocked on it. Only, he didn¡¯t knock where one usually might, instead putting his hand to the height of his knees and knocking there. It looked odd, performing such a menial thing as knocking in any different of a way somehow causing Zalia¡¯s brain to grind a little in confusion.

    Tristan waited for a few minutes before the door was finally pulled open. The person who opened the door was¡­ basically still a teenager. They looked to be barely twenty and shorter than Zalia, wearing robes that glowed with multitudinous runes.

    Despite the unassuming look of a youngster, Zalia knew that this was not someone to mess with. She could see the power radiating from them, undeniably Silver rank. It looked like they might even be close to Gold, according to Aura Observation.

    Congratulations! Aura Observation has reached Iron 20.

    Congratulations! Aura Observation has reached Bronze 1.

    Aura Observation - passive

    Tin - you are able to identify what rank a creature is by sight, unless it has a method of hiding that information.

    Iron - you are able to identify a creature''s general progress to the next rank.

    Bronze - your strength of observation increases. Fluctuations in the auras of undisciplined beings can give insights into their emotional state.

    New information suddenly assaulted Zalia¡¯s eyes, another upgrade to a sight based ability causing her bonded mental stats to work hard to keep up. Not only did the ability do as it said, allowing Zalia to see people¡¯s auras almost as if it were a loose skin layered coating but she could also tell the state of them.

    She could even see the faded auras of the few Tin and Iron people that were on the street nearby, looking as depressed and hopeless as the people they belonged to.

    She looked back over to where Tristan was talking with the Enchanter. He gestured back towards her and the Enchanter met her eyes. She held contact, trying to keep her expression neutral.

    The Enchanter nodded, then said something in response.

    Zalia was surprised she couldn¡¯t hear them. The range of her hearing had grown quite good since gaining access to magic yet their words must have been blocked by one of the many, many runes that protected the house since she couldn¡¯t hear a word. She could see the vibrations of their speech still, however, and did notice that they stopped abruptly at the border of the property. Might it be possible for her to read what people were saying in the vibrations their speech made? Another skill to learn perhaps.

    Tristan looked resigned at something the Enchanter said but trudged back over, looking at Zalia.

    ¡°He said that only you can come inside.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    Tristan¡¯s eyes flicked down to Boreal then back up.

    ¡°He said, and I quote, that he does not want to deal with wild beasts or children in his home.¡±

    Ember, Aylie and Boreal all looked simultaneously offended.

    ¡°So was he calling me a wild beast or a child?¡± Ember asked.

    Tristan winced and Aylie poked him in the knee.

    ¡°He¡¯s basically a child as well!¡± she complained.

    ¡°Aylie, don¡¯t be fooled by how he looks, he has some kind of magic that makes him younger. Physically, at least.¡±

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°Yet he still acts like one. Can I go and talk to him? I might be able to convince him to change his mind.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Zalia, if he doesn¡¯t want us in there then we don¡¯t want to be in there. You know where to find us.¡±

    Ember gave her a long hug, then a peck on the cheek.

    ¡°But do annoy him a little for me, would you?¡± she whispered in Zalia¡¯s ear.

    Zalia smiled, a little tingle going down her neck.

    ¡°You can count on it. I¡¯ll see you three later.¡±

    She knelt down to give Boreal and Aylie a hug as well, before standing up and following Tristan to the house. She had to avoid the runes as he did, not wanting to accidentally set off some kind of death trap.

    The first thing she noticed as she got closer was how¡­ perfectly symmetrical everything about the Enchanter was. From the clothes, to the runes he drew, to the house he lived in to his face. Even the garden in front, nothing more than a lawn, looked as if each blade of grass were perfectly mirroring one on the other side.

    Closer now, she could see the aura of power about him in more definition. She could also see that he was indeed close to reaching Gold, a fact that Aura Observation told her.

    ¡°Hello.¡±

    The Enchanter looked her up and down.

    ¡°He told me that you have a¡­ ritual that affects the demons directly.¡±

    His voice was high pitched and sounded almost whiny. Some Silver ranker they had the misfortune of having to rely on.

    ¡°I do. It directly counters the nature of the demon''s aura.¡±

    He narrowed his eyes.

    ¡°And how did you manage that?¡±

    Zalia gave him a look up and down, aiming for an expression of disappointment, like she had just opened her bag of bread and discovered mould. She needed to fulfill Ember¡¯s request after all.

    ¡°It¡¯s based on one of my abilities. It is antithetical to the demon''s aura in a more reactive way, the ritual does the same thing but in more of a¡­ subdueing manner.¡±

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    She didn¡¯t really know how to explain all the things she did on instinct due to Herbal Magic. She just hadn¡¯t ever really considered needing to explain how it all worked before. The best way she could describe it was Healing Presence acting like an acid that neutralised itself and the aura it was fighting. The ritual was more like a heavy weight that stopped it from standing up.

    ¡°Based on an ability you say? What is your class?¡±

    Zalia smiled.

    ¡°I have a few. Would it be ok if I actually walk in the door, or shall we have this entire conversation on the doorstep?¡±

    He looked like he was actually considering it for a moment, but relented and stepped aside to let them in. Tristan let out a deep sigh behind her but followed them inside as well. She didn¡¯t think he was going to have a very good time, talking about rituals and power specifics. While it was certainly not a big point of study or conversation for Zalia, she at least had abilities related to and an understanding of it. This was about as far from Tristan¡¯s powerset as it could get. Yet, he probably wanted to stop her and the Enchanter from killing each other, an event with a nonzero chance.

    The Enchanter led them through a small hallway, past doorways placed symmetrically to the sides, before heading into a small dining room. There was a table, thankfully with four seats around it, not one.

    The room itself, as with everything else, was symmetrical. There were more runes decorating the walls, a large one centrally on the ceiling lighting the space.

    ¡°What did you mean by a few classes?¡±

    The Enchanter wasted no time nor energy on idle conversation, jumping straight into things again. Usually, Zalia would enjoy that kind of thing, yet recently she had been a little more¡­ okay with other people¡¯s presence. She even enjoyed idle conversation sometimes too.

    ¡°I have three, though only two of them will matter for this particular task. Herbalist and Druid. One of them gives me Herbal Magic, a type of ritual magic that uses herbs as fuel. The other gives me my aura, which is antithetical to the demon''s own.¡±

    The Enchanter leaned far forwards in his seat, as if trying to view the answers to his questions directly through her forehead.

    ¡°Three? How?¡±

    Zalia leaned back, away from the inquisitive eyes.

    ¡°That is neither the reason we are here, nor important to this.¡±

    She could see the hunger for knowledge burning in the Enchanter¡¯s eyes. It was oddly unsettling.

    ¡°So be it. Show me the ritual you speak of.¡±

    Zalia summoned a tiny little circle on the table using herbs from her Grove¡¯s storage.

    The Enchanter stared at it and seemed¡­ disgusted.

    ¡°That is¡­ a horrible way to perform rituals.¡±

    Zalia stared at him, taken aback. Maybe Tristan wouldn¡¯t be the one who enjoyed this process the least.

    ¡°What did you say?¡±

    His eyes flicked up to hers.

    ¡°Inefficient, messy¡­ unsymmetrical.¡±

    Wonderful.

    ¡°Why exactly does it need to be symmetrical? Look, I¡¯m not going to go around giving you bad mouth about how you do your magic, so don¡¯t come over here attacking me about mine. Can you obtain the same effect or not?¡±

    The Enchanter grumbled, staring at the little ritual circle.

    ¡°What is your medium for permanency?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    He gestured around the room to all the runes that were glowing on the walls.

    ¡°Permanency, what is your medium?¡±

    Zalia was a little confused. Well, she knew what he meant but did all ritual magic then have some kind of permanent version? How then was his fueled, was it in the symmetry of everything he did?

    ¡°Plants, mine is plants.¡±

    His expression turned from disgust to horror.

    Plants, arguably the most natural thing in the world. Nature also tended to stray from symmetry, however. The cause of her own ritual''s messiness or a symptom of it?

    ¡°Why do you ask?¡±

    He stood from his chair and paced back and forth. One hand idly scratched at his head while the other flicked like he was dismissing thoughts with a wave.

    ¡°You have, perhaps, the least compatible ritual magic I have ever seen. At least, the least compatible with mine.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t help but agree.

    ¡°So are you unable to do it? Convert what mine does to something you can emulate?¡±

    He whipped around to face her.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say that! It will just¡­ take some time.¡±

    Zalia nodded slowly.

    ¡°Okayyyy then. What do you want from me? Is this circle enough?¡±

    He looked at her with annoyance, then resignation. Slowly, he closed his eyes.

    ¡°You¡¯ll have to leave a permanent ritual here so that I may study it. It is easier to do with one that is active.¡±

    Ah.

    ¡°Right, where do you want it?¡±

    She stood as well, looking about the room. She had to admit, the chaos of her living rituals would very much disturb the aesthetics of the immaculate, bare, symmetrical room. Not that she minded it. She didn¡¯t really like that aesthetic anyways.

    ¡°The table.¡±

    He sounded miserable.

    ¡°I can put it in your front yard somewhere maybe? It might-¡±

    ¡°No, the table.¡±

    Zalia didn¡¯t argue any further.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to need some dirt.¡±

    He nodded and a ball of dirt floated through the doorway. Where had that come from?

    It dropped to the table and Zalia got to work. She spread it into a little circle, then put small flakes of plant into place, growing them until they made tiny versions of the real plants. Then, when it was all ready, she activated the living ritual.

    The Enchanter sat down in front of it, head in hands, staring with confusion.

    ¡°Are you going to need anyth-¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Shrugging, but trusting the man to know what he was talking about, Zalia took his words as a dismissal and left. She could say with certainty that she definitely annoyed him. Perhaps even a little too much.

    Tristan followed her out and led the way through the rune maze in front of the house. She noticed that this was symmetrical as well, there were two paths through. Or¡­ were there. If she were the Enchanter, the second path would be the one thing she made unsymmetrical, as a kind of trick.

    Though, she was far from the Enchanter.

    ¡°That went well I think.¡±

    Tristan turned to look at her, both of them now safely off the house grounds.

    ¡°About as well as I expected, yes.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t even raise my voice or anything. I barely even reacted to him calling my magic messy and inefficient!¡±

    Tristan eyed her.

    ¡°Well, compared to the Enchanter¡¯s it does look a litt-¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare, you won¡¯t receive as much leeway as he did,¡± Zalia interrupted, finger pointed.

    Tristan chuckled lightly.

    ¡°Alright, alright. Let¡¯s go find your¡­ friend.¡±

    ¡°Partner,¡± Zalia corrected.

    He didn¡¯t seem surprised, just giving a shrug.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t know if you¡¯d put a label on it yet.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean,¡± she grumbled.

    ¡°Oh, well¡­ you know¡­¡±

    He looked at her as he trailed off.

    "Yeah, I know."

    Then, he smiled brightly at her, the weariness leaving his face for just a moment.

    ¡°I''m happy for you Zalia, really.¡±

    "Thanks, Tristan, I appreciate that."

 Book 3: 41 - Shield

    They found the other three at the park house and Zalia gave Ember another long hug.

    ¡°Did you annoy him?¡±

    Zalia smiled and squeezed a little tighter.

    ¡°Just for you,¡± she whispered.

    She let go of the embrace and turned to Aylie, fixing up her messy hair.

    ¡°And how are you doing?¡±

    Aylie grumbled a little at the treatment but didn¡¯t push her hands away.

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    Zalia nodded. Okay was¡­ okay.

    ¡°We might be leaving town soon, depending how things go. Are you alright with that?¡±

    Aylie nodded her assent, but Tristan looked concerned.

    ¡°So soon? We really could use you here for longer. Obviously if you can¡¯t then that is that but¡­¡±

    ¡°I might have¡­ some bad news.¡±

    Tristan¡¯s already stressed face looked as if it aged a further ten years.

    ¡°Bad news. Out with it then.¡±

    Zalia swallowed, collecting her thoughts.

    ¡°Right. Well, one of the dying demons said something about the right of preference, which had been lost with this fight? I don¡¯t know exactly what that meant but it seemed convinced that we were doomed.¡±

    A little of the tension left Tristan¡¯s face.

    ¡°Well, that could have just been some final breath bravado or a tactic to make us panic.¡±

    Zalia nodded a few times, though she didn¡¯t agree at all.

    ¡°Maybe. Don¡¯t you find it weird that nothing stronger has attacked Ostoss though? We have seen a Silver rank demon flying around aimlessly not a few days east of here. Why wouldn¡¯t they have come here?¡±

    Tristan looked a little disturbed and Zalia didn¡¯t blame him. The thought of a Silver or even Gold rank demon coming to Ostoss and slaughtering everyone was a horrific one. She wasn¡¯t certain if the Enchanter would be able to win a one on one fight against a Silver rank demon, let alone anything higher.

    ¡°What if these shapechangers had dibs on the town and we just inadvertently opened it up for any of them.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­ why would you leave us after finding this out?¡±

    Zalia looked to the sky.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know that we would be able to defeat a Silver ranked demon. Whatever is left of the Morning¡¯s Shade though¡­ well, they might be able to.¡±

    She had actually killed a Silver rank creature before but it had been one of the undead in the Bathar city of Hetheir. Those had been significantly weaker than your usual Silver rank creature and lacked any abilities whatsoever. The truth of the matter was, if she went up against one of these Silver demons by herself she would die. With Boreal and Ember, they might stand a chance but even Delphi and the collective hadn¡¯t been able to take one down.

    ¡°So you would be going for help then?¡±

    ¡°Yes Tristan. We aren¡¯t just going to leave you all to die. The army needs us but not nearly as dearly as you do. Hopefully, the Enchanter will be able to get something out of my ritual to improve the barrier you have. Hopefully, you¡¯ll be able to survive until we can get back with help.¡±

    Ostoss was a week''s journey from Endelbyrn, the city that held the organisation known as the Morning¡¯s Shade. While such a journey might take Zalia and Boreal less time, she didn¡¯t like the idea of splitting up with Ember and Aylie. She was certainly not going to leave them in Ostoss by themselves.

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    Tristan and his guards would need to hold out for a little over two weeks for her to make the journey and back, assuming she even found any help in Endelbyrn at all. She hoped it still stood, as it had been the centre of a lot of Endaria¡¯s powerful people.

    Tristan heaved a long sigh.

    ¡°I guess we can try. I don¡¯t see that there is any other option really.¡±

    Zalia chewed at her lips a little, trying to figure out what else they could try. Getting help from the army was out of the question as they were even further away and less likely to come. The Heat and Stone denizens would not leave their mountain to help but would take refugees. Could they walk the entire population of Ostoss a week''s journey to the mountain?

    The logistics and danger of such a task took that idea away from her quickly.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see any other way either.¡±

    Ember looked like she was deep in thought as well, yet said nothing. She was probably having most of the same thoughts Zalia was. Boreal, of course, didn¡¯t even seem to be paying attention.

    ¡°When will you leave?¡± Tristan asked.

    Zalia looked at Ember who shrugged.

    ¡°Tomorrow after Ember uses her ability to feed the people?¡±

    Tristan nodded in agreement and they fell into silence. There wasn¡¯t much else to be said. She would help grow the plants and would even set up a living ritual to accomplish that same task but then there wasn¡¯t much else they could do but get help. If both Hildebrandt and Matthias, the two who lead the Morning¡¯s Shade alongside Hidey, were still in Endelbyrn, their help would be invaluable. She just hoped she could convince them to come.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Essen sat in a gutter, many hours after having run from the park where the interloper had slaughtered his clanmates. It had all gone so horribly. What had that dome of oppressive power been? How could someone so low as Bronze rank create something so powerful?

    There would be hell to pay for this, he knew that. The elders would take his life for providing them with such wrong information. He couldn¡¯t go back, not after leaving so many of his clanmates to die for a mistake he had made.

    He didn¡¯t understand. Had the interloper known they were coming all along? Had she sensed his real form when he had been talking to her?

    There was nothing for it now. He was doomed, there was no way he could survive what was to come. The right of preference was lost now. There would be no feast or celebration, no capture of the city. The others would come pick over the spoils and their clan would fade back into the background once again.

    Perhaps¡­

    He had been hoping this would go well so that he could finally ascend. He would be on the same level as many of the stronger members of the clan, the same level even as the interloper. Though she would have killed many that were of her same rank despite the odds by now. Such strength¡­ strength that could be his

    Well, he didn¡¯t have to wait for permission now, did he? Usually, ascending without permission from the elders would be the end for him but they would already kill him for this, so why not?

    Essen slipped through a few alleys, getting lost amongst the desperate of this horrible little town. His hidden form had reestablished itself not long after leaving the oppressive power of the interloper thankfully. No, he didn¡¯t have to wait for anyone to tell him he could advance his own power. The message was asking him if he wanted to ascend after all. Why did some elder get to tell him what to do?

    He summoned the message back and it sat there in his sight, a goal just out of reach yet always within it.

    Would you like to ascend?

    "Yes."

    He felt the power flow through him. It was nothing so different to the last ascension yet it was so, so much more. All of his powers were already Bronze ranked, yet they felt much more solid now.

    Once he adapted to the new sensory input of being Bronze, he looked about at the cowering filth that had hidden themselves away in the alleys with him. Had they always looked so drab and depressed?

    Well, even if they had, they would still bleed just as well. He jumped forwards and grabbed a man, tearing into him with claws, teeth and all.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Zalia was sitting with Ember watching the plants grow. Tristan had left some time ago to check on things in the city yet the farmers remained, looking confused but overjoyed at the speed of growth the plants had obtained.

    It hadn¡¯t really occurred to Zalia but her powerset would actually work quite well if she were to be a farmer. Not only could she grow plants at very quick speeds but she could also harvest a crop extremely efficiently. All the plants she harvested would even provide more nutrition as well.

    It was slightly amusing to consider, a life where she used her powerful druidic abilities to run a little farm.

    Her deep reverie was shattered as the sounds of screaming began to fill the air. She couldn¡¯t discern where it was coming from at first but it started growing louder and louder. Before she knew it, there were shouts as people from the city began fleeing across the park.

    She looked at Ember and both of them jumped up to investigate. Boreal and Aylie were somewhere in the house, probably within the vault. Zalia knew she could leave the protection of Aylie to Boreal and so wasn¡¯t worried about the two of them at all.

    They ran past fleeing refugees and eventually found the source of the commotion. One of the escaped shapechangers had apparently dropped its guise entirely as it leaned over the corpse of a man whose eyes stared sightlessly into the sky above. Ember immediately dashed forwards and interrupted the disgusting sounds of chewing with a savagely delivered shield to the head.

 Book 3: 42 - Elder

    The shield bash sent the demon sprawling across the ground, Ember quickly following it with blade at the ready. She didn¡¯t activate the fiery powers of her armour, perhaps worried about lighting a fire in the city. In nature, Zalia could easily take care of a fire by healing plants quicker than they could be burned. Here, she would have to use Nature¡¯s Wrath to tamp a big fire down.

    She followed Ember on the offensive, applying Hunter¡¯s Mark and various rituals to the creature as it desperately avoided Ember¡¯s blade.

    ¡°Wait, wait!¡±

    The voice ground at Zalia¡¯s ears like two blades crossing. It did make her pause however, though Ember didn¡¯t falter for even a moment.

    Ember began pushing it back, managing to corner it into an alley.

    ¡°Wait! I¡¯ll show you where the others are hiding! Please!¡±

    It was at that moment that Zalia recognised the demon. It was one of the very first creatures to flee, one that had been standing next to her first kill. As she watched, it did something she very much did not expect. It knelt down and bowed its forehead to the ground, arms reaching outwards.

    That caused Ember to pause as well, as if considering its words, though she kept her weapon ready. There was no way they would let it live, yet if it really could lead them to where the survivors were and provide an opportunity for them to clear the rest of them out of the city, wasn¡¯t it worth a try?

    ¡°Thoughts?¡± Zalia sent to Ember.

    ¡°Might be worth a try.¡±

    Zalia agreed.

    ¡°We¡¯ll humour you for now. Lead us there.¡±

    Watching the demon closely, Zalia could swear she saw an expression akin to joy pass over its face, though it was hard to tell with its forehead on the ground. Perhaps she could get some answers from this one about a few things.

    Slowly, ever so slowly, they left the alley and let it come out. It took on a human form, a sight that was much less disturbing than the bloody faced demon.

    ¡°You¡¯ll answer questions as well.¡±

    It nodded fervently.

    ¡°Good. Walk.¡±

    It began walking, only turning its back on them with what was obviously great internal conflict. Zalia wouldn¡¯t have turned her back on it, that was for sure.

    ¡°What is the right of preference?¡±

    She heard it let out a light hissing sound before it replied.

    ¡°Our clan had the right of preference to this town. No more.¡±

    Clan. So it must have been as she thought and the town would now be open to attack. It changed nothing about her plans however, simply a confirmation of what she feared.

    ¡°Who are these others? Why would you lead us to them?¡±

    She wasn¡¯t particularly worried about what they might face. There was a certainty that a large number of the shapechangers had come to the park and had died there as it would have been a final breaking event for the city had they not won. Maybe the strongest of their bunch had stayed in relative safety but she couldn¡¯t see that being the case. It was hard to be certain but she thought that these demons ruled by strength, something shown by this demon prostrating itself before her.

    ¡°They would kill me for my failings. They must die first.¡±

    Survival then. A valid enough reason, though she couldn¡¯t see why they would kill it.

    ¡°Failings?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ informed incorrectly. You were prepared.¡±

    So this was the same one that had come to her disguised as Tristan. She could see why the others might kill it then. If it had gone back to the others and told them that she was completely unprepared for the shapechangers to attack, it was almost entirely its fault that they had fallen into her trap.

    They started passing by people once more and none of them reacted to the demon. It was a little terrifying, seeing how closely these creatures had walked amongst people without knowledge. She was glad that the army camp back south already knew about them.

    ¡°One last question then. How many of you remain and how strong are they?¡±

    ¡°Many, most, went to the park. The oldest of the elders remains. However many escaped.¡±

    She could hear fear in its voice, now human and very much readable as a human emotion. Mulling over this last bit of information, she realised she might have been completely wrong in her assumption that there were no stronger demons in the city. However, from what she could tell, these demons didn¡¯t really have any combat based abilities. At least, none that were flashy.

    During the attack on the park, they had simply swarmed and tried to use strength of body to overwhelm. If it had been the flying demons that could often teleport, the ones that had killed Delphi, it would have been a different fight entirely.

    Could they take a Silver rank shapechanger?

    Perhaps. Ember and her against one Silver shapechanger. It might be possible, especially with their combined healing. She had no doubt that it would have strong abilities for what its classes were based around as well as attributes that were much better than her own. Fortunately, she had all six.

    She was brought out of thought as the demon stopped.

    ¡°There.¡±

    It pointed to a house further down the street and Zalia couldn¡¯t help notice that there were no people around. If this had been where the shapechangers had lived, then most of the people that had come here or had been here had probably suffered a fate similar to the man they had found this demon standing over.

    Zalia looked at Ember, a question in her expression.

    She summoned her sword as Ember stabbed the demon in the leg. It screeched and tried to avoid Zalia¡¯s strike as it dropped to one knee. Her strike took its arm off rather than its head yet Ember was already following up with her shield, smashing it in the head for the second time that day. It dropped back and Zalia¡¯s sword slid through its face and into the stone beneath ending the battle.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    It was a prime example of a creature that had bonded neither Vitality nor Resilience as attributes. It was fast and strong but pinned between two people who were equally quick, it didn¡¯t last long.

    She found no joy in killing the demon, no sense of victory. It was perhaps even cruel of them to do what they had done in getting its hopes up. Unfortunately for the demon, it was just as she had tried to explain to Aylie. There was no need to find joy in doing what had to be done, yet it needed to be done all the same. Had this demon been raised in another place or society, maybe it would have been different. There was nothing to be done for it now, however. It had killed and would kill again given the chance.

    ¡°Ready?¡±

    ¡°As ready as I¡¯ll ever be. You think it might be a Silver rank as well?¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Yeah. At the least. Doubt it''s Gold or it could probably have taken down the town by itself through simple strength alone. I doubt it has many if any combat related abilities so we might be able to take it.¡±

    Zalia hadn¡¯t actually used Protection of the Wilds since it had become Bronze rank. There hadn¡¯t been any time when she could have used it efficiently for its mana cost yet strongly considered it now.

    They approached the house, weapons at the ready and both wearing their separate sets of armour. They must have looked like spirits of nature, Zalia an almost ethereal creature made of wood and shadow, Ember a solid bastion of rock and fire.

    Deciding to do a little bit of scouting, Zalia walked straight through the wall to the side of the door.

    Inside was a dimly lit room with only flickering candles for light. It was enough for her to see by however, as three figures sat on what may as well have been thrones at the far end of the room. There were no other demons in the room but three might be more than they could handle. They were wearing no disguise and wore thin decorative strips of cloth that must have denoted rank. The central one was holding a staff that glowed with power. An heirloom.

    ? - Silver rank.

    They all looked up simultaneously as she entered.

    ¡°Interloper.¡±

    They spoke as one, their voices varied yet in unison.

    She stepped right back through the wall.

    ¡°Three, in there, though I could only see the central ones rank, which is Silver.¡±

    She sent an image of the room to Ember.

    ¡°Want to go for it?¡±

    Zallia considered quickly, knowing they only had a little time to make a decision. The one thing that swayed her decision to fight was the damage that this creature could do if it decided to.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    She ran straight back through the wall but this time with her bow. She shot the central one in the chest with an arrow and it didn¡¯t even try to move out of the way. The arrow only dipped half the length of the arrowhead into its chest before stopping.

    Zalia ran left, phasing through another wall and then went straight. Her aim was to get behind the demon.

    She heard the sound of wood shattering as Ember must have run straight through the door.

    Switching her bow to blade, she jumped through the wall on her left once more and swept her blade through the neck of the left hand demon as she found herself right next to it. It shattered into a fine mist, then formed back.

    ¡°What the hell?¡±

    It turned and swiped at her, barely missing as she dodged backwards.

    Ember was busy engaging the other demon of unknown rank, illusions perhaps, while the Silver rank one had its eyes closed as if in deep focus. Not wanting to take any further risk, Zalia cast Protection of the Wilds.

    Active 2 - Protection of the wilds - spell - area - counter execute

    Tin - You call upon the protection of the wilds. You and nearby allies are protected by a biome specific shield and are subjected to a moderate heal over time effect. The heal over time heals exponentially more based on how low the target''s health is and remains until the shield is broken.

    Iron - Protection of the Wilds now has a more ethereal and moving visage. You and Allies within a shield created by this ability may still see and move as normal. Additionally, you may enhance this ability with a single effect replicable by the Iron rank ability of Herbal magic.

    Bronze - Upon activating Protection of the Wilds, you and your allies within the shields are not only healed over time, but the healing effect becomes more potent as the shield absorbs damage. The shield''s resilience increases with the amount of healing it provides, creating a symbiotic relationship between protection and restoration.

    Mana - very high mana

    Cd - 6 hours

    A thin ethereal light layered itself over both Ember and herself, providing a protective layer that immediately began pulsing with a healing light. Taking a moment, Zalia pushed Healing Presence into the demon in front of her and found¡­ nothing. An illusion after all.

    She tried to shove past it but found herself pushed back as it scored lines through her newly formed defense. Backing up quickly, she met back with Ember closer to the front of room.

    ¡°Give up, interloper,¡± the three said in unison.

    Zalia initiated a mental communication with Ember.

    ¡°They¡¯re illusions, yet they can harm us easily enough.¡±

    Ember nodded and they changed tactics a little.

    Still having some mana, Zalia applied Hunter¡¯s Mark to all three of the enemies and began casting some rituals of her own. Ember ran forwards and for a short time, held back both illusions. She fought as if she were on the level of both her enemies, turning away strikes, twisting her body so any hit was deflected rather than causing severe damage.

    A fire engulfed the demons as Zalia finished casting the cursed flame ritual, its effect increasing as she consolidated the heat of the flames into the bodies they burned on using the manipulation element of Heat resistance.

    Ember failed to dodge a strike, long claw marks forming in the ethereal shield over her.

    Zalia cast a protective ritual on Ember using Dodge-vine, then used Fight or Flight and ran straight past the two illusions. They tried to grab at her to stop her passage yet with the ability active, they moved slowly enough that she dodged with ease. Sword in hand, Zalia attacked the Silver demon, breaking its reverie.

    Her bow was unable to inflict much damage to it but her blade cut a long wound straight across the chest of the demon, enough to force its eyes open.

    It hissed in frustration as the glow from its staff faltered.

    The glow began up again but Zalia pushed the attack.

    It was slow, almost sluggish compared to her even once Fight or Flight ended. She had no doubt in her mind that it had neither Dexterity or Strength bonded. Unfortunately, despite how many times she managed to cut it, the demon didn¡¯t seem to become very injured. Even the cuts she made, glowing with the burning starlight, looked as if they were healing.

    The fire that blazed across the demon barely even disturbed it and Zalia began to get frustrated.

    She needed Ember to be up here with her to harm it, yet she was busy with the illusions. The illusions, controlled by the staff?

    Zalia hopped forwards, cutting at the arm holding the staff and as it hissed in pain, she dropped the sword and ripped the staff from its grip.

    She knew the illusions had gone as heavy footfalls sounded from behind, quickly followed by Ember charging past and body slamming the demon into, then through, a wall. Zalia followed behind and together, they repeatedly stabbed the demon as it tried to get to it feet.

    It wasn¡¯t done yet though.

    Its form shifted and changed into that of some monstrous beast, thick hide and two beady eyes, six legs, three on each side, sticking out like that of a spiders. Its arms ended not with hands but with large blades. Both Zalia and Ember quickly backed away and yet, something seemed off to Zalia.

    There was no need to risk fighting that thing in close combat, even if it was another illusion like she suspected. Its other illusions had been real enough to harm them after all. Luckily, she had regenerated enough mana to cast the strongest of her spells.

    Nature¡¯s Wrath flared to life, two stone golems ripping themselves free of the walls and grabbing onto the arms of the demon. Controlling the stone of the house around them, Zalia ripped it apart and began to bury the demon alive.

 Book 3: 43 - Just die

    Stone crumbled and compressed, turning from dust to stone once more as the pressure exerted forced it into a ball. Zalia heated it as much as she could, the stone beginning to glow with a molten light. It was about to liquify when she came close to running out of mana and let the spell drop, the half sphere of glowing rock slowly cooling in the breeze.

    The house around them had been torn down, the pieces of wood that were once a part of their structure strewn across the foundation. The building no longer existed, the tiled roof and stone walls having become part of the large chunk that now buried the elder demon inside.

    Using the stone manipulation she had outside of Nature¡¯s Wrath, Zalia started to dig up the demon at a pace much slower to the one with which she had buried it. After a minute of stone seeming to melt and flow away, she finally revealed the demon and¡­ it was still alive.

    It had a compressed body, scorched with the inside of its chest visible to the open air. Yet its eyes were open, ragged, painful breaths were taken. As she watched, its scorched skin began to flake away and its wounds started healing over.

    ¡°Just fucking die!¡±

    She cut at its neck, the sword cutting only a few centimetres in. She cut again, and again. A fourth time. A fifth strike and its head was finally parted from its body.

    She stepped back, her armour coated with its blood. Ember stepped up behind her and lay a hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°It¡¯s done.¡±

    Yet, it wasn¡¯t done. As she watched, the neck of the creature began to regrow a head, skin and bone slowly forming from nothing. The regenerative powers of this demon were absurd. Were all normal Silver rank beings like this? She had only seen a few other real Silver rank beings die, the corrupted captain that Tristan had killed being one of them. That man must not have had both Resilience and Vitality as this demon did. The six legged bear in the north might have though and that had died much easier. Perhaps it had only Vitality and not Resilience. It would explain how the rockfall had injured it so much yet not killed it. The combination of both attributes, perhaps in addition to an ability around survival, resulted in a very hard to kill being.

    This time, Ember stepped forward. She stabbed through the still open wound in its chest and impaled the heart of the creature, then left the sword there. Slowly, the healing came to a stop.

    ¡®Druidic Bow, Blessed by Starlight¡¯ has ascended to Bronze rank.

    Zalia took her helmet off with bloody gauntlets, almost unconsciously cleansing her armour using a mixture of fire and stone manipulation.

    Perhaps she should have used Kill Shot, a natural ability for this situation especially considering its execution nature. It just hadn¡¯t occurred to her though. She didn¡¯t mind either way, happy that her heirloom had ascended. She would check it out once they were back at the farm.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to burn it.¡±

    Ember nodded her agreement and Zalia manipulated heat from the surroundings into the body until it caught ablaze. It took a while after that for the heat to actually affect the resilient body but it eventually managed to reduce it to ash. A little manipulation later had the body buried in stone.

    She stepped over and picked up the staff she had discarded on the ground after ripping it from the demon¡¯s hands.

    Illusory Mage Staff (Heirloom) - Silver rank.

    She already had a few clues as to what it did, yet found it wasn¡¯t exactly the item for her. She neither wanted to nor felt that she would be able to bond with it. Perhaps it would change to something more fitting if she could bond it but thought it would be better to give to someone else, Aylie perhaps.

    Her heart slowed, the adrenaline of the fight gradually fading from her body. She needed to go check on Boreal and Aylie, yet could feel through her bond that Boreal was fine at least. If that were the case, Aylie probably was too. What they really needed to do was leave and find help for the city, someone that would be able to protect them from what was coming. If this elder had been a combat focused one, they probably wouldn¡¯t have stood a chance. She couldn¡¯t imagine fighting something that was equally resilient yet stronger and faster, with powers and martial abilities. Well, she didn¡¯t need to imagine that. She had seen Larel fight as both a Silver and Gold ranker. With Boreal¡¯s help the three of them could perhaps fight one such creature. Any more would be too much.

    They left the shattered remains of the house, walking back through the city with armour stored away. She didn¡¯t need to help Ember clean her own armour, the aura of fire enough to burn away any blood and gore that stuck to it.

    ¡°That thing was bloody tough.¡±

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯re along the same train of thought as I am at the moment. We need to get someone stronger here immediately.¡±

    ¡°Want to leave earlier than we planned?¡±

    Zalia thought it over. It might be wise for them to do just that. Ember could use her ability to help feed the people for the day, Zalia could set up a living ritual to help the farmland grow and then they could go.

    Deciding the walk was as good a time as any, Zalia looked over the abilities that her bow and sword combination heirloom had gained upon reaching Bronze rank.

    Druidic bow, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank

    Tin - Arrows fired from this bow gain a powerful seeking effect.

    Iron - When this bow is drawn without an arrow nocked, a Starlight arrow with the ¡®Starlit¡¯ effect will be summoned in its place.

    Bronze - Upon firing an arrow, you become invisible and can move slightly faster for a short time

    Druidic Blade, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank

    Tin - Druidic Blade, Blessed by Starlight is magically sharp and remains so permanently.

    Iron - When wielded by you, Druidic Blade, Blessed by Starlight gains the ¡®Starlit¡¯ effect.

    Bronze - After parrying an attack with this blade, your next strike will be infused with a powerful cosmic force.

    It seemed like both blade and bow were evolving in a way that promoted a more reactionary and distanced fighting style. It was somewhat counterintuitive to how she was sometimes forced to fight, yet would allow her to fight more how she preferred. From a distance, with a bow. With two abilities now based on parrying enemies, she would be able to hit pretty damn hard. It was somewhat reminiscent of how she liked to set up for fights. Prepare and strike when the time was right. Obviously, that wasn¡¯t always possible and she sometimes got carried away, like she just had. Running in there had probably been a stupid idea, despite it turning out well.

    As they walked, she also had a look over her few ability rank ups.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s Mark has reached Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Fight or Flight has reached Bronze 4.

    Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Nature¡¯s Wrath has reached Bronze 5.

    Congratulations! Protection of the Wilds has gained two levels reaching Bronze 3.

    Congratulations! Druid class has gained two levels reaching Bronze 3.

    Happy with any progress at all, she was particularly happy to rank up the Druid class a little. Being bonded with Wisdom, each level brought a bit more mana for her to use. Something that had only really become necessary in recent times. She really needed to use Protection of the Wilds more often. Though¡­ it being the ability to rank up last and evolve might yield something powerful for her.

    She hadn¡¯t really decided whether or not it was a good idea to manipulate that or not. Did the purposeful evolution of key abilities yield greater results, or was it better to let the ones she used the least evolve by the simple reasoning of it being the one she used the least?

    Thoughts for another day.

    They arrived at the park, now farm, where both Aylie and Boreal were playing in the sun. Boreal must have sensed Zalia¡¯s emotions and realised the danger was over.

    Tristan was there once more, thankfully, as they needed to tell him of their plan to leave today instead.

    Stepping down the slope towards the park, he saw them approaching and came up to meet them.

    ¡°Hey Tristan.¡±

    ¡°Zalia, Ember.¡±

    Zalia looked at Ember.

    ¡°We¡¯re planning to leave today instead,¡± Ember said.

    ¡°What, why?¡±

    ¡°We encountered one of the demons and actually managed to get some answers out of them. The right of preference is what we thought, the city now being open to any ¡®clan¡¯. You can expect stronger attacks to be coming so we need to get someone stronger here to help you immediately.¡±

    Tristan seemed to age a decade, the weight of responsibility bowing his shoulders.

    ¡°I see.¡±

    Zalia felt a little bad as Ember delivered the news. Last she had seen Tristan, before the rituals had gone off, he had been living a wonderfully relaxed life as a baker in his own shop. The joy in his eyes from those days had long since disappeared as he struggled to keep his town safe.

    Zalia gave him a hug.

    ¡°I know it¡¯s hard. I wish you could just go back to your bakery and make us some nice loaves of bread. You¡¯ll get back there, I promise. We¡¯ll get you back there.¡±

    She felt the tear drop onto her shoulder and she held him even tighter. He¡¯d probably not had anyone to be vulnerable with since this had all begun. He had to be the strong one, the leader and guardian of the people. Should they see him lose hope, what should they feel?

    The warm and healing power of Ember washed over both of them and Tristan began crying for real. It was at this moment that Zalia realised Ember¡¯s power didn¡¯t just heal emotional wounds, it gave space for them to heal on their own.

    In this case, that meant opening up Tristan¡¯s emotions while he was in a safe place where he could deal with them.

    She held him as his tears took their course and when he had some semblance of control once more, Zalia let him go.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, we¡¯ll get help back here before you know it. Just hold out for two weeks, alright? That¡¯s all you have to do. After that, you¡¯ll have all the help you¡¯ll need.¡±

    He seemed to take solace in the promise, now all Zalia had to do was keep it.

 Book 3: 44 - Terror of rank

    Zalia stood to the side as the food Ember had summoned was handed out to those in need. She did her part, cycling her healing through all of the people that came close, watching as they stood a little straighter, cuts and scrapes healed and disease was eliminated.

    They were a bit off to the side in the park, away from where the food was being grown. Zalia had already set up the living ritual of Manifest and Frozen Heart that would help grow the grains. All they had to do now was finish handing out the food and they could leave. Technically there was no reason for them to have to stay but Zalia wanted to heal them all as much as she could.

    She was feeling a little uneasy. The city was feeling lighter already, as if the sudden decrease in violence and mistrust due to the shapechangers being gone had brought a new light to the streets. The tension that Zalia felt was in complete disregard of that, the source of it being the knowledge that the city was actually a little less safe now. Sure, on the inside it was better off but the danger from the outside had only really just begun.

    And there wasn¡¯t really any way to tell if the attack would come that day, the next or six weeks from then.

    Both Boreal and Aylie were nearby too. She had told them they were going to leave sooner than planned as they needed to get help as soon as possible.

    A thought had occurred to her, that she could leave all three of them behind and make the run to Endelbyrn herself. She was self reliant enough and stealthy enough to be able to manage that and could make the distance even faster than Boreal due to her Mobility passive.

    Mobility - passive

    Tin - Your speed is increased. Your stamina is less affected by movement.

    Iron - You may step on air one time before stepping on a solid surface once more.

    Bronze - You are able to step on air three times before resetting this ability. Additionally, you may perform a short range teleport with a long cooldown. Finally, when travelling long distances, you are able to maintain a fast pace while maintaining your stamina indefinitely.

    The second half of the Bronze rank effect wasn¡¯t something that she had ever really needed, but this was the perfect situation for it. She could probably make the distance, especially since she didn¡¯t need to sleep, in three or four days. Maybe less, she hadn¡¯t seen how quick of a pace she could maintain just yet.

    It was deep in those thoughts that her eyes got caught on a little black dot in the sky. She only saw it due to her bettered eyesight, managing to spot it past the occasionally crackling dome that protected the city. It was flying above the city, watching closely. It was also something that Zalia recognised, a creature very similar to the one that had killed the Collective.

    She ran up to Tristan and Ember.

    ¡°Hey, hey we might have a problem.¡±

    She pointed to the dot in the sky and they both left the cover of the little pavilion to see. Ember cursed, also recognising it, though Tristan looked confused.

    ¡°It¡¯s Silver rank, a much more dangerous Silver rank than the other one we killed. This one is built for one thing and that¡¯s killing.¡±

    Looking around, Zalia knew they had the best odds they could hope to have against such a creature right here. Five Bronze rank people, herself, Ember, Boreal, Tristan and one of his guards. It was a lot more than they¡¯d had against the shapechanger.

    Her hopes that they wouldn¡¯t need to fight were dashed as she watched the dot drop from the sky, landing on the dome and sending a crackling ripple across its surface. It punched once, another ripple travelling across the dome. This time it came with an arcing sound and people started to notice. It punched again, a big crack appearing under it.

    With a quick check, she knew that both Nature¡¯s Wrath and Protection of the Wilds were on cooldown. She did still have the anti-death measure of Healing Presence however, something she hoped they wouldn¡¯t need but was glad to have.

    A third punch and the dome shattered, a hole ten metres wide appearing in its surface. The translucent material fell with glittering light even as it dissipated in the air.

    Dropping like a rock, the demon fell towards the city. Two glowing arrows rose from the park to meet it, carving a brilliant arc through the air.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    It dodged them both, yet a third struck one of the demon''s wings. It didn¡¯t seem too affected but its course changed, now in a guided descent towards the park even as the hole in the dome slowly repaired behind it.

    The people in the park hadn¡¯t missed what was happening, fleeing with screams even as death approached. The farmers also fled, running from the centre of the park into the streets beyond. All three of Tristan''s guards tried to stay but he sent away the two Iron rank ones, knowing they would only get themselves killed. Ember sent Aylie off to the house to hide in the still open vault.

    Zalia felt her blood pump and adrenaline release even as she shot more arrows towards the demon. Clued into where the arrows were coming from now however, no more landed before the demon itself did.

    It slammed into the ground next to Zalia at speed, throwing her off her feet with the impact.

    Ember, Tristan and the last guard all moved forward and engaged it in combat, the crystal shards growing from Boreal¡¯s back beginning to glow a light blue as she charged Pounce.

    Tristan brought his axe down in a brutal strike that was easily dodged, the guard following through with a jab that scratched over the demon''s obsidian skin. They both had to immediately go on the defensive as the obscenely quick demon struck back, slapping the sword out of the guard''s hand and then slashing at Tristan with its clawed hands.

    Ember came at it from behind but it had already stepped back from the other two and punched her shield so hard it dented as she was thrown back a few steps.

    Boreal took her chance and pounced, slamming into the demon''s legs and freezing them to the ground even as she raked her claws across its thigh. Bright blood glimmered in the sun, three light claw marks showing on its skin. It must have bonded Resilience then, to shrug off Boreal¡¯s claws like that.

    Taking advantage of its immobility, Zalia shot it and was rewarded with an arrow that sunk very slightly into its shoulder.

    The demon managed to grab Boreal before she could retreat from the pounce and threw her across the park. Zalia watched her spin away but didn¡¯t worry as she saw the damage immunity shield from Pounce still active.

    Ember, Tristan and the guard all made use of the time the demon had taken to throw Boreal and moved in again. With a quick exchange of blows, during the time of which Zalia started casting some protective rituals on her allies, the three managed to cut the demon twice, a thin line of blood visible on its back and chest.

    Seeing her casting something, the demon used its teleport to appear right behind her and grab her by the neck. She¡¯d forgotten about that.

    She heard a crunch and a stab of pain before she felt nothing. A shimmering skin of light appeared over her and a warmth deep in her core expanded, protecting and healing her. Her anti-death measure. It had been so quick.

    The demon dropped her limp body to the ground and she heard a screaming as the other three fought it. She could feel the pain and worry of her friends through the emotional bond and eventually, felt her body once more.

    Her spine finally healed and she stood from the ground, summoning her bow to her hand and rejoining the fight.

    The others had managed to cut it a bit deeper, some of the wounds visibly slowing it down now. Boreal pounced once more from a distance and the demon tried to counter it by punching her mid-flight. Its undoing there though, was that the one-use invulnerability that Boreal gained from Pounce every so often was active and the punch accomplished nothing. The others took advantage and Ember managed to stab her blade into an existing cut and through its leg.

    It grunted in pain and ripped the blade from its leg before flying upwards. It was trying to escape.

    Zalia fired off a few more arrows in an attempt to take it down and then¡­ it hit an invisible wall.

    A glowing rune came into their vision and a hundred others followed as a large cube appeared around their fight. The Enchanter.

    The demon tried to break through this shield just as it had the other, yet found no success. Zalia¡¯s arrows found its back and wings, dropping it from the sky.

    It landed hard, turning to face them with anger filling its expression. Anger, and what looked like a little fear. Good.

    They attacked again, the others pushing the advantage of their numbers.

    The demon managed to break the guard''s arm and Ember quickly went to assist. It then tried to use the same move on Zalia but she was ready and teleported away herself, escaping death. Looked like this thing only had one real trick.

    The arm was healed already, the combined healing of Ember and Zalia enough to fix it in a flash.

    From there, the demon grew more desperate as it accrued more wounds. It kept allowing hits to try and take one of them out of the fight but both Zalia and Ember healed any damage it could do.

    It was when it ignored one of Tristan¡¯s strikes that it finally fell. It tried to grab Ember¡¯s head but was blocked by her tattered shield and Tristan¡¯s axe fell down hard on its arm. He managed to cut halfway through and the arm hung limply from its side. From there the others began to brutalise it. It tried to teleport away and flee the cube once more but the power of a Barrier Enchanter solely focused on keeping you in was not so easily overcome. It died in that cube, stabbed, hacked, shot and clawed to death by the five Bronze rankers after its life.

    In the aftermath, they were all breathing hard. The fight hadn''t taken long yet each of their hearts beat quickly as they tried to recover some semblance of calm.

    Ember came and grabbed Zalia, holding her tight. She didn¡¯t think she could imagine the fear Ember must have felt when it had snapped Zalia¡¯s spine. She didn¡¯t have to imagine, though. She could feel it.

 Book 3: 45 - Left behind

    It was shortly after the fight with the Silver rank demon and a decision was growing further into certainty in Zalia¡¯s mind. As much as she disliked the idea of leaving her friends and family in Ostoss while she went off to get help, she disliked the idea of Ostoss being destroyed because they were too late a little bit more.

    Without the others, Zalia would be quick enough that she might yet be able to get help.

    The Barrier Enchanter had come out of hiding after the fight as well, lending no words to the conversation, simply inspecting the dead creature''s body before leaving, back to his house.

    Zalia didn¡¯t pretend to understand the man. They were probably about as different as two people could get while still fighting for the same cause. Much like Ember and Indis, now that she thought about it.

    The farmers had slowly come back to the park after the fight had ended, a little scared looking but rightfully so. Twice now they had been attacked as they tried to farm the quickly spreading crops.

    ¡°Ember.¡±

    Ember looked up from where she sat on their bench.

    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    Zalia tapped her finger on her leg a few times, going over the list of reasons in her head once more before finally making her decision.

    ¡°I think I should go to Endelbyrn alone to get help.¡±

    Ember stood abruptly, looking confused.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Because I don¡¯t need to sleep much, am very stealthy and am significantly faster than any of you. I can get there in just a few days compared to a week or more of travel.¡±

    She could see the gears turning in Ember¡¯s head. She could see as Ember tried to come up with counterpoints or any rebuttal to her idea. She also knew that there weren¡¯t any or she would have found them. It wasn¡¯t a decision she made idly, as she would have actually preferred the others come with her. It just simply wasn¡¯t possible, this time.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you see why? You can continue giving out food to the people while I get help as well. It¡¯s what is best for Ostoss.¡±

    Ember stayed frozen for a few more moments.

    ¡°Damnit Zalia.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare get yourself killed out there.¡±

    Zalia stepped forward and grabbed Ember in a tight embrace.

    ¡°I won¡¯t, don¡¯t worry. You better all stay safe here too.¡±

    ¡°We will.¡±

    Zalia finally pulled away, then kissed Ember gently.

    ¡°It¡¯ll be alright. We can do this.¡±

    Ember nodded, a single tear running down her cheek that Zalia wiped away with her thumb.

    ¡°Leaving?¡± Boreal asked.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Boreal started to walk towards the city gates far off in the distance but Zalia stopped her with a hand.

    ¡°Not this time. I need you to stay with Ember and Aylie.¡±

    Boreal stopped and sat, looking at her in confusion.

    ¡°But¡­¡±

    Zalia knelt down and hugged her furry friend. They had been by each other¡¯s side ever since Zalia had found Boreal atop that snowy mountain. Neither had been separated from the other for more than a few hours at most.

    ¡°I know darling, but I need you to protect them both for me. You¡¯re big and strong now and I need you. Can you do that for me?¡±

    Boreal pushed her face into Zalia, almost knocking her over.

    ¡°I¡¯ll protect them.¡±

    Zalia nodded, finding herself crying now. She cupped Boreal¡¯s face with both hands and gave her a kiss on the forehead before standing.

    She found Aylie in the house, playing around with the walls, decorating them with her Plant Manipulation ability. Boreal and Ember crowded the doorway as Zalia stepped up and sat on the bed beside Aylie.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go get help on my own Aylie. Boreal and Ember will be here with you.¡±

    Aylie looked up sharply.

    ¡°What, why?¡±

    ¡°Because I can get there and back much quicker than any of you. I¡¯ll be alright, I promise.¡±

    Aylie¡¯s voice came out nothing but a little whisper.

    ¡°It¡¯s not you I¡¯m worried for.¡±

    Zalia pulled her in close for a hug.

    ¡°I need you to stay safe for me.¡±

    She looked up at Ember.

    ¡°If anything happens, I want you to leave the city. Don¡¯t stay and protect it if it isn¡¯t possible. All three of you, get as many people as you can and get out.¡±

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Ember nodded.

    Zalia knew Ember would usually do everything she could to save people but she also knew she could trust her to protect Aylie and Boreal before anything else.

    She stood up, gave Ember one last hug and looked back at Aylie¡¯s fearful face, before turning about and leaving.

    She found Tristan first, telling him that she was leaving and Ember was staying. He looked surprised but didn¡¯t ask questions, though she was sure he would grill Ember about it later.

    Then, she went to the city gates and left.

    As city streets turned to empty plains, she sped up her pace until she was comfortably running quicker than most people would usually be able to achieve at a sprint, all thanks to Mobility.

    She quickly left the city behind as plains turned to forest, back to plains and back to forest again. Trees flashed by in a blur as her legs pumped, driving her ever towards her westward goal, Endelbyrn.

    She knew that Larel was with the army, performing some task or another at the direction of Indis and Faian. The two Gold rankers she was hoping to find however, Hildebrandt and Matthias, were most likely at Endelbyrn. She knew that the city still stood thanks to information she had received from Indis when they¡¯d caught up. If the city still stood, she would undoubtedly find some strong people there. It had once been the home of the majority of the powerful people in Endaria, though she knew of only two Gold rankers still amongst their ranks.

    If there were more, or even higher-ranked members, she had never met or heard of them. So, her hopes lay in getting both Hildebrandt and Matthias to Ostoss as quickly as possible. Perhaps they could even escort the people of Ostoss to the mountain home with Glemp and continue onwards to the war camp after that. Their chances of defeating the demons would be increased considerably with a further two Gold rankers and who knew how many other well-trained and high-ranked people in their numbers.

    She could still feel both Ember and Boreal over their bonds, the concern, fears and anxiety that they felt, emotions she shared.

    It felt odd being away from them, an experience she found quite strange.

    When she had first come to Endaria, it had been after living on her own for many years. During that time she had grown accustomed to her own company, talking very little and socialising even less. She had been comfortable in the wilds by herself more so than she had been in cities filled with people making sounds, smells and other assaults on her senses.

    Since then though, while she still didn¡¯t like being in cities, she had become used to the company of others. She had been around Boreal so long and had been through so much with her that it felt wrong to be without her. Additionally, while her relationship with Ember was new, her friendship with her was not. She had met Ember even before Boreal, and while they had not endured Cormaine together, she had still been there for Zalia more than a few times.

    So it came that as she ran through the wilds alone, she felt, well, lonely. It was an entirely new experience, one she didn¡¯t like at all.

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    Three days later, Zalia was still running.

    She had stopped after the second day to sleep a single hour before waking and beginning her run once more. Strangely, she didn¡¯t feel tired or hungry on the surface whatsoever. Her body felt strong and lithe, ready to take on anything as it often did nowadays.

    What she did feel though, was something deep, deep inside. An exhaustion that had nothing to do with her body. It was as if the Mobility passive had its own separate limitations to her body that would eventually rise to the surface and make itself known.

    That eventuality felt far off, however, enough that she would be able to make it to Endelbyrn.

    She was half expecting the glowing city to appear over every next hill or past each clump of trees. It had been a long while since she had last been to the city, though she remembered the way quite well due to her increased mental abilities and the fact that she had lived there for quite some time.

    She hadn¡¯t had to avoid any demons so far, only needing to annihilate a pack of the Tin flying demons with a few quick rituals. Other than that it had been the simple and boring task of running day in and day out. Step after step, nothing other than where her next foot would land.

    After another hour of her extended running, Endelbyrn finally made itself visible over the horizon. It was much as she remembered it, tall crenelated walls made of a stone that glittered in the sunlight and a keep far within that absorbed the light, only to emit it during the night.

    The big difference she first noticed though, was the huge hole in the outer wall and the light streams of smoke that drifted from the city proper into the sky above. The keep itself looked fine, thankfully.

    She was a little concerned for the state of things, hoping that she hadn¡¯t come all of this way for nothing. If it turned out that the Morning¡¯s Shade had indeed fallen, she would have to run all the way back and come up with an entirely new plan on the way.

    She approached the city and managed to convince her legs to drop into a walk, after a little bit of a stumble. She felt like she had been running forever.

    The gates were wide open and she walked straight through into the city beyond, finding it¡­ completely silent. It was an odd change to what she remembered of entering the city. Usually, it was one of the loudest places she had the misfortune of walking into but it felt dead now, without the sounds of a bustling city life.

    She walked past some houses that were torn apart, smoking remains of structures and even some bodies lay in the streets. Some of them were demons and some were not.

    Her path led up towards the keep, where she knew she would find the people she was looking for. Where she hoped she would find them.

    The entrance was much as she remembered. A carefully cultivated garden with a path leading through it came to a large set of double doors set into the base of the central spire. All around, many other spires rose into the sky, connected to the main one and each other by walkways both ground level and between higher floors.

    It was all as she remembered it, as well as the two guards that stood by the front doors.

    She frowned, realising she didn¡¯t have the little icon they had given to her when she had joined that let her enter usually. She would just have to convince them.

    ¡°Hey there, mind if I come in?¡±

    Her attempt at sounding casual came out a little tense.

    One of the guards drew their dual sabres and she recognised him with a jolt. It was one of the men who had been guarding the door the very first day she had arrived.

    ¡°Hey! You¡¯re alive!!¡±

    ¡°Stay where you are!¡±

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°Hey, you really don¡¯t have to be so-¡±

    She cut off as the other guard stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm. They roughly pulled her arm up and cut into her palm

    She suffered the indignity in silence, knowing what exactly they were testing for. She wondered if it would become a cultural practice to cut one''s palm before entering a building after all this was over.

    ¡°Happy now?¡±

    The guard dropped her arm and scratched at their head.

    ¡°Sorry about that.¡±

    ¡°Ah, no apologies needed. I understand why. Can I go in and see Hildebrandt now?¡±

    The guard stepped out of her way but the other did not.

    ¡°You said you knew me?¡±

    ¡°Yeah! You were here on my first day.¡±

    Then she frowned. The guard that had given her food when she had been imprisoned in the tower by Hidey had been the other of the two guards that had been here on her first day. She wondered idly if this guy had been in on it too.

    ¡°Hey, yeah I think I do recognise you. Zalia, right? Aren¡¯t you meant to be dead?¡±

    ¡°Loooooong story. One I¡¯d like to tell Hildebrandt and Matthias first.¡±

    He finally stepped out of the way.

    ¡°Alright, in you go.¡±

    Zalia smiled at him.

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

 Book 3: 46 - Help

    As Zalia stepped into the floor-level room of the main spire, she was utterly shocked by how unchanged it all was. The kingdom was being invaded, towns were empty, Ostoss was in complete disarray and yet here, it was like nothing had happened at all.

    Pushing away the momentary confusion, she quickly stepped up the main stairwell into the spire. What followed was a long and confusing path between spiralling stairs, walkways and hallways. It was as seemingly random as she remembered it and had to stop and ask directions not two but three times. It was in asking these directions that she did start to notice little changes.

    People looked exhausted, bags under their eyes and hair in a mess, armour or weapons a little uncared for. It was far better than most of the kingdom had suffered though, so she didn''t feel too bad. She was sure many people would have much preferred being a little tired or having a bad night¡¯s sleep. It was better than dead friends and family with the chance of meeting the same fate any given day yourself.

    When she finally found herself at the door belonging to Hildebrandt, Gold ranker and one of the leaders of the Morning¡¯s Shade, she drew in a deep breath and prepared herself. She had to make a good sell with her next words or Ostoss would suffer a terrible fate.

    Raising her hand, she knocked twice lightly on the door.

    ¡°Come in.¡±

    She opened the door and stepped in.

    Looking completely unfit for the position, a giant of a woman in her plate armour sat on a small stool behind a desk. She was trying to write something down on a piece of paper with a wooden instrument that must have been a pen.

    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again Hildebrandt.¡±

    The woman stood up in alarm.

    ¡°Zalia? What in the worlds are you doing here?¡±

    Zalia sighed. Here she went again, explaining everything that happened. Again.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t die, I was pulled through the portal to Cormaine where I survived. Then I spent some time there trying not to die, then I found a way back, then I spent some time here trying not to die and help people. Then I found myself at Ostoss with a bunch of people who really need help and here I am.¡±

    Hildebrandt nodded twice to herself, but was looking at Zalia suspiciously.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m not a shapechanger, yes your guards at the gate tested me. I¡¯d love to get to why I¡¯m here since we have very little time.¡±

    She sat back down again, gesturing to the chair opposite her.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s get to it. I am glad you¡¯re alive, by the way.¡±

    Zalia sat down opposite her, stretching her sore legs out with a groan.

    ¡°Ahhh. I¡¯ll bet I¡¯m more glad that you¡¯re alive. Here¡¯s the basics of it. Ostoss is in shit, deep shit. There was a clan of shapechangers in the process of destabilising the town so that they could take their sweet time destroying and possibly eating the population. Me and mine went there and ended up killing ninety percent of them and now they apparently lost something called ¡®the right of preference¡¯. That basically opens up the town to attack from every single demon everywhere.¡±

    She checked again, as she had often over the past days, on Boreal and Ember¡¯s emotions. Finding the faint link she could feel that they were somewhat calm, though definitely both a little anxious and stressed as well.

    Hildebrandt leaned forwards, metal elbow guards grinding against the desk.

    ¡°Alright, I can see the problem. Why are you here?¡±

    Zalia looked her in the eyes.

    ¡°It¡¯s simple. They are guarded basically by a thin sheet of paper over the city and a couple Bronze ranked guards. I need you to send at least one Gold ranker, more if you can, to protect the city. If you don¡¯t, it¡¯s likely that most of those people will die.¡±

    Hildebrandt examined her closely, as if looking for any kind of lie or deceit. Zalia waited. She had a little past experience talking to the woman and thought it best to be completely blunt and open in her words. Hildebrandt didn¡¯t seem like the kind of person to faff around with fluffy words and pointed meanings.

    Hildebrandt pursed her lips, then nodded.

    ¡°Alright, fuck it. We were thinking of abandoning Endelbyrn anyways. Might as well head somewhere we can actually do some good, we¡¯re not exactly getting much done here in the ass end of Endaria.¡±

    Zalia blinked.

    ¡°You can just decide that? What about Matthias?¡±

    Hildebrandt leant back.

    ¡°Matthias? I¡¯ll be damned if I know where he is. I¡¯ve got the twins, who are Silver rank now, a couple other Silver rankers and about thirty Bronze rankers. I¡¯m the only Gold ranker in the Morning¡¯s Shade now with the Hidden imprisoned, Larel having left to join the army and Matthias vanishing into thin air.¡±

    ¡°Matthias is gone? That¡¯s all we have? I swear there were a lot more out there.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve lost a lot Zalia. Matthias, another Gold ranker and I were out fighting an Emerald elemental when the rituals went off. The damn thing went insane, killed our friend and then sunk into the ground once the rituals were done. I haven¡¯t seen Matthias since he left that battlefield. We had a lot of people in the field when shit went down and not a whole lot of them have made their way back here.¡±

    Zalia sat silently, considering. There had been a few hundred people in the Morning¡¯s Shade when she had joined. Now they were reduced to what, less than fifty?

    ¡°So you¡¯ll all come to help?¡±

    ¡°Damn right we will. As a group, we¡¯re able to kill pretty much anything out there I¡¯m certain of it.¡±

    Zalia wasn¡¯t so sure. She knew of one thing that they wouldn¡¯t be able to kill. Well, maybe they could, but she wasn¡¯t certain of that fact.

    Either way, she could see that this would be how the human race survived. Put all the powerful people in the kingdom together in one spot, protect them against the corruption and then gradually cleanse the kingdom of all the demons that had invaded it.

    It would be a long, long task but for once, she could see it actually being possible. Now they just had to figure out how to deal with that damned thousand eyed monstrosity that sat in the capital. She knew that the nature gods could easily take care of it if they moved their asses into gear but, well, she also knew that wouldn¡¯t happen anytime soon.

 Book 3: 47 - Twins

    Zalia stood in the marshalling yard, the scene unfolding before her much like one she remembered from so long ago only on an entirely different scale. Back then, she had gone on a mission with twelve people, now there were around fifty. Fifty of Endaria¡¯s most powerful people, all of them with classes specifically chosen for the art of killing. While usually not something that could be considered truly good in nature, when it came to saving their kingdom it could become so.

    From where she stood, Zalia could see the twins who were as much a part of the shadows as she could remember. The last time she had seen them they had summoned a large shadowy storm cloud that had rained acid down upon the Gold ranked elemental which had ripped itself out of the mine further south. They had a way of combining their magic together, much as Those Born of Heat and Stone did but on a deeper level. That way, their magic was much stronger than their rank might lead one to assume.

    That day, they had been Bronze ranked, helping to take down a Gold ranked elemental. Now they were Silver and she was looking forward to seeing what kind of power they would have now.

    Hildebrandt was standing nearby, directing operations as people hustled about. Using Aura Observation, Zalia could tell that she was actually close to ranking up. She knew that Hildebrandt had spent some time before the rituals had gone off helping to take down Emerald rank elementals and it had apparently paid off. While Zalia had never seen her actually fight, she knew that anyone who was Gold, and close to Emerald, would be a force to be reckoned with. She might even stand a chance by herself against the worst of the demons.

    Despite how quickly Hildebrandt had organised things, Zalia couldn¡¯t help but feel impatient. She had arrived the day before but Hildebrandt had insisted they wait until morning to begin packing. Now that they had started, Zalia just wanted to run all the way back to Ostoss without waiting so she could make sure the others would remain safe while the group travelled.

    Letting the impatience get to her, Zalia moved towards Hildebrandt. She had to push her way past a couple people busy packing bags and even a few carts that looked to be self powered.

    ¡°Hey, I wanted to ask. Would it be possible for me to return to Ostoss with just the twins immediately? I fear with how long all of these people will take to get there that it will be too late. The twins and I can get there much quicker.¡±

    Hildebrandt looked to think for a short moment before nodding her assent.

    ¡°Sounds like a good precaution. Go.¡±

    Zalia nodded and looked around for the twins, finding them already standing just behind her.

    ¡°Ready?¡±

    They looked at her, only a nod so small to be almost imperceptible their answer. She couldn¡¯t actually recall ever hearing them talk.

    ¡°Right, wonderful. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    She went slowly enough as they picked their way back out through the city. The damage to the city was somewhat superficial so she wondered where everyone had gone. There wasn¡¯t a single person outside of the keep as far as she could tell, the entire population having abandoned the city or¡­ something worse.

    If the majority of the Morning¡¯s Shade had been out on some task or another when the ritual happened, as Zalia knew they had, what had the people that were left done? Larel, Indis and Ember had all left, so had they all gone south, or perhaps north?

    She would have to ask Hildebrandt about it later, if the woman even knew. As Zalia knew, she hadn¡¯t been in the city at the time either.

    Once they left the city bounds, she began speeding up her pace until she was travelling at a comfortable speed once more.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    The entire journey back, it almost felt like she was travelling by herself. The twins were so hard to see most of the time that if she wasn¡¯t looking for them, she couldn''t see them at all. The only time she actually saw them was while they slept.

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    While they definitely slept less than Ember and Aylie did, they still had to sleep a lot more often than Zalia did. That meant that the journey back was somewhat slower than it had been getting to Endelbyrn. It took five days of travelling and even with the increased hours of rest, the beginning of a burnout that Zalia had felt while travelling to Endelbyrn made itself much more apparent on the way back. When she ran, her legs were sore and heavy, each step much harder than they should have been. She would have expected Healing Presence to take care of that pain but it apparently wasn¡¯t something that it could heal.

    It was the third day that she actually got to see the twins in action as Silver rank beings. They spotted one of the larger flying demons that was Bronze rank and where Zalia would have thought about whether it was worth fighting or not, the twins performed a piece of joint magic that summoned shadowy arms from the treetops that grabbed the demon and tore it apart, limb from limb, in a matter of moments. Zalia was certain she could have won such a fight as well but it would have taken her considerably longer.

    The power of two Silver rank beings performing joint magic was not something to laugh at. It made her wonder how powerful they would be in further ranks. As Gold rankers, Emerald or even Diamond should they make it that far. What feats would they be capable of achieving?

    On the fifth day, Zalia began to feel a sense of dread. They were only an hour away by her measure, yet the feeling built within her until she realised that it wasn¡¯t coming from her at all. The emotion was being sent to her by Ember.

    She was still too far away to communicate with Boreal despite their deep bond and the emotion made her speed up despite the pain in her legs. There was no way to tell what the feeling of dread meant yet she was suddenly glad that she had decided to leave earlier with the twins. It may yet turn out to be a worthwhile precaution after all.

    A few minutes out from the city, she dismissed all notifications so she could focus entirely on what was to come.

    Congratulations! Mobility has gained four levels reaching Bronze 7.

    Still running, she was finally able to communicate with Boreal through their bond. She sent a questioning feeling through and received back an image of a group of creatures trying to break through the dome. They were Bronze by the looks of it, about twenty of the same flying creatures Zalia had seen the twins tear apart just days before. The dread faded away and she actually smiled. It would be ok.

    The twins sprinted on ahead, faster than she was by just a bit.

    By the time she burst from the edge of the forested clump she had been in and saw the city ahead, things were already well in hand. It looked as if the shadow of the forest was rising up over the city to swallow the demons as they tried to flee for their lives. One by one, they were torn to pieces, until only a few were left. The few managed to escape but Zalia could see the flickering shadowy forms of the twins running after them, on the hunt.

    Zalia didn¡¯t worry about giving chase with them, knowing they would have it well in hand. She could feel the flood of relief coming through from Ember and Boreal, her own bouncing right back down the bond towards them.

    The ground went by in a blur as she sprinted towards the city, trying to figure out from where Boreal had sent that image. It felt like it had come from the park, so that is where she went.

    She ran through city streets that were still filled with people. People that were actually looking a little better than they had. The buildings and smooth stone street beneath her flew by as she found herself running down the bounds of the beautiful green park. At the centre now stood a wonderful little farm, the crops having been propagated and grown further still. Happiness and relief melted away the frozen worry from her veins. Ostoss would be ok.

    Her eyes finally found Ember and Boreal, standing near their little living house by the wooden bridge that crossed the stream. That stream was now flowing, a young mage nearby using some type of spell to create the flowing water.

    Her sore legs ached as Zalia slowed down to a walk, striding straight up to Ember and hugging her tightly. It had only been just more than a week yet she had missed her quite a lot.

    ¡°Hey.¡±

    Ember hugged her right back.

    ¡°You¡¯re sweaty. And you stink.¡±

    Zalia laughed a bright happy laugh, not disagreeing at all. She let go and knelt down to hug Boreal as well, receiving a deep bass-y purr in return. At least Boreal didn¡¯t complain about how she smelled.

    ¡°I missed you a lot too, little one.¡±

    She heard Boreal huff and laughed again, before sighing into Boreal¡¯s thick fur. Moments later, she felt an impact on her side as Aylie latched onto her.

    "You came back!"

    Zalia put one of her arms around Aylie and hugged her tight.

    ¡°I did, and I think we¡¯re gonna be ok.¡±

 Book 3: 48 - Responsibility

    Zalia and Tristan stood atop the walls of Ostoss as the remainder of Hildebrandt¡¯s people moved through the gate. They had needed to wait for another three days before the group had arrived, a short enough wait now that the twins were there to protect the town.

    The original reason Zalia had come north was to try convince Glemp¡¯s people to come down and help out with the war. While she hadn¡¯t managed to do that, she felt that the remainder of the Morning¡¯s Shade would be an equally powerful ally for what was to come.

    They needed to take back the capital and kill or disable the thousand eyed monster that now lived there. That would mean fighting through a city filled with undead, if Zalia was right, along with fighting off the corrupting aura that would slowly kill them. Her own aura ability protected her from it to a degree, yet it was the power of Ro-ak, otherwise known as Nateysta, spirit and god of mysteries and forests, that had held back that aura enough for her to actually function.

    Both the starlight wolf and the heat and stone spirit in the mountain would be able to do the same, if they could ever be convinced to actually take part in the fight.

    For now though, she was happy enough that she had managed to get one group of people to help, even if it did seem like they had been on the verge of doing so anyways.

    ¡°What now?¡± Tristan asked from beside her.

    Zalia pushed off the battlements and turned about to look down on the milling group of powerful fighters.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. How has the enchanter gone with integrating my ritual into the shield?¡±

    A small smile flickered across Tristan¡¯s still weary face.

    ¡°Failing to accomplish anything at all, except exuding an abundance of frustration.¡±

    Zalia smiled too, though she wasn¡¯t exactly happy it hadn¡¯t worked out yet. If the Enchanter managed to copy the effects, it would be a great boon to the town. It was just slightly amusing that the Enchanter, despite all of his disdain for her type of rituals, couldn¡¯t copy the effects.

    ¡°Maybe I should go see if I can help at all.¡±

    Tristan turned about to face the city interior as well.

    ¡°Maybe, though you¡¯ve already done a lot for us.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps not as much as you think. I want them to go south to help the army retake the capital.¡±

    Tristan sighed.

    ¡°I thought as much. I¡¯ve been thinking about what we can do to protect these people. Come with you to the army camp? It feels weird and¡­ wrong to abandon Ostoss after we¡¯ve finally managed to settle things a little. With Ember¡¯s help, people seem to be looking a little better. It won¡¯t be long until the farm grows big enough to feed us all with more farmers flocking to help by the day.¡±

    Zalia had given it some thought as well. It would be a good opportunity for them to evacuate if there ever was one. A population this large on the move would need quite a large number of people to protect them. The Morning¡¯s Shade would be the perfect group for that. They could go north to the mountain and take refuge with Zen and the others there.

    ¡°Maybe one or two of the Silver rank members can stay here to help you defend, once the Enchanter has the shield up and running?¡±

    They only had sixteen Silver rank members in the group, so it would be an impactful reduction to their strength. Saying that though, there were still enough strong fighters that they could make an impact either way.

    ¡°That might work, are you sure they would be okay with that?¡±

    Zalia chewed at her bottom lip, considering. Best to ask.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go ask now. I don¡¯t even know that they will come down to help the army.¡±

    Tristan nodded.

    ¡°I should come greet our saviours as well, I guess.¡±

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Together, they came down from the walls to meet Hildebrandt. They had to push through a few people but finally managed to get to the front of the group.

    ¡°There you are Zalia. Want to lead us somewhere a little more private?¡±

    Hildebrandt was looking about at the wide-eyed refugees and townspeople who were watching the large group. Whispers of ¡®Morning¡¯s Shade¡¯ were spreading through the crowd. Zalia had forgotten that they were a group of people held in a somewhat mysterious light to most of Endaria.

    Not a lot of people had met a member, let alone knew one properly.

    Tristan gestured down the street.

    ¡°Please, this way.¡±

    Hildebrandt started moving in the pointed direction, the crowd moving out of the way.

    ¡°And you are?¡±

    ¡°Tristan, currently in charge of Ostoss¡¯ guard.¡±

    Hildebrandt pat him gently on the shoulder.

    ¡°By what Zalia has told me, you should be commended on your defense of Ostoss, considering how little you have to defend it with. Well done.¡±

    Zalia saw Tristan¡¯s hands twitch like he meant to salute.

    ¡°Thank you si¡­ Thank you.¡±

    She smiled. A touch of authority and he fell back into his old military ways. Some things weren¡¯t so easily unlearnt.

    Hildebrandt looked up at the protective dome as they walked.

    ¡°And who is responsible for that?¡±

    Zalia followed her gaze.

    ¡°A Silver rank Enchanter, Barrier specialisation. It¡¯s quite impressive I have to say.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d agree, I can¡¯t see a single flaw in it. That takes quite a bit of expertise to accomplish.¡±

    Zalia coughed.

    ¡°He is¡­ let¡¯s just say obsessed with symmetry.¡±

    Hildebrandt looked down at her, stepping around a patch of filth on the road.

    ¡°Ah, well that explains it. I¡¯ve met a few who go that route with their enchantments. It makes for quite perfect pieces but their ability to adapt is lacking.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really? That explains why he has been having trouble integrating my own ritual into his own work. Do you have any advice around that?¡±

    Hildebrandt snorted.

    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t even try. I¡¯ve seen your rituals, I can¡¯t think of any two less suited types of magic to try and make work together.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ unfortunate.¡±

    ¡°It is what it is. There is a time and place for both types of magic.¡±

    While she trusted Hildebrandt¡¯s knowledge of magic, both as a high ranking person and as a leader of one of the most well informed groups in the kingdom, she had to disagree. Hildebrandt seemed to imply that it wasn¡¯t impossible and they should give up but Zalia felt like there must be a way. Nature was certainly chaotic where the Enchanter¡¯s magic was orderly yet there must be something that both shared, a bridge to make them work together.

    She gave it some thought as they walked, losing herself in thought until they arrived at the food hall turned barracks.

    They managed to fit all of the Morning¡¯s Shade members inside, the space made for a much larger number of people. Once everyone was settled, Zalia found Hildebrandt once more. She wanted to return to her family who were still at the farm, but needed to settle some details about what came next first.

    ¡°Hildebrandt, I want you and your people to come back with me to the army camp so that we might combine forces and take back the capital together. The issue we are running into is that without you here, Ostoss will not be safe. It won¡¯t be possible to evacuate all of these people in any short amount of time and the only idea Tristan and I can come up with is leaving a few Silver rank members here to protect the town. What do you think?¡±

    Hildebrandt looked around at the members of her group, making sure no one was within easy earshot.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be honest Zalia, I¡¯m not really sure what I¡¯m doing. Matthias and the Hidden were the planners, the thinkers. My main job leading the Morning¡¯s Shade was in defending the city and occasionally leaving to fight some beast or the other. I can show you how to best defend this town but¡­ when it comes to the best way to fight off this invasion.¡± Hildebrandt sighed. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that just isn¡¯t in my skillset. A result of both my Wisdom and Intellect not being linked I suppose.¡±

    She laughed nervously, as if she were admitting a crime.

    Zalia gave an encouraging smile.

    ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve got no idea what I¡¯m doing almost all of the time, if it¡¯s any consolation.¡±

    Hildebrandt laughed again, a little more openly this time.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s comforting.¡±

    Zalia couldn¡¯t help but feel bad for the woman. She had been saddled with the responsibility of the entire order after the Hidden had been taken into custody and Matthias had disappeared.

    ¡°Then how about this. We leave the twins here to defend Ostoss, as they are the fastest people you¡¯ve got. Then, we take everyone else here and go down to the war camp where Lady Indis and the generals can do all the thinking about what to do next.¡±

    Hildebrandt leaned back in her chair.

    ¡°I like the sound of that.¡±

 Book 3: 49 - Return...

    It was two days after the Morning¡¯s Shade members arrived, that they left. Zalia and the twins had finally managed to hunt down the last couple of shapeshifters, a gruesome task yet a necessary one. It wasn¡¯t something Zalia took pleasure in, yet was important for the safety of the town.

    She had also tried to work with the Enchanter again but with the man refusing to take any sort of advice and absolutely refusing to change anything about the way he made rituals, she had given up and left him to it.

    Ember, Boreal, Aylie and Zalia all waited just outside the gates as the last of the members filtered out. They had left Ostoss in a much, much better state than they had found it, something that Zalia often strived to do, though not always with success.

    Tristan was staying behind, of course, as were the Twins and a few other Bronze rank members of the Morning''s Shade. Now that the twins were there, the guard could be a little more relaxed and Zalia had even convinced the man to take a little time off to get back into starting up his bakery once more. She knew that the simple and relaxing task of baking was something that would benefit his mental health greatly. Something to pull him out of his past and back to the present, lead him back towards being a baker, not a soldier. He was a great soldier, that much she didn¡¯t doubt. It was what being a great soldier did to him that neither she nor he thought good.

    The final thing Zalia had done before leaving was attempt to lay a blessing on the farm. She had brought out her small altar to Nateysta and used the glowing purple mushrooms she had found in Cormaine to ask a blessing on the farm. There was no immediately visible effect other than the ritual itself, yet she felt a little better for having done it. At the request of one of the farmers, she even grew another small altar from her chunk of wood and left it in the house she had grown there.

    Hildebrandt had left behind her momentary lapse of confidence and now held her leadership mask on once more. With an end in sight to the indecisiveness that had apparently hounded her, she was more than happy to push on a little longer.

    The caravan began to move away with Zalia and her little family towards the front. Aylie would be spending the time attempting to move any particularly overgrown forested areas out of the way with Plant Manipulation while Zalia and Boreal flattened the ground out for their carts with the earth manipulation they both had from Physical Resistance.

    There was an actual earth mage in the caravan that picked up when Zalia and Boreal grew tired but an advantage that came with needing significantly less sleep was the fact that they didn¡¯t really grow tired anymore. Of course there was mental fatigue yet a few hours of relaxation had the same effect as a night''s rest would have on a normal person. Whatever normal was here.

    Days began to pass them by as they travelled, their path taking them past a few abandoned hovels and towns that Zalia and her family had passed on the way up. Ostoss was a little further west than the army camp was, so their path led in a south, south east direction.

    The journey would take a little longer than the one north had taken, by Zalia¡¯s approximation, since Ostoss was also further away from the camp than the mountain home of Glemp and their people was. Still, the Morning¡¯s Shade moved quite quick for such a large group. They were also such a strong force that they didn¡¯t really have to hide from the demons, often spotting demons fleeing from them instead.

    She was a little concerned that they weren¡¯t able to mask their movements. That concern turned out to be quite well-founded when they were attacked.

    A large host of the four-legged spined demons she had fought in Cormaine burst out of a patch of forest within a couple hundred metres of them. Hildebrandt immediately called the caravan to a stop and Morning¡¯s Shade members reacted with speed.

    Zalia opened the vault and ushered Aylie in, standing in the doorway to protect her. Boreal faded out of sight into nearby brush and Ember stood near the door, ready to protect them both.

    Many of the longer ranged Morning¡¯s Shade members began flinging spells. Bolts of magic made of fire, earth and all other sorts rained down. Arrows were shot, some of them Zalia¡¯s own, while area of affect spells were cast.

    A patch of demons died as the ground beneath them ruptured, swallowing them into the earth below. Another group was set aflame as fire rained down from above. Many bigger members of the order holding shields or larger two handed weapons waited in front of the more magic oriented members, ready to protect them.

    Others yet charged ahead, bloodlust in their eyes and smaller, quicker weapons in hand. A Silver rank man with two axes and no shirt became a whirlwind of blood as he danced through the hordes, the fire of his allies simply ignored.

    What struck Zalia most however, was the sheer presence that Hildebrandt maintained on the field. She stood there like a bulwark, a massive glowing tower shield in her hand. It was an item Zalia had never seen before and its presence seemed to strike fear into the demons. Most dared not come closer, their charge stopped not only by the number of dead but by fear. The few that did come nearer to Hildebrandt died quick deaths to blurred movement or an ability that Zalia could not see. They simply turned to ash as the woman deflected their blows.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    It seemed like a pointless charge, the demons having accomplished nothing except to die. Zalia knew that these hordes of four-legged beasts were controlled by the higher ranked flying demons, something she had seen in Cormaine, yet she saw none of those demons now.

    A sound across the battlefield began to bug her, almost soundless and like a pressure building in her ears. Hildebrandt noticed it too and looked around for its source but found nothing either. Realistation struck Zalia just as a force did.

    Two Silver ranked Astar appeared in front of her, the runes on their body glowing in mesmerising colours as their aura washed over the Morning¡¯s Shade. It wasn¡¯t an oppressive force like that of the demons was, yet had an attention drawing effect just the same.

    The whole battlefield seemed to turn to the three beings as the two Astar grabbed Zalia and everything disappeared in a flash, the sound of a water drop heard across the whole field.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    Zalia woke up on the cold hard floor of a room, the sounds of a language she didn¡¯t understand above her. She opened her eyes and lifted her head to see the same two Astar in conversation and realised she wasn¡¯t on the floor after all. She was on a little floating bench, the stone glowing with power.

    Without hesitation, she jumped up and punched one of the Astar in the back of the head. She didn¡¯t know what they wanted with her but she also wasn¡¯t prepared to sit here and take whatever it was.

    The Astar stumbled forwards as the other looked at her in shock, as if surprised by her awake state. She summoned her sword and chopped at its arm, finding that it cut through with ease, blue blood flowing to the ground below.

    She was about to strike again when the glowing stone beneath her pulsed, dropping her into unconsciousness again.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    The next time she woke, her wrists each had a metal bracelet wrapped around them. She had a moment of panic as she couldn¡¯t feel her powers but feeling a little closer, they were there, just¡­ restrained. The bracelets had an aura about them that felt similar to the demon''s aura in that it was oppressive. She hadn¡¯t felt an object ever having an aura before.

    Healing Presence was still there, still active, yet dulled down significantly. The feeling was claustrophobic, as if she had been pressed into her own body.

    Looking around, she identified that she was in some sort of prison room. There was a flat stone bed built into the wall, a stone construction that looked like a toilet, except it was covered in runes and a cell door, built fully from iron and also glowing with runes.

    Naturally, the first thing she tried was summon her weapon. It took a lot more conscious effort but she managed it eventually. Her bow dropped into her hands, a weight giving her comfort in the silence of the cell.

    Her panic built again as she realised that she couldn¡¯t feel the bond she shared with Boreal and Ember. What had happened to it? Was it simply gone? Surely such a thing couldn¡¯t just be broken.

    She looked closer and felt a tiny, tiny stream of consciousness connected to her own. Boreal.

    There wasn¡¯t any of the normal emotions or thoughts coming across the bond, not even an inkling of a location or direction. She could feel it was there, though. Her bond with Ember wasn¡¯t there however, though maybe it was simply subdued so much as to be practically invisible. That bond had not grown as deeply as her one with Boreal after all.

    Next, she summoned her armour onto her body. It made her partially intangible as she hoped, yet when she tried to step through the wall it failed. To her dismay, she realised the walls and door were most definitely magically protected. Of course they were, you didn¡¯t imprison a higher ranked person without making sure they wouldn¡¯t escape.

    Uncomfortable realisations came to her then, as she recalled the events of the past few¡­ minutes? Hours? Days?

    The Astar had captured her, for whatever reason she did not know. They had captured her, after the Morning¡¯s Shade had been attacked by demons.

    Were they working together?

    She heard a lock click and a hatch in the solid door slid open, two depthless eyes peering at her through it.

    ¡°Stand back interloper.¡±

    The thought slammed into her mind and she involuntarily took a step back.

    The door swung open and the Astar from earlier, at least she thought it was the same ones, stepped in. She pressed herself back against the wall, her bow transforming into a sword as she got ready to attack.

    One of the Astar flexed their hand and looked to the other nervously. The same ones then, only it had regrown the arm she had cut off.

    ¡°What the hell do you want from me?¡±

    ¡°Want from you? Nothing. Your interference has grown annoying, so we have taken you. You will wait here until the envoy comes to meet you.¡±

    Thoughts raced through her head. Her interference? With what, the invasion?

    Her mind flashed back to when she had been in a similar situation, trapped in a cell as Juniper spoke to them, almost absentmindedly. They had theorised that someone must have given Juniper the information she needed to bring back Zayes. Someone who had an excellent understanding of teleportation. But why? Why would they do this?

    ¡°The envoy? Who is the envoy?¡±

    Her bracelets pulsed, much as the stone platform she had been on had and her focus trembled. Her sword puffed into mist, though her armour remained. They seemed to realise that it wasn¡¯t linked like her sword was and stepped forwards, but she quickly stored it back away. No need to lose the armour.

    ¡°You will wait here.¡±

    She almost attacked them again, but they stepped out and the door closed with a fatalistic thud.

 Book 3: 50 - An Old Enemy

    Zalia slumped onto the stone bed cut into the wall. It would probably have been quite uncomfortable for most people but she preferred to sleep out in the trees and dirt over beds anyways. The only part of it that was uncomfortable for her was the fact that she couldn¡¯t see the sky, no trees or stars overhead.

    Despite her mostly stationary form, her mind was racing. She went over each and every thing that they knew about the rituals, the invasion and everything that had happened.

    It had been a long time since she had thought about what or why she had been brought to Endaria. Could it have been the Astar who did that?

    No, that didn¡¯t make sense. Why would they bring her here at all? The plan would most likely have unfolded without much trouble without her there. Unless¡­

    Assuming it was the Astar who had given Juniper the ritual and taught her how to perform it, all to get the Morning¡¯s Shade in on the plan as well, maybe they had brought Zalia there to sabotage it so that Zayes could not be brought out of Cormaine after all. No, that didn¡¯t make much sense either.

    It wasn¡¯t much of a stretch to assume that the Astar had imprisoned Zayes so they could manipulate Juniper and get both the king and the only other power in the kingdom in on the plan, but bringing her there to stop Juniper from freeing Zayes was stupid. It held too much randomness. That kind of plan would be too given to chance.

    If she were them, she would have had the ritual given to Juniper be one that looked like it would work but in reality would dispose of the woman after it was all done¡­

    A terrible thought occurred to her then.

    The Astar had never captured her when she had been running all over in an attempt to stop the ritual, yet they had now that it was done and she was helping build a resistance to the invasion. Maybe it wasn¡¯t her who had ruined the ritual. Maybe that was its intended function the whole time. After all, she had only been Iron rank trying to affect a kingdom scale ritual powered by many, many different people all at once.

    It was all assumptions based on her initial thought that the Astar were working with the demons because they had chosen to capture her during the attack. Maybe that had just been convenient timing for them, an opportunity taken advantage of in the moment.

    Who then was the envoy?

    They had told her she would wait there until the envoy arrived. Well, she wasn¡¯t about to just sit around waiting for that to happen. There must be something she could do.

    Her magic was definitely subdued, yet not locked away. Healing Presence was still there, weak, but still there. Some of her other magic must work then.

    She tried to teleport through the door using Mobility and for a moment her world flickered, yet she hadn¡¯t gone anywhere. It was as if she had teleported in place.

    With a little focus, she was able to open up her profile menu to look over all of her abilities.

    Profile - Zalia Taori

    Health - Excellent

    Mana - Full

    Stamina - Full

    Class one - Hunter - Bronze 3

    Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity

    Active skills

    Kill Shot - Bronze 4

    Hunter''s Mark - Bronze 3

    Fight or Flight - Bronze 4

    Passive skills

    Hunter''s Sight - Bronze 3

    Survivalist - Bronze 4

    Class two - Herbalist - Bronze 2

    Linked attributes - Vitality, Resilience

    Active skills

    Flora Identification - Bronze 2

    Preparation - Bronze 4

    Druid¡¯s Grove - Bronze 3

    Passive skills

    Harvester - Bronze 3

    Herbal Magic - Bronze 6

    Unity class - Druid - Bronze 3

    Linked attributes - Wisdom, Intellect

    Active skills

    Nature¡¯s Wrath - Bronze 5

    Protection of the Wilds - Bronze 3

    Passive skills

    Healing Presence - Bronze 7

    General Passives

    Heat Resistance - Bronze 4

    Cold Resistance - Bronze 4

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Aura Observation - Bronze 1

    Low Light Vision - Iron 18

    Poison Resistance - Iron 7

    Mobility - Bronze 7

    Stealth - Bronze 4

    Trapper - Bronze 4

    Teaching - Iron 12

    Flight - Iron 13

    Physical Resistance - Bronze 4

    Mental Resistance - Bronze 4

    Weapon proficiencies

    Bow - Bronze 4

    Sword - Bronze 3

    Throwing Knives - Tin 17

    Bonded Items

    Druidic bow, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Duskwraith Armour (Heirloom) - Bonded Iron rank.

    Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    ¡°Kill shot¡­ no, no, no. Maybe Herbal magic? Nature¡¯s Wrath¡­¡±

    Of her entire list, nothing stuck out. She tried to move stone with Physical Resistance but managed nothing. Nature¡¯s Wrath probably wouldn¡¯t be able to do so either. Of course it was protected against magical manipulation.

    She needed to get the damn bracelets off, to allow her magic to flow properly. Maybe then she could get out.

    Then she read over her bonded items. Her vault. Maybe there was something she could do with that.

    She tried and tried, focusing as hard as she could on the magic. As much as she pushed and pulled on the magic however, the vault would not open. Perhaps the bracelets had a stronger effect against spacial magic. It still allowed her to pull items in and out of the storage space there though, so herbs were on the table. Those and her armour of course.

    She was lucky that the vault gauntlet was entirely built into her hand, making it hard for them to take it away. Well, without taking her hand at least¡­

    That was a disturbing thought.

    If they did that, she would lose access to the vault, but not her armour. It was the gauntlet that allowed her to open the space and to store memories and objects inside. It was the Druid¡¯s Grove ability linked to it that allowed her to summon herbs and plants from its space, which included her wooden heirloom armour. She tried to summon her sword and found it worked, then had another terrible thought. She could cut off her arms to take off the bracelets. It would unlimit her magic, allow her to escape maybe!

    She wasn''t quite that desperate yet though. That seemed like a painful, possibly unnecessary step to take just yet.

    Herbal Magic. That was her only chance.

    The bracelets limited her magic, yes, but she didn¡¯t think it would limit magic that was outside of her. Magic like the living rituals. Sure, she would have to put all her effort into it to make it work, but once it was established it wasn¡¯t part of her anymore.

    She summoned her little chunk of wood, and then began growing it. Slowly. Ever so slowly.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    A few days¡­ she thought it was a few days, it was hard to tell, but a few days passed. She spent most of those days growing her little chunk of wood bigger and bigger. It grew out to the size of the room, kept hidden from her captors when they entered by storing it back into the spacial storage. She even cut off chunks of leaves she grew and stored them as well, just able to crush them into powder using Preparation.

    Her plan was to set up a framework for the ritual with her wood chunk, then plant each plant into place with the powdered leaves as soil. It wasn¡¯t the best set up but she had faith that it would work.

    Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t given enough time to test the idea as there was another click and sliding sound, the hatch opening on the door.

    She quickly stored away the wood covering the floor and looked up in time to see the sliding hatch reveal a now familiar face. It was the face of the Astar that she had cut the arm off of on her first day there.

    They hadn¡¯t said anything else to her since, simply coming by and making sure she was still alive, before walking away again. She had begun to recognise them by the runes that decorated their bodies. While at first glance they looked the same, she began to notice distinct differences. Well, that and their auras. Even with her powers subdued, Aura Observation picked up on their powerful auras, each different from the other, if only slightly.

    She sat waiting, expecting the hatch to close and the Astar to walk off, but this time the door swung open on silent hinges.

    Her heart stopped.

    Standing behind the Astar was a form she recognised all too well. The memory was engraved into her mind, a clawed hand closing down and crushing her friend, cracked obsidian skin, cruel eyes.

    The demon was with the Astar. The envoy. The one she hated above most others.

    She had thought the trauma and pain of that memory softened and in the past, yet seeing the creature made it all come back with a force once more. The edges of her vision narrowed, her mind focused solely on the demon as adrenaline and anger pumped through her veins.

    ¡°You piece of shit,¡± she spat.

    A voice, grating, cracked and cruel came from the demon, much as she expected it to sound.

    ¡°There you are, filth. You will pay for what you did.¡±

    She summoned her sword and stood with fury, prepared to attack the Silver rank demon despite it most likely meaning her death. There was no chance though, as the auras of the Astar stripped away what was left of her own Healing Presence, only for the corrupting aura of the demon to crash down into her.

    It was like she was in Cormaine again, the sheer power of the thousand-eyed ones making her unable to think, unable to move, unable to act. Pain wracked her mind even as pain arced across her body. She felt a slash in her arm from claws both sharp and jagged, yet could not move to stop it. Healing Presence healed the wound, yet she felt another cut across her face.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 8.

    She grabbed onto the notification with her entire being, holding her attention on it like a buoy in a storm. There was no perception of the outside world, only pain, the feeling of her body withering away even as the power of Healing Presence fought back from within, restoring what was lost.

    It was hard to tell how long the pain, the oppressive corruption, went on. It could have been a minute or a day, yet when it finally faded away, she found herself laying on the cold stone floor, sweating and panting.

    She rolled over with a groan, arm flopping to the side. Slowly, she reached her perception back out into her body, realising that it was perfectly fine, no damage or pain remaining.

    The demon and the Astar were gone, the door closed and then its hatch closed. It was like nothing had ever happened, like it had all been a vague nightmare, yet she knew it was real.

    The fucking demon had the nerve to accuse her of doing something bad?

    It had killed her friend, crushed them in its hand. What the hell had she done? Survived in the world they had stolen? Brought back a god whose world they had invaded and whose body they had destroyed?

    Pay for what she did. Fuck, she would pay it all back tenfold when the chance arose. If it planned to torture her here, she would bear whatever it could bring, then find a way to kill it. She had no interest in torture or any payback of that kind. All she wanted was its head separated from its body.

    She stood up, phantom pain tingling across her entire body. Parts of her clothing were cut where the demon had raked its claws across her skin. The clothes would repair and clean off the blood, her blood, coating it in time but for now, it was a reminder of what she had been through.

    There was no time to waste, however.

    Shuffling over to the bed cut into the wall, she sat down with another groan and brought out the ritual pad she was constructing, getting back to work.

 Book 3: 51 - Break-out

    Zalia had no idea how long passed in the course of her imprisonment. Had she been brought here a week ago? A month? Two?

    Her days were filled with pain, almost as if they were trying to scour her soul from her body. She had tried many times to figure out what the demon actually wanted, but apparently, all it sought was the pleasure of bringing her pain. The urge to cut off her arms and let them regrow to take off the bracelets grew by the day. It couldn''t be worse than what she was going through, yet somehow she couldn''t push past that mental barrier of just doing it. It felt... wrong.

    The only passage of time that she really had was the steady advancement of both Healing Presence and Survivalist. Each further level of both abilities brought them a little more strength. The healing within her body grew a tiny bit stronger and her resistance to both mental and physical attacks grew with it.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has gained seven levels reaching Bronze 15.

    Congratulations! Survivalist has gained four levels reaching Bronze 8.

    Congratulations! Preparation has gained three levels reaching Bronze 7.

    Preparation also leveled due to the constant growth and pruning she did of the wooden ritual platform that was under construction.

    It was almost done, almost ready for her attempt to break out. She had decided on the same healing ritual she had used to help grow the plants in Ostoss. It consisted of Frozen Heart for its healing properties, Dodge-vine for its protective properties and of course Adastem for its adaptive properties. She had tried the ritual individually and for a moment, the pressure constantly pounding down on her abilities waned. If she could get it to settle as a separate living ritual, she hoped it would be enough for her to have full or at least greater use of all her magic.

    Once she had that, she hoped it would be enough for her to do enough damage to the wall to break out. That was with the assumption that she wasn¡¯t underground, or the wall wasn¡¯t metres thick. At the very least, the break out attempt would give her knowledge.

    Even if all she managed to do was get out into the corridor before she was captured again, she would learn something.

    She also felt like she would be able to kill one of those Astar in the right circumstances. The one she had sliced through with her sword had barely any defense against the attack. Maybe it was just that the Astar didn¡¯t have Resilience or Constitution bonded, yet she thought it might be something else. Something related to why they had such strong auras for their rank.

    The fact that they could wield that aura like a weapon or tool made her think that perhaps they weren¡¯t entirely physical beings. Maybe, they were just a bit more in line with their own souls. She thought Aylie would probably be able to see that, if it were true.

    It was a strong advantage, the way that they could pull her aura given by Healing Presence aside so that the demon could attack her directly.

    She shook her head and continued working on the ritual pad. There were just few more herbs to plant and it was done. She wasn¡¯t exactly sure what would happen when or if Healing Presence reached Silver, but if it had an impact on the pain the demon could inflict on her, she had a feeling it wouldn¡¯t risk much past that. It was simultaneously a milestone she so desperately wanted to reach yet dreaded at the same time. Any major change to the situation like that could cause the demon to kill her.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    All she had to do was get out before that.

    The ritual pad vanished in an instant as she heard the sliding sound of the hatch opening once more. Depthless eyes peered in and then the door opened.

    As always, she tried to get a peek at what was outside yet she could only see the same few metres of featureless enchanted stone hallway beyond as always. Most of her sight of that was blocked by the demon.

    She closed her eyes and prepared herself as she felt Healing Presence being pulled aside and the corrupting aura of the demon come crashing down.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    She woke again, laying on the cold floor panting, covered in sweat. Used to it by now, she sat up and dismissed the notification of another Healing Presence rank up, then continued her work on the ritual pad.

    With a final Frozen Heart planted in the correct place, she looked over her work to make sure that everything was as it should be. For a brief moment, she had considered bringing it out and trying to break free while the Astar and demon were in the room, yet quickly gave up the idea. Maybe she would be able to get her powers momentarily but there was no way she would have the strength to take on three Silver rankers even then.

    Something flittered in the back of her mind, a fleeting image of herself stuck in the very cell she was now in. It was a memory, yet not one that was hers. She knew that the collectives memories were still stuck in her vault, almost undecipherable to her and this felt like one of those. They had known she would end up here, yet had chosen this path anyways?

    There was a brief flash of hope in her mind as she prepared to cast the ritual and begin her breakout attempt. This might be the only chance she got. Assuming she even managed to get out of the cell and was caught, they might not take any more chances with her. She wasn¡¯t sure she could even stand this much longer without her own mind breaking. Mental Resistance was having an effect on her ability to deal with the pain, but she knew that without the hope this ritual was bringing her, the constant pain would break her.

    Her idea was simple. Activate the ritual, hope it blocked the dampening effects of the bracelets enough, cast Nature¡¯s Wrath and destroy whatever she could however she could. The door, the walls, whatever.

    She knew that the corridor outside went both left and right. The only hope she had for that was that she would see something in either direction that would lead her towards a decision. Otherwise it was just random choice.

    A few herbs began to float about, summoned from her vault. They glowed brightly as she began the ritual.

    She wasn¡¯t sad, she wasn¡¯t scared, she was fucking angry and ready to do something about it.

    It took all her concentration to push back the bracelets long enough that the ritual took hold. Quickly, the plants took over the entire thing and began fueling it in a symbiotic relationship. Her concentration waned but the ritual quickly adapted to push against the bracelets on its own.

    With the power of the ritual taking over, she felt free access to her abilities come back once more. Her bonds with both Ember and Boreal flared to life. With one thought, she started sending images and words to the both of them. With another, she activated Nature¡¯s Wrath.

    The wood of the ritual pad grew roots that pushed and scraped at the walls. Stone rippled slightly as it fought her intentions, its magic holding its shape while hers tried to tear it apart. Finally, the hinges of the door gave as the roots of her plant grew between them, pushing the entire thing apart. The door fell into the corridor with a loud bang.

    She used preparation to cut the roots from the pad and then stored it, the entire living ritual disappearing in a heartbeat. The bracelets took hold once more, Nature¡¯s Wrath ending. It didn¡¯t matter though, because she was out. With quick movements, she sprinted out of the room and into the corridor beyond.

 Book 3: 52 - Trial by Combat

    Powers now subdued again, Zalia took a quick glance down both directions within the corridor. The walls were bare, no windows or furnishings. There were no benches or sconces, only the odd glowing rune carved into the ceiling that provided a still white light.

    There were many more iron doors down both directions, yet one of the corridors ended in a wall with the other disappearing from sight up a set of stairs. It was an easy decision.

    During the brief moment of her powers being at their fullest once more, she had managed to send messages to both Boreal and Ember about what had happened. Hopefully, they would be able to do something with that. She didn¡¯t really know where she was herself though, so wasn¡¯t super hopeful about it. If she could just get outside¡­

    She ran as quickly as she could down the corridor and took the stairs three at a time. At the top was a small landing with a single Bronze Astar lounging by the door. It didn¡¯t even get the chance to wake out of their floating sleep as her blade dropped into her hands and she cut the Astar¡¯s head in half.

    It dropped to the floor, dead instantly.

    She was a little surprised at how easily the Astar had died, a single cut from her blade enough to kill it. Maybe that was why the first Bronze ones she had seen had simply disappeared rather than risking confrontation.

    It didn¡¯t seem to have any keys or other equipment on it, yet the door before her had no handle that she could see. In fact, it had nothing on it except a single central rune.

    She looked down at the dead Astar whose own runes were slowly fading from a glowing blue to an inert black. There, on its hand, was a rune that matched the one on the door exactly.

    Acting quickly, she grabbed its arm and half lifted the body to press the palm of the Astar to the rune on the door.

    As the door began to swing silently open, something started to feel off in her mind. This had been too easy.

    She knew the demon, not from her own memories but from thoughts now surfacing from the collectives memory bundle. This demon wasn¡¯t an idiot. They were cold, calculating and ruthless. It wouldn¡¯t have made things this easy.

    The door came to a rest and Zalia slowly moved through the doorway. It was nighttime.

    Outside, was a huge courtyard surrounded by towering walls. They were formed oddly, out of the same rune-enchanted stone that made up her prison cell. The bottom of the walls was orderly and normal, yet the top started to take on strange shapes and angles, a confusing mess of a design.

    The doorway she had moved through was set into the wall of a small building near the centre of the courtyard, a simple cube.

    Standing only twenty metres away from her, was the demon.

    ¡°You finally come out to play.¡±

    It gestured and Zalia¡¯s eyes flicked up far above where the two Silver Astar were floating, observing the entire courtyard.

    One of them raised their hand and the bracelets fell from her arms.

    There was a sinking feeling in her stomach, a realisation that the demon had been waiting for her to try and break free. All so that it could snatch the hope from her in a single moment.

    Its deep red eyes seemed to glitter with excitement, its mouth cracking upwards with jagged movements until a disturbing smile was set upon its face.

    ¡°Survive for a minute, and I¡¯ll let you live¡­ today.¡±

    She looked to the stars above, letting out a single, small prayer to the friend she hoped was listening.

    ¡°Help.¡±

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Immediately, she cast a ritual using Dodge-vine, Bitterbalm and Manifest. It was what she used as a protection from the corruption in Cormaine.

    It came not a moment too late as the aura of the demon came crashing down, trying to slither its way to her flesh.

    Compared to what she had endured, it was nothing. Here, Healing Presence was at its full power, the protection enhanced by the ritual. Here, the Astar weren¡¯t holding back her own power so that the demon''s aura might prevail. It was still a struggle, but there was no pain, no injury.

    The demon sneered with disdain, then launched its attack.

    She was used to fighting these things by now, her armour appearing on her body as she let the demon''s claws slide down the length of her blade, casting Hunter¡¯s Mark all the while. Using the increased speed from her sword proficiency and the Bronze rank ability from the heirloom that was her blade, she struck back immediately.

    The strike left a glowing starry arc in its wake as the sped up blade smashed into the armoured obsidian plate of the demon''s right arm. A little crack formed in the surface as the demon was pushed back a single step.

    It wasn¡¯t a winning strike. It wasn¡¯t even so much as harmful to the demon. It was a hit to its ego, however.

    Its disdainful sneer turned to fury and it attacked again with fervor.

    She had to immediately activate Protection of the Wilds, enhancing the shield with Dodge-vine using the Iron rank effect of the ability.

    The demon only struck harder, shattering little ethereal pieces off of her shield and pushing her back up against the wall of the cubic building.

    Using Fight or Flight, she sped up and hopped to the side, using the momentum and Mobility to hop once more in the other direction, a second step in the air to push herself forwards and a third to get herself over the head of the demon, twisting to land behind it, bringing her sword down as she did.

    It struck, leaving only a scratch down the obsidian of the demon¡¯s skin¡­ armour?

    Another hit, no more dangerous to the demon than the last, yet a small victory for her.

    Using a quick ritual, she summoned a wall to block the demon¡¯s vision of her. She ran around the side of it straight away, timing it well enough that as the demon exploded through the wall, she was gone. Well, she was around the other side yet gone to the demon¡¯s sight.

    A few seconds passed before the demon came smashing through the wall again but Zalia was ready. A summoned bear trap slammed closed on its leg, the teeth of the metal contraption cutting only a few millimetres into the leg.

    The demon stumbled a little, then ripped the trap in half and threw the pieces at her.

    She dodged to the side with a slight twist of her body, letting the pieces fly by, then raised her sword in preparation for the next clash.

    It didn¡¯t come.

    The demon walked off, punching the remainder of her summoned wall with a fist.

    Standing there in confusion, she only realised what was happening as the auras of the Astar stripped away her own before they landed. An intense power rolled over her and she stumbled to one knee, sword vanishing. The minute was over.

    Before they could take it from her, she stored her armour and moments later, the bracelets clicked back onto her wrists.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    When the Astar came the next day, the demon wasn¡¯t with them. However, they did open the door and made her move out into the corridor. She had a feeling that her daily torture would take on a new form now, something a little more entertaining for the demon.

    She had gained a single level in Protection of the Wild¡¯s from the previous day''s bout, but really didn¡¯t want to have to fight the damn Silver ranker again. There just wasn¡¯t any way she could kill it without a whole lot of preparation

    As she stepped out into the courtyard once again, she was met by the sight of the demon, waiting, looking both smug and excited.

    ¡°You have a minute and a half.¡±

    Her heart thumped, concern and fear flooding her body. A minute and a half. If she survived, would tomorrow be two minutes?

    Realistically, how long could she possibly survive before she made a mistake. It wouldn¡¯t take much. If she allowed herself to be caught, one strike she didn¡¯t manage to dodge.

    The fight began once more.

    At the end of a minute and a half of dodging, casting spells, using desperate measures and exhausting her abilities, the Astar put the bracelets back on her once more. It was a smart thing they were doing. She didn¡¯t want to try another breakout because if she had to use her long cooldown abilities and the breakout failed, she would have a much harder time with the next fight.

    The only hope she held was that the starlight wolf had heard her prayer. It would either come to save her or she was likely to die here. There was simply no way she would escape three Silver rankers, two of whom had powerful spacial magic, while her powers were subdued.

    She settled in for another long wait between fights, desperately wracking her brain for anything, any way she could escape. Any idea or plan that would allow her to live just a little bit longer.

 Book 3: 53 - Desperation

    Day after day passed. Or maybe not, she couldn¡¯t tell.

    She had been brought out for another fight, needing to survive two minutes this time. During the fight, she had lost an arm but had survived. It had been the arm without her vault gauntlet, thankfully, and it had grown back.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 17.

    Each time she survived another fight, she sent off a prayer to the starlight wolf, hoping that the prayer would reach it.

    Another day passed. She thought another day had passed at least. The demon had come to torture her with its corrupting aura in the cell again.

    She had mixed feelings about Healing Presence quickly approaching Silver. It was a reflection of what she was enduring, a milestone. It was also possibly the end for her, once she did get it.

    Much later that day, she was taken from her cell once more, to fight the demon again. Two minutes and thirty seconds. It wasn¡¯t a long time in most circumstances. You could stand there and wait that long with relative ease, even just close your eyes and wait it out.

    The only change in routine was two voices entering her mind.

    "Tell us what the humans plan. We will end this if you do."

    She looked up to where the Astar floated, staring at the smug bastards. Her hand raised and she flipped her middle finger at them, a gesture they may not understand. Then, she started the fight herself.

    When there was adrenaline pumping through your veins, a stronger enemy in front of you with the will and intent to kill you. When you had nothing but your own skill and power standing between yourself and death. When you weren¡¯t sure if anyone or anything was coming to save you, two minutes and thirty seconds became a very long time indeed.

    She almost lost her head this time, managing to avoid getting caught by the savage swipe by throwing herself backwards onto the ground. Then she had desperately fought to get back to her feet and continue surviving. She did, barely.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 18.

    A few of her skills levelled as well, Nature¡¯s Wrath, Protection of the Wilds, Survivalist, Fight or Flight, Herbal Magic and Hunter¡¯s Mark all gained one or two levels each. She barely even looked at those though. The only one that mattered right now was the quickly levelling Healing Presence.

    When that ticked over, which would probably happen during a fight, she would need to try and get out.

    A few times she had flown up off the ground during their fights, mostly to test the limitations of the barrier that locked them in. So far she hadn¡¯t found any way to do damage to the thing. Nor was she able to teleport through it.

    The only idea she had come up with was definitely a desperate one.

    There was a little tree in the courtyard, nothing more than a sapling. She had been slowly growing it bit by bit during their fights, not quickly enough for them to notice what she had been doing. Hopefully.

    Zalia wasn¡¯t sure if it would even work. Her armour gave her the ability to step into a plant and come out of another plant of the same type within a few hundred metres. Whether the barrier that had been set up would block that or not, she wasn¡¯t sure. It was worth a try though.

    Once Healing Presence hit Silver rank, it would be able to grow the tree much quicker than it could at Bronze rank. She just needed to survive long enough to make the tree grow to the point she could fit inside its trunk. Only then, would she be able to test her theory.

    Another day passed, and the demon came to torture her once more.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 19.

    How long had she been in prison now? It was hard to keep track.

    It had been three weeks perhaps. Maybe less, maybe more. There was no way to tell how long she stayed passed out for. No one to talk to, or ask. Only the faint bond she had with Boreal to keep her going.

    Each time she was released from the bracelets for the fights, the bond with Boreal grew stronger and her bond with Ember became visible once more. It was the strength and support that she felt coming from those bonds that kept her going strong. She knew they were trying to find her, they would find her. If she could get out of the keep and into any kind of forest, she knew she¡¯d be able to escape the sight of the demon and its two Astar.

    All she would have to do then is follow the direction her bond pointed her. The same bond she knew was directing both Ember and Boreal towards her.

    Eventually, the time came for her to leave the cell again. Time for another fight. This would be the one, she thought. The one that Healing Presence reached Silver.

    Led by the Astar, she stepped out of the prison complex into the starry night. She sent a quick prayer to the stars above, pleading them to come to her aid.

    The demon stood there as always, watching her intently. Was this fight the time it would get to kill her? She didn¡¯t know. It didn¡¯t know. The thirst to find out was clear in the demon¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Three minutes.¡±

    Its voice echoed across the silent courtyard, deep, grating, cruel.

    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Zalia summoned her armour as her bow appeared in her hands. The sapling sat there, visible in the corner of her vision as she started growing it, little by little. She gripped the smooth, comfortable wood of her bow, its solid weight in her hand a reminder of the long journey she had been on to get here.

    The demon ran towards her, savage jagged claws ready to tear through her flesh. She shot at it, getting off three arrows in quick succession, moving positions between each shot.

    With each arrow, the demon had to adjust its movement as the temporary invisibility granted by her shots allowed Zalia to reposition without being seen.

    Still, it avoided each attack and reached her in moments. The bow turned into a sword as Zalia traded strikes, going entirely on the defensive. She only struck when the attack would knock it off balance.

    The demon grabbed the blade of her sword and threw it aside. Zalia used Fight or Flight in the same instant, moving quicker than the blade. She plucked it out of the air, turned on her heel and struck the demon hard on the head.

    The strike sent the demon reeling, a slight scratch visible down the cracked obsidian of its skin. Without hesitation, Zalia switched out the sword for the bow, shooting it in the chest. Again, only a little cut, yet it allowed her to switch back to the blade during the invisibility and run at the demon.

    Another hit to the head and the demon fell over, frustration visible in its expression.

    Fight or Flight ran out and Zalia¡¯s perception sped up, back to normal. She quickly cast two rituals. The first summoned grasping vines from the ground around the demon, holding it down for a second more. The other was a Dodge-vine major and Adastem minor which provided her with a good adaptive protection.

    The protection immediately adjusted as the demon tried to tear at her with its aura. At the same time, it freed itself from the vines and stood slowly. It wasn¡¯t pressed for time, not this fight.

    Zalia stumbled a bit at the sudden attack but adjusted to the pain. A step back made the savage strike of the demon turn to a glancing one that tore across the shoulder plate of her armour. Even the indirect hit had enough force to push her back further.

    This was always how it started out, the demon using only its strength and speed to try and kill her. After a minute, however, it began to use its magic.

    Spikes of obsidian jabbed from the ground around her, the only warning a slight vibration she saw. The first time it had used this magic had been the fight she had lost her arm.

    Now though, she was aware of it. Avoiding the spikes took all her attention and she didn¡¯t dodge the demon in time. A punch to her chest knocked the air out of her and she went tumbling across the courtyard, rolling to a stop some twenty metres away. She struggled to her feet only to find the demon standing over her already. It wasn¡¯t playing around now.

    Nature¡¯s Wrath flared to life and the stone beneath them rose up to envelop the demon. It tore away chunk after chunk but was eventually buried. She knew it wouldn¡¯t last long, yet continued to add stone to the temporary prison. With a strained effort of will, she shoved the entire thing, demon and all, into the ground.

    Then, she let Nature¡¯s Wrath drop. She couldn¡¯t afford to use too much mana on the ability, needing enough to use Protection of the Wilds later on.

    She wasted no time, running from where the stone had been lodged in the ground, turning sword to bow once more. The sounds of rock groaning and cracking resounded behind her as she used Mobility to step on the air and reach the top of the central building. There, she pushed Healing Presence into the tree some more, no longer quite worried about the speed of its growth. She counted in her mind, keeping track of how long she needed to survive. One minute left.

    Obsidian ripped from the ground and tore into the rock containing the demon. The whole thing exploded, shrapnel flying through the air and bouncing off the ground, walls and protective dome of the courtyard.

    The demon flew up and out of the dust and shrapnel, coming down towards her quickly. She shot at it, scoring three strikes it didn¡¯t even bother to dodge. Each left a glowing scrape in its obsidian skin, the difference between a combat-oriented Silver ranker and an illusionist Silver ranker like the Elder had been stark to Zalia in that moment.

    She jumped out of the way at the last moment, the demon slamming into the rooftop, cracking the stone. It stood and swiped at her before she had time to even switch her weapon. The strike scraped down the length of her bow with a concerning sound before she switched it for the sword, striking back. The attack was ignored, another glowing line left in the obsidian as a fist punched her in the stomach.

    Zalia had the air knocked out of her, bending over as she gasped for breath. The world spun and she heard a ringing as the demon punched her in the head, throwing her off the building to the courtyard below.

    She activated Protection of the Wilds, with Zephyr as the enhancement to the shield. It allowed her to float gently to the ground and land safely, breathing hard.

    Thirty seconds.

    The demon attacked again and she barely fended off its furious attacks. Obsidian spines tore her shield away and the demon grabbed her by the throat, tearing her helmet off.

    Twenty seconds.

    She struggled, trying to pry its hands off her neck. It was too strong. With a twist, it snapped her neck.

    Fifteen seconds.

    The anti-death measure of Healing Presence activated, healing her snapped neck in an instant and coating her in a protective bubble.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Bronze 20.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Silver 1.

    Her aura exploded out of her, reaching across the entire courtyard, further even. So far that it went past her senses.

    The demon stumbled, dropping her to the ground as her aura attacked its being. It was on the same level as the demon¡¯s own now, matching its power.

    Ten seconds.

    She jumped to her feet, focusing as much of the aura on the sapling as possible and dashing towards it. The sapling grew to a large tree in a matter of seconds. She got a few steps from it before obsidian spikes grew from the ground and tore it to shreds.

    Five seconds.

    Zalia spun around, anger and desperation clear in her posture. She summoned her bow and started shooting.

    Times up.

    The demon kept coming.

    With her aura pressing against its own, the demon had a harder time reaching her. Barely.

    She had only a few extra seconds, a few more arrows released, before she had to switch to sword once more. Fending off its attacks desperately, knowing that if she didn¡¯t kill it, it would kill her. There were no more chances.

    The fight wasn¡¯t destined to go that way though. Two swipes dodged, one connected. She was sent tumbling again.

    The demon stood over her, an expression of pure ecstasy easily readable all over it.

    Zalia groaned, trying to lever herself up to a sitting position. The demon got ready to strike.

    An entire fifty-metre chunk of the wall beside them exploded inwards.

 Book 3: 54 - Not the only desperate one

    The demon jumped away and flew up as the flying chunks of stone impacted with heavy, dull thuds all across the courtyard. Stood still in the gaping hole now present in the high enchanted stone wall of the keep was Hildebrandt. She was still Gold rank, yet her presence gave off the feeling of someone so close to Emerald rank that you could practically taste it in the air.

    The demon and the two Astar immediately panicked.

    Zalia didn¡¯t blame them, watching the demon fly towards the Astar as they began to perform some kind of ritual.

    Hildebrandt didn¡¯t bother chasing after them, simply swinging her mace at one of the Astar. It didn¡¯t have time to react as a bolt of energy impacted it.

    The bolt turned half the Astar¡¯s body to dust. The other Astar continued its spell, the normally neutral and controlled aura of the being showing fear to Zalia¡¯s sense.

    Zalia stood up groggily from the ground and cast Hunter¡¯s Mark on the Astar, watching as Hildebrandt pulled back her arm to swing again. The bolt flashed out, the two remaining enemies vanishing a moment before it hit.

    Leaning against the remains of the tree trunk, Zalia closed her eyes and let out a deep, exhausted sigh. She had survived.

    ¡°So those were Astar, hey?¡±

    Hildebrandt stepped over a piece of rubble on her way towards Zalia. She didn¡¯t sound particularly impressed. The woman was also looking at Zalia in an odd way.

    ¡°A few Silver rank ones, yeah.¡±

    ¡°And that was a demon with them.¡±

    Hildebrandt said it matter of factly, though there was confusion and not a small amount of worry evident in her voice.

    ¡°An enemy from the other world. One I hoped I had left behind.¡±

    Hildebrandt nodded a few times, absorbing the information.

    ¡°Alright, we can get to all of that in a minute. I gotta ask though, what in the worlds is happening with your aura ability?¡±

    Zalia jumped a little. She had forgotten to check out what upgrade it had received.

    Passive 1 - Healing presence - passive - aura

    Tin - Your very presence grants life to all around you. You, nearby allies and any flora and fauna you so choose within your aura are affected by a heal over time effect. The heal over time effect heals for low health every second.

    Iron - Healing presence now heals the most grave injuries first and you may focus it onto a single target, increasing that targets healing while reducing the healing other targets receive

    Bronze - Healing Presence now attunes to the specific needs of each individual target within your aura. It adjusts its healing output based on the severity of injuries or ailments, offering targeted healing to each person or creature accordingly. You may still change this manually if wished. Additionally, once every twenty four hours, when you or an ally would die you are instead cocooned in a protective barrier as made by Protection of the Wilds and made invulnerable to most things for six seconds.

    Silver - Healing Presence expands its reach to the flora and fauna beyond your immediate surroundings. A second layer of aura with only the Tin rank effect of this ability now extends to a wider area, encompassing large swaths of ecosystems, granting them a gentle and sustained healing effect. All other effects of Healing presence are still limited to their previous range. This does not interrupt the natural cycle of life within an ecosystem.

    Her eyes widened as she read it over, then read it over again. She could feel it, spreading out into the far distance, healing the world farther than she could properly sense. It was promoting growth, causing the spread of nature yet she could also feel it was not disrupting the balance of it.

    ¡°I¡­ appear to be healing a chunk of the world.¡±

    As she said it, Zalia could see that nature was reclaiming the courtyard around them. She would need to be very careful about this ability. It could probably be pushed aside easily by anyone with an aura ability that had some kind of strength, yet the damage it could accidentally do by causing nature to reclaim cities might be an issue.

    The grass in the courtyard grew tall and wild, the chunks of tree around her winding and curling to form an odd tree that was almost a sculpture incorporating the obsidian chunks around it. Vines began winding their way up the walls and within a few minutes of them watching, the keep had been entirely reclaimed by nature. She wasn¡¯t sure if this was a result of her subconscious feelings about the place or the nature of the ability, but she rather liked how it looked now.

    The odd, jagged and hard angles of the walls were calmed and smoothed out by the plants growing all over them, turning her place of torture into an artful display of nature.

    ¡°Well.¡±

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Hildebrandt nodded a few times, looking about.

    ¡°Well indeed.¡±

    ¡°So my aura ability ranked up.¡±

    ¡°I can see that.¡±

    Zalia scratched the back of her head.

    ¡°It seems a little bit¡­ powerful for its rank, doesn¡¯t it?¡±

    Since the Astar had left, she had felt the direction Hunter¡¯s Mark pointed her towards jump multiple times. It was obvious to her that they were teleporting constantly. It was also obvious that they wouldn¡¯t be able to catch up to that kind of speed.

    Hildebrandt looked around at the overgrown keep.

    ¡°I admit, it seems a little bit powerful, yeah. Abilities usually evolve around what we use them for the most. What exactly have you been using this one for?¡±

    Zalia stood up from her little seat in the artful tree.

    ¡°Eliminating the corruption, resisting the corruption, healing damage done by the corruption.¡±

    Hildebrandt didn¡¯t say anything but Zalia got her meaning anyways.

    ¡°So the ability evolved to do exactly those things as well as it could.¡±

    Hildebrandt clicked her fingers.

    ¡°Exactly. The ability doesn¡¯t really help you any more in fights than it already did, but when it comes to removing the corruption from Endaria? Unrivalled. Sure, it is stronger because it is Silver now but that¡¯s not the main part of it.¡±

    Her expression softened.

    ¡°Sorry, I should have asked how you are. Are you alright? What did they want from you?¡±

    Zalia almost broke down then, memories of her torture coming to the fore of her mind.

    ¡°How¡­ how long was I gone?¡± she asked instead.

    That must have put together a few key pieces of information for Hildebrandt. Her healing ability having reached Silver already, much quicker than it should have, her loss of time, the situation she had found Zalia in and the absent look on her face.

    ¡°A month and a half,¡± Hildebrandt said softly.

    ¡°A month¡­. Ember, Boreal, Aylie? Are they alright?¡±

    She could feel from their bond that they were, but wanted to hear it anyways.

    ¡°They¡¯re fine. They were coming with me to find you but a wolf made of starlight found us and told me I needed to hurry. I left them behind and came here as quickly as I could.¡±

    ¡°A month and a half.¡±

    ¡°I.. see.¡±

    Almost as if on cue, the stars above shone a little brighter. A shimmering form apparated, stepping down from the glittering dots of molten light.

    ¡°Hello again, young Druid. It is good to see you alive.¡±

    Zalia bowed her head in reverence, grateful to the wolf for what it had done.

    ¡°Thank you. I¡¯m more grateful than I can explain for your help.¡±

    ¡°Do not worry yourself with thanks, child. I heard your pleas.¡±

    Zalia heard the unstated message in the words. It heard all of her pleas, each and every desperate word. It knew what she had been through.

    She raised her head and looked into the depthless starry eyes and couldn¡¯t help but be reminded of the similar eyes of the Astar. Questions pushed to the back of her mind during her time in the prison came to the surface then.

    ¡°Why do the Astar work with the demons?¡±

    ¡°I do not know.¡±

    The wolf sounded disturbed and Zalia couldn¡¯t help but feel the same. How could it be that the ancient starlight wolf didn¡¯t know? From what she knew it could see and hear everything that the stars could on this world. Had it not known that the Astar worked with the demons?

    ¡°What do we do now?¡± Hildebrandt asked.

    She¡¯d been silent, but the weight of what to do obviously weighed on her as much as it did Zalia.

    ¡°Something that I did not dare try until now.¡±

    That got Zalia¡¯s attention, and curiosity.

    ¡°What? What haven¡¯t you tried?¡±

    The wolf sat, staring into the sky above.

    ¡°There are forces beyond even us spirits of nature. They do not wake without being disturbed, neither do they often intervene. They see things on a¡­ different scale to even I. I may be able to petition Balance for help. They will not intervene directly, but we may find that Balance can convince one of the other nature spirits where I can not. I have not tried this because Balance does not tip the weights of fate lightly. It will require a sacrifice.¡±

    Zalia felt dread at the words. The way in which the wolf spoke of petitioning Balance gave a weight that didn¡¯t quite translate in the words.

    ¡°A¡­ sacrifice?¡±

    ¡°Do not worry, young Druid. The sacrifice will not be yours to make, nor any of you who live in this world. That, shall be my honour.¡±

    She stared up at the starlight wolf, concern filling her. What did it mean by sacrifice?

    ¡°We must go now. Come, I shall bring you to meet them. Hildebrandt, you have done well in this task. Go and take care of our young Druid¡¯s friends, we shall meet you soon.¡±

    The wolf knelt down, angling itself in a way that would allow Zalia to easily climb on top of it.

    ¡°Zalia, are you sure about this?¡±

    Hildebrandt was looking equally worried, eyes flicking between her and the starlight wolf.

    ¡°I trust them, go. I¡¯ll see you after.¡±

    She hurriedly climbed up the wolf''s leg and up onto its back, holding on tight. With a slight run up and a jump into the air, the wolf began stepping on sparkling stars on a journey up into the sky. Despite the beautiful sight of the world lit below by the cold light of the stars, only one thing echoed in Zalia¡¯s mind

    The sacrifice will not be yours to make, nor any of you who live in this world. That, shall be my honour.

 Book 3: 55 - Petition

    Zalia was sat on the surprisingly soft back of the glittering starlight wolf who had become her friend, the breeze lightly pulling at her hair and clothes. She had lost the wide-brim hat that Ember had bought for her when the Astar had captured her. Despite her initial complaints about the matching outfit she shared with Aylie, she kind of missed the hat. It had been the first thing that Ember had bought for her, and a piece of fuel to the intense fire that was now the emotions shared between them.

    The starlight wolf had brought them far up into the sky, where they now waited.

    ¡°Is there anything I should know before meeting this Balance person? Are we meeting them here?¡±

    ¡°Patience child, they will be here soon. I have brought you here to be witness to the words spoken, nothing more. Speak if you feel you have something to contribute, otherwise it is best that I explain our position.¡±

    Zalia adjusted herself a little, getting more comfortable. She wasn¡¯t exactly afraid of the height, being able to fly and all, but it was the highest she had ever been outside of a plane before. There was nothing between her and endless open air but the slightly incorporeal form of a wolf made of starlight.

    ¡°Alright, I can do that.¡±

    She felt out of place, as if what she was about to witness wasn¡¯t something that someone of her rank or place in the world was meant to. Shouldn¡¯t the wolf have taken Hildebrandt instead? She was almost Emerald rank after all, with power much more significant than Zalia¡¯s own.

    ¡°And, you said you would make a sacrifice? What will that be?¡±

    The powerful aura of the wolf, while still mostly unreadable to her, showed a hint of mirth at her continued questions.

    ¡°Everything and nothing. Hush now, they arrive.¡±

    The air in front of them warped and then a tiny little creature appeared. It was round and fluffy, almost like one of those small dogs that had their hair groomed and cut to make them look like a little ball. Her first thought was, ¡°Awww,¡± quickly followed by, ¡°Boreal would probably want to know what it tastes like.¡±

    Both of those thoughts left her mind as she felt the confusing mixture of things her senses picked up. To Aura Observation, it was both not there and everywhere at the same time. She could feel that it was entirely neutral as a being, yet only managed to be so by the perfect balance of sides. It gave a sense of a board balanced on a ball only by the perfect distribution of the million weights across its surface.

    She picked all of that up in an instant, the sense of balance about the creature more accurate to what it really was than the little fluffy ball that it was currently presented as. This creature felt different to the other gods she had encountered in a way she couldn¡¯t quite define.

    This thought was underpinned by the starlight wolf bowing down to it.

    Zalia followed suit, awkwardly trying to bow on the already angled wolf¡¯s back.

    ¡°Balance, I come to petition your help. A trade.¡±

    ¡°Make your petition young one.¡±

    Balance calling the starlight wolf young one put her a little on edge. She had seen the story of Nateysta, which explained how the starlight wolf was so old that it had been guiding even the other gods into their power. Yet somehow, it was younger than this being?

    ¡°I have learned that the Astar work with the demons in their attempt to take this world. They disturb the balance of life here.¡±

    There was a moment of silence, Zalia feeling a cold bead of sweat roll down her face as they maintained their bowed posture.

    ¡°Every action has a reaction, do you understand the price for what you ask?¡±

    Zalia was a little confused. There seemed to be a subtext to the conversation she didn¡¯t understand, or maybe her translation powers were severely simplifying what was said. What exactly had the starlight wolf asked for?

    ¡°I am willing to personally pay the price for my petition.¡±

    Her heart beat quicker, worry and confusion playing through her mind. Whatever the starlight wolf was asking for, surely it couldn¡¯t be worth a¡­ a sacrifice. What was it losing? What was it losing it for?

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Very well.¡±

    Balance vanished, leaving no disturbance in the air or trace of its having been there.

    Zalia blinked and looked around, but nothing had changed.

    ¡°Soooo, what exactly is the price for what just happened? And also what just happened?¡±

    ¡°Stand and stay strong Zalia. I have given us a chance, it is up to you to guide others on the path that will lead to your success now.¡±

    Her concern grew.

    ¡°Up to me now? What about you?¡±

    She had a sinking feeling she knew what the price had been.

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you on the other side, young Druid.¡±

    The stars above them began to slowly fade, before disappearing entirely. The only source of light was the glowing starlight wolf beneath her, the darkness outside of which even her enhanced eyes could not penetrate.

    ¡°Guide them. For me.¡±

    The light of the wolf blinked out.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    For the... eighth time? Ninth time? In recent months, Zalia woke up without full awareness of where exactly she was.

    She lay on a small cot, blankets covering her. It was inside of a comfortable tent that had a large hide covering the floor. The flaps of the tent were secured by a series of small straps of leather that looped around hooks. Sun was shining against the sides of the hide tent, throwing shadows across the area and highlighting the central tent pole by the light streaming through a hole at the peak of the tent.

    The only other source of light in the tent was the tiny wolf puppy made of starlight, glowing gently as it slept in her lap.

    Zalia gently sat up and reached a hand forward, stroking the side of the puppy. It woke up and looked at her with curious eyes, head tilted to the side.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± she asked it.

    It tilted its head to the other side as if trying to decipher her words yet not quite being able to.

    A hand reached through the flaps of the tent and began unhooking the leather straps one by one. She was about to summon her sword and prepare to fight her way free if she had to, the memories of being woken by her captors to be tortured over the past month and a half fresh in her mind.

    Before she got the chance though, she saw the jet black hair, then the head, of Ember push through the flaps and into the tent, followed by the rest of her.

    Not being able to fully form words, a burst of emotions ranging from misery all the way to happiness broke free from her in the form of a strangled-sounding cry.

    Ember rushed over and knelt beside the cot, grabbing Zalia into a tight hug. The starlight puppy wriggled around, trying not to get crushed between the two of them.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± Ember whispered, ¡°I¡¯ve got you. We¡¯ve got you.¡±

    Zalia started crying, the stress and pain of her experience flowing away in one long, comfortable and safe hug. A hug powered by strong emotional healing magic.

    ¡°You¡¯ve really got to stop being the reason my emotional healing levels so quickly.¡±

    She sob-laughed at that.

    ¡°I¡¯ll try my best.¡±

    Her voice was rough and raw, but she felt a lot better. Ember tended to have that effect on her.

    Zalia pulled back, holding one hand on the side of Ember¡¯s face.

    ¡°How are you? Are the others alright?¡±

    Ember smiled, taking her hand and pulling her up, the starlight puppy rolling off onto the cot.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re alright. I just wanted you to myself for a moment.¡±

    Zalia scooped up the puppy under her arm as Ember pulled her out of the tent. She was immediately assaulted by both Boreal and Aylie latching on to her.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve missed you all so much.¡±

    A fresh wave of tears rolled down her face but was quickly overcome with happiness. She was with her family again, safe. The biggest issue that sat on her shoulders at that moment was what to do with the super cute starlight puppy wriggling in protest under her arm.

    She handed it to Aylie.

    ¡°Here, hold this.¡±

    Aylie took the puppy awkwardly and quickly received some radiant licks to the chin.

    ¡°Where did you get the starlight puppy, if I may ask?¡± Ember asked.

    Zalia inspected the little thing and knew, not just from the description she received, that it was indeed the new form of the starlight wolf.

    Starlight wolf pup - Tin rank (Ascendant)

    She wasn¡¯t exactly sure what Ascendant Tin rank meant, but it confirmed her suspicions.

    ¡°That, is my dear friend, the starlight wolf. It made a bargain with something called Balance to help us. This is the sacrifice it made.¡±

    Aylie looked at the puppy with wider eyes, coming to the realisation that the wriggling starlight was the very same spirit that had blessed her.

    ¡°It¡¯s taken care of us, from afar sure, but has done so nonetheless. Now it¡¯s our turn to take care of it, I think.¡±

    ¡°It made a bargain? What exactly did it bargain for?¡±

    Zalia scratched her head.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not exactly sure. I guess we¡¯ll find out?¡±

    At that moment, a portal was ripped open in reality beside them, and her old friend Ro-ak, better known as Nateysta, tumbled out.

 Book 3: 56 - Natures Back

    ¡°Nateysta!? Ro!?¡±

    Zalia stared at her godly friend. He looked in bad shape, the leaf feathers covering his body going a yellow colour, patches already falling out dead.

    The portal closed again, the brief look Zalia got into Cormaine sending shivers down her spine.

    ¡°Zalia, where am I? How did you bring me here?¡±

    His voice was rough, whispery and sounded as if he was in pain. She looked down at where he lay on the floor, still in shock. This is what the starlight wolf had bargained for.

    As he painfully stood up, she rushed over and helped support him. Then, she grabbed the large nature crow into a hug.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re alive.¡±

    She pulled back and inspected him a little closer. The yellowed feathers were looking healthier by the second. Ro-ak was also beginning to look around as if just noticing the nature-covered surrounds.

    ¡°Where am I?¡±

    ¡°This is the kingdom of Endaria, on the planet of¡­ uhhh, well, something. It¡¯s the sister world of Cormaine, the place I came from when I arrived on your world.¡±

    ¡°Ah, of course. And... did you bring me here?¡±

    Zalia stepped aside to where Aylie was still holding the wriggling starlight puppy.

    ¡°The starlight wolf, your old friend, made a bargain to bring you here.¡±

    The puppy finally broke free of Aylie and ran over to sniff about Ro¡¯s feet. It then looked up, tilting its head.

    ¡°What did you do, dear friend? How did you end up this way?¡±

    He knelt back down, leaf feathers now back to a healthy mottled green.

    The puppy yipped, taking a step back and getting down low, as if preparing to jump at Ro.

    ¡°It was part of the bargain. To keep the balance, I think.¡±

    Ro looked up sharply, dark, beady eyes glinting with light.

    ¡°Balance.¡±

    Zalia looked back at Ember, then realised she was waiting for her to introduce them.

    ¡°Oh! Ro, this is Ember and Aylie. You¡¯ve met Boreal as well, of course. They¡¯re my family. Ember, Aylie, this is Nateysta, spirit of the forests and mysteries. God? Spirit or god, something like that. I also know him as Ro-ak, though that was before I knew he was a powerful spirit.¡±

    Ember stepped forward, while Aylie looked like she was staring right into Ro¡¯s soul. Remembering her powers, she might actually have been doing just that.

    Boreal was looking onwards from beside Aylie, eyeing the starlight puppy with suspicion.

    ¡°Good to meet you, I¡¯ve heard a thing or two about you from Zalia. Thank you for keeping her safe in Cormaine.¡±

    ¡°Greetings Ember, Aylie. Hello again Boreal. Zalia must have not told the tale in its fullest, as she was the one to protect me, in a way. I was dormant when she arrived there, only revived thanks to her actions.¡±

    Ember turned to look directly at Zalia.

    ¡°Is that so? Maybe you should tell me your version of the story sometime.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d be glad to.¡±

    ¡°Actually, that¡¯s a good point! What did happen to you after you sent me and Boreal through the portal?¡± Zalia added, her attempt at deflecting the conversation defter than she usually managed.

    ¡°The fight was painful. There was not much I could do against the two Thousand-eyed ones. I managed to tear the avatar of one of them apart, yet the other subdued me. It has been¡­ attempting to put me back into dormancy ever since.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°The avatar?¡±

    ¡°Like this form you see before you. It was not dead, simply put out of the fight for a long time. It reformed eventually. I survived this long thanks to you again, Zalia. I felt the faith you had in me, the rituals you dedicated to my name. The altars you built in my honour. I owe you once more.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t really know what I was doing, to be honest. I just wanted to make sure you weren¡¯t forgotten once more.¡±

    ¡°Which you did. I sense a few others venerating my name. Who are they?¡±

    Zalia looked at Ember, then scratched at the back of her head.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    He turned his head to look in what had to be the direction of the war camp.

    ¡°That way, you do not know who?¡±

    She thought about it, trying to figure out who it could possibly be.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Some farmers maybe? I never told them about you though so I don¡¯t know how that could have happened.¡±

    ¡°Some of them kneel at my altar, even now.¡±

    Oh.

    ¡°Ahh, shit I didn¡¯t expect them to go in there. Well, I guess you have some devoted¡­ again? You used to have a religion right?¡±

    Ro actually managed to look uncomfortable.

    ¡°Well¡­ yes? I had those who made prayers to me. I did have temples, after all.¡±

    It was weird to consider. She had just thought of Ro as her super powerful friend. It only really hit then that he was a god that people worshipped. Sure, she had been in the temples dedicated to him, she had even made prayers to him herself but having other people who were actually alive that were praying to him? It nailed it home just a little bit more.

    ¡°Huh. Anyway, it¡¯s actually great you¡¯re here. We need your help.¡±

    She went over and sat down on a log seat that Ember had probably put there, considering the other two that formed a rough circle with it. Ro came over and settled in on the ground, wings folding around himself. He kind of looked like a bush like that.

    ¡°I figured as much. I see no other reason the starlight would have brought me here.¡±

    She didn¡¯t miss that Ro simply called them ¡°the starlight¡±. She thought it was probably due to him seeing the world differently. To her, she only knew the starlight wolf by that very form. Ro probably saw that form as an avatar only, the power behind it being the real person.

    ¡°The demons have invaded this world, just as I feared. I didn¡¯t succeed in stopping them.¡±

    Ro¡¯s head bobbed a little.

    ¡°I see. Can the people of this world not fight them off?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ they probably could if that was all. Unfortunately, there are others in this world that are responsible for bringing them here. They aren¡¯t exactly helping the demons per se, but they are definitely a threat. Also, there is one of the thousand-eyed ones in the capital and the nature spirits of this world will not act to remove it. I think that¡¯s why the starlight wolf brought you here.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ it is very like the starlight to sacrifice their own power and being to bring something here that may fight this creature, rather than doing so themself. I would love to help Zalia, but I fear I may be too weak to defeat it.¡±

    Zalia sighed, looking down. No, that couldn¡¯t be right.

    ¡°What about with some time? There is so much nature here! Surely you can recover your strength quicker.¡±

    She gestured to Ro, indicating the already healthier looking leaf-feathers he now had.

    ¡°Yes, perhaps. I had not considered how much easier it is to recover my strength. It will also be much harder for the thousand-eyed one to maintain its own strength here. Yes, I might be able to defeat it with time.¡±

    Better.

    Ember was still standing, looking between the two as conversation continued.

    ¡°How strong are these ¡®thousand-eyed ones¡¯ you two are speaking of? Can¡¯t you kill them with your aura at Silver now Zalia?¡±

    Ro¡¯s head stretched towards Zalia, piercing eyes inspecting her closely.

    ¡°So that is what I sensed here. I thought it was just the life around us. How did you get that skill to Silver so quickly, you became Bronze not so long ago.¡±

    ¡°No Ember, even with this I couldn¡¯t kill one. I¡¯ll be able to survive in its aura, maybe even still be able to fight. These things are ascendant though, so no, killing it on my own is definitely off the table.¡±

    Aylie sat down right next to Ro, then started inspecting his leaf-feathers.

    ¡°What are you doing child?¡±

    The starlight puppy came up and started inspecting the leaf-feathers with Aylie as well. Ro looked to Zalia in confusion and she shrugged, indicating she didn¡¯t know either.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ different. Your soul isn¡¯t on the inside like everything else.¡±

    Ro looked back down at Aylie and Zalia raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°What powers do you have, child?¡±

    Aylie didn¡¯t answer, so Zalia did for her.

    ¡°A few, but she can see the souls of things as well as having the ability to know things from something called the astral?¡±

    ¡°Curious. How did she come by these classes?¡±

    Zalia pointed at the starlight puppy.

    ¡°A blessing from our dear friend.¡±

    Ember perked up.

    ¡°What is the astral? Both Zalia and I have been trying to teach Aylie about her powers but we don¡¯t really know what they do ourselves, some of them at least.¡±

    ¡°The astral is¡­ complicated. Most will not learn or have need of it until much higher ranks, as it is unusable to you without a certain level of power. To have access to it at the rank of Tin is a powerful ability indeed.¡±

    ¡°Just¡­ complicated? Is there anything at all you can tell us about it?¡± Ember pushed.

    ¡°I will try. The astral isn¡¯t really a place so much as where thought exists. This isn¡¯t to say that anything that thinks is on the astral, so much as to say it is a plane where thought is free to travel. Your mental communication power uses the astral as a method of transferring thought from one creature to another, for instance. The bonds you share, both with people and with heirlooms make use of the astral as well.¡±

    Zalia remained silent, thinking over the information. It was certainly interesting, though not necessarily useful to her at that moment.

    Ember wanted to know more though.

    ¡°Aylie¡¯s ability says that part of her soul walks the astral. What does that mean then?¡±

    ¡°Very interesting. She may be able to pick up on things through the astral then. Thoughts, bonds, mental communication. All of these might become visible to her as she advances in rank, much as the trees and sky are visible to us.¡±

    That got Zalia¡¯s full attention.

    ¡°Really? That seems extremely powerful.¡±

    ¡°It is, in certain circumstances. Dependant on how her abilities advance, she may be able to manipulate those things as well. That is a power that must be used very, very carefully.¡±

    In her mind, Zalia saw Starfall as Aylie¡¯s most powerful ability. On paper, it certainly was. Even just through the most recent demonstration of the ability during the fight with the shapechangers it appeared to be so. That opinion shifted slightly hearing what Ro had just said however. The power to manipulate people¡¯s bonds, hear their thoughts or even change them. A dozen questions rose to her mind. Would she be able to break someones bond with their heirloom? What about bonds between people? What about putting thoughts into peoples minds?

    Even based on those things, she immediately agreed with Ro. They would have to be really careful.

    ¡°She is able to interact with people¡¯s souls as well. What does that mean?¡±

    Ro turned back to Ember.

    ¡°She also has this ability? That is¡­ quite something. She will be dangerous when she grows older. Very dangerous.¡±

    Zalia looked at Aylie who was still inspecting Ro closely. The weight of raising her suddenly grew ten times heavier on her shoulders. Raising a kid normally, well that was a hard task as it was. There was so much you could get wrong, so many things you had to keep in mind. Adding in the fact that she would grow up to be extremely dangerous and powerful, well, that added a whole extra layer.

    ¡°Oh. Wonderful.¡±

 Book 3: 57 - Ointment

    Aylie sat on the floor inspecting Ro-ak closely. Zalia watched her, digesting the information that Ro had just told her. If Aylie was listening, she showed no sign of surprise at the explanation of her abilities. She might have even known a few of those things, having picked up on thoughts, bonds and mental communication through the abilities already.

    ¡°What did she mean by ¡®your soul is different¡¯?¡± Ember asked Ro.

    ¡°If I¡¯m correct, Aylie here has seen how I truly exist. When you become ascendant, your soul is no longer confined to a mortal body. This has happened to me. My soul exists in many places now, my temples in Cormaine, here, my altar elsewhere in this world, partially around those who are my friends or venerate me. There is part of me with each of you. I am able to consolidate parts of that soul into one place to form an avatar, like you see before you now. I am also able to consolidate all of it to attain my full power, as I did during our final battle in Cormaine, Zalia. It is then that I¡¯m most powerful, yet most vulnerable.¡±

    A thought occurred to Zalia.

    ¡°So, if someone who was able to interact with a soul were to somehow destroy it while it was all consolidated in one place, would that potentially be a way to kill an ascendant being?¡±

    Ro-ak said nothing, dark eyes glimmering. His silence answered her question.

    It was perhaps not something that people of her rank were supposed to know, to even be thinking about. Still, it might be useful to know in their current situation, considering what they were up against.

    ¡°Well, thank you for the information. It has been pretty hard trying to help her figure out those abilities. I¡¯m a little apprehensive about the Dreamweaver ability as well, though I understand that one perfectly well.¡±

    ¡°The ability to influence dreams. That will definitely level up to have connections with the astral ability.¡±

    Thinking about it, Zalia saw the connection that Ro had seen immediately. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure what people''s dreams were, whether they were subconscious thoughts or a result of the mind''s nightly cleansing process but she did know that they came from one''s thoughts. Which just happened to be on the astral, or so Ro said.

    Just like that, Ro had given her enough information to start predicting how Aylie¡¯s powers would advance. Damn, she had missed the big leafy guy.

    ¡°Thanks Ro, I appreciate the information. This is going to help us more than you know.¡±

    ¡°It is the least I can do for you Zalia. Now, how do you wish to proceed?¡±

    Everything came crashing back down on her at that question. Her torture, what was happening in Endaria, what they needed to get done and what had happened already.

    ¡°Nope, not today,¡± she said.

    She didn¡¯t push all those memories into her vault; she knew how bad of an idea that was. She did, however, push them to the back of her mind. Tomorrow.

    Ember took one look at her, reading her emotions through their bond.

    ¡°We¡¯ll go over it tomorrow. For today, maybe just accustom yourself to this world and the nature here. I¡¯m sure it is a little different to what you¡¯re used to,¡± Ember supplied.

    ¡°A good idea Ember. I will be back soon.¡±

    Ro took to the air, the smooth and casual flight a stark difference to his struggle to stand moments earlier.

    Zalia turned to Ember, feeling very overwhelmed.

    ¡°It¡¯s a little much at the moment.¡±

    Ember came and scooted onto the log seat next to her, squishing up close.

    ¡°I know, I¡¯ve got you though, don¡¯t worry.¡±

    Zalia took one of Ember¡¯s hands in her own and rested her head on her shoulder.

    ¡°How did you find me before I woke up?¡±

    Ember gave a little laugh.

    ¡°Oh, well, you kind of fell from the sky.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°I what?¡±

    ¡°We were trying our best to catch up to Hildebrandt and you fell from the sky. Slowly, so you didn¡¯t hurt yourself. You and the little starlight puppy just floated down.¡±

    Zalia couldn¡¯t help but laugh gently as well. She could imagine the concern and fear that Ember would have had, only for her to float down as if from the heavens with a wolf pup made of stars.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ¡°Was I out long?¡±

    ¡°Nah, you just slept the night.¡±

    ¡°And what about Hildebrandt, has she come back yet?¡±

    Aylie was still looking to where Ro had flown off, the starlight puppy looking wistfully after him as well.

    ¡°She was a day or so ahead of us, she should be back by late tonight if she is going full speed to get back here.¡±

    There was a moment of silence before Ember spoke again.

    ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡±

    Zalia knew what she was asking about straight away. While she had told Ember and Boreal as much as she could through the bond, there was a lot they hadn¡¯t heard yet.

    ¡°Not.. not yet. I will, and I won¡¯t lock the memory away just¡­ not yet.¡±

    She felt Ember nod and she didn¡¯t ask any further. Zalia appreciated Ember for that, more than she could know. Well, maybe she could, considering their bond.

    It was an interesting thing to think about, the fact that their bond was something that was real on another plane. Part of the existence there, rather than something ethereal and inexplicable. She didn¡¯t like the idea that it was possible for something with the right powers to interfere with a bond. Even further, she disliked the idea that it was possible to read the emotions or words passed between them. It felt like an invasion of their privacy. She would have to make sure Aylie knew not to abuse her power in that regard.

    Not that she expected Aylie to do so, she just knew from her years in the other world that power had a way of influencing people.

    Resting comfortably beside Ember, Zalia decided to feel out the new limits of Healing Presence. The base healing was definitely increased, perhaps by a half between Bronze nineteen and Silver one. Each level gave a little bit of a boost but the jump across ranks was quite significant. All in all, while she couldn¡¯t measure accurately, she would say it had doubled in potency from Bronze one while the increase in power from Iron one to Bronze one would have been half as much of an increase. If she were to assign a numerical value to its power at each level with Tin one being one, Iron one would have been three, Bronze one would be seven and Silver one would be fifteen.

    The bigger part of the power increase was the actual effect of the Silver ability. Stretching her senses, she couldn¡¯t reach the outer limits of what the ability affected. It could go for kilometres.

    If her other abilities followed a similar curve in strength, it was no wonder the jump in power between Bronze and Silver was so great, the difference between Silver and Gold even further. That scale would go on until Ascendant, the rank at which things worked much differently. Hildebrandt was probably stronger than Nateysta in raw power, yet the fact that he was almost impossible to permanently kill changed things a lot. He also had an aura strength that Hildebrandt would not be able to match unless she reached Ascendant as well.

    Thinking of Ascendants, she now had a little star puppy Ascendant to deal with. How the hell did she raise an Ascendant?

    Did it¡­ need to eat? Level up? Did it need daily prayer?

    Maybe she should ask Ro about that as well, he might know.

    ¡°You know what I need to do?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Ember whispered.

    Zalia lifted her head and looked at her beautiful partner.

    ¡°Gardening.¡±

    ¡°Gardening?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, come on.¡±

    She stood up and pulled Ember up along with her. Her vault door opened, and two vines covered in leaves and pastel-coloured flowers grew into a large oval doorway. Gentle light came through the portal that appeared in the arch and she pulled Ember into the vault with her.

    At the back, Zalia kept a small collection of all her different herbs, at least one of each so she didn¡¯t lose any. The half circle space had a workbench lining the outer wall that was covered in various dried, crushed, cut and whole herbs.

    She walked to the little garden area with Ember and knelt down on the dirt. After a moment''s hesitation, Ember sat down on the dirt with her too. Rather than use any of her many powers to easily harvest and prepare herbs, she simply started pruning with her hands. It was easy enough to snap off pieces of the herbs, Any damage to the plant healed by the ever-present healing of the vault so she wasn¡¯t worried.

    Ember looked a little uncertain, so Zalia started teaching her what she was doing. She had been somewhat of a herbalist before she had ever gotten magic, yet hadn¡¯t really done traditional gardening and herbing since then.

    She started by teaching Ember which sprigs to take and which to leave. Some of the more woody old growth wouldn¡¯t do well, since it was the main piece of the plant. The newer green growth that was still soft and sprouting many leaves were the ones she took. She didn¡¯t take all of them though, leaving some for each plant. That way the remaining new growth would benefit from the extra space and nutrients from the plant, leading to a healthier plant.

    Once they had gathered a few good handfuls of herb sprigs, they went to a bench and worked together, taking the leaves off. Sometimes it was better to pull them off one by one and other times it was better to run their hands down the length of the stem, opposite to its direction of growth. Once they had a pile of nicely sorted leaves, Zalia had to stop Ember from throwing away the remaining stems.

    There were many uses for stems of herbs and Zalia taught Ember a few of them. Some of the nicer-smelling herbs, she wound together to form wreaths. Some of them she hung about the vault, the gentle, woody smell of herbs further spreading through the already earthy-smelling space. Others could still be used in her ritual magic, though requiring some further refinement with the use of Preparation.

    Usually, if she wanted to dry the leaves it would be better to hang them up while on the stem in a sunny spot. With Preparation she didn¡¯t need to do that and as they didn¡¯t have anywhere to hang them up that they¡¯d be staying, she didn¡¯t bother. It made her want a home for them, so she could show Ember that step too.

    She used her stone manipulation powers to create a mortar and pestle. With that, she was able to crush them.

    With the herbs not being dried, many of them turned into a sort of paste. Surprisingly, they became something she hadn¡¯t actually created before using Preparation.

    Snow-leaf Ointment (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Will heal burns when applied.

    It wasn¡¯t really useful to her at all. It wasn¡¯t powerful and was entirely overtaken by Healing Presence. Somehow though, the simple joy of creating something new with Ember brought her a calm, contented happiness.

 Book 3: 58 - Culmination

    Zalia stood looking at the array of poultices and ointments that she and Ember had made from the various herbs she had.

    Bitterbalm Poultice (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Will cause necrosis to the applied wound along with an ever-present sense of dread.

    Frozen Heart Poultice (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Will rapidly heal cuts, abrasions and other surface wounds.

    Flame-root Oil (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Extremely flammable.

    Dodge-vine Oil (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Can be applied to armour to provide a slight enhancement to its protectiveness.

    Manifest Paste (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Capable of solidifying incorporeal beings.

    Zephyr Mist (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    When breathed in, can replace the need for breathing for an extended time.

    Water Lily Stem Juice (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Wonderfully tasty drink not much different in effect to eating the stem of the Water Lily

    Water Lily Petal Ointment (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    Can drastically reduce fever and other side effects from sicknesses.

    Cavern Fungus Shade (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    When poured over an object, will hide it from sight for an extended period of time.

    Adastem Juice (Potent) - Bronze rank.

    A creature that drinks this will be able to adapt to their environment for a short time.

    It had been a fun experience experimenting with what kind of refined material the herbs would turn into. The poultices were kind of pasty with pieces of solid plant all through them, with the others turning into oils, paste or even juice. The two that were most interesting to Zalia were Zephyr Mist and Cavern Fungus Shade. They sat in two separate bowls, Zephyr being a white mist and the Cavern Fungus Shade looking like liquid darkness. She might have called it an oil, if not for the little box of information describing is as a shade instead.

    Some of these, unlike the Snow-leaf Ointment, might actually be useful to her. Putting aside their usefulness as something she could give to people, they were also able to do some things that her rituals couldn¡¯t do easily, not without preparation at least.

    She went to find Aylie, wanting to talk to her, and found her playing with the starlight puppy.

    "Hey Aylie, how are you doing?"

    Aylie looked up, the puppy gnawing on her hand a little.

    "Okay."

    Zalia sat down next to her, lifting the puppy into her lap and patting it.

    "I wanted to tell you I''m sorry for disappearing for all that time. Some very... insistent people wanted to talk to me. I hope you''ve been alright."

    Aylie looked down, fiddling with her hands.

    "At first I was very scared. It was such a long time and I didn''t know where you had gone. But then, I remembered that you came back last time and knew you would this time too!"

    Zalia pulled her close for a hug, her heart feeling warm and fuzzy.

    "Of course Aylie and I always will."

    She felt a little bad for making the promise, not knowing if she would be able to keep it. Despite that though, she felt good, better than she had days before, that was for sure. It was good to just do something simple, easy and consequence-free for once. An evening with Ember messing around with plants followed by a heartwarming talk with Aylie was exactly what she had needed.

    As it always did, however, reality soon came knocking.

    Ro arrived back at the little campsite, seeming excited and invigorated. Zalia could immediately tell the difference in the spirit, a mixture of strength and joy practically visible all over his body.

    ¡°There is just so much nature here! Alive, thriving, chaotic, beautiful nature.¡±

    His words brought a broad smile to her face. She had felt similar things when first arriving in Endaria. Compared to the world she had come from, it was basically a wild forest, untamed and untouched. She leaned against the inside of her vault portal, looking out at him.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you are feeling a little better.¡±

    He was practically glowing.

    ¡°Very much so. To be in a place so fresh and clean, free of the corruption. I had forgotten what it was to soar skies filled not with the dead but the songs of birds and breeze.¡±

    ¡°Feeling eloquent are we?¡±

    ¡°The beauty of nature requires more complex language to convey. You will understand when you are older.¡±

    She snorted a laugh, stepping fully out of the portal as Ember walked past to check on Aylie.

    ¡°You were just reborn, which basically makes you a child.¡±

    ¡°Being reborn is a fact of life for an Ascendant. Perhaps you¡¯ll understand that one day too.¡±

    Zalia turned to look at the starlight puppy running around Boreal, nipping at her gently. Thankfully, Boreal had apparently grown the patience of a saint being around both Aylie and now the puppy, only giving half-hearted retaliatory swipes.

    ¡°Speaking of being reborn. What exactly do we do with them?¡±

    Ro turned to follow her gaze, his beady dark eyes focusing on the pup.

    ¡°An excellent question. Much as the story told, when I was younger Starlight guided me to become what I am today. I feel that I should do the same for them, yet I have a feeling that Aylie will be a better guide than I ever could.¡±

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    She looked to where Aylie was still kneeling, also watching the pup.

    ¡°Aylie? Why?¡±

    ¡°For the reasons we spoke of earlier. At this time, she might be young and inexperienced. The lives of Ascendants are long, quite long indeed. I believe it will not take much time before Aylie is better at seeing hidden truths and divining the secrets of the world than I am. I may be a spirit of mysteries, yet Starlight is a spirit of the stars. Oftentimes they could unveil things even I could not. Yes, I think that the blessing Starlight has given the child was for this very reason.¡±

    Something about that didn¡¯t quite play right to Zalia. She had urged Aylie to trust the starlight wolf, to accept the blessing and the class that had come with it. Had the wolf only done that so it would have a backup in case it needed to sacrifice its knowledge and life to Balance?

    Thinking that though, wasn¡¯t it fair for the wolf to want some way of regaining what it needed to sacrifice, even if it might take a long, long time? It wasn¡¯t like the wolf had harmed Aylie in any way. It had given her a class that would end up beyond what any normal Endarian would ever expect to gain themselves.

    ¡°Well, first thing¡¯s first then. We gotta give them a name. Or maybe we let Aylie give them a name.¡±

    ¡°Starlight is a perfectly apt name for them.¡±

    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t disagree with that. But, I think we should give them one anyway. I mean, I gave you Ro-ak and you like that, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Ro¡¯s large head covered in vines turned to look at her.

    ¡°I will concede that point. A name then.¡±

    Zalia walked over to where Aylie and Ember were chatting and sat down on the ground next to Aylie.

    Ember was talking to Aylie about her powers, going over a few of the things that they had learned from Ro earlier that day. While Aylie had been there for the conversation, she had also been a little¡­ in the clouds. She had been more interested in Ro¡¯s aura than the words he spoke.

    Zalia only spoke up once Ember was done.

    ¡°Hey, I think we should give the starlight pup a name. I thought you should give a name to the rebirth of the creature that gave you your blessing.¡±

    ¡°A name,¡± Aylie said thoughtfully.

    She was playing around with a few strands of grass using Plant Manipulation and they danced and twirled under her directions.

    ¡°Something to do with the stars, maybe.¡±

    Aylie nodded in agreement, still looking thoughtful, though her gaze had turned to where the puppy was chewing on Boreal¡¯s tail.

    In the fading light of the day, the pup was beginning to glow gently. Light, blue light reflected off the crystal shards that grew from Boreal¡¯s back and shoulders.

    ¡°Luminescence.¡±

    Zalia considered it.

    ¡°It¡¯s a little long. How about Lumin for short?¡±

    She looked to Ro, who seemed fine with the idea.

    Aylie nodded and Zalia urged her to go teach the puppy their new name. For her own, somewhat selfish reasons, she wanted Aylie to grow a bond with the pup. If she did, then Aylie would grow up protected by an Ascendant being. Zalia wasn¡¯t her birth mother, but was starting to properly think of herself as that to the girl. And what mother wouldn¡¯t want an extremely powerful being protecting their child?

    Zalia sighed, realising it might soon be time to get back to reality. Hildebrandt would no doubt be arriving soon and then they¡¯d have to go back to the war camp. From there, she didn¡¯t really see any path other than to use her newly Silver rank Healing Presence and the aura of Ro to push into the capital. There, they could take down the thousand-eyed one. It would be a huge strike against the invasion, taking out their most powerful piece on the board. If she was right about the demons fighting out of fear rather than loyalty, it might even cause some of them to start fighting amongst themselves.

    She settled in as Ember cuddled up next to her on the ground, intending to fully appreciate the last few moments of peace they might get for a while. The idea of taking Ember, Aylie, Boreal and the new member of their family, Lumin, away to some remote spot once the invasion was over grew more and more in her mind. Freeing Cormaine was still in the plans for her, but why not wait until Aylie was grown and stronger, until Ro had gathered more strength, until she herself had ranked up to Silver, maybe even Gold rank.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    Zalia was right in her assumption, as Hildebrandt arrived in a flash of movement less than three hours later. She was covered in dust, dirt and various pieces of destroyed plant matter. It was almost like she had forgone going around the plants and had just gone through them instead.

    She looked at Zalia and Ember, looked at Aylie and Lumin, then at Ro. Then, she sat down on a log, dropped her tower shield to the ground and Zalia watched in amazement as all the stiff, tense, ready-to-fight energy fled from her body.

    In a moment, Hildebrandt went from dangerous almost-Emerald ranker, to relaxed woman that just so happened to be wearing plate armour.

    Once she¡¯d had a few minutes to settle in, Zalia began to explain who Lumin, previously the starlight wolf, was, who Ro was, what had happened with Balance and how they had gotten here. She explained the significance of having Ro on their side now and what it meant for their plans going forward. The one thing she didn¡¯t reveal, was Ro¡¯s explanation about Aylie¡¯s powers. That was something she wanted to keep secret.

    Hildebrandt took it all in with near silence, then told Zalia that she had destroyed the entire keep that she¡¯d found her in. Apparently, there hadn¡¯t been anything of importance there, though Zalia had no doubt the woman would have found the cell as well as the power-limiting bracelets.

    Then, Ro repeated a question from much earlier.

    ¡°How do you want to proceed, Zalia?¡±

    This time, she was quite a bit more ready for it.

    ¡°I think we should go back to the war camp and convince them that now is the time to strike at the capital. What has happened there since I¡¯ve been gone?¡±

    This wasn¡¯t something she¡¯d considered yet, and Ember replied.

    ¡°A force to the south of the capital has slowly been making its way east and north to meet up with the main camp. They had just arrived when we left to find you, Zalia. Larel was with them and she took over command of the Morning¡¯s Shade while Hildebrandt came to get you. Now is as strong as that army is going to get and the camp is completely overflowing. We managed to get the Morning¡¯s Shade settled in to your Grove well enough though. I think they might be of the same opinion that now is the time. We only lose out by waiting, we¡¯re as strong as we¡¯re going to get.¡±

    Hearing that only reinforced Zalia¡¯s idea.

    ¡°Right, then we go back and strike at the capital. I was thinking we take only the strongest people and strike quick and hard at the thousand-eyed one that lives there but maybe a bigger attack is a better idea. Hildebrandt? You¡¯d know better than me.¡±

    The woman looked up from where she was chewing on some type of hard ration, dried meat perhaps.

    ¡°Well, we certainly could try that. If we failed it would be the end of any chance to take back the capital though. I don¡¯t really know their numbers and how many high-rankers they have, do you?¡±

    Zalia shook her head. She knew that there was one Ascendant but what about Gold rankers? There had to be a few at least. If she remembered correctly, the king was and he was definitely on the enemy side.

    ¡°Ah, we should probably leave the tactical decisions to the generals. Either way though, now is the time.¡±

    Ro shifted from where he stood, head turning.

    ¡°I am in agreement. I am stronger now than I was in Cormaine. The sheer presence of nature here has revitalised me more than I thought possible and I believe I can take down one of the thousand-eyed ones in a one-on-one fight. Are you sure there is only one there?¡±

    She¡¯d almost forgotten he was there, he stood so still. Like he was a part of the forest around them, which he was in a way.

    ¡°I think there is only one, though it¡¯s hard to tell. What else can we do though, none of the other nature spirits or gods will help us. Lumin has already tried to push them to action.¡±

    ¡°If there are two, I might be able to hold them back long enough for you to do your work. This one might be strong enough to help me in destroying them once your fight is over.¡±

    Ro turned his piercing dark eyes to Hildebrandt, who looked a little uncomfortable under the gaze. She wasn¡¯t as used to being around powerful gods and spirits as Zalia was, evidently.

    ¡°Alright, well not much more we can do without talking with the generals. Let¡¯s get a good night''s rest and be off for the camp in the morning then.¡±

    The others all nodded their assent and packed in for the night. Not Zalia though, she stayed awake staring into the small crackling fire as thoughts tumbled through her mind. Similarly, Ro stood there a part of the forest around them, motionless.

    All the mystery, pain, fear, desperation and hard work that she and the others had put into figuring out the rituals and events surrounding them was coming down to this one final fight. Whether they freed the capital and took out the thousand-eyed one and the king or not would decide the fate of Endaria for the years to come. Zalia just hoped they would come out on top.

 Book 3: 59 - Accidental Religion

    The travel from the campsite out in the wilderness to the army camp took almost two weeks. During that time, Lumin had grown closer and closer to Aylie as they began to spend every minute together. It must have been something about the blessing that connected them or just simple happenstance, yet good friends they became. During the time in which she spent majority of the days teaching Aylie, her Teaching passive increased another five levels, bringing it to Iron seventeen. Low Light Vision also finally ticked over to Bronze.

    Congratulations! Low Light Vision has reached Bronze 1.

    Low Light Vision becomes Enhanced Vision.

    Enhanced Vision - passive

    Tin - You see better in low light areas.

    Iron - Your vision is able to pierce magical darkness of the same rank or lower of this ability.

    Bronze - You are able to filter out too-bright light to a certain extent, as well as gaining the ability to discern details at greater distances.

    It was another nice addition to her multitude of visual abilities. Sure, it didn¡¯t allow her to see any better close up, but she could now look up and into the sun without trouble. It was a wonderful thing to watch, the glowing orb of fire shifting and swirling in the sky. A star to guide by day, as true as any of the others that lit the night.

    While they weren¡¯t doing anything other than travelling as long as they could each day, their waking hours were filled with anxiety and tension. They knew what they were moving towards, no matter how beautiful their surroundings always seemed to be. That was partially a result of Zalia¡¯s ability, which healed away any corruption in the landscape long before they ever saw it. She got a feeling that Ember missed seeing those wounds in nature heal before their eyes.

    The trio of Aylie, Boreal and Lumin managed to relieve their tension a little bit by the sheer amount of not only cuteness but light-hearted idiocy they displayed. Boreal had taken on a more sobered adult role, looking out for the other two as they travelled. Meanwhile, Aylie and Lumin worked together to be as great of a pain in the tail for the icy cat as they could. Zalia personally took a little bit of joy in it, seeing the same expression she must have had on a daily basis while raising Boreal on the cat¡¯s face now.

    Hildebrandt stayed mostly silent on their journey, as did Ro. Zalia spent as much of her time with Ember as she could, while still putting aside as much time to teach Aylie about her powers as was possible. She didn¡¯t miss that Boreal started trying to teach Lumin how to hunt too.

    When they finally arrived at the war camp, it was to a scene of chaos. The camp was overflowing with people, the push by Indis to try and expand the walls to fit more people obviously having failed. It looked like another small area near the main camp had been set up with a temporary enchanted dome, one that flickered and flashed, imperfections obvious in its form.

    The people that were either laying about or wandering through that refugee camp looked lost, abandoned and hopeless.

    There was another line of refugees with guards leaving for the south, Zalia recognised the guard at the front as the one she had spoken to so long ago when she¡¯d first come back to Endaria. Well, it wasn''t that long but it certainly felt like it. The actual interior of the camp was likewise packed with people, to the point that trying to walk through would be a mission indeed.

    Instead of heading there, they went to Zalia¡¯s Grove.

    Aylie and Lumin sprinted ahead, followed by an excited yet more sober Boreal.

    Inside the Grove was a mix of different people and creatures. Farmer Mate¡¯s people were happily farming away, the fruit of their labour quickly evident as all the plants in the Grove grew at a steady and quick pace. The man¡¯s cows were wandering around free, apparently needing no pen or leash as the magic of Zalia¡¯s Grove gave them the urge to help out much as the other animals inside were.

    Birds flittered about, possums and other small critters ran around cleaning and packing up the belongings of the many people who lived there.

    The Morning¡¯s Shade had moved in as well, as Hildebrandt had said. They looked to be at an absolute loss, standing around without anything to do as the animals of the Grove took care of everything for them. They even seemed to be delivering lunch to some people, Morning¡¯s Shade members accepting wooden plates filled with different fruits and berries from the little hands of a few squirrel-like creatures with antlers.

    Many of those creatures swarmed about Zalia as she returned, making greetings in chatters, purrs and bird songs. After greeting her, however, Ro-ak was nearly buried as the animals all wanted to take a turn inspecting the newcomer at once. Being a spirit of nature, Zalia wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Ro ended up with a few worshippers from amongst the Grove animals.

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Hildebrandt immediately broke off and went to the grouped, lost-looking Morning¡¯s Shade, while the devious trio of Aylie, Lumin and Boreal disappeared deeper into the Grove with shrieks, giggles and yaps.

    Zalia was happy to see a little bit of childhood innocence still making an appearance in Aylie.

    She and Ember went and found old farmer Mate.

    ¡°Hey Mate, how is everything?¡± Zalia greeted, shaking the man''s hand as he stood up from the dirt.

    ¡°Finally back then ¡®ey? ¡®Bout time you came and sorted this lot out.¡±

    He gestured broadly to the entire Grove, as if the entire thing¡¯s existence annoyed him. She got the sense he was happier than he showed, though.

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll be sure to set everything straight as soon as I can. Wouldn¡¯t want my hardest working farmer getting anything but the best.¡±

    He scoffed and huffed a bit.

    ¡°Oh off with it, I don¡¯t need your praise young woman, leave it for the other youngins.¡±

    Despite the words, she could see the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

    ¡°How is everything anyways? All well here?¡±

    ¡°Well, despite this lot,¡± he gestured around vaguely again, ¡°this Grove you¡¯ve got here is quite the thing. Ain¡¯t seen nothin¡¯ like it ¡®fore in my time, all these animals goin¡¯ ¡®round and cleaning up after us and whatnot.¡±

    It was wonderful to hear, and brought Zalia not a small amount of happiness.

    ¡°What about the refugees down the hill by the war camp?¡± Ember asked, stepping forward.

    ¡°Ahh, a sorry lot those are. We feed the ones what come up ¡®ere an¡¯ ask for food, but most of what we grow goes down to the smart ones in the army. They know a thing or two ¡®bout numbers an¡¯ all that I tell ya.¡±

    Zalia was only a tiny bit surprised by his generosity.

    ¡°Did I see Ole Feral just wandering around somewhere as well?¡±

    Mate turned back to her, trying to brush some of the dirt from his hands onto the equally filthy work pants he wore.

    ¡°Ah yeah she¡¯s takin¡¯ to wanderin¡¯ about. Loves the freedom, ya know?¡±

    Zalia nodded, entirely in agreement with the cow¡¯s opinions of cages. Especially now.

    ¡°Well, I suppose there¡¯s no harm done then. Do you th-...¡±

    Zalia cut off as Mate¡¯s gaze locked onto something behind her. She turned around and it appeared he had finally spotted Ro.

    ¡°Is that the one which your altar back there talks about in the writin¡¯?¡±

    Zalia raised an eyebrow. She had known that some of the farmers were praying to Ro from what he had said, yet she hadn¡¯t expected Mate to be one of them. Dire times could turn even the most cynical religious, apparently.

    ¡°It is, yes. What exactly have you people been doing with that altar?¡±

    For once, she saw an expression on the gruff man''s face that wasn''t reminiscent of a scowl. He looked a little sheepish.

    ¡°Well, a few of the lads found that altar behind the waterfall back there an¡¯ we figured the god it spoke of was the one what powered this whole Grove. One thing turned to another an¡¯ now a few of us give daily thanks for what it gives us.¡±

    Zalia stared blankly at him

    She could feel such amusement building in Ember through their bond that she was surprised the woman didn''t laugh out loud.

    ¡°Well, you should go meet him then.¡±

    Mate looked a little worried.

    ¡°And don''t worry, he''s quite gentle and very understanding. Oh, and he loves shiny things.¡±

    Mate fished around in his pocket and brought out a silver coin, then trudged off towards Ro.

    Trying not to laugh herself, Zalia sent a mental communication to Ro.

    ¡°Please be nice to Mate, and don''t tell him the Grove is my ability, not yours.¡±

    She didn''t see any harm in letting the farmers believe it was Ro who was the power behind the Grove. To be fair, it was quite an unusual power for a Bronze ranker to have. She hadn''t seen anything like it in others of similar rank.

    Linking her arm through Embers, she walked through the Grove towards the crack in the rock far at the back. There, she went behind the waterfall to where Ro¡¯s altar was.

    A farmer respectfully left the little cave when she entered and Zalia finally burst out laughing as she saw the mound of coins, silverware and other shiny objects in the space. When she''d left, Zalia had put the little shiny pieces of metal from her vault that Ro had collected in Cormaine on the altar. It looked like the farmers had continued that ritual.

    ¡°Oh god I''ve revived a religion.¡±

    She put her hands on the sides of her head, half amused, half concerned.

    ¡°Honey, that''s what happens when you build altars to your friends who also happen to be gods, then walk around the kingdom performing rituals dedicated to them.¡±

    Ember gave her a tight hug, also starting to laugh. It was ridiculous.

    ¡°Alright, sure, why not. All it can do is make Ro that little bit stronger. We can use all the help we can get.¡±

 Book 3: 60 - Mobilisation

    As they sat in solitude, in a cave behind a waterfall, Zalia told Ember what she had been through. Everything that had happened from the moment she had been captured to the moment she had floated down from the sky with a starlight puppy.

    Things got a little fuzzy for her around the constant torture. She had thoroughly lost track of time, having been there for much, much longer than she thought. Perhaps it was how often she passed out, for who knew how long each time. Maybe it was the fact she had been locked in a cell without windows, out of reach of the sun and stars. It could have been the torture itself, the pain enough to make her mind simply shut down until it stopped.

    The reality was probably a mixture of all three, a horror she didn¡¯t quite manage to convey to Ember.

    Learning about the demon being there led them down a path of discussion that resulted in Ember having many of the same thoughts Zalia had. Juniper being a piece on the board of the Astar, who were also responsible for the massive ritual. The king possibly being under their control somehow. Even the idea that Hidey was being controlled by them. Sure, Juniper had been in control of some of his actions, but by the conversation Zalia had with him and this new information, it was highly likely the Astar were as well.

    It was all theory, as they had no solid proof other than the fact the demons were working with the Astar. At least, a demon was working with two Astar. They didn¡¯t know if there were any more of them involved in it.

    They had to assume it was all of them. If it wasn¡¯t, then it would be a lot easier to deal with. If it was all of them, they would suffer from not being prepared for it.

    Ro-ak came to find them before long, barely managing to fit through the entrance of the cave and into the small space.

    ¡°So this is my altar, you wouldn¡¯t believe what I just had to deal with. They all kept trying to give me shi-¡±

    He didn¡¯t finish the word ¡°shiny¡± as he observed the hoard of reflective metallic objects filling the cave.

    ¡°Zalia what have you done?¡±

    It was her turn to look sheepish.

    ¡°Well, I might have accidentally started a new religion dedicated to you where they believe giving you shiny things is an important part of it?¡±

    ¡°Why would you¡­?¡±

    ¡°Look! Remember when you were just a little crow following me around, collecting little shiny bits and pieces and giving them to me? Well, when I left I put them on your altar here. The farmers found it and started doing the same.¡±

    Ro stared at her.

    ¡°I¡¯m a spirit of forests and mystery, not forests and shiny things.¡±

    ¡°Shiny things can be mysterious. Well, they can distract from mysteries. By being shiny.¡± Ember put in.

    Zalia and Ro turned to her, staring.

    ¡°We should go see Indis.¡±

    ¡°Agreed.¡±

    They left the Grove, Ro taking flight soon after leaving the cave to avoid dealing with the farmers again. He seemed pretty distressed at the idea of having to talk to them. Maybe that was why gods didn¡¯t appear before or talk to their followers very much. They were just all introverted. Zalia told Aylie through mental communication where they were going, and received on the vaguest confirmation of her words. It was a stark contrast to Aylie¡¯s previous behaviour of sticking to her like glue. Having her eyes open to a whole world that no one else could see was having an effect on the girl already.

    She knew there were a few other ¡°gods¡± that the people of Endaria¡­ no necessarily followed or worshipped but talked about. Zen had mentioned one a few times, though Zalia had forgotten the name. Either way, none of those ones had ever shown up here to help or participate. Only a select few of the nature spirits or old gods as they called themselves were doing anything at all.

    Ro rejoined them on the ground as they approached the war camp, the mass of people arrayed outside the walls beginning to become an obstruction to their passage. Zalia had been able to restrict the Silver rank effect of her aura enough that it didn¡¯t affect the war camp from her Grove, and pulled it even tighter to herself now.

    She leaned over and whispered to Ro as they started pushing through the crowd.

    ¡°Hey Ro, are you able to take other forms?¡±

    ¡°For what reason?¡±

    Zalia looked around to the people beginning to whisper and watch with wide eyes.

    ¡°You¡¯re the spirit of mysteries right? Well right now you¡¯re being kinda really in the open and obvious.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, perhaps I can alter this form. It is not something I¡¯ve done in a very long time.¡±

    He went silent for a moment as they walked, concentrating.

    Just as the gates to the war camp came into view past the crowded people, his form altered and shifted, reducing to a shorter figure covered by a hooded cloak, only the gleam of light off his beady black eyes visible.

    ¡°Will this do?¡±

    His voice was still the same, but the figure was a little less attention drawing.

    ¡°It¡¯ll do. Just be quiet until we get an audience with Indis or the general.¡±

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Zalia herself, dressed in what looked like simple farmers'' clothes didn¡¯t draw much attention. She just wished she still had the floppy wide-brim hat Ember had bought for her. Maybe she could buy another one.

    When they arrived at the gates, the nervous man whose task it was to inspect people greeted them. Usually he only came out when people arrived but it seemed like they permanently had one gate open these days, with the man inspecting everyone who entered.

    When he looked at Ro, the guy''s eyes seemed to bug out of his head for a moment. Then panic flickered across his face, replaced soon by the most neutral face she had ever seen him maintain, all semblance of nervousness gone. What the hell?

    ¡°You alright?¡±

    ¡°Mmm? Er, yes. Everything is fine, all good. You may enter of course.¡±

    The Silver rank guard flanking the man looked at him, then at Zalia equally confused.

    She shrugged at him, then walked past into the camp.

    They trudged through the masses of people, the massive increase in numbers not only due to more refugees but also an increased presence of soldiers. This must be because of the army group that had joined up with them from the far south of Endaria, further west.

    It took a while to get past the people, but eventually they found themselves approaching the command building, when Ro spoke up.

    ¡°Are you starting a religion to yourself as well Zalia?¡±

    She turned to him in confusion, then followed his gaze to where her statue still stood, now fixed so that Boreal was the right size.

    ¡°Oh, hell no. That is Indis¡¯ fault.¡±

    ¡°Who is this Indis you keep mentioning?¡±

    ¡°Ah, well. That is a really long story. A friend? Kind of? Sort of maybe leader of the country right now? But not really. Ex-noble, now semi-one of a few leaders of the rebellion. Again, long story. We¡¯re going to go meet her and General Faian right now.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    He stared at the statue for a few moments longer, before they moved on.

    Without Boreal at her side, Zalia was able to blend in with the people a little bit. She, her partner Ember and their small edgy friend hidden in a cloak.

    If she had thought the command building was busy last time she¡¯d been there, it was nothing compared to the storm in front of the place now. It took them twenty minutes of pushing, shoving and strongarming before they managed to get into the building and past the clerks.

    There, she finally had a bit of personal space as she left the busy entrance room behind. It was only a short distance to Faian¡¯s office, a noticeable increase in guards on duty standing by doors and hallways.

    Some of the guards must have recognised her and Ember because they were let through without much trouble.

    She knocked twice on Faian¡¯s door and opened it after a yelled, ¡°Come in!¡±

    Poking her head through, she saw the general by herself at her desk, writing on some piece of paperwork.

    ¡°Zalia! You¡¯re alive, good. And who is that behind you, Ember and¡­?¡±

    ¡°I am Nateysta, spirit of the forests. It is good to make your acquaintance Indis,¡± Ro introduced himself, his grating yet melodic voice filling the room.

    Zalia smacked her hand into her forehead.

    ¡°Nateysta, this is General Faian, one of the commanders of this army.¡±

    She moved aside to let Ember and Ro come into the room.

    Faian was looking at Zalia with a raised eyebrow and she just shrugged. She looked back to Ro as he spoke again.

    ¡°Apologies, General Faian. I come from your sister world, Cormaine, to aid in your fight here. The old god Starlight has sacrificed themself to bring me here to take part in your war.¡±

    Faian¡¯s one raised eyebrow turned to two as her gaze flicked back to Zalia once more.

    ¡°Straight to the point then. Ro is an ascendant being, a god basically. He can help us take the capital.¡±

    That peaked Faian¡¯s interest.

    ¡°Take the capital? Are you sure? Scouts we have sent there say that the aura surrounding the city only grows stronger and stronger the closer you get.¡±

    Ember poked Zalia.

    ¡°This one should be able to get us pretty damn close without having to worry about that corruption now. What Ro is here for is to fight the thing emitting that corrupting aura.¡±

    Faian stood up, excited.

    ¡°You can fight it? Really? Well that is excellent news. You said he was ascendant, if that is true I don¡¯t doubt the power of your abilities,¡± she grew somewhat sober, ¡°but I must ask, what do you want in return for this?¡±

    ¡°In return? Nothing, as of yet. Partly, I do this to repay the life debt I owe to Zalia. However, I would ask that when the time comes, you help me free my world of these demons too.¡±

    Faian tapped her finger on the table repetitively, deep in thought.

    ¡°I would love to help you but I must ask. Realistically, how helpful will we be in freeing your world? We can barely protect our own from this invasion on our own.¡±

    A guttural croaking that Zalia realised was a laugh came from under the hooded cloak.

    ¡°Oh young General, do not worry. The lives of ascendants are long indeed. You might not be powerful now, but in ten, twenty, a hundred years from now, how many strong people will you have? A kingdom that is focussed on building an army to destroy these demons would be one I would consider a most valuable ally and I have a feeling that is where this kingdom will be going after this.¡±

    Faian¡¯s finger tapped a little faster.

    ¡°We are going to need you to win this, I feel. We have a good number of strong amongst our ranks but that corrupting aura and its source has been a big roadblock in launching an assault on the capital.¡±

    Then, Faian turned to Zalia.

    ¡°I¡¯m trusting you on this one. If you say this Nateysta is the answer to our problem, then I¡¯ll take it. Is he the solution?¡±

    Zalia didn¡¯t hesitate.

    ¡°I trust him with all of our lives, then more. Yes, he is the answer.¡±

    Faian nodded, her finger stopping its incessant tapping.

    ¡°Right, agreed then. We will begin preparations to mobilise immediately. The overpopulation of this camp is getting worse and worse and we need to strike the capital to take back a bigger city soon or things are only going to get worse. Tell me Nateysta, do the demons know you are in this world? What are the limits of your powers?¡±

    Zalia and Ember took the back seat as Ro was basically interrogated for information on what he could do and what his powers were. In the end, Faian decided that it would be best for Zalia to hold back the corruption as long as she could manage and only when they had to reveal Ro¡¯s presence would he unleash his power. If they made it look like they were making a desperate final attack on the capital, then having Ro as a surprise against their enemies might turn a tactical advantage. This was all pending agreement from the other generals, of course.

    Partway through, Zalia realised she and Ember were no longer needed in the conversation. She interrupted to ask to be excused to talk to the Hidden, telling Ro to communicate with her mentally if needed. Faian agreed, calling in her advisor Ryn to assist them with getting in to the prison cell holding him.

    They had theories about the Astar and she hoped that a conversation with Hidey could prove a few of them.

 Book 3: 61 - Astar Involvement

    Zalia and Ember stood before the cube that contained Hidey, silent. Hidey did not speak either, Advisor Ryn waiting off to the side politely.

    ¡°It is good to see you once more.¡±

    Zalia chewed on her lip, thinking.

    ¡°And it is good to¡­ hear you again Hidey. I''ve discovered¡­ something recently that I wanted to talk to you about.¡±

    ¡°Is that so? I''m always open to talk to you Zalia, though I do suggest that you always be careful to whom you speak.¡±

    Zalia tapped her foot on the ground, considering her words carefully. She would have to make sure she didn''t give away anything important to Hidey. Especially about Ro.

    ¡°The Astar, what do you know about them?¡±

    ¡°Hmm, the Astar, a curious subject. Not many people know of them, with even fewer ever having met them. Why do you ask?¡±

    Ember gave her a warning look but Zalia took her hand and gave it a squeeze, comforting her.

    If it was the Astar who were controlling Hidey, then they would already know of her escape considering it was from them that she had escaped.

    ¡°I was recently captured by the Astar and there was a demon with them, who tortured me. They are working together. I think it is the Astar who are behind the ritual that brought the demons here in the first place.¡±

    There was a long period of silence and for a moment, Zalia thought Hidey wouldn''t respond.

    ¡°It has been noted by one of the few people who have met the Astar that they appeared to be good at spatial magic.¡±

    It wasn''t a confirmation, she knew he couldn''t give her that. It was as close as he could get though, the words a mimicry to the thoughts she''d had not so long ago when learning about the Astar¡¯s involvement in the first place.

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    She considered her next words carefully. It would be great to get confirmation of it being the Astar who otherwise controlled Hidey, but inquiring about that would reveal that she even knew he was being controlled in the first place.

    They stood in silence, the only sound the tapping of her boots on the cold, stone floor.

    ¡°You¡¯re a good friend Hidey. I only wish that Juniper hadn¡¯t made you do the things you did. We¡¯re going to help you somehow, hang in there.¡±

    A whispered, ¡°thank you,¡± followed her out of the room.

    She walked briskly up the stairs, hearing Advisor Ryn lock up the door behind her as Ember strode to catch up.

    ¡°You alright?¡±

    Zalia gave a small quick nod, wiping a single tear from her cheek. It wasn¡¯t fair, what Hidey had been through.

    ¡°We should help the army get ready to leave,¡± she murmured.

    She could feel Ember¡¯s concern pulsing through their bond.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    Zalia hesitated only a moment before taking a deep, stabilising breath and nodding again.

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m sure. There¡¯s something I want to talk to you about though.¡±

    They emerged from the stairs and Zalia took them into a side room, the same one that Indis had gone off at her in some months ago.

    ¡°Alright, what is it?¡±

    Zalia fiddled a little bit, then started speaking.

    ¡°Obviously Aylie can''t come on this assault. It wouldn''t be fair on her to take her, nor would it be safe.¡±

    Ember nodded slowly, as if trying to figure out where this was going.

    ¡°She should stay in the Grove, it''s probably the safest place for her. I assume some of the soldiers will stay behind at the camp to protect the remaining refugees.¡±

    Ember nodded again.

    ¡°I agree, where are you going with this?¡±

    Zalia swallowed, anxiety battling her will to continue the conversation.

    ¡°And, I think you should stay with her.¡±

    She felt the anger and shock that Ember experienced at the words, yet her beautiful, wonderful partner held it back before replying.

    ¡°I don''t like it but I''m willing to hear you out. Why?¡±

    She started with the obvious, which she was sure Ember had already thought of.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    ¡°One of us should stay with Aylie, to get her out of here if things go wrong. After what she¡¯s been through with her family¡­ I couldn¡¯t leave her alone again. I have the ability that holds back the corruption for the army and so¡­ well, it makes sense that you stay behind.¡±

    What she didn¡¯t say was that she didn¡¯t want Ember to be part of the assault because she didn¡¯t want anything to happen to her. She wanted Ember to be safe and out of harm''s way. She wanted Ember to live her life without experiencing the horror that was a thousand-eyed one. It was most likely selfish and definitely bad of her to let those fears control her actions, but it was how she felt all the same.

    Ember pursed her lips and tapped her finger to them a few times in thought before replying.

    ¡°I see. And did you consider that Ro could protect the army with his aura all the way into the capital by himself? That it isn¡¯t necessary for you to go either?¡±

    Zalia opened her mouth to answer but Ember wasn¡¯t done, obviously having heard the unspoken part despite her silence.

    ¡°And, did you consider how worried and scared we would all be waiting for you to come home? I won¡¯t be there to have your back. You¡¯ll be going into a city with who knows how many strong enemies, of which we know one is a gods damned ascendant being!?¡±

    Everything Ember said was true. She knew. Zalia knew it. There was no point in arguing those facts. They both knew that keeping Ro a secret longer might help their chances as well, however. Faian had just said it some minutes earlier.

    ¡°I did consider all of that. I know. It sucks. I don¡¯t want it to be this way but I think it¡¯s for the best.¡±

    Tears formed in the corners of Ember¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Oh damn it Zalia,¡± she whispered.

    Zalia stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the slightly smaller woman

    ¡°I know.¡±

    They stayed that way for a little while, Zalia trying to comfort Ember and being comforted in return.

    After a short time, they were both settled again.

    ¡°Alright, I''ll do it Zalia but¡­ you''ll take Boreal with you at least?¡±

    She squeezed Ember''s hand.

    ¡°Of course, I don''t think I could get her to stay behind if I tried.¡±

    ¡°I hate this,¡± Ember murmured.

    Zalia took Ember''s other hand and held them both tightly.

    ¡°I do too. We are going to win this fight though. We''re going to win it and I''m going to come back and you, me, Aylie, Boreal and Lumin are going to go live somewhere nice. Somewhere out of the cities, but close enough we can still go to them if we want. Somewhere with a nice big garden. Somewhere that Aylie can grow up in peace.¡±

    Ember smiled warmly at her.

    ¡°I''d like that very much.¡±

    Then she stood up, pulling Zalia to her feet as well.

    ¡°You ready?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I''m ready. Let''s get out there and get this done.¡±

    ¡°Kick their asses for me would you?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Of course honey, all in a good day¡¯s work.¡±

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    After their conversation, they had gone to General Faian who had asked them to bring the Morning''s Shade down to the war camp, in preparation for departure.

    It seemed like the army soldiers would be first in the column, having had significantly more training than the Morning''s Shade when it came to moving and fighting as a single unit.

    The Morning''s Shade however, were all individually stronger than most of the soldiers simply due to their class choices. Where the soldiers had classes that usually pointed towards better teamwork and fighting as a unit, simply due to their evolutions and ability upgrades moving in that direction as they ranked up, the Morning''s Shade had the very opposite.

    The point of the organisation was to send off small groups or individuals to take care of more complex or mysterious situations facing the kingdom, or anyone who could afford to hire the group. As such, they would be a powerful rear guard, not only due to their significant strength but their individual ability to adapt to situations better.

    It was also partly to ensure their disorderly conduct didn''t get in the soldier''s way.

    On their way back to the Grove, Ro joined back up with them.

    ¡°I have been looking around at your people, and find myself shocked at how few high ranking members of your race there are. Hildebrandt is amongst the most powerful of your race, why is this?¡±

    Zalia frowned, stepping around a low bush.

    ¡°You know, I''ve asked that a few times before myself. Nobody has ever had an answer for me.¡±

    They both turned to Ember.

    ¡°Hey, I don''t know either. I always thought that the kind of people who reach those ranks are also usually the people who like to explore. At a certain point they wander outside the borders of the kingdom and never really come back. Maybe things outside the borders are much more dangerous than inside them. The north is definitely more dangerous, that''s for sure.¡±

    Zalia chewed her lip, thinking.

    ¡°Why are the Astar doing this? If they wanted to just wipe us out I''m sure they could. What if they''re doing it simply to keep the human race weak?¡±

    Ember looked at her.

    ¡°What are you saying?¡±

    ¡°If you were somewhat cold and calculating and had a neighbouring kingdom you wanted to keep from getting too powerful, as well as extremely well developed spatial magic powers, what would you do? Think about what the Astar just did to me. I got annoying, then they decided to take me out of the equation.¡±

    ¡°Zalia, are you saying you think the Astar have been kidnapping and¡­ what, killing any high ranked humans who get too powerful?¡±

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°Idk Ro, it''s just a thought. It''s a possible explanation. It has always struck me as odd that there are no higher ranked people in this kingdom. Originally I just thought that they remained hidden most of the time but if there was a time for them to show themselves¡­¡±

    Ember swore under her breath.

    ¡°Shit Zals, that''s horrible to think about. Like they''ve been¡­ culling us. If that were happening, how could we not have seen it? Surely the king¡­¡±

    Zalia gave a grim smile.

    ¡°The king. The king who according to Indis had a very, very sudden change of personality soon after his father died. Hidey, who was in charge of the Morning¡¯s Shade intelligence. Who knows how long this has been going on? If we''re correct that is. The more I think about it the more I believe it must be the answer.¡±

    Then she remembered Hildebrandt saying that Matthias had disappeared. She had a sinking feeling that he hadn''t gone willingly.

    It really brought home to her that she''d been extremely lucky that the starlight wolf was her friend. Without them, she might have ended up just another dead powerful human that got too big for their own boots.

    ¡°Fucking Astar. Maybe this is all just completely wrong but if it''s right, they have a lot to answer for.¡±

 Book 3: 62 - To War

    Getting the Morning¡¯s Shade to leave the Grove in an orderly manner was akin to herding cats. Luckily, Zalia had plenty of experience in that regard and with the help of Hildebrandt, had them up and moving in short order.

    Ember, Aylie and Lumin all came with Zalia and Ro as they trailed the Morning¡¯s Shade on the way to the camp.

    When they arrived at the front of the army camp, it was to a scene of somehow orderly chaos.

    The departure of the soldiers was done orderly and neat, lines and units forming up. Carts hooked up to beasts of labour were slowly trundling into one single line leading towards the capital. Units of soldiers were slowly splitting off and flanking carts that were moving away from the camp.

    Faian had only vaguely explained the plan to her, the way the troops would be ordered and managed. They would take a small town about halfway to the capital to use as a midpoint for their supply train. Some soldiers would need to be left behind to guard it, as well as a small contingent to guard the carts that would go back and forth.

    All in all it sounded like a managerial nightmare, but from the looks of it the generals had it well under control. She was once again surprised at the pure competency of not only Faian but the other generals and the soldiers under their command as well.

    The chaos in the scene came from the desperate refugees and civilians who were outside the walls of the camp. Seeing that so much room was being vacated, quite a few people had decided it was time for them to move in and were pushing to be let into the camp. This created a nightmare for the gate guards as they had to let out soldiers and make sure to filter the refugees at the same time.

    Hildebrandt slowly led the Morning¡¯s Shade into the chaos, quickly being intercepted by an advisor to one of the other generals. Luckily, the members of the organisation decided grouping closely together was better than being split up, though many of the civilians kept their distance from the well-armed and armoured group.

    Prior to the invasion, the Morning¡¯s Shade was a well-known organisation that not much was known about. People often feared them a little, simply due to the mystery surrounding their members and the not-so-truthful stories that tended to pop up around them.

    A lot of that was forgotten now, it seemed. Many of the refugees didn¡¯t give them a second glance other than to keep out of their way, simply wanting to get within the enchanted walls of the camp.

    Zalia was a little surprised at the speed with which things were advancing, but recalled Faian saying that the only thing they were waiting on was a solution to the possible ascendant being in the capital. They had evidently been preparing for this attack since the camp was set up, the soldiers aware of what they needed to do and supplies already stockpiled for the event.

    The Morning¡¯s Shade was led to one side to wait for the last of the soldiers, Zalia and her group standing near them. It would be time to say goodbye soon.

    Zalia watched Aylie, looking for any hint of what she was thinking.

    ¡°Aylie, you, Ember and Lumin won¡¯t be coming with me and Ro to the capital. I want you to stay here and be safe in the Grove.¡±

    Fear and concern reared its head from within Aylie, her face dropping and her arms wrapping around herself.

    ¡°Why? You told me that I had power now, that I would be able to fight back. I can come with you! Didn¡¯t you see how strong my ability is? I can help!¡±

    Her voice was quiet as usual, yet grew louder. And she wasn¡¯t entirely wrong. Zalia had said those things.

    ¡°I know, but this is not like Ostoss. This is going to be a much bigger, longer and more dangerous fight. It wouldn¡¯t be fair to take you into that. You have power now, but not on the level of the things we¡¯re going to be encountering there.¡±

    Her reply was only a whisper.

    ¡°If it is so dangerous, why are you going there?¡±

    Zalia had been thinking about the same thing a bit recently. When she had first come to Endaria she might well have not gone. Hell, even a few months earlier when she was Iron rank, they had decided to only pass off some information to Hidey and then leave the conflict for good, letting the army deal with it.

    She was a changed woman to who she had been then though.

    ¡°All of these people here,¡± she started, gesturing widely around them, ¡°need someone to stand up for them, to take back their home. Sure, I¡¯m not as powerful as quite a few others here. I definitely don¡¯t have the kind of logistical or tactical skills that the generals have. What I do have is powers almost built to fight these things and knowledge of our enemy that the generals might need. You have those kinds of powers too, but now isn¡¯t the time for you to fight. When you are older, we can talk about you joining in on this kind of fight but for now, you just need to stay safe. Alright?¡±

    Aylie opened her arms wide and Zalia took her into a deep hug.

    ¡°Boreal will be with me and we¡¯ll take care of each other. I want you to do something for me though okay? I¡¯ll only sleep every few days, but I want you to try to send me dreams. Talk to me through them, alright? You¡¯ll know I¡¯m safe that way, and I¡¯ll know you¡¯re safe too.¡±

    She felt Aylie nod vigorously, and only hoped that she would be able to send the dreams over that distance.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    They hadn¡¯t experimented much with the dreamweaving, Zalia sleeping too little to really make good use of it. It was something that Zalia definitely wanted to get into once this was all over though. Its potential for long-distance communication or even information gathering was quite unique. After all, who expected someone to try divine your secrets by manipulating your dreams?

    ¡°Be strong for me. I¡¯ll come back.¡±

    ¡°Please be careful mum, I don¡¯t want to lose you too.¡±

    She squeezed Aylie even tighter, tears in her eyes. Her voice sounded so small.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry darling, I will come back.¡±

    She pulled away and used a little ritual magic using Water Lily Petals to clean up Aylie¡¯s face while she neatened up her hair.

    ¡°Take care of Lumin as well, alright? The little one will need your guidance while I¡¯m away.¡±

    Aylie nodded and tried to put on a strong face, a good effort despite the few new tears and slight wobble in her lips.

    Boreal came up to pepper Aylie with soft body checks and hugs in her own manner while Zalia stood and hugged Ember.

    ¡°Keep her safe, keep yourself safe.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us, you just keep yourselves safe. I want both of you to return safe and sound.¡±

    Then Ember pulled away and turned to Ro.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re some kind of god or what, but you damn well better bring them both back to me okay? You hear me?¡±

    Zalia restrained a laugh at the very confused-looking Ro. She doubted he had people talk to him that way very often, if ever.

    ¡°I will try my best¡­ Ember of the flames.¡±

    Zalia made a choking, coughing sound, holding back the laugh and Ember looked at her quizzically.

    ¡°Just¡­ breathed in too much.¡±

    The members of the Morning¡¯s Shade started to walk off, following behind the final unit of soldiers on the way to the capital. Time to go.

    Ember took her hands one last time, holding them tight.

    ¡°Come back.¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°I will.¡±

    Ember gave her a long, deep kiss, then pulled away. Zalia reluctantly let go of her hands and turned away, following the Morning¡¯s Shade.

    Each step away was harder than the last, her body telling her that she should turn back and stay with them. The strength of emotions bouncing between her and Ember¡¯s bond made it all the worse, the urge to change their plans almost overwhelming.

    A minute of walking later, it slowly became easier. The decision was made, to war she went.

    Another half an hour later, Advisor Ryn came to get her. Faian wanted her closer to the centre of the column, so that her aura could stretch out across the entire army. She didn¡¯t bother to mention that it would either way, following the man and allowing her aura to finally flow back out again now that they were far enough from the city.

    At the centre of the column was the army''s food stock. Mostly cured and salted meats as well as various dried fruits and nuts. She even spotted the chef whom she hadn¡¯t seen since the original war camp further north, surprised that he would be coming with them.

    At the very, very front were the army scouts, a few staying close while others roamed far ahead of the column. To the fore of the column actual stood Hildebrandt. She wasn¡¯t a part of the army but being a tanky class and arguably the highest ranked member amongst them, she would be invaluable if attacked from there.

    Behind her were a few squads of heavily armoured soldiers, followed by a squad of earth mages who flattened out the terrain for the armies passing. All of the generals and their advisors, clerks and other logistical team were seated just behind the vanguard, the most protected part of the column. The bulk of the army came after that, dozens of squads of lighter armoured soldiers, armed with spears, bows or nothing at all.

    The largest organised force she had seen was the two clashing squads all the way back in the first weeks she had entered Endaria, when it had seemed like a simple rebellion fighting the kingdom.

    This was something on an entirely different scale. A proper army, thousands of people strong.

    The sheer power flowing through the air made her skin tingle and her vision through Aura Perception was a confusing mess of thousands of overlapping auras and powers.

    Her other forms of sight weren¡¯t much better either. Both her vision of heat and vibration were overwhelmed by the mass of sound and bodies that was the army column. It was hard to feel anything other than confident in their chances of victory with so much strength gathered in one place.

    Her own aura spread out over the whole group, further adding the organised chaos.

    Both Boreal and Ro were still with her, the latter disguised as a cloaked figure. She wasn¡¯t sure what the soldiers had been told about him, though suspected it was close to, if not, nothing.

    Once more Advisor Ryn came to collect her and bring her slightly forwards in the column to where General Faian and General Ballast were. She passed a squad of cavalry on the way, admiring the varied mounts they had. Most were horses, though a few rode on other similarly shaped creatures that were not. She guessed that they had to be at least the same size as to fit together as a unit.

    She was brought into the protected spot between the vanguard and soldiers where a flurry of movement signalled their location. As usual, there were various ministerial types making notes and writing things down, using mobile desks they had tied around their middle.

    After a few moments, she was brought up to the generals.

    ¡°Yes? What did you need?¡±

    Ballast looked over at her.

    ¡°Ah! Zalia, welcome. Boreal, good to see you. And this must be our guest! Wonderful to have you with us.¡±

    He followed up the welcome with a heavy but friendly thump to the back, which seemed to confuse Ro even further. Poor thing, he was not used to people.

    Faian took over before Ballast confused him even more.

    ¡°We need to know if there is anything more. You have told us about the high likelihood that the population of the capital is now undead, along with details on the ascendant being. Please, any and all information might be helpful, even if you don¡¯t believe so.¡±

    Zalia collated her thoughts, ordering what she knew about every demon and the Astar, then began talking.

 Book 3: 63 - Defender

    The journey from the war camp to the town at the midway point they planned on capturing might have taken Zalia only a few days. That was if she had been by herself, though. The army column moved along like a slow plodding beast, the time required for the earth mages to flatten out the land ahead and the slow trundling carriages to keep up made it almost boring for her. Almost.

    Zalia felt like she was crawling, the pace so much slower than her normal. That gave her a lot of time to think though.

    Thoughts of her time in prison being tortured, of the implications of their recent discoveries and of what she and the army were heading towards battled to be at the forefront of her mind. The thoughts of Ember, Aylie and Lumin outstripped them all though. She felt both concern and appreciation for them, worried that something would happen to them while the army was out at war and happy that they were somewhere other than going towards that war.

    The first conflict happened on the second day of travel, as they were attacked by a group of a few hundred crazed soldiers. Scouts came running, yelling about an attack.

    General Faian quickly began calling out orders.

    ¡°Vanguard, shields up! Administrative staff back! Earthen unit, Defenses!¡±

    Like a well-oiled machine, the army reacted.

    The vanguard, in the face of hundreds of hundreds of crazed soldiers that were foaming at the mouth as they charged, set up a shield wall. They allowed the scouts through, the soldiers still some distance away. Then, the first row dropped low on their knees, the second row standing between with the third holding shields high. This formed a three high wall of shields held by the weight and strength of a powerful unit of people.

    The earth mages just behind built stone walls with stairs to their tops on either side of the vanguard as the administrative staff pulled back, led by a unit of lighter armoured soldiers.

    ¡°Archer and Area units, take your positions!¡±

    Even as two units from behind the administrative group split to allow them through, they ran up the sides of the column and onto the stone wall. Half the earth mages followed the administrators, building the wall further and further down the column.

    General Faian gave the order and hell rained from above.

    ¡°Fire!¡±

    The mages and archers on the wall activated various abilities and Zalia activated her flight to get a better view of the fight. The crazed soldiers seemed to be struggling a little bit and she soon realised why. Her aura, now expanding over a massive distance, was hurting them. It wasn¡¯t enough to kill them, or even harm them seriously, but it was enough to put them in pain and slow them a little. She hadn¡¯t considered that by allowing her aura to spread out as far as it could, she might also attract the attention of any corrupt being in that area.

    Waves of fire rolled over the enemy soldiers even as they still charged. Arrows rained down, some exploding with various elements or just sheer force. The ground underneath them roiled and rolled, slowing their charge almost to a standstill, even knocking some over. A slick ice formed over the still-shifting ground, further disrupting the enemy¡¯s charge.

    As cooldowns were used, and the rain of attacks slowed, the enemy continued their charge. They managed to recover some of their momentum, the sheer rage and mindlessness of the soldiers allowing them to ignore wounds and their dead and dying comrades. In addition, while they didn¡¯t have an inkling of tactics, it wasn¡¯t so easy to kill Bronze and Silver rankers.

    A single figure stood out from the vanguard, armour, mace and tower shield at the ready. Zalia watched as Hildebrandt settled her feet and stood her ground. A fiery aura permeated the air around her, slowly spreading across the battlefield. The rest of the vanguard seemed to stand firmer, stronger.

    The aura that normally came from Hildebrandt was one of something solid, more¡­ permanent than everything else. The aura that came out of her when she was in battle was something more like a promise. A promise of protection and of retaliation should any harm come to those under that protection.

    It reminded Zalia of Ember just a little, though Ember protected through healing, while Hildebrandt protected by being the wall between her enemies and her friends.

    As she watched, the slowly expanding fiery aura reached the approaching soldiers and they began to scream in pain. The lower-ranked ones further back disintegrated, anything of Tin or Iron rank lasting no longer than a few moments.

    The Bronze ranked enemies managed to push through the pain, the mixture of Hildebrandt and her own auras enough to start injuring them. The Silver rank ones struggled a bit less, though still looking pained in their rage-filled charge.

    A huge explosion rocked the battlefield, originating in the centre of a mass of enemy soldiers. What must have been the torn-apart bodies of fifty of the crazed soldiers rained down across the field, spraying blood and gore.

    Hildebrandt had done that, the same ability she had used to blow up the wall of the fort Zalia had been kept prisoner in.

    Once the few remaining crazed soldiers that didn¡¯t die to the continued onslaught of various spells and arrows got within twenty metres of Hildebrandt, she started swinging her mace. Zalia was confused for only a moment as bolts of fiery energy left the mace and impacted enemy soldiers with explosive force. A Silver ranker was blown away, torn into pieces.

    A few of them reached Hildebrandt but she didn¡¯t even bother blocking. The moment they struck, two bolts similar to what her mace swings created flashed out and struck the attackers. They were blown away into a fine mist, their remains burning into smoke.

    It wasn¡¯t very long before nothing remained of the enemy other than a few body parts strewn across the battlefield. Many of the soldiers had simply stopped and watched as Hildebrandt single-handedly destroyed the enemy. It was a terrifying sight. If that power were turned on them, there wasn¡¯t much that their organised, orderly and tactically sound army could do. That is why both Ro-ak and Hildebrandt were there.

    Of course, there was also Larel back with the Morning¡¯s Shade. She was their only other Gold ranker, though not nearly as strong as Hildebrandt was considering she was at the tip of Gold, only a rank or two from reaching Emerald. Zalia wouldn¡¯t be surprised if a few of the woman''s abilities were Emerald already.

    Now that the fight was done, it didn¡¯t take long before the walls were torn down and they were back on their way. As they moved past the corpses of the fallen, all the remains were buried by the earth mages until there was no sign that the fight had taken place at all. Even the undergrowth was grown back by Zalia¡¯s aura.

    She went and found Hildebrandt and Faian after the fight.

    ¡°Thank you for your help,¡± Faian was saying.

    Hildebrandt gave a salute.

    ¡°Happy to help, we¡¯re here to help the kingdom, aren¡¯t we?¡±

    Given the crispness of the salute, Zalia wondered if the woman had been a soldier once. She could see on Faian¡¯s face that she was thinking the same.

    ¡°General, Hildebrandt. I believe my aura was what pulled those crazed soldiers to us. It hurts them, though not enough to properly harm or kill them. Should I retract it to just cover the army?¡±

    Zalia could feel the corrupting aura more and more, its power slowly pushing against her own so that it didn¡¯t reach as far as it might have. She had a feeling that it wouldn¡¯t be long before all she could do was cover the army anyway.

    Faian thought for a moment before replying.

    ¡°No. Leave it for now. It might not be a bad idea to drag out as many of the enemy as we can before reaching the capital. Having them behind us and near to where the caravan will run could end up being disastrous. Scouts are searching the lands for them as we speak and we¡¯ll take any fight we have to as it is. Might as well let them come to us.¡±

    Zalia only gave a simple nod as confirmation, gesturing to Hildebrandt that she wanted to talk for a moment.

    General Faian returned to the constant organisation she had to deal with as the two of them stepped away for a moment.

    ¡°That¡¯s the third time I¡¯ve seen you fight now and I have to say, I¡¯m a little awed by your powers.¡±

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Hildebrandt gave her a wide smile.

    ¡°Aw, thanks. Look, both times you¡¯ve seen me fight properly I have been completely in my element. Mindless hordes attacking us? Now that I excel at. All my abilities are based around standing my ground and getting hit.¡±

    Zalia tapped her foot a little, considering. She wanted to ask to see Hildebrandt¡¯s abilities.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if this is something rude to ask, but I want to see what your abilities do. Is that ok? It might help with what we¡¯re going up against to know what your limitations are.¡±

    Hildebrandt hummed in thought.

    ¡°Hmm, I have shown General Faian already, which is why I ended up in the vanguard. If it was anyone else I¡¯d tell them no, but I want to see yours as well Zalia. I¡¯m quite intrigued by the uniqueness of your abilities, as well as the fact you have three classes. Willing to trade?¡±

    Zalia nodded, showing her abilities to the woman and receiving a host of information in return.

    Class - Warrior - Gold

    Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity

    Active skills

    Godly Strike (Previously Strike) - Gold

    Tin - You can strike your enemy harder.

    This now allows you to hit ethereal beings

    Iron - In addition to hitting harder, you also hit faster.

    This now has significantly increased impact.

    Bronze - When this hits an enemy, the damage they take from Backlash is significantly increased.

    This now also slows the affected enemy

    Silver - You can now strike enemies without being near them. Strikes made with this ability become ranged, out to a distance of ten metres.

    This is now increased to twenty metres

    Gold - Your strikes are infused with godly power, impacting them with a burning force that ignores most armour.

    Stand Your Ground (Previously Speed Maneouvre) - Emerald

    Tin - You may now ¡°Stand Your Ground¡±. When standing your ground, you are less affected by all knockback.

    Iron - When standing your ground, allies near you are also less affected by knockback.

    Bronze - When standing your ground, you and your allies are no longer affected by knockback at all.

    Silver - When standing your ground, Backlash deals significantly more damage.

    Gold - When standing your ground, you emit an aura that burns your enemies and protects your allies against damage.

    Emerald - When standing your ground, enemies have a significantly harder time moving around you to attack anyone else. You are the wall that stands between them and what stands behind you.

    Explosive Force - Emerald

    Tin - You may make a single stronger attack with a longer cooldown.

    Iron - This attack now creates an explosive force that is extremely strong against structures and elementals.

    Bronze - After the explosive force goes off, a concussive wave flows after it.

    Silver - The area affected by this attack is greatly increased, as well as no longer needing to be focussed by an attack. You can apply this ability anywhere up to twenty metres from you.

    Gold - This range for this ability is now a hundred metres. Additionally, when standing your ground, this ability becomes significantly stronger.

    Emerald - The area of this ability is increased. The range increases to one kilometre. Enemies that survive the explosion are affected by one instance of Backlash.

    Passive skills

    Soldier¡¯s Endurance (Previously Endurance) - Emerald

    Tin - You have increased stamina

    This now also increases your resilience

    Iron - You have increased resistance to the effects of lost sleep and exhaustion.

    This now also gives you the Physical resistance passive which is the same level as this ability.

    Bronze - You can ignore a great variety of lesser wounds

    Silver - You can ignore one major wound and function as normal.

    Gold - While your body is still intact, you can ignore the effects of most wounds. Age ceases to affect you.

    Emerald - As long as your soul holds, you can ignore any damage done to your body. This also gives you the Mental Resistance passive at the same level of this ability.

    Recovery - Gold

    Tin - You recover stamina and mana quicker.

    Iron - You recover health slowly over time, closing wounds and eliminating disease.

    Bronze - All recovery is increased significantly.

    Silver - When you trigger Backlash, the effects of this ability are increased. Additionally, your armour and shield are affected by this ability.

    Gold - Allies protected by Stand Your Ground are affected by the Tin, Iron and Bronze rank effects of this ability.

    Specialisation - Defender - Emerald

    Linked attributes - Vitality, Resilience

    Active skills

    Defend the Kingdom (Previously Protective Shield) - Emerald

    Tin - You can summon a small floating shield. This shield can be directed to block attacks.

    This now allows you to create a second one to defend an ally

    Iron - Strikes blocked by this shield trigger Backlash

    This now triggers twice if the shield is defending an ally

    Bronze - You may now create a small short-lived dome instead. All instances of this ability are also stronger.

    This now allows you to make a bigger dome as long as it is used to defend allies or buildings under your protection

    Silver - You may make a long wall with this ability.

    Gold - On an extremely long cooldown, this ability can now be used to cover a large area in a dome. This dome lasts for a day and does not allow anything or anyone in or out.

    Emerald - When using the large area dome, it now allows allies to enter and leave as they wish. Additionally, this ability becomes virtually indestructible.

    Backlash - Emerald

    Tin - When you block an attack, the source of the attack is struck as if you hit them

    Iron - This retaliatory damage is now empowered as if by Godly Strike (previously Strike).

    Bronze - Enemies affected by Backlash are thrown backwards. Additionally, they are slowed.

    Silver - When Backlash triggers, nearby enemies are hit with a much weaker version of this ability.

    Gold - Backlash no longer only triggers if an attack is blocked, but if an attack hits at all.

    Emerald - Backlash now triggers twice.

    Passive skills

    Enduring Aura - Emerald

    Tin - You and allies in your aura have increased Resilience.

    Iron - This now increases stamina.

    Bronze - When Backlash triggers, Resilience and stamina are now further increased for a short time.

    Silver - Magical constructs created by you and your allies have an increased lifespan and durability.

    Gold - Your soul is now as resilient as your body. Allies have a slight increase to the strength of their own souls.

    Emerald - You give off a sense of permanence, seeming more solid than everything else around you. Allies are strengthened by your presence, able to ignore minor wounds and mental strain. Additionally, you can ignore a variety of effects that are targeted at the body. This includes any physical or mental traumas.

    ¡°Wow, that is a lot. I guess it really starts to add up at your rank.¡±

    Hildebrandt nodded, still reading.

    ¡°You¡¯re going to have it worse than most. Not only do you have three classes but from the looks of it they¡¯re all quite complex. Mine are simple for the most part, easy to use and with very distinct use cases. What you have here is¡­ yeah.¡±

    ¡°Tell me about it. Healing Presence alone has a ridiculously long description.¡±

    Zalia read over Soldier¡¯s Endurance again.

    ¡°Sorry, age ceases to affect you?¡±

    Hildebrandt shushed her.

    ¡°Don¡¯t say it out loud like that, but yes. Most people get abilities that affect how they age at about Gold rank. At least, the few Gold rankers I know have. Matthias has one, as does Larel.¡±

    Zalia thought about how that Gold rank brewer, Harrick, had a special brew that slowed age.

    ¡°Will I get one too?¡±

    Hildebrandt chuckled.

    ¡°Well, if you reach Gold, yes. I¡¯d say Survivalist is the one most likely to have it, out of them all.¡±

    Reading through Hildebrandt¡¯s abilities once more, Zalia kind of understood what she had said. Her abilities were all focused around being hit, with most of them having effects that changed, triggered or were triggered off of Backlash. The other major theme was protecting allies while standing her ground. Walls, shields, an ability literally called Stand Your Ground.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad to have you with us. I have a feeling we are going to be fighting a lot of mindless hordes. In fact, I know we will.¡±

    Hildebrandt grimaced.

    ¡°Yeah, I heard. I¡¯m not looking forward to being the one to have to destroy the majority of them. They were the kingdom¡¯s people, once.¡±

    Zalia mimicked her expression realising fully what that meant. They would have to destroy the undead bodies of the entire capital city¡¯s population. Her own Healing Presence would play a large part in that as well.

    ¡°I know what you mean. It¡¯s going to be traumatic to say the least.¡±

    It would be for Zalia at least. She hadn¡¯t missed the part of Hildebrandt¡¯s abilities where she was immune to physical and mental trauma, as well as pretty much every wound possible. It looked like the only way to actually kill her was to destroy her soul, however that was possible. It might explain why she was one of, if not the only person in the kingdom to be close to reaching Emerald rank.

    Her thoughts turned again to the Astar and their involvement. She felt bad for Matthias. It wasn¡¯t a sure thing that they were the ones to have taken him and even possibly killed him, yet it was likely. He hadn¡¯t deserved that, however cold he had been as a person.

    Those thoughts haunted her as they continued marching towards a city filled with the undead. It would be a long, long time before Endaria recovered from this war.

 Book 3: 64 - The Fields of War

    A few days later, Zalia stood with the leaders of the army overlooking a large town. They were in the flatlands now, out of the hilly area where the army had set up their war camp. She had been told that the town was known as Et¡¯s Way. It was a crossroads for the road leading from the north of Endaria to the south, with another road travelling west to the capital. Being relatively close to the town, she had her aura suppressed only to cover the army, to not draw any attention.

    Faian had explained how Et¡¯s Way had been a major mercantile town, with most business and imports for the capital needing to travel through it to get there. That was apart from a few smaller towns closer to the capital, though those were more like town halls for farming communities than they were proper towns. Indis had added to that explanation, going into mind-numbing detail about the financial significance of the town before Ballast cut her off.

    The aura of the Thousand-eyed one was stronger now, significant enough for her to feel the strain of holding it back day and night. When they set up to sleep, the army enchanters had taken to putting up shoddy temporary wards that were able to block at least some of the corrupting aura. That way she could rest herself, ready for the next day¡¯s travel.

    Her job was to get the army safely to the capital without needing to expose Ro¡¯s presence. Once they were there, she would just be another soldier on the field. Most of the major fighting would be done by Ro and Hildebrandt, with Larel as backup for where ever needed it.

    Looking down at the town, a few things were obvious. One, the population of the town were definitely no longer human. They shambled through streets, banging against walls and doors without much thought in their heads. Perhaps a few higher-ranked members had time to get out but without healing or some sort of protection against the corruption, she knew they wouldn¡¯t have lasted long. Without her own Healing Presence, it would be a matter of hours before she succumbed to the aura at its current strength. Craftsmen, farmers and the like wouldn¡¯t have much of a chance.

    What was obvious other than that, was the demon presence in the town. It wasn¡¯t immediately obvious like the undead population was, but looking closely there was a focused red haze over the town that gave away their presence. It was like Cormaine, even having the slight scent of sulfur coming across the breeze. Of course, it could be caused by the undead but Zalia thought it was the demons. It felt more like a heavy concentration of the corrupting aura rather than the undead¡¯s presence.

    Everyone looked to Generals Faian and Ballast.

    ¡°Two major threats. The undead are the biggest one, with possibly tens of thousands of them in there. Hildebrandt should be able to take care of those herself, with the Vanguard unit as backup. Those we¡¯ll have an easier time drawing out of the town making as much sound as we can,¡± Faian started.

    Ballast scratched at the stubble on his neck.

    ¡°Agreed, though we should send the earth mage unit and an area archer unit to cover their retreat if needed. If I¡¯m not mistaken, that red haze means demons?¡±

    Zalia nodded confirmation.

    ¡°I believe so. I think it¡¯s the corrupting aura that causes that. Much like you see over the capital.¡±

    Everyone looked out over the plains towards the capital, the air above it a red haze that marked their destination.

    ¡°Wonderful. I¡¯d like to see how the Morning¡¯s Shade fare in taking them out. The narrow streets and close quarters are going to be a lot easier for small groups to navigate through.¡±

    Hildebrandt frowned, not looking happy about it.

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be better to draw them out as well? I don¡¯t like the idea of sending teams in there where they can get overwhelmed.¡±

    Advisor Ryn stepped forwards.

    ¡°Based on previous encounters, I do not believe the demons will fall for that. They are against retreat from what we have seen, but neither are they stupid. If they see or sense someone of Hildebrandt¡¯s rank, I believe it is most likely that they will send for reinforcements of a high enough rank, if they have any.¡±

    He then stepped back, looking to Faian.

    ¡°Perhaps instead of sending them into the town, we can have them position themselves around the perimeter. That way they can take out any fleeing demons. In the case that Zalia is wrong and there are none, no harm done. If there are though, we don¡¯t want them escaping to bring back any more high-ranked enemies.¡±

    Hildebrandt seemed more in tune with that idea, nodding approval.

    ¡°Good. Zalia, you will go with Hildebrandt and the vanguard to draw the undead¡¯s attention with your aura. I assume that will work on them the same as it does on the crazed soldiers?¡±

    Zalia rubbed lightly at her chest, remembering the sword that had gone through it courtesy of a Silver rank undead.

    ¡°Yeah, it works a lot better on them actually. It¡¯s able to kill some of them, though with the larger aura being much weaker I¡¯m sure it will take quite some time.¡±

    Faian tapped her chin.

    ¡°Good. That sounds like the best plan as long as everyone agrees. We¡¯ll send some of the lighter armoured units to back up the Morning¡¯s Shade as well. Perhaps some of the focused ranged units?¡±

    Ballast nodded agreement, looking intently down at the town. Zalia wasn¡¯t sure, but it seemed like he was visualing the battle even as they made the plans for it.

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    ¡°Yes, though I think it¡¯s best to split them in half to ensure they don¡¯t bring too much attention. With Larel down there to back any up that need it they should be relatively safe. I¡¯d like to have a medical unit near the side of town opposite the vanguard, along with a legionnaire unit to keep them safe.¡±

    The legionnaire units were lighter armoured than the vanguard, utilising javelins, spears and abilities focused more around high movement combat. From what Zalia had seen, the medical units were quite quick on their feet as well, more like combat medics than doctors.

    Zalia kind of got distracted at that point, idly scratching Boreal¡¯s head as Hildebrandt, the Generals and the Advisors spoke.

    In the end, nothing about the plan really changed, though a lot of organising around what would happen with the main army body was done. They also set up fallback points, places earth mages would fortify and where reinforcements would wait.

    Larel was put to be with the legionnaire and medical units, as a front liner to make room for the medical units to do their job. Split into small groups evenly along the perimeter of the town were various groups of Morning¡¯s Shade members and focused target units, each group containing at least one Silver ranker.

    As prepared as they would get and wanting to strike as soon as possible, Faian only waited long enough for the scouts to search the nearby area around the town before orders began flowing. Messengers using mental communication powers stood next to Ballast and Faian, sending out orders to various leaders amongst units, while Hildebrandt went and told her people what was happening.

    It seemed that all at once, the still and relatively silent army column began to move. Structures were built by earth mages, walls going up and a fort appearing out of the dirt and stone around them. Lightly armoured groups of four of five began to depart, finding their way down the hill and around the town edges.

    Zalia still had her aura suppressed and waited with the vanguard as the flurry of motion began to slow. General Faian stayed at the vantage point that looked over the town, with the messengers next to her. General Ballast took up his huge two-handed mace and joined the vanguard however, standing in their midst. She didn¡¯t really know what kind of powers the man had as a General but she assumed they were based heavily around leading and morale.

    Tension began to build as everyone got ready for the fight ahead of them. This wasn¡¯t a fight against an enemy army however, as much as it was a fight against an entire town¡¯s population. It was to be a smaller version of the fight that would take place at the capital, a taster of what was to come.

    Zalia knew it, the soldiers all knew it. If they had the time, resources or means to figure out if bringing back these people was possible, they would have done so. Unfortunately, it simply wasn¡¯t possible.

    Before long, the orders came and the vanguard began to move out.

    The vanguard approached Et¡¯s Way, beginning to chant in unison. It wasn¡¯t any time of magic or power, simply the deep, throaty chant of soldiers moving in to war. The sound reverberated through her bones and as they got louder, she saw the first undead begin to charge out of the town.

    They stopped, the chant continuing. Hildebrandt planted her feet firmly and the fiery aura began to expand from her. Zalia released her own aura, the power streaming out across the town, even going to far as to reach the other side and the units waiting there. It had been risky for them to go out of her protection, but a needed risk all the same.

    The one silent undead became two, then three and before she knew it, hundreds, then thousands, were streaming from Et¡¯s Way.

    The vanguard continued their chant as charging undead began to disintegrate under the power of both Hildebrandt and Zalia¡¯s powers.

    Soon, the sheer mass of bodies began to somehow physically push back Hildebrandt¡¯s aura and the undead came closer.

    They came close enough for most of the vanguard to properly see their opponents. They looked¡­ like people.

    Glowing bodies turned to ash before Hildebrandt¡¯s power, yet the undead pushed ever onwards.

    The first of them reached the vanguard, exploding into mist as Hildebrandt¡¯s Backlash triggered.

    As before, one became two, and then the numbers kept growing as the majority of the vanguard, in their shield wall formation, needed to fight back the undead hordes.

    Zalia cast rituals, setting off small explosions that were a poor mimicry of Hildebrandt¡¯s own massive ones. Cursed fire spread amongst their ranks, even as her original, more focused aura tore apart the low-ranked undead. Boreal stood by her side, protecting her while she worked.

    Slowly, the still human faces of the undead turned to rotten ones, strips of flesh hanging off their bodies as Zalia¡¯s larger aura began to affect them.

    Cries and screams of battle came from the vanguard. Step by step, they moved back, making room for the next wave of undead so they couldn¡¯t climb on the bodies of their fallen before them. Blades impacted flesh, bare hands impacted shield.

    Only Hildebrandt didn¡¯t move, her power creating a radiant ring around her, any undead that dared approach blown away into a fine mist or disintegrated by the power of her aura. Another huge explosion rocked the battlefield, body parts mixed with dirt thrown everywhere.

    Zalia felt tears on her face, the horror of the slaughter not lost on her in the moment. These had been people, the people of Endaria. Turned to mindless monsters by the demons that were invading. Hatred filled her heart then, the incomprehensible horror finally becoming real at the sight of thousands dead. It had been one thing seeing the reanimated skeletons of long-dead Bathar, it was another to see the almost life-like bodies of recently dead civilians. Something about the fact that they still had faces made it so much more real.

    She cast Nature¡¯s Wrath and for a moment, her power became that of a gods. Stone smashed, wind tore and fire cleansed. A whirling storm of elements shredded droves of undead to pieces. Two fire elementals burned through swaths more. She almost used all her mana, yet when she came down the undead still pushed forward.

    Still, Hildebrandt stood her ground, explosions of power sent forth, each attack against her met with death, twin bolts of energy vaporising each attacker.

    Zalia didn¡¯t know how long had passed when a mind spoke to her.

    ¡°A Morning¡¯s Shade squad is running your way, they need help.¡±

    Zalia immediately cast the ritual of flight, floating upwards and away from Boreal to see across the battlefield.

    Just as the voice had said, a small trio were sprinting their way, hundreds of undead on their heels. The Silver ranker of the group was running a fighting retreat, cutting down as many foes as they could, each only replaced by another. Some of the undead from the seemingly endless swarm approaching the vanguard noticed them and began to split toward the running team. They would be pincered.

    Zalia flew quick, as fast as she could. One of the Bronze rankers went down under two undead.

    She hit, the force enough to smash the two undead into gory remains across the battlefield. With the use of Fight or Flight, time slowed and she picked up the Bronze ranker, casting the flight ritual on the other two members.

    Just moments before the undead smashed them from two sides, they took flight.

 Book 3: 65 - The Price of War.

    Zalia walked solemnly across the battlefield, looking at the faces of the dead. What remained of them at least.

    The sheer number of corpses painted a horrific, blood-soaked picture that showed the slow step-by-step retreat the vanguard had taken, with a single circular spot near the beginning of the bodies that was knee-deep in ash. It was the place Hildebrandt had stood her ground, holding no bodies at all. Everything that had attacked her had been burnt away or turned to a fine mist by her power.

    Many of the vanguard behind and around her held similar expressions of solemness, others with tear-streaked faces or horror evident. Despite how many had been burnt away, the number of dead that remained was nothing other than horrific.

    Zalia felt numb like she was an outside observer watching her own body step across the field. She didn¡¯t know what to say, what to do. Boreal, for her part, was not so much horrified at what had happened as much as she was concerned for Zalia.

    There were just so many.

    She looked at the face of a young boy, no older than Aylie, his body below the chest missing entirely. This had been someone¡¯s child, perhaps one of the other thousands of people strewn across the battlefield.

    What had once been a road surrounded by a grassy field was now a mass grave.

    Her aura was still flowing across the entire thing, growing back the grass that had been trampled down. It slowly grew long enough to start hiding some of the horror.

    She walked up to Hildebrandt, not properly processing that the ash around her had once been people. Hildebrandt still stood firm, a beacon of light, solidarity and strength on the battlefield. They had lost a few good men during the fight. Zalia had seen one of the vanguard torn from the front line and slowly clawed, beaten and torn apart under the mass of undead. She knew there were others, too.

    Without Hildebrandt, there would have been a lot more.

    ¡°How are you holding up?¡±

    Zalia looked blankly up at her.

    ¡°This¡­¡±

    Hildebrandt nodded.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    They stood in silence, looking around them. As everything settled into Zalia¡¯s mind, a realisation dawned on the edges of her consciousness. They would have to do this again, possibly more than once, as their destination was the capital of the kingdom. What had its population been?

    ¡°I¡¯ve had word that there were demons in the town after all. They tried escaping and took out one of my teams before being caught by Larel and a couple of the adjacent teams. There was only one other team that went down while Larel was busy, making a total of seven dead. The majority of the vanguard lives as well, though they¡¯re still counting. All in all, it¡¯s minimal losses for what we were up against.¡±

    Zalia nodded. It was a small comfort.

    ¡°A fresh unit of legionnaires has been sent to scour the rest of the town for any possibly hiding.¡±

    Zalia nodded again. Boreal rubbed against her leg.

    She was glad for her heirloom armour and how easy it was to clean with Heat Resistance. The soldiers that would have to clean the remains of this battle off their own armour¡­ well, she didn¡¯t envy them.

    ¡°What now?¡±

    Hildebrandt put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°Go and rest. Faian and the army can take care of everything else.¡±

    Zalia could feel her hands shaking and looked down. Why were her hands shaking?

    ¡°Ok.¡±

    She opened her vault right there, stepped in and walked to the back of the room where she passed out.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    When Zalia woke up, she was momentarily confused as to where she was. Then the memories of the previous day flooded back through her mind and she shuddered.

    Her breathing came jaggedly as panic tried to set in, but the calm, warm lights and comforting aura of her vault helped her fend off a breakdown. She dreaded having to go through that again.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Boreal was snuggled up beside her, purring gently. Zalia hugged her close, burying her face into Boreal¡¯s thick fur and blocking out the outside world for a few more minutes.

    Soon though, the world came calling and she had to get up. Her aura would have been somewhat weaker while she slept and the army was relying on that to survive. They were able to see past the far edge of Healing Presence, where the grass was dead, the ground dry and cracked and the odd tree here or there warped and twisted much as they had been in Cormaine. That was what awaited them if she was unable to hold up.

    Well, Ro would take over at that point, but they wanted to keep him secret as long as possible.

    When she stepped out of the vault, Hildebrandt was still planted firmly before it. Everything else outside of that had changed though.

    The battlefield had been made clean. Earth mages must have been working hard, because the bodies were gone, the wild grass having overtaken entirely. The nearby town had been fortified, enchanted stone walls built and the army having moved in. She wouldn¡¯t have thought they had only been there for a few hours with how settled it all was.

    ¡°They¡¯ve been hard at work.¡±

    Hildebrandt turned to her, looking her up and down.

    ¡°Yes, they are quite quick at what they do. I¡¯m impressed.¡±

    The way Hildebrandt stood, the feeling of solidness she gave off, made it hard not to be comforted by her presence. It was as if she was a solid boulder standing tall in the current of a rushing river.

    ¡°Have you¡­ ever done something like this?¡±

    Zalia personally had, in Cormaine. That had felt different though, the people so long dead and disconnected from anything she knew. They were almost entirely skeletons at that point, no flesh remaining on them. These undead, on the other hand, had faces still.

    ¡°No. And I hope I never have to do something like it again.¡±

    The memories of the battle were seared into her mind. Shambling people blasted into mist or burned to ash by the cursed fires she spread. Screaming vanguard soldiers dragged away and slaughtered by the ever-silent undead. Swords and spears slashing and piercing. Blood, despite being undead, so much blood.

    ¡°Where is Faian?¡±

    Hildebrandt pointed out a large state house taller than the rest of the town¡¯s structures and Zalia headed off towards it. She ran her hand through the long grass as it brushed past her, trying to get her mind into a space where it could rationalise everything they had done. It was for a good cause, it was for a good reason and it was necessary. So why did it feel so wrong? Maybe wrong wasn''t the right word. It was just... it was just horrible.

    She was allowed through the gates and she could see in the expressions of the soldiers a haunted look that mirrored her own emotions. Many of them had puffy eyes, evidence of tears. It hadn¡¯t occurred to her until then, but many of these soldiers probably had people they knew, family or friends, that had lived in this city. This city, or the capital. They had been part of a rebellion, sure, but not all of them would have had time to get families and friends out. Some of them were definitely more affected than others though. A few of the soldiers were stoic, looking less sad from loss and more disturbed by what they had seen.

    The rituals had happened so suddenly, without much time to even stop it let alone evacuate people from affected areas. Now these soldiers were killing undead that might be people they had known. It was bad enough for Zalia, but it was nothing compared to what a lot of them must be going through.

    The town was near silent, no boasting or cheering, no shouted stories of kills made. No, this was a solemn and quiet place, filled with the grieving. This hadn¡¯t been a fight against an enemy nation, or even against the demon invasion. This had been a violent burial.

    All through the camp were similar sights. Horror-stricken faces, traumatised soldiers, men and women trying to hold themselves together. Many didn¡¯t seem to want to take houses for themselves to sleep, simply curling up on porches or benches. She didn¡¯t blame them. Some of the soldiers looked as if they were doing better than others, though. They comforted the others, helping them clean up or organise themselves.

    Zalia¡¯s thoughts strayed to what would happen if they did win. She didn¡¯t know what would happen if they managed to kill the Thousand-eyed one, whether the undead would die without the power of the creature or if they would need to clear out every single town within a hundred or so kilometres of the capital.

    She hoped for the sake of the soldiers that it was the former.

    It took a short walk through the town before she reached the state house, even the usual whirlwind of administrative types that accompanied Faian somewhat subdued.

    She found Ro still with the generals in a room with a long table, obviously being kept close in case they needed to make a snap decision to show their hand.

    ¡°Zalia, come in.¡±

    Their advisors were there too, along with a few other people unknown to Zalia.

    Zalia could see that Faian was much like many of her soldiers, horrified by what had happened. Yet she still maintained a posture of strength, shoulders squared and eyes focused. She was ever the stoic general, even in a time like this.

    General Ballast was missing his usual joviality, but somehow looked less affected by everything than Faian was.

    Zalia looked awkwardly at everyone in the room, then back to Faian.

    ¡°General¡­ what¡¯s the plan?¡±

    Faian watched her closely, then nodded.

    ¡°We¡¯ll rest here for a day, then leave behind a small contingent to protect the town. It¡¯s¡­ hard to say how long it will take us to get to the capital from here. There is unknown numbers of¡­ of undead and demons.¡±

    She heard something unspoken in Faian¡¯s words. Those who were left behind would be those who couldn¡¯t, or shouldn¡¯t, go on. Not all of the soldiers would be able to handle it. Zalia didn¡¯t know if she could herself.

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    Unfortunately, in her case, it wasn¡¯t a choice.

 Book 3: 66 - To the Capital

    Having the rest of the day to rest was a godsend. With the army enchanters able to work together to protect against the corruption, life for Zalia was just a little easier. She didn¡¯t have anything to do, however, so the time was entirely spent thinking.

    There wasn¡¯t much that thinking could accomplish either. There was simply one path forward. They knew what they were doing and why. All they had to do was do it.

    The one thing she did have that she could do during that day was look through her messages from the fight.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s Mark has gained two levels reaching Bronze 7.

    Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have reached Bronze 10.

    Congratulations! Herbal Magic has gained three levels reaching Bronze 10.

    Congratulations! Nature¡¯s Wrath has reached Bronze 7

    Congratulations! Protection of the Wilds has reached Bronze 7

    Congratulations! Druid class has reached Bronze 7.

    The next day came slowly, the sun rising as slowly as the usually quick and orderly army. It seemed that even Faian didn¡¯t want to leave. Once they did, there wouldn¡¯t be much opportunity to turn back.

    The plan set by the Generals was to punch straight through to the capital, where they would either capture it or die trying. They didn¡¯t know how many demons there were in the capital or surrounding towns, but the army was as strong as it was ever going to get, while the demons could only get stronger. Zalia already knew that they had some way of bringing more of them from Cormaine, as the obsidian skin demon hadn¡¯t come over during the initial ritual.

    That was the main source of motivation for the seemingly reckless plan. It was now or never.

    The army gathered, down about five hundred soldiers. Those who were staying behind, to protect this centre point. Another large caravan would have left the army camp further back west not long after the main army contingent had. This would be protected by similar enchantments, a strange oval contraption carried by beasts of burden, with a unit of healers to ensure the people survived whatever remaining corruption leaked in. It wouldn¡¯t have worked for the main army, the size of the contraption needed to accommodate the number of soldiers just being unrealistic. For smaller caravans though, it would do just fine.

    With Boreal by her side, Zalia moved to the protected section behind the vanguard, where Faian and Ballast were.

    They left Et¡¯s Way, Zalia peripherally curious about who exactly Et was, and headed again for the capital.

    Without much to do, Zalia began practising her wood manipulation. She hadn¡¯t had to watch where she was stepping for quite some time now, her subconscious more than capable of managing that for her. If she continued growing the mental attributes, would many more things become something she didn¡¯t actively have to do?

    In a way, that theory somewhat held up when considering ascendant beings. The way they acted was very much in tune with their nature, as far as she had seen. The starlight wolf had acted like the stars, guiding, showing the way in darkness, giving hope. What if it had just been doing all of that subconsciously, not actively? It was interesting to consider.

    She made a little wooden sculpture of Delphi, separating it from the main chunk of wood and storing that away. It wasn¡¯t the best, but after a little bit of work it was passable. She showed it to Boreal, who sniffed at it, nuzzled it, then continued walking.

    With slightly lower numbers, Zalia had a little easier time maintaining the wider aura of Healing Presence. She had to be careful with it, she found, as it could be a strain on her to allow it to act on its own. When it was at the limit of its distance, which it did if she wasn¡¯t paying attention, it exhausted her much quicker than when she actively kept it restrained. It felt like it should be the opposite but she put it down to her theory about the subconscious. Perhaps she was pushing it to its maximum distance subconsciously, causing that greater strain unintentionally.

    Either way, it was manageable at a distance of a few hundred metres, enough to cover the length of the army. She wanted to play around with shaping it some time, to make it into an oval or square, rather than the circle it was now.

    It was a few hours before a small commotion drew Zalia¡¯s attention from her thoughts. Towards the front of the vanguard, Hildebrandt blasted an undead into mist. It seemed to be alone, just a single undead out in the wilderness. Nevertheless, Faian stopped the army and sent scouts out all around them, looking for the source of it. According to their maps, there wasn¡¯t any town close to this place.

    When the scouts found nothing, they put it down to the undead wandering this far from Et¡¯s Way.

    A short half an hour later, they found another. Perhaps forty minutes after that, two more. It happened once more twenty minutes after that. At this point, Faian didn¡¯t stop the army for the disturbances anymore.

    Very soon, it just became a normal occurrence to them. Every now and then, they would come across one or two undead that were just wandering about the wilderness. Often, they were blown into a fine mist by Hildebrandt before anyone else could react.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    One day of travel turned to two, then three. The undead wandering about the wilderness became more common and more numerous. Groups of four or five began appearing, often within ten to twenty minutes'' walk from each other.

    The capital was looming over them now, half a day¡¯s walk away across flat plains. There was no doubt in any of their minds that they had been seen at this point, the tension and worry amongst the army building ever higher.

    Everyone was preparing themselves for a larger-scale battle similar to how Et¡¯s Way had been. Most were silent, though a select few turned to constant joking about to relieve their tension. Zalia had to focus everything she had on holding back the aura. Even this far out, it was strong enough that she almost couldn¡¯t handle it. It wouldn¡¯t be long before they would have to reveal their secret, before Ro would have to use his own aura to hold back the corruption.

    They didn¡¯t know what would happen to the undead if Ro was able to neutralise the Thousand-eyed one¡¯s aura, but Zalia suspected they would react to Endaria¡¯s normal air much as they reacted to her own aura.

    Today was the day they began their assault on the capital. Faian and Ballast were constantly in one conversation or the other, making plans.

    She hadn¡¯t been told everything yet, but Zalia did know that her role in it all was to stand amongst the army, using her aura to heal and protect them as much as she could. Ro would fight the Thousand-eyed one and assuming everything went well, would then help eradicate the demons after that. If he struggled to take it down, Hildebrandt would need to leave the army to help destroy it. They would just have to defend themselves from the undead as well as they could while that happened.

    Unlike in Et¡¯s Way, the entire army would be in a single group. They should be able to last against the undead for longer than just the vanguard by themselves were able to. They were strong for sure, but just simply didn¡¯t have the killing power that the area specialist units did. Mages and archers with abilities focused around area attacks would be invaluable in this fight.

    Zalia wasn¡¯t quite sure why the generals didn¡¯t use them to help the vanguard during the fight. Maybe they felt it wasn¡¯t worth exposing the entire army to the horror directly, or wanted them as rested as possible for the attack on the capital.

    While Et¡¯s Way, a relatively large town by the scale of this world, had a population of just over thirty thousand at last count, the capital way out scaled that with a population of upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand. Two hundred and fifty thousand against perhaps five thousand soldiers. It wasn¡¯t the worst odds in the world, when you thought about the considerable difference in power between the undead and the soldiers in the army. These were Bronze and Silver rank trained soldiers, while they were mostly Tin and Iron rank mindless undead without any abilities at all.

    There was, however, also the rest of the army that had fought for the king.

    During the early days, when the Morning¡¯s Shade had gotten involved, the king had run a recruitment drive for the army, conscripting many of the young men and women from around the lands. Those had just been farmers and other non-combatant types for the most part, yet there had been quite a few of them.

    Those soldiers, if they were even still alive and not undead by now, would be armed and armoured. That would make them a considerable threat.

    There were also the city''s walls to take into consideration.

    Ro had promised that he would be able to break a hole in the wall for them to begin the battle, which would create a choke point they could use against the undead. Then he would go off to fight the Thousand-eyed one and they would hold that point as long as they needed to clear out the city.

    There had been an argument amongst the leaders that sending in Ro-ak alone to take out the Thousand-eyed one first would be a better idea, yet in the end they agreed that being as close as possible to provide backup if needed was the better way to go about it.

    That was what Zalia had picked up by standing there listening as much as she could manage. There were a million more specific details she just couldn¡¯t keep in line. Troop placements, how to react to various situations that could arise and all other sorts.

    They stopped for a rest about two hours march from the city. There was still no reaction from the demons, no countering force sent out to attack or intercept them. Just the odd undead here or there wandering the plains.

    Zalia was struggling. She was struggling a lot.

    Holding back the corruption had become so hard that she lay on Boreal¡¯s back, too concentrated on her task to even walk anymore. She had to hold out, just a bit longer. When they reached the city, then she could let go of her aura and focus on the fighting.

    The army enchanters, now much smaller in number than before, rushed about trying to get the protection against the corruption up and running. Zalia waited impatiently, panting, sweating and in a weird kind of pain as they worked.

    It felt like her soul was on fire, like the mental or¡­ magical strain of what she was doing caused a different kind of damage. It was like what had happened when she spent almost a week consecutively running. A not-quite-there pain that wasn¡¯t in her body.

    It took the enchanters half an hour, but they got the protection up. Zalia was able to breathe properly and even relax slightly under the significantly lessened pressure.

    Faian began sending out messages to unit leaders, explaining their battle plans in detail, going over exactly what each unit would need to do and what their role in the coming battle would be.

    Ro-ak stood nearby, silent as ever but watching the capital intently.

    The red haze over the top of the wall was moving ever so slowly like it had finally sensed them and was waking from its slumber. Or perhaps they had only just gotten close enough for it to care about them.

    It was only ten more short minutes before they packed up the barrier and Zalia had to strain against the aura once more. Pain wracked her as it smashed down like a physical force, but she held on.

    Ro looked at her in concern, but she waved him off. She could hold it, she would, as long as she needed to.

    They began marching towards the capital.

    The time to retake Endaria had come.

 Book 3: 67 - Fight for the Capital

    Zalia managed to hold back the corruption for another hour before it became too much. Her own power shuddered, then collapsed, under its oppressive power. The entire army came to a stop, some falling to their knees, others still standing, all in pain as their inner beings were attacked.

    It only took a few seconds before Ro-ak¡¯s power was released, a warm, earthy blanket spreading across the land. Soldiers all around her slowly recovered, yet many of them looked shaken. She had been holding back the power, using Hildebrandt¡¯s presence as a post to hold herself up against. The rock in a river aura that she emitted was the only reason Zalia had been able to hold out as long as she had.

    Faian had the army back up and moving in short order, but stared towards the capital with concern. They were still an hour''s walk away and there was yet to be a response.

    Zalia managed to push herself to a sitting position, quickly recovering now that she didn¡¯t have to hold back the power of an ascendant being any longer. She wished she could have gotten them all the way to the city wall, but hadn¡¯t expected to.

    Turning to Ro-ak, she could tell he was doing much better than she had.

    ¡°Ro, what¡¯s happening? Can you feel what they¡¯re doing in there?¡±

    The release of his power had turned him back to his natural form, that of a crow with leaves for feathers and a hood made of vines. His legs were that of tree trunks, feet made from roots.

    ¡°I can feel the panic in the Thousand-eyed one¡¯s aura. It did not know I was here. It has blocked me from seeing within the city, yet I feel it is preparing to react.¡±

    That got the attention of both generals and Faian began immediately sending out orders. They would be able to send out scouts with the possibility of discovering something now that Ro¡¯s aura was protecting such a larger area of space. His aura felt somehow similar to Zalia¡¯s own, not the same but like it was a relative.

    A few groups of people split off from the army, running towards the city. They looked scared, yet as they watched, a few nearby wandering undead died under Ro¡¯s power. They fell apart in strips before collapsing to the dirt. Various plants grew from their bodies, sped up by Zalia¡¯s now unhindered aura.

    ¡°Preparing to react how?¡± Faian asked.

    Ro¡¯s power-filled gaze turned to Faian and she flinched despite herself. It was one thing to talk to Ro in the form he had been holding to attract less attention, it was another to see him with his power out on display. He was yet to release it fully, something he would only do when in combat with the Thousand-eyed one. Zalia still remembered her first contact with an Ascendant, the starlight wolf. She had come out of that shaking.

    ¡°I cannot tell the exact details. I only know that it means to act somehow. To an Ascendant, their aura is their being. Some creatures like this one never learned to hide away their intentions from their aura, rather using it as a means of intimidation. It means to scare us.¡±

    Faian nodded, then turned back to their march.

    As they got closer to the dark, looming walls of the capital, the tension in the army could be felt like a bowstring ready to snap. Soldiers put worry, fear and anxiety behind stoic, determined expressions. More undead bunched around the base of the wall, some turning to move towards the army. Many of the undead from all around the fields were beginning to approach them now, though they fell to Ro¡¯s power soon enough.

    Ten minutes from the wall, they saw the large metal gates of the city swing outwards.

    Faian immediately called a stop, waiting to see what would come through. They had planned to break through the city wall but it didn¡¯t look like they would get the opportunity now.

    A flood of undead burst out of the city, some tripping and the others rolling over them like a tide. They started filling the plains, so great in number that it was hard to stand their ground.

    Ballast gave the order, and the army reacted.

    The whole army rotated as one to face the incoming wave. The vanguard put down shields, building the wall of steel that would be their first line of defense.

    Earth mages began excavating deep ditches in front of the vanguard as well as to the sides and behind the army. Walls were soon added to those, units of lighter armoured mages and archers rushing to fill up the tops.

    Two units of soldiers took flight, wielding bows and air magic.

    Zalia joined them, while Boreal went to join a group of legionnaires, the soldiers there looking a little emboldened to have a fearsome fighter like her by their side.

    The few administrative people still with them, the ones Faian couldn¡¯t do without, went to the very centre of their fortification, a stone structure built around them. This had been one of the alternate outcomes that they had planned for, evident by the quick and orderly way they reacted.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The majority of the army had to stay within the walls, out of sight. Each wall had small gaps for the soldiers to sling spells and arrows out of, with the legionnaire units on both flanks.

    A fiery and vengeful, yet protective presence spread across the battlefield as Hildebrandt took her stance at the very front of the vanguard, activating Stand Your Ground.

    Then, they waited.

    Zalia realised she wasn¡¯t breathing at all and forced herself to take a deep, steeling breath as she watched the endless flow of undead spilling from the gate.

    The few enchanters they had with them were rushing about the edges of the army, inscribing quick and imperfect runes into the walls.

    From over the city walls came a horde of flying demons.

    Ro flew high above her and the archers she was with, growing in size. He doubled, then tripled his previous form, his aura similarly growing in strength.

    In the distance, up the hill that the capital was built upon and at its peak, the Thousand-eyed one lifted up from the castle there.

    It flew at speed on demonic bat wings lit with a dark flame towards Ro, who held his ground above the army.

    The horde of undead began melting away by the combined powers of Ro, Hildebrandt and Zalia. Still, they came, the aura of corruption around them building as their numbers increased, protecting them more and more.

    The auras of the two Ascendant beings intermixed and overlapped, warring with each other before they clashed. While the earth and air around the army were still, it felt as if the very world was being shaken and torn apart to their magical senses.

    Spells and arrows flew from the walls. Large chunks of earth ripped themselves from the ground and crushed chunks of undead. Swaths of flame followed, chased by a storm of various other elemental spells and abilities.

    Zalia released her own arrows, quick sharp lines of brilliant light showing their path as they punched through countless undead each. She need not even aim, as the mass of undead was such a big target that the arrows tracking abilities found their own marks. Instead, she focused on releasing arrows as quickly as she was able.

    The horde filled the pits made by the earth mages, slowing their charge, before smashing into the vanguard with the sounds of groaning metal, grunts of straining people and weapons stabbing. Hildebrandt swung at blurring speeds, her mace sending out bolts of energy that tore apart entire sections of the undead. A huge explosion rocked the field as she let off Explosive Force.

    Zalia and her unit had to turn their attention to the swarm of flying demons, the small ones of Tin and Iron rank. They shot down as many of the approaching swarm as they could, many of the ranged soldiers down in the square below turning their spells to the new threat as well.

    Above it all, the Thousand-eyed one let out a terrible screech as it clashed with Nateysta. Deep, resonant booming sounds echoed down from the battling titans, the physical fight a shadow to the deeper fight seen only with magical senses. The sheer force of the clashing ascendants sent many of the flying demons tumbling, allowing Zalia and the other flying units a little more room. Soon though, the demons were upon them.

    Zalia had to focus her attention entirely on her own battle as the flying soldiers switched to long, thin swords. They performed expert aerial maneuvers as they fought the demons, cutting them down with precise strikes.

    The demons scratched and tore at her armour as she flew and dodged, never stopping, constantly swinging. Each strike cut one or two of the demons in half, yet there were always more to replace them. Some started latching on to her but she quickly disposed of each of them. They were pushed lower and lower in the air, trying to keep close to each other. Zalia cut a demon off one of her allies'' backs, and another of the flying soldiers cut down a demon that had been going for her head. A few of the flying soldiers were taken down by swarms of the demons, though were quickly rescued as they fell into the army below.

    The earth mages opened a hole in the flanks as two legionnaire units rushed out of each side. One was led by Larel, each punch an explosive force sending undead tumbling through the air, the other led by Boreal, who pounced with precision, ripping apart several undead in a few short moments. Her icy magic spread through the enemy, slowing them down and freezing them to the ground.

    The legionnaires threw javelins with incredible strength, the rain of weapons sending the entire front of undead sprawling. They followed up Boreal and Larel with their spears, stabbing in quick and precise movements. They were fast, each of the soldiers'' abilities focused on their physical strength and speed. The undead barely had time to react to the strike.

    Zalia dropped lower and started using Hunter¡¯s Mark to spread her cursed flame through the flying demons. The high-pitched screeching that ensued was loud enough to cause her pain, the flaming demons knocking into others and setting each other aflame.

    Soon, there were dead and dying bodies dropping from the air like tiny flaming meteors.

    Not a moment too soon, the enchanters finished their work and a weak shuddering energy formed a dome above the army. Zalia thought the falling demons would shatter it but the dome grew stronger by the moment, the enchanters down below working hard to fix the flaws in their design.

    As quickly as they had left, the flanking strike units retreated back within the walls, quickly shored up by the earth mages waiting. They had done their job, taking some pressure off of the vanguard for a moment.

    The battlefield stopped as a vine that must have been twenty metres wide grew from the ground in an instant. It smashed through the undead, reaching upwards and impaling the side of the Thousand-eyed one. Zalia looked upwards as the Thousand-eyed one summoned a dark roiling flame that burnt down the vine, the scorch mark down the vine reflecting on Nateysta''s own body. His wide wings beat heavily, blowing the Thousand-eyed one back as their struggle continued.

    It was in that brief pause that Zalia saw a bunch of demons grouping up further away from the army. There must have been a few hundred of them, of the type that Zalia was all too familiar with. With her bettered eyesight thanks to many different enhancing effects, she was able to see the obsidian-skinned demon at their fore.

 Book 3: 68 - Reclaimed by Nature

    Zalia stared wide-eyed at the demon, flashes of memory passing through her mind. Torture as her body was decayed and healed in a constant cycle, their fights, the loss of hope she had felt. The death of Delphi. Now that creature was here to stop them from freeing the capital.

    The smaller flying demons pulled back for a moment to stop the spread of her cursed flame.

    She initiated mental communication with General Faian below.

    ¡°There is a group of higher-ranked demons gathering. We might need to pull Hildebrandt to respond to them once they get here.¡±

    All she got was a simple acknowledgement before the lower-ranked Tin and Iron demons began their attack again.

    Bow in hand, she shot several arrows in quick succession. Each shot cut down three or four of the low-ranked demons, piercing with enough power to continue onwards. It wasn¡¯t long before she had to switch to her sword once more, the sheer number of demons overwhelming them.

    They got low enough that Hildebrandt¡¯s aura began to burn away at the demon''s flesh, giving Zalia and the two flying units a little room to breathe. At the city walls, the obsidian-skinned demon began to fly towards the army. Zalia hoped Faian would have some response to it.

    Far overhead, Nateysta bit onto one of the Thousand-eyed one¡¯s wings with his beak and ripped it off. The large flaming wing scorched his face before Nateysta whipped his head around, throwing it into the air. Their fight became a spiralling descent as the Thousand-eyed one dropped. One of its spiked limbs pierced through one of Nateysta¡¯s trunk legs, dragging him down with it.

    Another explosion rocked the field below them as Hildebrandt continued her devastating attacks, dirt, stone and flesh raining down across the battlefield.

    Zalia didn¡¯t want to use Nature¡¯s Wrath just yet but had no choice as they began to get overwhelmed by the flying demons. She activated it and two wind elementals formed by her sides. Down below, a large chunk of the undead stopped as they were grasped by barbed roots growing from the ground. Moving above the rest of the flying soldiers, she summoned a whirlwind of air, slowly filling it with fire until a firestorm raged above, pulling in the low-ranked demons and scorching them to ash. It grew stronger as Zalia funnelled power into it and she only stopped once her mana began to drop low.

    The horde of Tin and Iron-ranked flying demons were now thinned out and the remainder of the creatures began to flee as the effects of Hildebrandt¡¯s aura and Zalia¡¯s wrath became too much for them.

    Unfortunately, the group of higher-ranked ones had arrived.

    ¡°Watch out!¡± she screamed.

    But it was too late as they teleported amongst the flying soldiers all at once, many of the men and women not responding quickly enough as swords, daggers and claws found spines, throats and heads. Many of the soldiers died immediately.

    Zalia found herself face to face with a Bronze demon as she spun about and attacked. She was used to this strategy, having faced it many times.

    She parried a strike, using the burst of speed to strike back immediately. Her attack, filled with the power of the stars, struck and slashed through the demon''s arm, then continued halfway through its torso. It flailed at her with its other arm, flying backwards to pull itself off of her blade, but she continued the attack. With a flap of her wispy air wings, she lunged forward and skewered it through the throat.

    It made a gurgling sound as she drew the blade out, letting it drop from the sky.

    A quick check on the rest of the flying soldiers found them in chaos. Any sense of formation had been lost as everyone engaged in one-on-one or one-on-two fights. Arrows and magic flew up from the army below, evening the odds for the outnumbered soldiers.

    Without a second to waste, Zalia pushed into the fray. She saved a soldier by stabbing the demon he was fighting in the back, just as it was about to rip out his throat. He died a moment later to a dagger straight through to his heart. There was no chance to save him, the anti-death measure of Healing Presence having been used long ago at the start of the battle.

    The dagger the demon wielded left it at a disadvantage to Zalia and she avenged the man, cutting down his killer with three quick, brutal strikes.

    Looking for her next opponent, one found her as the obsidian skin demon dropped down at her from above. She managed to swerve out of the way at the last moment, deflecting its clawed hand and striking back, scoring a thin line down its shoulder.

    It made a hissing sound at her, and she hissed back.

    Obsidian grew from its shoulders and ripped off, forming four, floating jagged spikes. She watched them warily, then flew backwards as quickly as she could. They sped after her, controlled by the demon.

    She flew past a few battling duos before grabbing a demon from behind and spinning it around to face the oncoming spikes. One of them impaled the demon, getting stuck halfway through its body.

    Zalia teleported away in the same instant, watching for the spikes. She saw them, three still chasing her as they dodged around other fights. With a quick check to her mana, she could see that she was almost out. She would need to drop down to the ground to allow it to recharge, the constant drain of flight quickly depleting it.

    Without any other choice, she was about to fly down to the ground when a power radiated across the field originating from Faian. It wasn¡¯t warm and comforting like her own healing, rather it felt like pure energy. Resolve filled her body and her mana recharged. She felt fresh again as if the fight had just begun.

    It wasn¡¯t a moment too soon as the three obsidian spikes found her again. Rather than dodge them, she activated Protection of the Wilds. She chose Zephyr as the enhancing effect to the shields and every member of the army was covered in an ethereal shield enhanced with the power of wind. It felt as if a whirlwind had whipped up around the army, yet none of their members were affected.

    She used the moment to launch her own attack on the obsidian skin demon. Ignoring the spikes that left three deep grooves in her new shield, she sped up to it and struck. Each of her blows were blocked easily but she didn¡¯t give up.

    Nearby, Nateysta and the Thousand-eyed one crashed to the ground with a deafening boom, crushing thousands of undead beneath them. Their struggle for supremacy continued, wings beating, spiked limbs stabbing and bodies rolling about over the earth, crushing even more undead. Zalia only hoped the colossal fight didn¡¯t roll over the army.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    In short moments, her shield was broken by the Silver-ranked demon. It grabbed her arm and kicked her in the chest, ripping the arm from its socket as she tumbled away through the air, screaming in pain.

    She could see the fervor and excitement on its face. It had enjoyed torturing her before but wasn¡¯t going to let her live this time.

    The smirk vanished as the demon was blasted into mist by a bolt of power sent from below.

    There Hildebrandt stood, facing upwards as she sent bolts smashing through the demons above. She ignored the undead for a short time as Zalia¡¯s protective shield kept each member of the vanguard safe from the undead.

    Zalia felt a morbid sense of satisfaction at seeing the obsidian skin demon vanish like that.

    A pained screech resounded across the battlefield as Nateysta summoned more vines that stabbed through the Thousand-eyed one''s body. Dark flames rolled across the battlefield, scorching Nateysta and the undead alike but he didn¡¯t let go, summoning more vines as his beak closed on one of the creature''s legs. He tore that off too, clawing at the demon''s body with his large jagged root claws.

    The Thousand-eyed one screamed, struggling in pain as it did whatever it could to survive. The battlefield set alight, the army thankfully just out of reach, as its three remaining legs stabbed at Nateysta. Its one wing flapped in desperation trying to get it off the floor beneath the stronger nature spirit.

    Despite the flame and sharp legs of the Thousand-eyed one, Nateysta didn¡¯t let up. He tore at it with vine, claw and beak until its mad scramble for survival finally stopped.

    The corrupting aura that was laid across the land slowly faded away, replaced by Nateysta¡¯s own.

    Nature had reclaimed its rightful place in this world.

    The undead across the battlefield, still streaming out of the city, dropped dead to the ground, the power that had kept them animated no longer present. The rest of the demons tried to flee, but were quickly blasted away by Hildebrandt as she threw bolts of power from the ground.

    Just like that, the battle was over.

    Zalia dropped from the air and found her way to Boreal. It looked like the flanking units had left the walls to fight the undead once more when she had activated Protection of the Wilds and Boreal had a long gash down her side. Zalia focused all of her healing on Boreal and herself, as the gash healed over and her own arm regrew.

    She dropped down and hugged Boreal tightly. They had survived the battle. There was a lot to do still, to help Endaria rebuild, to take the fight to the Astar and Cormaine but for now, they had survived.

    As tempted as she was to just open up her vault and go pass out, Zalia felt surprisingly fresh. Whatever ability Faian had used was quite powerful, something she should have expected from a general.

    Soon enough, Faian had the army mobilised once more.

    They marched their way past the countless bodies and to the city gates. They had to spend a while clearing out a passage there as the number of undead that had been squashed up against the walls trying to get through the gates could be described as nothing other than horrific. It was a pile, tens of thousands crushed into one large mass of bodies.

    They managed to get through and into the city eventually, greeted by the sight of more undead, the smell of rot and disease filling the air. Despite all that, it was silent.

    The silence was somehow more disturbing than the undead. This was the capital of a kingdom and as such it should have been noisy, filled with the sounds and smells of life. Only death and its accomplices waited for them here.

    They advanced cautiously through the city, the vanguard at the fore and scouts roaming through the buildings and streets nearby. Faian called a halt as they heard a scream of fear and pain from the direction one of the scouts went. She quickly gestured for a unit of legionnaires to investigate and they ran towards the screams.

    Sounds of battle quickly followed before the legionnaires came back, dragging the body of a feline-like demon, the same type that had killed Aylie''s family.

    General Ballast got one of the army''s telepaths to inform the other scouts of the danger but it was too late as they started hearing other sounds of battle amongst the narrow streets and tall buildings. Zalia poked Boreal to get her attention and told Faian she was going out there, then the two of them sprinted off amongst the maze-like city. It didn''t take long for them to find some of the demons.

    They ambushed one together, Boreal jumping it from behind and grabbing its neck in her powerful jaws. Zalia shot it in the head just as Boreal twisted, a savage snap resounding in the alleyway. They continued onward quickly, finding more and more of the creatures.

    They battled through the city, almost always finding the demons roaming by themselves like solitary hunters.

    They ran across a group of legionnaires who were doing the same thing and both went their separate ways after killing two of the demons that attacked them. Unfortunately, one of the legionnaires went down in the attack.

    Zalia and Boreal found less and less of the demons and eventually decided to go back. They sped up again when they got close enough to hear the sounds of battle coming from the army''s location. They arrived to chaos.

    The army had found the human garrison of the city, the maddened soldiers. They were fighting in the main road with skirmishes happening throughout the adjacent alleys and streets. The bulk of the army was under constant attack from the feline demons as they made ambushing attacks from house doors, windows, roofs, streets and alleys. No avenue of entry was safe.

    On the rooftops near the enemy army were archers raining chaos down amongst Faian''s people who were desperately trying to erect any kind of barriers they could.

    Zalia cast her flight ritual and then ran through a wall using her armour''s incorporeal ability. She flew straight up through the roof and unleashed three arrows in quick succession, dropping three enemy archers. Each shot gave her invisibility and a boost in speed as she flickered in and out through the air, sending off more arrows towards more archers. Most of them turned their attention to her and she was soon having to dodge more than she could shoot. A quick ritual using Zephyr major and Dodge-vine minor gave her a powerful shield against ranged attacks. The arrows shot in her direction were pushed away from her body, though some still hit. A few of the arrows simply passed through her due to her incorporeal nature when wearing the armour but some of them were obviously magically imbued as they were deflected by her armour.

    She twisted in the air, dropping another two archers with arrows to the head, an arrow from return fire striking her shoulderplate and shattering.

    Boreal jumped from the shadows and ripped that archer from the rooftops.

    The battle down below was going better now, the earth mages amongst the army having managed to close off a lot of the entry points the feline demons were using.

    As the flying units in the army realised Zalia was taking down a lot of the archers, they flew up to join her in finishing the job. It wasn''t long before they now had the high ground, pelting the enemy army with arrows and spells from above.

    The army began to take ground, pushing the enemy up the hill with earth mages blocking side entries as they advanced. A few of the enemy soldiers began to flee and soon the rest of them broke. Only a few stayed to the last, dying with sword in hand.

    They marched up to the castle at the top of the hill. There, the large gardens out the front of the castle had been crushed beneath the weight of the Thousand-eyed one. With both Zalia and Nateysta as he joined them there though, the land began to thrive once more. A wilder garden grew from the remains of the old.

    They left most of the army there as they began constructing hasty fortifications. There were still enemies in the city, even if they had been severely cut in number. A few of them went inside, the smaller Nateysta, still scorched and covered in wounds, Zalia, Boreal, Hildebrandt, Larel, the generals and some advisors, including Indis.

    They went to the throne room, where the skeleton of the king, crown upon his head, sat on his throne. There was no unlife in the body, only the peaceful rest of the dead. Nearby, Zalia found the body of Darren, Juniper''s son. She didn¡¯t know if he had any part in the events leading up to this, but thought he deserved a better fate. Juniper had been lost in her own grief and had done things others would not have because of it. Darren had still been young though, without much experience of life.

    What was done was done, though. Now they had to look to the future.

    Zalia stood up from where his body lay and moved over to where Indis knelt on the floor, tears streaming down her face as she looked at the body of the king. The man she had done so much for, the man she should have married had the demons not invaded.

    Zalia shook her head, then went back outside. Looking over the horizon, she could feel where Ember, and Aylie who was with her, were waiting.

    She had her own family that needed her.

 Interlude 1: 1 - Transformation

    Two months after the invasion¡¯s end.

    Zalia stood in the throne room of the capital of Endaria. With her was her best friend and giant snow cat Boreal, her partner Ember, their adopted child Aylie and her glimmering starlight puppy Lumin. Soon after the final fight here in the capital, Zalia had gone back to the Grove she had created to reunite with her family. The past two months had been some of the most relaxing since her first arrival in this world. Sure, they had needed to kill the odd demon or help a refugee or two but compared to the past, it was nothing.

    That was, until a shared friend of Zalia and Ember, Lady Indis, had sent word that she wanted them to come meet her in the capital.

    While Zalia had been relaxing, she knew that Indis had been hard at work. The army had taken over the capital as their base of operations, with Indis as the main civilian leader amongst their group. The capital was quite different to the last time Zalia had been there due to their hard work. The walls had been shored up, the complex and powerful enchantments of the capital fixed and ranging squads sent out.

    Refugees had started flowing to the city from all over the land once word had spread. Some of those who had left Endaria and gone to the desert to the south had even come back, once they had heard that the capital had been freed. There was nothing like the smell of opportunity to bring desperate souls to your doorstep. Those who came now and worked towards the repair of the capital and the surrounding lands would have ample opportunity to advance in the world should they have the courage to take it. Whether that was through hard work or not so moral methods was anyone''s guess.

    Zalia was not one of those people.

    She had no aspirations for becoming a leader of the kingdom or being in power over others. All she wanted was to spend a little time relaxing with her family before everything went to hell again.

    That was why she was so confused as they stood in front of Indis, Generals Faian and Ballast as well as various other advisors and administrative types while Indis spoke.

    ¡°-as well as your help in bringing the Ascendant Nateysta to help us, then fighting in the final battles of the invasion that the generals and I have agreed that you should be commended for your actions. As the current council of Endaria, we grant you Et¡¯s way and its attached lands for you and your line. You shall be given the title of Lady and appointed as nobility of Endaria.¡±

    Zalia¡¯s first thought was to turn about and leave. Her second was to yell at Indis for being stupid. She resisted both of those thoughts, not wanting to act rashly.

    Once, Zalia might have had no idea as to what was happening when confronted by this but she had since learnt a lot about dealing with people, Lady Leyra Indis especially so.

    She knew that the only reason Indis was doing this was because she wanted to keep Zalia close by. The woman would use each and every opportunity she could to further her own standing and ability to control others. Zalia wasn¡¯t as naive as she had been when first meeting the woman, however.

    That wasn¡¯t to say she actually hated the idea of having the town as her own. She wanted to stay close to the city anyway since Ember would want to live near others and so that Aylie might have the chance to make other friends her own age. Friends that were people, not baby Ascendant gods. Not that there was anything wrong with having baby Ascendant gods as friends, they could be quite nice to have around.

    ¡°Alright, I accept.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t care less about the title. Having a nice piece of land that she could return to nature and live in would be nice though.

    With her easy acceptance, Indis looked a little worried, as if she had been expecting Zalia to put up a fight. Ever the actor though, she continued onwards without disruption.

    ¡°Excellent. We would usually hold a feast for such an occasion, but since food is at quite a shortage at the moment we will forgo that particular custom. Again, thank you for your service to the kingdom Lady Zalia.¡±

    With that, Zalia finally gave in to her initial reaction and turned around and left, her family following.

    As soon as they had left the keep, Ember bumped her shoulder into Zalia.

    ¡°Lady Zalia, why exactly did you accept? You do realise she is trying to manipulate you again right?¡±

    Zalia looked at Ember with mischief filling her eyes.

    ¡°Of course, and I¡¯m about to make her regret doing that I think. Also, you know that makes you a lady too?¡±

    Ember scrunched up her face, obviously disliking it as much as Zalia did. If she was able to do what she wanted to with the town though, it would be well worth it.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    It was less than two days travel from the capital to Et¡¯s way when their travelling group consisted of only five people, all of whom were quite quick on their feet. Well, or could ride on the back of the others who were quick on their feet in Aylie¡¯s case.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    The town of Et¡¯s way was completely abandoned. What had once been a thriving mercantile town of tens of thousands was now an empty walled husk. Zalia didn¡¯t plan on trying to repopulate it, rather she wanted to do what nature often did with such places and reclaim it. She had two abilities perfect for that.

    Profile - Zalia Taori

    Health - Excellent

    Mana - Full

    Stamina - Full

    Class one - Hunter - Bronze 4

    Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity

    Active skills

    Kill Shot - Bronze 5

    Hunter''s Mark - Bronze 8

    Fight or Flight - Bronze 6

    Passive skills

    Hunter''s Sight - Bronze 4

    Survivalist - Bronze 11

    Class two - Herbalist - Bronze 3

    Linked attributes - Vitality, Resilience

    Active skills

    Flora Identification - Bronze 4

    Preparation - Bronze 7

    Druid¡¯s Grove - Bronze 4

    Passive skills

    Harvester - Bronze 3

    Herbal Magic - Bronze 11

    Unity class - Druid - Bronze 8

    Linked attributes - Wisdom, Intellect

    Active skills

    Nature¡¯s Wrath - Bronze 9

    Protection of the Wilds - Bronze 8

    Passive skills

    Healing Presence - Silver 1

    General Passives

    Heat Resistance - Bronze 11

    Cold Resistance - Bronze 11

    Aura Observation - Bronze 1

    Enhanced Vision - Bronze 1

    Poison Resistance - Iron 7

    Mobility - Bronze 9

    Stealth - Bronze 11

    Trapper - Bronze 11

    Teaching - Iron 19

    Flight - Iron 18

    Physical Resistance - Bronze 11

    Mental Resistance - Bronze 11

    Weapon proficiencies

    Bow - Bronze 7

    Sword - Bronze 6

    Throwing Knives - Tin 17

    Bonded Items

    Druidic bow, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Druidic Armour, Blessed by Nature (Heirloom) - Deeply Bonded Bronze rank.

    Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Both Healing Presence and Druid¡¯s Grove would be perfect for the task, with one helping nature to regrow within many kilometres of herself and the other able to transform an area to become her Druid Grove, a beautiful protected piece of nature.

    She hadn¡¯t advanced the rank of her abilities much since the final fight at the capital, a memory that still sent shivers down her spine. The countless undead, powerful demons and the two Ascendants that had been warring above it all.

    Rather than hold back Healing Presence as she usually did around towns and cities, she allowed it to be free, sweeping over Et¡¯s way.

    It started slowly at first, as they walked through the gate into the town. Grass started poking up through pavers, little Manifest vine buds opened and started growing up the side of buildings, and saplings began to push onwards towards the sky.

    They took a trip around the edge of the town, looking through the windows of houses and walking down the slowly degrading paths. They were all silent, even little Lumin, the quiet feeling¡­ right, like it was respectful to those who had died here.

    After doing a lap of the town, they started circling inwards towards the centre. The slow growth began to overcome the buildings of Et¡¯s way, the grass cracking apart the pavers and forming soft, smooth walkways interspersed with flat stone, vines covering up houses with large leaves and trees growing above them, forming a shadowed canopy above.

    At the centre of town stood the statehouse, the same one that they had made plans in two months ago, just before the battle for the capital. It stood much as it had, though also being buried beneath the nature that was growing over the entire town.

    When they reached that town centre though, as Zalia walked into the statehouse, the slow growth change of Et¡¯s way exploded into movement as she activated Druid¡¯s Grove.

    Active 3 - Druid¡¯s Grove - spell - targeted - realm

    Tin - You may place herbs in stasis. Additionally, you are able to establish a small Druid Grove.

    Iron - Herbs in stasis may now be put into a spatial storage. Plants and friendly creatures within your Druid Grove are constantly affected by the base effect of Healing Presence separate to your aura.

    Bronze - The spatial storage effect of this ability is now linked with ¡®Ethereal Vault Gauntlet¡¯, creating one larger space. This space is considered part of your Druid Grove.

    Druid¡¯s Grove Added Effects

    Healing Presence.

    Druid¡¯s Grove Base Effects

    The protective energy of your Druid Grove extends to ward off harmful magical influences and creatures, providing an added layer of defence to those within its bounds.

    Your Druid Grove changes with the seasons, adapting its flora and effects accordingly. In spring, it might emphasise growth, while in winter, it offers protection from the cold.

    Your Druid Grove becomes a haven not only for plants but also for animals. Creatures within the grove may form a bond with you, aiding you in various ways.

    Mana - low / n/a

    Cd - n/a / n/a

    The wooden beams of the statehouse came alive once more and sprouted roots, spreading outwards. They grew upwards and formed together over the roof creating a huge tree with multiple trunks standing over and a part of the statehouse beneath.

    Similar transformations spread out from the centre of the town, completing its transformation from a ghost town to a lush forested glade built over its empty shell.

 Interlude 1: 2 - Natures Reclaim

    Two weeks later

    Zalia strolled through Et¡¯s way, chewing at her lip, deep in thought. She¡¯d been thinking about renaming the town to something else, something more fitting to its new appearance and purpose. Previously, it had been a main commercial stop between the majority of the kingdom and the capital just a few days west of it. Somehow, she doubted that it would ever serve that purpose again.

    It was unfortunate that she was only able to create one Druid Grove. Something surprising to her, however, was what she had found when she had made a little trip to the old war camp. She¡¯d gone alone just to check up on the old farmer Mate and his few.

    Strangely, she had found that the plant and animal life that had thrived within the old Grove was still there. Sure, he had mentioned that the crops were no longer growing as quickly and the effects of her Grove were certainly gone, but the animals were still helping out the farmers and it seemed a little beautiful ecosystem had formed.

    That helped settle Zalia a bit, as she¡¯d feared the Grove was manipulating the animals to act that way somehow. Instead, it seemed like it had given them a place where they felt safe and shown them how they could interact with each other and the people living there. In addition, it seemed that the brief appearance of Ro had caused some of the animals in the old Grove to start worshipping him as well. She had caught the large feline that guarded the place dropping off a few shiny bits of foil at the altar, though she had no idea where from. Where Ro had been for the past few months, she had no idea. Shortly after the fight at the capital, he had flown off with the remains of the Thousand-eyed one. Wherever he was, she was sure he was okay, it wasn¡¯t like there was much in the world that could threaten him.

    With her mind settled and knowing that both Ro and the farmers would be okay, she had returned to her family and new Grove.

    It felt a little weird to still call the place Et¡¯s way. It just didn¡¯t feel right for what had become their new home, a lush forest built overtop an abandoned town. She had briefly considered calling it Et¡¯s Grove instead but didn¡¯t like keeping the original name as part of it. That was mostly because she had no idea who Et was or what they had done to have the town named after them. Deciding she needed to find that out before she changed the name, just in case they were someone important to the Endarians, she had invited Indis and the Generals to come to see what she had done with the place.

    In a way, it was her own message back to Indis. She could try to manipulate Zalia, twist her words and actions to keep her close and doing what Indis wanted her to do. She could try, but Zalia wasn¡¯t going to just roll over and accept it. Indis wanted to give her the town as a way of saddling her with some sort of responsibility within the kingdom, to ensure she wouldn¡¯t go wandering and never come back.

    Well, Zalia was going to do what she wanted with the town then.

    She was expecting them to arrive within a few hours, having received confirmation of their departure almost two days ago.

    They had actually reached out to them through Aylie of all people. Using her ability called Dreamweave, Aylie was able to bring both Zalia and General Faian into the same dream. Or, what might be better described as showing each other the same dream and the reactions they each had to what the other said in their own separate but identical dreams. Zalia wasn¡¯t even quite sure exactly how Aylie managed it, but it had been amazing to experience either way.

    It was an ability that Aylie had been experimenting with more and more as of recently. Mostly, Ember and Aylie worked together on that ability, as Zalia didn¡¯t exactly sleep very often. They were probably back at the statehouse at that moment, playing around with Aylie¡¯s abilities and working them towards leveling up. Zalia expected a few of her abilities to start ranking up to Iron rank any day now.

    Lumin was another matter entirely. She wasn¡¯t exactly sure if they would rank up in the same way everyone else did, due to the Ascendant affix that came after their Tin rank designation.

    Zalia had been feeling out the limits of her own abilities as well, such as they were. In doing so, she had made a discovery about Healing Presence.

    While the range of its effects greatly outpaced what she could sense normally through her normal senses, as well as the magical ones, she couldn¡¯t see what it affected. At least, not in a way that could be considered seeing.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    She had noticed it a couple of weeks back, a sense on the edge of her mind. It felt like her power was a part of the land as much as it was a part of herself, meaning that while she couldn¡¯t see everywhere it affected she could feel it. She could sense the lay of the land, not to an exact but more a vague, blurry image of it. In addition, she could feel when that land was being affected by some kind of magic.

    That was how she sensed Indis and the generals coming.

    They must have had an earth mage with them that was flattening out the land in front of them to provide easy sure footing on their horseback journey to her town. It was something that she had seen the army doing a lot of the time, though usually there were quite a few of them that also returned the land to normal behind so as to eliminate any tracks they might leave.

    Zalia strolled towards the front gate, eating some kind of nuts she had found growing on trees that had popped up in the main street. They were nice, kind of like almonds. When she reached the gate, she sat on a nearby piece of broken stone fence, one leg over the other.

    She didn¡¯t have to wait long, soon seeing five figures riding down the road from the capital.

    Once they were close enough that Zalia could see them, she allowed herself some slight satisfaction at seeing the disgruntled expression Indis held. She was looking at the new and improved town behind Zalia, her annoyance more than obvious.

    They trotted up on their horses, everyone except Indis dismounting as they walked up to Zalia. She popped another of the almond things in her mouth, enjoying the satisfying crunchiness of it.

    ¡°Hello.¡±

    Faian nodded, gently patting the neck of her horse.

    ¡°Hey, love what you¡¯ve done with the place.¡±

    Zalia smiled.

    ¡°Well, come on in then.¡±

    She stood up and started walking at a casual pace into the town.

    ¡°How are things in the capital anyway? Last I heard you were all much too busy to be coming all the way out here.¡±

    ¡°We certainly are too busy, but-¡± Indis started, speaking from where she still sat atop her horse.

    ¡°But, we can make time for one of the people that was majorly responsible for the current free state of Endaria, despite not being from here,¡± Faian finished for her.

    Zalia could hear Indis¡¯ teeth grinding in frustration. They had obviously had this argument already. Zalia didn¡¯t envy Faian¡¯s having to deal with the woman on a daily basis, but if anyone could she was the one.

    ¡°Good to hear. I actually wanted to know some of the history around this town you saddled me with. Who or what is Et?¡±

    General Ballast was there too, along with Faian¡¯s advisor Ryn and a mage she vaguely recognised from the army. Ballast was looking around at the overgrown town with an air of approval similar to Faian¡¯s. Indis, on the other hand, was looking more and more annoyed.

    Faian was the first to answer.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know the full history, though Lady Indis might, but from what I remember Et was a high-ranked merchant, one of very few in history. He was the founder of this town.¡±

    Zalia looked to Indis who nodded in agreement.

    ¡°That¡¯s about all I know as well. He was the reason the town ended up so large, from what I know, though how he did that I¡¯m not sure.¡±

    General Ballast let out a deep chuckle.

    ¡°Ah ha! Finally, something I know more about than you two! Et was no merchant, he was a scientist at heart. Sure, he excelled in mercantile business but I happen to know that the only reason he did this was to set Et¡¯s Way up as a major trading post in the kingdom! Why, you might ask? Well, it¡¯s simple. He did so because the lazy bastard didn¡¯t want to have to go anywhere to buy his materials! Why go to them when they can come to you? Well, that and the fact he ended up with enough money to do as much of the said buying as he could wish for.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°So, to put it simply, a somewhat greedy man basically made the town and named it after himself?¡±

    Ballast laughed again, much louder.

    ¡°Ha! Greedy. No, the only thing that man was greedy for was knowledge. He was an inventor!¡±

    Zalia hummed in thought as they arrived at the statehouse. It was fully grown now, with a huge canopy reaching out over the town far above. Leaves gently floated down amongst floating warm lights.

    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t particularly sound like anyone would mind about my renaming this place then. Welcome, to Nature¡¯s Reclaim.¡±

 Interlude 1: 3 - Fireside

    9 months after the invasion¡¯s end

    Zalia walked through Nature¡¯s Reclaim with her family, the five of them enjoying the sunny day. She was ahead of the rest of them, eyes closed and face raised towards the warm rays of sunlight.

    When she opened her eyes, Ember was standing in front of her but something was wrong. The flesh was melting from her face, revealing a grinning skeleton beneath. Zalia spun around to see the fur and skin sloughing off Boreal like she was melting in the sun. Aylie was curled up on the ground, turning to dust.

    She turned back around and grabbed Ember¡¯s hand, holding it tight.

    ¡°No, no no no. Please, not you, not them.¡±

    With a single blink, Ember was back to normal. She heard giggling behind her and turned to see Aylie rolling on the floor laughing, trying to push away Lumin who was intent on licking her face. Boreal was standing over both of them with her signature look of disapproval.

    ¡°Come on darling, it¡¯s time to wake up.¡±

    She turned back around and Ember was smiling at her warmly, a deep love in her eyes.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡®Wake up.¡±

    Zalia opened her eyes with a start, looking around in confusion. She was in their living room in the statehouse, head in Ember¡¯s lap as her partner gently stroked her hair. Aylie and Lumin were sitting by the crackling hearth, keeping warm in the winter cold. Boreal was stretched out cozily just beneath the couch that Zalia and Ember were on, the firelight reflecting off her mottled white fur.

    She¡¯d been having a nightmare and not the first since the battle for the capital. Her subconscious continued to think about her family being turned undead even when she tried to avoid doing so whenever she was awake. Luckily, her daughter was capable of manipulating dreams.

    ¡°Thank you Aylie.¡±

    The girl, still very quiet for her age, gave Zalia a gentle nod and turned back to watch the fire in the hearth. The inside of the statehouse had been significantly changed by the creation of the Grove. It had reformed to reflect Zalia¡¯s needs, as well as those of her family. It had rooms for her and Ember, as well as Aylie. In addition, it had a few different living spaces. They were currently in with a comfortable, soft, leaf-padded couch and a beautifully carved stone hearth depicting Boreal, the stars and flames frozen in time, which Zalia thought represented Ember, had become their favourite once winter had rolled in.

    She had missed the middle of the previous winter during her time in Cormaine. It had become her favourite time of year already, with light snowfalls that covered the land, dulling down any sounds. Many animals went to ground or huddled quietly in nests, making it the most quiet time of year. Zalia loved that, more than anything else. She had been tempted to go north and see Glemp, to see what it was like up there at this time of year if it was covered in snow all year long as it seemed to be.

    When she had first thought about that, it hadn¡¯t made a whole lot of sense to her. Why was it that the season for snow was so short down here, yet year-round in the north?

    Then she had remembered about how she could create little ecosystem rituals, living rituals, using plants. They would help maintain the environment they lived in just as it maintained them. Here, where there was magic, the way nature worked wasn¡¯t entirely the same. It could be snowy year-round to the north because it was the plant''s magic that maintained that.

    It made her wonder how hard it would be to affect the seasons herself. Could she make it some kind of fake winter in Nature¡¯s Reclaim all of the time? She was tempted to try but didn¡¯t because, well, it didn¡¯t seem natural. Even if what was ¡°natural¡± was something entirely different in this world.

    ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±

    Zalia looked up at Ember who was watching her.

    ¡°Just thinking about how different nature is in this world.¡±

    Ember poked her in the forehead.

    ¡°You know, you¡¯ve spoken around the subject a few times, mentioning bits and pieces, but I don¡¯t think you¡¯ve ever told me where you come from.¡±

    Zalia fought away the offending finger with a gentle smack, frowning a little.

    ¡°I guess I never have, probably because I don¡¯t like talking or thinking about it.¡±

    Ember stayed silent, watching her with those warm, caring eyes.

    ¡°But, I suppose I could tell you a little bit.¡±

    She sat up, trying not to smile at how excited Ember looked.

    ¡°Well, where do I start?¡±

    ¡°How about with your world?¡± Ember suggested.

    Zalia chewed at her lip, thinking.

    ¡°Ok, my world. It is much, much further ahead of this one technologically. There are things that they have figured out how to do there that I couldn¡¯t even begin to explain to you, there¡¯s just nothing like it here. There was no magic there though, none at all. People were just people, animals were just animals. The problem that the mixture of these two things created is that the technology had far exceeded what any animal was capable of. Nature began to disappear from the world, piece by piece, as the population of humans in the world grew and grew. You would have hated it there, I think.¡±

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    Ember tilted her head, looking confused.

    ¡°What do you mean by technology?¡±

    Zalia looked around the room, trying to find something so that she could explain.

    ¡°Hmm. People learned how to create things that were capable of feats more powerful than magic yet available to anyone. Imagine if, anyone and everyone in Endaria had Bronze rank magic, or the ability to talk to anyone else in the world, or¡­ they could travel at extremely fast speeds and all they needed was a key to do it. I¡¯m not explaining it very well but in essence, they learned to make things that had the potential to make everyone¡¯s lives better, yet more often than not these things were used to harm or take advantage of others.¡±

    Ember pulled her in again, laying her head down on Zalia¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°I can see why you hated it.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t love it, no. But that isn¡¯t why I don¡¯t like thinking about that place. No, that is because of my parents. They were, for lack of better words, crazy. In my world, there are religions and gods too but not in the way you have them here. The gods there aren¡¯t really ones you can meet, at least as far as I knew about. They also don¡¯t manage the people who follow their teachings. Because of that, many extremist groups exist across the world, ones that take things too far, or do horrible, horrible things in the name of those ¡®gods¡¯. My parents were a part of one such group and I did not like it. They¡­ hurt me in ways that only a parent can. When I was twenty, I up and left without a word and never spoke to them again. I moved away from where they lived, to a far, remote place of the world. Somewhere they wouldn¡¯t find me, a small piece of nature I hoped would survive the plague that was humanity, at least until I died.¡±

    Ember took her hand.

    ¡°And then, you lived there for a while until one day you arrived in Endaria?¡±

    ¡°Yep, that about sums it up. It was a pretty hard first year, learning what to do and what not to do. There were a few close calls but I made it through, with each year becoming easier than the last. Then yeah, I got sucked up by some portal that dragged me here. I¡¯ve got barely any idea how that happened still, though my best guess is it was the Astar.¡±

    Ember squeezed her hand.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry you had to go through that.¡±

    Zalia shrugged, gently so as not to disturb Ember too much.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright. It was a long time ago, and I had a long time after it alone to think about why they did what they did. I think deep down they were really just scared, scared of dying, scared of confronting the world if there wasn¡¯t some mysterious god up there with a ¡®plan¡¯ for everything. I can understand that. I just couldn¡¯t deal with how it made them act.¡±

    Ember lifted her head up and nodded.

    ¡°I can see that. Thank you for telling me.¡±

    Zalia hugged her closer.

    ¡°Thank you for listening.¡±

    She hadn¡¯t missed that both Aylie and Boreal had been listening closely as well, her two children that she had saved after their own mothers had died. It hadn¡¯t occurred to her before, but maybe she had felt the need to care for them because her own mother had never really cared for her. She didn¡¯t want anyone to have the childhood that she¡¯d had. Like the childhood that Ember had had as an orphan.

    ¡°How are you doing Aylie?¡±

    Zalia had noticed that Aylie had gone still.

    ¡°Yes, Astral Walker just reached Bronze!¡± she exclaimed.

    Zalia jumped up from her seat in excitement. It was her first Bronze ability, a long time coming since she had reached Iron some eight months ago.

    ¡°Well then, show us what it does!¡±

    A list of Aylie¡¯s abilities popped up.

    Druid

    Active skills

    Active 1 - Plant Manipulation - spell - targeted

    Tin - You are able to manipulate plants within a small distance from yourself.

    Iron - The range of this ability increases and you are able to manipulate the shape of the plant¡¯s spirit as well.

    Active 2 - Nature''s Wrath - spell - area

    Tin - You invoke the wrath of nature. Nearby enemies are bound by vines, sinking sand or other area related hazards. Enemies are also subjected to a damage over time effect relevant to biome that lasts until the restraint has ended. The damage over time effect deals moderate damage per second.

    Iron - When used, Nature''s wrath now summons two short lived allies of nature. The allies are one rank lower than this ability. The allies are of a type based on the surrounding environment.

    Active 3 - Worldweave - spell - varies (Previously Dreamweave)

    Tin - You may weave the dreams of creatures that are asleep. The more familiar you are with the creature the further away you may use this. Additionally, these dreams can have an effect on the targets real body.

    Iron - If the target of this ability is tired but not asleep, you may weave a waking dream that has only minor effects on them.

    Passive skills

    Passive 1 - Healing Presence - passive - aura

    Tin - Your very presence grants life to all around you. You, nearby allies and any flora and fauna you so choose within your aura are affected by a heal over time effect. The heal over time effect heals for low health every second.

    Iron - Healing presence now heals the most grave injuries first and you may focus it onto a single target, increasing that targets healing while reducing the healing other targets receive

    Passive 2 - Spiritual Connection - passive - enhancement

    Tin - You have a strong spiritual connection to the world. You are able to interact with the spirit and soul of creatures and plants alike, living or deceased.

    Iron - When interacting with spirit and soul, you are able to discern things about it that others would not. This can include things such as lies they tell themselves, wounds to the soul and other similar things.

    Starlight Priestess

    Active skills

    Active 1 - Starfall - Spell - Area

    Tin - You may cause stars to fall in target area, dealing a high amount of damage to enemies in the area.

    Iron - Enemies struck are temporarily blinded and inflicted with a starlight fire.

    Active 2 - Starlit Portal - Spell - Target

    Tin - You may teleport a short distance

    Iron - You may create a portal that you and one other creature are able to step through, that travels a longer distance.

    Passive skills

    Passive 1 - Astral Walker - Passive - Enhancement

    Tin - Part of your soul walks the astral plane, allowing you insights into otherwise invisible or unknowable things.

    Iron - You are able to see into the Astral Plane.

    Bronze - You begin to touch the Astral Plane.

    ¡°Ok, now what does that mean?¡±

 Interlude 1: 4 - Towards Silver

    With the rank up from Tin to Iron, Aylie¡¯s ability Astral Walker had allowed her to see into the Astral. This had manifested in a few different ways, from her being able to see when people were talking through mental communication, as well as seeing bonds between people and between people and their heirlooms. It hadn¡¯t been particularly useful as of yet but with the rank up from Iron to Bronze, that changed.

    Zalia tried again to talk mentally to Ember but once again, Aylie reached out with her hand as if catching something. Ember shook her head.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s¡­ scary. Should we try bonds now?¡±

    Ember looked concerned.

    ¡°Zalia, I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s a good idea.¡±

    ¡°Maybe not, but I think Aylie should understand what her abilities are capable of so that she can avoid doing anything dangerous or harmful to others.¡±

    Ember didn¡¯t look convinced.

    ¡°We won¡¯t do it without your permission.¡±

    Ember eventually nodded, so Zalia nodded to Aylie.

    ¡°Alright, just reach out and touch it if you can. Don¡¯t pull on it or anything just yet.¡±

    Aylie tentatively reached her hand out and poked at the air and Zalia felt a little vibration across her bond with Ember, like it was a suspended string someone had just plucked.

    It was weird.

    ¡°I can feel¡­ something.¡±

    As Aylie reached out and touched it again, Zalia sent a pulse of thought down the bond. Aylie yanked her hand back like she¡¯d been bit.

    ¡°Ow.¡±

    Ember raised an eyebrow at Zalia and she just shrugged.

    ¡°Ow? What did it feel like?¡±

    Aylie looked up at the sky for a little while.

    ¡°Like¡­ pain but not in my body. Pain in my soul?¡±

    Zalia nodded. She¡¯d felt that kind of thing before, usually when using a passive ability too much. Holding back the Ascendant¡¯s aura and sprinting for days using Mobility were the two that came immediately to mind.

    ¡°Right, so be careful of touching other people¡¯s bonds. That kind of pain is weird, hard to measure. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s dangerous or not. Ro would know.¡±

    They played around with it a little more, finding that Aylie was able to read their emotions through the bonds. Kind of. She described it as trying to read someone¡¯s emotions except it¡¯s in another language. It soothed Zalia¡¯s fears about the abilities a little, though she was sure that as Aylie ranked up more, it would become more of an issue.

    While Aylie had ranked up a lot, Zalia also had a few things to look at as of recent times. Survivalist had reached Silver. That meant that six other abilities had also done so. In addition, Teaching and Flight had both reached Bronze as well.

    Profile - Zalia Taori

    Health - Excellent

    Mana - Full

    Stamina - Full

    Class one - Hunter - Bronze 7

    Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity

    Active skills

    Kill Shot - Bronze 8

    Hunter''s Mark - Bronze 13

    Fight or Flight - Bronze 14

    Passive skills

    Hunter''s Sight - Bronze 7

    Survivalist - Silver 1

    Class two - Herbalist - Bronze 7

    Linked attributes - Vitality, Resilience

    Active skills

    Flora Identification - Bronze 7

    Preparation - Bronze 14

    Druid¡¯s Grove - Bronze 9

    Passive skills

    Harvester - Bronze 11

    Herbal Magic - Bronze 18

    Unity class - Druid - Bronze 10

    Linked attributes - Wisdom, Intellect

    Active skills

    Nature¡¯s Wrath - Bronze 11

    Protection of the Wilds - Bronze 10

    Passive skills

    Healing Presence - Silver 1

    General Passives

    Heat Resistance - Silver 1

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Cold Resistance - Silver 1

    Aura Observation - Bronze 16

    Enhanced Vision - Bronze 18

    Poison resistance - Iron 7

    Mobility - Bronze 15

    Stealth - Silver 1

    Trapper - Silver 1

    Teaching - Bronze 6

    Flight - Bronze 9

    Physical Resistance - Silver 1

    Mental Resistance - Silver 1

    Weapon proficiencies

    Bow - Bronze 14

    Sword - Bronze 12

    Throwing Knives - Tin 17

    Bonded Items

    Druidic bow, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Duskwraith Armour (Heirloom) - Bonded Iron rank.

    Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Passive 2 - Survivalist - passive - body enhancement

    Tin - The body of a hunter shall not fail easily. Gain the heat resistance and cold resistance passive skills. They level alongside this ability. You are able to survive with less nutrition.

    Iron - Gain the stealth and trapper passive skills. These also level alongside this ability. You require less sleep.

    Bronze - Gain the Physical resistance and Mental resistance passive skills. They level alongside this ability. You are able to survive with less air.

    Silver - Your aging slows. You do not require nutrition. You do not require sleep. You do not need to breathe.

    The Silver rank abilities were¡­ ridiculous. No food, water, sleep, air or anything, really. She didn¡¯t need any of it. That also extended to Boreal who shared her Survivalist passive, something that Ember didn¡¯t get despite having a similar bond. Zalia thought it had something to do with the fact that her and Boreal had started with a Beast bond, not an emotional one.

    Heat Resistance - passive

    Tin - You take reduced damage from high temperatures and heat-related magics.

    Iron - You may manipulate fire and heat to a minor degree.

    Bronze - You are able to channel heat from the environment to minorly boost yourself or allies

    Silver - Your ability to manipulate fire and heat is increased. Additionally, you may alter your form to take on a fiery visage.

    Cold Resistance - passive

    Tin - You take reduced damage from low temperatures and cold-related magics.

    Iron - You may manipulate ice and snow to a minor degree.

    Bronze - You are able to channel cold from the environment to minorly heal yourself or allies

    Silver - Your ability to manipulate ice and snow is increased. Additionally, you may alter your form to take on a frozen visage.

    Physical Resistance - passive

    Tin - You receive reduced damage and effects from physical attacks and physical-related magics

    Iron - You may manipulate earth and stone to a minor degree

    Bronze - You become harder to move by force

    Silver - Your ability to manipulate earth and stone is increased. You may alter your form to take on a stony visage.

    Heat Resistance, Cold Resistance and Physical Resistance all had very similar upgrades. Each of them increased how well she could manipulate the elements, as well as allowing her to take on their form a little bit. She was a little scared about trying them out initially but enjoyed it once she tried.

    The heat visage made her flicker with flames and made her body a little bit more¡­ malleable. It wasn¡¯t exactly useful because she could already walk through most things with the ability her armour granted her, but it was still fun.

    The cold visage did exactly the opposite. It made her look kind of like Boreal. She had icy shards grow off her shoulders and back and her body became tough like ice.

    The stony visage she hated. It made her skin crack in a way that reminded her of the obsidian demon, as well as making her body tough as the cold visage did. She stayed far away from that one after she¡¯d used it the first time.

    Stealth - passive

    Tin - Normal vision and sight-based skills and abilities have a harder time seeing you.

    Iron - Other senses are also inhibited and you blend with your surroundings.

    Bronze - When still, you become invisible to the eye, only becoming visible again when you move. Certain perception types can see through this.

    Silver - You may now remain invisible when moving. This invisibility is more resistant to alternative types of perception.

    Trapper - passive

    Tin - Your traps are magically hidden from sight.

    Iron - Your traps are magically enhanced.

    Bronze - You are able to magically fabricate basic traps you have been able to make before in an instant without materials. You are limited in how often this ability may be used.

    Silver - The strength of all traps are significantly increased. Additionally, you may create up to ten traps that remain permanently. These will also rearm themselves soon after being triggered.

    Both Stealth and Trapper passives had interesting and useful upgrades. She had already scared Ember multiple times with her invisibility, though she still hadn¡¯t managed to sneak up on Boreal. Her and her vibration vision were just too damn perceptive.

    She had also already laid those ten traps around Nature¡¯s Reclaim, knowing that they wouldn¡¯t trigger on any of her friends or family.

    Mental Resistance - passive

    Tin - You receive reduced damage and effects from mental attacks and mind-related magics

    Iron - You may perform minor telekinetic feats

    Bronze - You may mentally communicate with creatures capable of understanding language

    Silver - The power of your telekinesis is increased. You are able to create invisible surfaces only you can touch with this ability.

    The final ability ranked up by Survivalist, Mental Resistance, allowed her to push off pretty much anywhere she wanted. If she stumbled, which she never did anymore anyway, she could just catch the air. She could even walk into the sky on invisible footholds, making that part of Mobility useless.

    Teaching - passive

    Tin - you gain a better understanding of what methods of teaching will work with certain people, scaling with the level and rank of this ability.

    Iron - when teaching someone, they have an easier time grasping concepts that you explain, scaling with the level and rank of this ability. You are also able to convey simple concepts even when there is a language barrier.

    Bronze - Attempting to teach someone about something you aren¡¯t fully educated in will give you insights into the subject, allowing you to learn even as you teach others.

    The Teaching passive had helped her a lot in trying to figure out Aylie¡¯s powers, as strange and hard to grasp as they were.

    Flight - passive

    Tin - Your manoeuvrability is increased and your air resistance is reduced while in flight. This scales based on the rank and level of this passive.

    Iron - Your ability to perceive your surroundings while flying becomes exceptional. You can spot distant details and potential threats with remarkable clarity, allowing you to anticipate and counteract aerial assaults effectively as well as see threats on the ground.

    Bronze - All flight-based abilities are easier and cheaper to maintain. This effect increases based on how many allies you also give flight to.

    Her final rank up over the past months was Flight, a very nice addition that she wished she¡¯d had earlier when they were travelling all across Endaria.

    Both Ember and Boreal had also ranked up an ability or two each, Zalia only having so many rank-ups as Survivalist pulled six other passives along with it.

    Not needing to sleep had been weird the past few weeks. While she didn¡¯t have to, she still could do so if she wanted. Falling asleep in Ember¡¯s lap had been a conscious choice, something she was able to do whenever she wanted now for some reason. Sleep was now a switch she could flick on and off, rather than a life necessity.

    Recently, Zalia had been feeling more and more comfortable where she was. Thoughts of getting revenge on the Astar had faded far into the back of her mind, even more so thoughts of reclaiming Cormaine. Without constant danger, pain or people dragging her into conflicts, she was getting more and more happy to just sit around with her family all day.

 Interlude 2: 1 - Frozen

    Two years after the invasion¡¯s end.

    Little Lumin stalked down the hallway, trying to keep the pad of their paws quiet on the soft leaf-littered floor. The prey Lumin stalked was a powerful one, stealthy, strong, perceptive. The prey could perhaps be considered one of the hardest things to sneak up on when it came down to it.

    Still, Lumin tried their best.

    Then, they saw it. A flicker of movement, fur swishing. It was only a brief moment in time, a dashing figure flying past a doorway.

    Lumin gave chase, sprinting after their fleeing prey. It was quick, almost quicker than they were. Almost.

    Lumin reached the prey, pounced and chomped onto its tail with as much force as they could muster. But it wasn¡¯t enough.

    They looked up into the cold eyes of the prey they had been stalking, prey no longer. No, this was a predator.

    Boreal whapped Lumin across the head with a paw, gentle yet firm in its meaning.

    ¡°Stop biting my tail idiot.¡±

    She was getting tired of the puppy trying to hunt her like she couldn¡¯t see their glowing starry form from a mile away. It didn¡¯t seem like Aylie was going to teach Lumin how to hunt properly and Zalia hadn¡¯t been on a hunt in a long time. Boreal missed those days, when they would work together to make a kill so that they might eat for the day. Not that either of them needed to eat anymore. Still, things were tasty and learning how everything tasted was important to a happy life. Boreal knew that, even if Zalia didn¡¯t.

    Peering down at Lumin, she decided that it was up to her. The others wouldn¡¯t teach them this important life skill, so she would have to do it. Oh the cruelty of adulthood, to deal with youngsters like this one. But, Zalia had done it for her with no complaint so she would continue on with that tradition.

    Boreal snuck away from the others, easily managing the feat now that they had grown so lax. Aylie was growing up now, almost as tall as Zalia, taller than Ember already. Boreal had a feeling that she would outgrow Zalia soon. After all, Aylie was what, two years old or so?

    By her reckoning, Zalia had found Boreal six months before they had found Aylie. That meant that if Boreal was eight months and two years old, Aylie was only two years and two months old. Yes, two years and two months. That made sense. Boreal had no idea how old Zalia was, but she must be quite old indeed, ancient even, for how knowledgeable about things she was. Maybe Zalia had already tasted everything, and that is why she didn¡¯t ask the right questions. Boreal wondered if she would ever taste everything like Zalia had, and what questions would be on her mind when that time came.

    Boreal knew that the other animals in the Grove were off-bounds. Zalia didn¡¯t need to tell her that, she could feel it from her power. The Grove wouldn¡¯t let them harm each other here. Not that Boreal wanted to, as most of the animals in the Grove were quite nice once you got to know them.

    No, Boreal had a better idea anyway.

    Recently, she had been catching the odd demon here and there. Nothing bad enough to tell Zalia about just yet since they couldn¡¯t get into the Grove, but she wanted to find out where they were coming from. She knew from the past that they made nests in the ground where they caught nearby animals and created new demons. Well, she would just have to stalk one back to the nest.

    Lumin followed her, of course, as they left the statehouse, then the town completely. The last little Tin rank demon she had squashed had been in the same direction the sun awoke from. She probably should have told Zalia where they were going but she had just reached Silver rank recently, before Zalia as well, and wanted to test out her new ability. Her final ability to reach Silver was Frost Adaption which had become Embodiment of Frost

    Passive 1 - Embodiment of Frost - passive - body enhancement

    Tin - you have incredible resilience towards snowy and icy terrain and environments. This includes ignoring the majority of cold and cold-based magic damage and walking easily on ice and snow.

    Iron - you have a passive healing effect based on how cold the temperature is.

    Bronze - The passive healing effect is increased. Additionally, you may now receive a small amount of nourishment from cold temperatures, reducing your need to eat. Finally, you may emit an icy aura that creates a severely chilled area around you.

    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Silver - The icy aura around you enhances Frostbite effects. If you die, it triggers ¡°Frozen In Time¡±.

    Frozen In Time - Your body is encased in a near indestructible icy coffin within which all time is frozen. Nine days from when this is triggered, you are released from the coffin, fully healed.

    She liked the sound of Frozen In Time, it sounded comfortable. Plus, she could probably sleep that whole time as well, not worried about being pounced on by the little glowing wolf.

    Thinking about the glowing wolf, she had the ability to help with that now too.

    Active 2 - Blending Shadows - spell - channelled - body enhancement

    Tin - you are able to blend into shadows, using their darkness to hide yourself.

    Iron - when blended in a shadow you can move directly into a nearby shadow as you move.

    Bronze - While blending into a shadow, you can now manipulate the shadows around you. This enables you to stretch or extend shadows as well as creating shadowy movements that mimic your shape.

    Silver - You may extend this ability to hide nearby allies. The shadowy movements that mimic your shape are more defined and can inflict wounds with strength similar to your own.

    Extending the shadows around Lumin, she was able to stop the glowing as they both padded into the forest that had popped up around Nature¡¯s Reclaim. With Zalia living there, the land for kilometres had become a densely packed forest that was almost hard to move through even for Boreal. Almost.

    She found the body of the demon she had killed a few days ago and started tracking where it had come from. Lumin at least looked like they were trying to copy what she was doing.

    Thanks to her ability Feline Eyes, she saw the entrance to the cave that she might have otherwise missed.

    Passive 2 - Feline Eyes - passive - body enhancement

    Tin - the sharpness of your vision is dramatically increased.

    Iron - when activated, you may see heat in addition to your normal vision.

    Bronze - you are now able to see vibrations in the air and ground around you to a much more significant degree.

    Silver - Your gaze inflicts terror on those it is focused on. You can see invisible creatures.

    This demon den felt different. They had magic that was making the entrance invisible, so there must be some strong demon in there. Perfect for the hunt.

    She prowled up to the entrance, sneaking inside with Lumin by her side. They were trying to be as stealthy as she was but didn¡¯t quite manage to be silent despite her aid. That was fine, Lumin was still learning after all.

    There was one little Tin rank demon standing close to the entrance of the cave and Boreal fixed her gaze on it. The demon froze, then ice crackled along its body as Predator and Partner activated.

    Active 3 - Predator and Partner - spell - targeted

    Tin - you can use your cuteness to make others less aggressive towards you. Alternatively, you may instil a primal terror instead.

    Iron - you¡¯re able to slightly affect the actions others take in regards to you. Additionally, you can cause others bodies to betray them, causing them to freeze or run in terror.

    Bronze - You become the embodiment of fear in the animal kingdom, radiating an aura of dominance and terror that can influence even the most ferocious of beasts. Wild animals will instinctively avoid confrontation with you, and you can call upon them to aid you in times of need. Additionally, particularly cowardly enemies may turn on their allies when confronted by your presence in battle.

    Silver -  Enemies that are scared of you are frozen, literally. They are inflicted with Frostbite and cannot move.

    The ice spread slowly, covering up the sides of the demon until it was fully encased. There, it died a silent, suffocated death.

    Boreal knew that there were usually Bronze rank demons defending these dens but that would be easy for her to take on. There wasn¡¯t much they could do against her, especially if she inflicted them with terror.

    They crept past the dead Tin ranker and into the main chamber, where there were dozens of newly hatched demons. Just as she thought there were two Bronze rank ones in the centre, looking somewhat at peace. She recognised them as the shapeshifting type.

    Power built along the length of her legs, the glow building in her crystalline shards dulled and hidden away by Blending Shadows.

    She pounced.

    Active 1 - Cryokinetic Pounce - spell - body enhancement

    Tin - When charged, pouncing on something will cause it to be coated with a layer of ice and snow.

    Iron - When charged, your pounce will have greatly increased strength and weight behind it.

    Bronze - When charged, your pounce will now grant you a body-tight magical icy shield that will protect you from one attack, no matter its strength. This can only trigger once every so often.

    Silver - The icy shell can now resist two attacks and negates momentum. When landing, the layer of ice and snow created is significantly larger, as well as applying Frostbite

    When she landed on the two Bronze rankers, she unleashed her aura of terror from Predator and Partner, as well as her aura of ice from Embodiment of Frost. In an instant, the room was flash-frozen.

    Everything in the room was still, frozen in time by her powers as the demons succumbed to the cold. She could feel the fear coming from the shapeshifters in front of her, their eyes frozen wide open. Slowly, everything in the room succumbed to the ice and died, their den a scene frozen forever.

    She turned about and trotted past Lumin, out of the cave.

    ¡°That, is how it¡¯s done.¡±

 Interlude 3: 1 - Im Going On An Adventure

    Three years after the invasion¡¯s end

    It was on a beautiful Autumn day that Zalia prepared to leave Nature¡¯s Reclaim to travel across Endaria once again. Since they had settled into their comfortable. relaxed life within the Grove, Zalia had taken to travelling three or four times a year, just by herself. She loved her family more than anything but in her heart, she would always be introverted. Sometimes, she just needed to spend some time alone, to recharge.

    This had become especially true now that Aylie was fifteen. She had grown out of her silent stage, becoming more and more outspoken as the events of the past faded into memory. There were still hard times for her when the trauma of the invasion made getting out of bed impossible, or put her on a hair¡¯s edge from an emotional breakdown. Even with Ember¡¯s emotional healing ability, Zalia guessed that it would always be something that affected Aylie like that. It was simply too big a piece of her life.

    Aylie had listened to Zalia¡¯s every word like a devoted worshipper since she had saved her from the demon that had killed her family and fully intended to kill her. Those times seemed to be a thing of the past however, as the teenager quickly grew both in height and power felt the need to start taking more and more control of her life. That might have been something caused by the powerlessness she must have felt when losing her family, or just a natural part of growing up, but Zalia was thoroughly exhausted by it. She had to tip-toe around every conversation, to not cause another argument. Ember, of course, managed it with apparent ease.

    It was for this reason that Zalia was going on her fourth trip this year. Usually, she went up to the north to see Glemp, Zen and his family, to make sure they were okay and doing well. The two groups there had formed quite a nice relationship, working together towards survival. Zen and his people taught the Heat and Stone denizens about their ¡°modern¡± construction and farming techniques, while they learnt about nature and the spirits in return.

    This time, Zalia felt like going somewhere different. When she had returned from Cormaine, it had been in an expansive desert to the south of the kingdom. She had met a woman there, Sazcha. The woman had been stuck on top of a rocky outcropping surrounded by some type of underground wurm that would wait for travellers to walk overtop of them before striking. Being the first person Zalia had seen in a long while, she¡¯d had a short conversation with Sazcha before saving her from her predicament.

    Zalia wanted to go and see what life was like for those people, whether they lived in cities, roving tribes or even alone. It was another way of living that she was keen to learn about. They might even be powerful allies in the times to come if they were forged into powerful people by the hard life they lived. She suspected it might be so.

    She was a little upset that Boreal wouldn¡¯t be coming with her this time. Her fluffy companion had grown more and more independent over the last years, taking to her own adventures. She had once been gone for a month before coming back with a scar across her cheekbone and a new heirloom item. A new heirloom item called ¡°Crown of Frozen Terror¡±.

    Crown of Frozen Terror (Heirloom) - Bonded Silver rank.

    Tin - Cowardly enemies are more likely to freeze in terror at seeing you.

    Iron - Even enemies stronger of the mind have reduced reaction speed and movements while they are aware of your presence.

    Bronze - Enemies that are aware of your presence but cannot see you hear whispering footsteps, brushing fur and other sounds that distract from your real location.

    Silver - The effects of ¡°Predator and Partner¡± and ¡°Embodiment of Frost¡± are made significantly more powerful.

    Zalia had no idea where Boreal had gotten it from, nor would she even give a hint as to where she had been. The item was a cold, frozen crown that looked to be made of the same material as the icy spikes protruding from Boreal¡¯s shoulders, spine and tail. It was a half-crown, jagged and sharp, form fit to sit between Boreal¡¯s ears on her head yet floating ever so slightly.

    While Zalia was yet to rank up any of her heirlooms to Silver, Aylie had finally managed to bond with the staff that they had taken from the body of the Silver rank illusionist demon they had killed in Ostoss. Upon bonding, it had changed itself to suit Aylie, something that Zalia¡¯s own heirlooms only seemed to do when blessed or deeply bonded. She had a suspicion it had to do with her astral connection.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Starlight Priestess¡¯ Druidic Staff (Heirloom) - Bonded Silver rank.

    Tin - You can draw upon the light of the stars to emit a brilliant light from the staff.

    Iron - All Druidic and Star-based abilities are enhanced when cast through this staff.

    Bronze - When calling down Starfall, you may take extra time to cast the spell using the staff as a focus to call down a second wave.

    Silver - Using the staff as a focus, you may concentrate to form a deeper connection with the astral and spiritual worlds for a time. This allows your perception and affect on those worlds to be deepened.

    They were all there to see her off, Aylie with her gently glowing wooden staff, Boreal with her crown and Ember with her radiant smile. Lumin was there as well, of course, frolicking with the grass off to the side. Zalia had a feeling that it would take a long, long time for the pup to regain their previous power.

    Zalia herself had a big decision to make. Now that she had reached Silver rank, her Druid Grove ability had a new effect that she would need to consider strongly.

    Active 3 - Druid Grove - spell - targeted - realm

    Tin - You may place herbs in stasis. Additionally, you are able to establish a small Druid Grove.

    Iron - Herbs in stasis may now be put into a spatial storage. Plants and friendly creatures within your Druid Grove are constantly affected by the base effect of Healing presence separate to your aura.

    Bronze - The spatial storage effect of this ability is now linked with ¡®Ethereal Vault Gauntlet¡¯, creating one larger space. This space is considered part of your Druid Grove.

    Silver - Druid Groves are now only possible to remove with an extensive on-site ritual. You may have two Druid Groves. Your Groves are now managed by three ancients. These are the ancients of War, Life and Wisdom.

    Ancient of War: The Ancient of War is represented by a feline. This Ancient¡¯s purpose is to look after the defense of the Grove.

    Ancient of Life: The Ancient of Life is represented by a tree. This Ancient¡¯s purpose is to look after all living things within the Grove.

    Ancient of Wisdom: The Ancient of Wisdom is represented by a crow. This Ancient¡¯s Purpose is to consider the future of the Grove.

    Your Druid Groves are now linked together with a portal located in the Ancient Hall, allowing free travel between them.

    Druid Grove Added Effects

    Healing Presence.

    Grove Portals.

    The Three Ancients.

    Druid Grove Base Effects

    The protective energy of your Druid Grove extends to ward off harmful magical influences and creatures, providing an added layer of defence to those within its bounds.

    Your Druid Grove changes with the seasons, adapting its flora and effects accordingly. In spring, it might emphasise growth, while in winter, it offers protection from the cold.

    Your Druid Grove becomes a haven not only for plants but also for animals. Creatures within the grove may form a bond with you, aiding you in various ways.

    Mana - low / n/a

    Cd - n/a / n/a

    The Ancients were a calming presence for Zalia, knowing that the Grove would be looked after while she wasn¡¯t there.

    The Ancient of War was the same plains cat that had been there in her first Grove in Endaria. The one that had made quick friends with Boreal. It had apparently been offered a place as the protective Ancient within her Grove and accepted upon the rise of that ability to Silver rank. She often saw it prowling around the perimeter of the Grove, now Silver rank itself, and wondered what kind of powers it had.

    The Ancient of Life was the large tree at the centre of the Grove. It was¡­ awakened, kind of. She had tried a few times to talk to it and had only once managed to receive words back. What the tree was actually doing, she had no idea.

    The final Ancient, the Ancient of Wisdom, was a crow that looked exactly like the first form of Ro-ak, the one she had met before knowing he was a god. It lived in the house with them under the tree, often saying things that made no sense until a few days later. It was like having an oracle that could see the future but only spoke in a broken language that it was trying to use to make riddles.

    So far, Zalia had found the Ancients to be a little underwhelming in what they could do, but figured in a hundred years, or a thousand, they might be incredible to have around. That was, if she lived that long. Which was something she was considering now that it was a possibility. Something that she still hadn¡¯t quite wrapped her head around.

    Going by the previous ranks of Survivalist which went from reducing her requirement to eat, sleep and breathe to eliminating it, the fact that it reduced the speed at which she aged at Silver might mean it would be eliminated entirely at Emerald or Diamond rank.

    The more important part of the ability was that she could now create two Groves. She had wanted to put one up with Glemp and his people but decided against it. The mountain was quite close to her current Grove relative to the size of the world so she wanted to make one farther out. Another reason she was going to the southern desert.

    With a few final goodbye hugs and kisses, she left her family in the Grove, flying up into the sky and accelerating towards the south.

 Interlude 3: 2 - Ulzahar

    Zalia landed gently on the rocky outcropping where she had last seen Sazcha. Taking in a deep lungful of dry desert air, she looked around for any signs of life. Her vague goal was to find any kind of civilisation out here, learn something about them and if the opportunity arose, find some new herbs to take home. Mainly though, she wanted to find somewhere that she could set up her second Grove.

    She really wanted to explore further east as well, towards where the Astar kingdom existed. That would be a dangerous trip, however, not something to be taken lightly. It would be best if she took someone with her when trying to go there.

    From her vantage atop the outcropping, the world looked like an endless sea of dune waves stretching across the horizon. She remembered the direction that Sazcha had gone, yet there was nothing to be seen. From where she was, at least.

    She took flight again, coasting through the sky on eddies of wind given life by the heat of the desert. The endless nothing ahead and behind her was surprisingly refreshing, all of her concerns for the future and memories of the past seeming small in comparison to the ever-rolling dunes.

    Her reverie was broken by the sight of two figures trudging through the desert. It was a person followed by a large flat creature leashed by a strip of leather which she only barely spotted. From the air, Zalia could see that the person was armed with the same type of spear that Sazcha had had; A body height length of wood topped with a slightly curved spearhead. Without any reason not to go talk to them, she dropped down from the sky towards them.

    The figure below must have seen her shadow as she spiralled down from the sky, as they turned about to look up into the sky holding their spear at the ready.

    Without her feline backup, Zalia decided to land a healthy distance away. A healthy distance being exactly more-than-a-spear length.

    Having fully accepted the farmer look, she must have seemed quite strange dropping from the sky with her straw hat, suspended overalls, flannel shirt, solid work boots and large magical wings made of wispy cloud. She bungled the landing a little, sending sand spraying all over the place and most annoyingly, into her shoes. Taking a moment to stand up straight, brush herself off and inspect the fellow in front of her.

    He was very tall, somewhere over the six-foot mark, wearing long strips of sun-bleached cloth wrapped around his entire body save the face. There he had a type of crystal fashioned into a face covering that completely enclosed his face from top to bottom. He kind of looked like an astronaut if the astronaut wasn¡¯t airtight and had a spear. And a weird lizard thing.

    The leashed animal he was travelling with was huge, only reaching his waist yet stretching for thirteen or fourteen feet long. It had six legs stretching outwards from its body like a skinks would, two bulbous eyes covered in protective, clear eyelids. It was also covered in sand-coloured scales that she guessed would be hard as stone.

    ¡°What do you want, farmer.¡±

    He said it like an insult, spitting the word as if being a farmer were a sin.

    ¡°Okay, firstly I¡¯m not a farmer. Secondly, I just wanted to ask you if there were any¡­ cities or anything nearby. I¡¯m not super clued in to how you guys live out here.¡±

    ? - Bronze rank.

    ? - Bronze rank.

    She was settled in knowing they were only Bronze rank, while she was now Silver. Remembering the fights she¡¯d had with Silver rankers as a Bronze, she didn¡¯t like the man and lizard¡¯s chances if they did decide to attack.

    He squinted his eyes, obviously suspicious of her. She wondered if having a more powerful stranger drop down on you alone in the middle of the desert was commonly a sign that you were about to lose your belongings and possibly life out here. Personally, she would be suspicious and a little worried if she were in his position too. Also, what did this guy have against farmers?

    ¡°Where are you from then, not-farmer?¡±

    She gave him her best ¡°I¡¯m not here to kill you¡± smile.

    ¡°Endaria! I have a friend living out here, Sazcha. I¡¯m trying to find her since it¡¯s been a while and thought to look for the closest city. Have you heard of her?¡±

    He shook his head warily.

    ¡°No, but there is only the one city. The magnificent wandering city of Ulzahar.¡±

    Zalia tapped her fingers lightly on her leg as she considered.

    ¡°So it¡¯s like, a city built on the back of something? Like a giant tortoise or¡­ a beetle?¡±

    He looked at her strangely, relaxing a little as she remained unthreatening.

    ¡°On a what? No, the city itself moves.¡±

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    She stood there looking at him for a moment before he sighed.

    ¡°Fine, if it gets you to go away, the city should be somewhere in that direction,¡± he said, gesturing vaguely to the south-southwest.

    She gave him another smile.

    ¡°Wonderful! Thank you for your help. Do you want anything? Maybe a nice wooden carving or something?¡±

    He looked at her dumbfounded so in response, she summoned her chunk of wood. With quick movements of her hands that were totally unnecessary, she used Preparation and Healing Presence to grow and cut off a piece of wood. The larger chunk vanished and within a few moments, she had a wooden figurine that looked a perfect image of the man¡¯s lizard pet.

    Active 2 - Natural Matter Alteration- spell - targeted

    Tin - The careful preparation of herbs, poisonous or healing, can enhance their effects. You may magically dry, cut or otherwise prepare various foods, herbs and other similar items that are plant-based.

    Iron - Natural Matter Alteration can now be used to magically harvest plants. All bonuses from harvesting manually are still applied. You may also dry, cut or otherwise prepare foods that are not plant-based.

    Bronze - You may harvest entire plants in their healthy form to be transplanted later. These can be stored directly in your Stasis ability or bonded item ¡®Ethereal Vault Gauntlet¡¯ under those abilities'' normal conditions.

    Silver - You are able to control the shape of natural matter such as wood, stone and dirt with perfect precision. The range and amount of matter you are able to manipulate at once with this ability increases based on your rank.

    Mana - very, very low

    Cd - n/a

    It had been her last ability to rank to Silver, having been overtaken by Flora Identification in the last few weeks as she spent a few months walking around looking at plants; Something that Ember insisted most people don¡¯t do. Zalia didn¡¯t believe her though, because who wouldn¡¯t walk around looking at plants for months?

    The desert man was staring at her still, as she stood there wooden lizard held out.

    ¡°.... no?¡±

    He hesitantly stepped forward to take the lizard.

    ¡°Thanks?¡±

    Zalia gave him a final big smile as she handed it over before a single powerful wingbeat took her soaring into the sky. A few more and she was gliding through the air across the desert once more.

    She¡¯d been feeling great since coming on this trip. Travelling around was made significantly sweeter by the presence of her wings and the fact that the majority of the wildlife was unable to harm her anymore. When she had been back on her own world living in the snow she had enjoyed exploring around her little wooden hut as much as she was able but the constant danger of the million ways she could die kept her from feeling as free as she did now.

    Down below, she saw a withered little bush that she wanted to identify. She landed in a much quicker manner than before, dropping from the sky and hitting with an explosion of sand. A quick bit of wind magic using Zephyr threw any of the sand away from her this time.

    She stared down at the withered bush, proud of its stubborn will to live in such a lifeless place. It wasn¡¯t even anything special, a rankless plant managing to survive out here.

    With a touch, she was able to tell that it had no cultural significance or use in cooking, magic or otherwise. However, she also received brief flashes of vision, depicting the long and arduous life of the plant. Events of import in the life of the plant. Dropped here as a seed by an animal. Laying dormant for years before a single life-saving rain drenched the desert. A water reservoir forming underneath it due to the rain, allowing it to grow. Living off that reservoir for a long time, growing tall and strong through the months before that reservoir ran out. Reducing in size, withering and dying down until it lay dormant once more, waiting for that next life-saving rain.

    She let out a small gasp, blinking quickly as the visions faded away. Using Water Lily Petals, she cast a small ritual to create a localised rain just above the plant, allowing Healing Presence to nurse the withered shrub back to life. Once she thought the reservoir was filled once more, she gently stroked the new leaves on the shrub and flew off once more.

    The visions were a benefit of Flora Identification¡¯s Silver rank.

    Active 1 - Flora identification - spell - targeted

    Tin - Poison, cure or food, you''ll know. You may identify whether the targeted flora is poisonous, helpful, nutritious or all of the above.

    Iron - You may now identify what elements different flora contain.

    Bronze - Your ability to identify flora extends to understanding their role within ecosystems, including their interactions with other plants and animals, aiding in ecological preservation efforts. Additionally, you gain knowledge about the historical uses and significance of the identified flora, allowing you to uncover hidden cultural or magical insights related to them.

    Silver - You are now able to tell the life cycle of identified flora. When identifying a plant, you are given flashes of the plant''s life.

    With it, she had seen the life and cycle of many different plants, giving her a deeper understanding of the natural world around her. The most interesting plants to see the life of were the most ancient ones. The trees that were hundreds of years old that had seen Zalia¡¯s current lifespan many times over. She even wanted to return to Cormaine, just to see the life of that Living Trapvine that had protected Ro¡¯s power for so long.

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    A few days later, she finally found the city. It had taken quite some flying back and forth, speaking to the odd desert dweller here and there before she saw it.

    From what she could tell, the desert people lived as free as can be, venturing into the rolling wasteland on their own or in small groups to hunt for food and literally anything else of interest. The magnificent wandering city of Ulzahar lived up to its name in a spectacular manner. It was a complex of hundreds of buildings, sprawled across a large section of flat sandstone. The huge sandstone block itself was half suspended in the air by some type of magic, carving a path through the sand.

    Zalia stared at it in wonder, trying to figure out how exactly the thing had been created. Even Matthias, the only other sand mage she had known couldn¡¯t have managed something like this. That either meant these people lived in a more tight-knit community than she realised, or a really powerful mage had created it. That meant this thing might be really important.

    She flew towards it with many questions on her mind.

 Interlude 3: 3 - Sazcha

    Before talking to anyone, Zalia wandered through the streets of the moving city called Ulzahar. She¡¯d had her aura ability Healing Presence restrained since entering the desert, since she had no idea what kind of effect it would have. Revitalising the entire landscape and returning it to a forest sounded good to her, but it was also unnatural and disturbing to whatever life did live in the desert.

    The city itself wasn¡¯t anything like those that were in Endaria. While they were beautifully shaped buildings of stone and wood that looked like it had grown into a house rather than having been built into one, these looked more like sand had built up from storms over time to create a wind-blown structure. They were oddly formed, some with jagged edges and others smoother than she thought possible, as if polished. Each building was different from the others but they all held a similarity in that they were made from sandstone and sandstone alone. No other materials were used in their construction, no wood or normal stone; not even dirt or mud.

    The people there were much as the few travelers she had encountered. Wrapped up in cloth, many the same sun-bleached white. There was some variance in that within the more central areas of the city however. It looked like the people there spent the majority of their time within the city, some having stalls that sold pieces of different animals or artifacts. What surprised her the most was the average rank of a person within the city. The people wearing sun-bleached cloth all seemed to be Silver or Gold rank with few exceptions. The stall owners and others wearing more colourful clothing, as well as the younger population, were lower ranked sitting at Bronze for the most part.

    It made sense to Zalia, as these people must live in a kill-or-be-killed manner with the environment around them. Being higher ranked, many of the desert dwellers would have anti-aging abilities, as well as potentially needing much less water and food like she did. It was almost a given if you thought about how scarce any resource other than sand was. She also thought they weren¡¯t hunted when reaching too high a rank by the Astar, considering how many high-ranked people were just walking the streets going about their day. There must be Emerald or even Diamond rank people around if these were the norm.

    Where the Endarians were numerous, low-ranked and spread across many cities and towns, the people of the desert were longer-lived, lesser in number and much more powerful. It brought up memories of being taught evolution in school back when she was a kid. If a species lived in a hostile environment, they tended towards longer lives with traits that made them much harder to kill. Alternately, if a species lived in a bountiful and safe environment, they tended towards shorter lives and traits that allowed for quicker reproduction.

    It was very interesting to her to see evolution displayed so starkly not through the separation of species but through the evolution of their society and magic level.

    After an hour of wandering about, getting odd looks from some of the locals and losing herself in the city, Zalia decided it was time to try talking to some people. There were a few specific questions she wanted answered; are there any other cities out here? What is on the other side of the desert? Where is Sazcha? Most importantly, is there any oasis of any kind within the desert?

    The desert people were such a small community, maybe a thousand people at the most which is why she wasn¡¯t surprised to find someone who knew Sazcha so quickly. It was also partially thanks to Hunter¡¯s Sight¡¯s Silver rank effect.

    Passive 1 - Hunter¡¯s Sight - passive - body enhancement

    Tin - The hunter tracks their prey. You can track creatures easier. When tracking you learn very basic information such as number of legs, number of creatures and general size of creatures.

    Iron - you now learn how long ago a creature left tracks and may apply a Hunter¡¯s Mark if tracking it for more than an hour.

    Bronze - you are now able to discern finer details from tracking your prey. These details include things such as maturity stage, general health and even the individual who left the tracks if they are known to you. Additionally, you gain an innate sense of direction.

    Silver - When you know the target you are tracking, you are able to see who or what that target has interacted with in the past seven days even if tracks are not present.

    Thinking of Sazcha as her target, many of the people around lit up immediately, along with various doors and roads. She stepped up to a nearby vendor who was glowing to her sight.

    ¡°Have you seen Sazcha?

    He glanced up at her, looking annoyed that she wasn¡¯t there to buy some of the ancient pieces of pottery he was selling labeled as ¡°Pottery from the ancient civilisation of Yi¡¯thar¡±.

    ¡°And why do you want to know where Sazcha is Endarian?¡±

    ¡°I met her a few years ago and saved her life, I want to see how she¡¯s doing.¡±

    He regarded her strangely, a look of reverence passing over his face at her words.

    ¡°What is your name?¡±

    Zalia furrowed her brow.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Zalia.¡±

    He nodded, then walked from behind his stall and gestured for her to follow.

    ¡°Come, I will show you to her.¡±

    She glanced at his now empty stall, items still laid out on a cloth atop its surface.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t worried about¡­¡±

    He glanced back.

    ¡°What, thieves? No, we have honour here.¡±

    She wanted to object, but followed him anyway. Without any other information about the woman, this was her best chance at the moment. She wasn¡¯t trusting him blindly though. Even if the vendor was only Bronze rank, the average rank in this city meant it wouldn¡¯t take much for him to lead her into a trap.

    ¡°Where are we going?¡±

    He slowed down a little so she could catch up, then pointed to the city outskirts.

    ¡°Sazcha is using one of the rooms on the edge at the moment. You are lucky to have gotten here at the right time, she usually only stays here for a few days before heading off into the deserts again.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you know her personally then? Is that how you know about me saving her?¡±

    He grunted in amusement.

    ¡°Of course I know her. Everyone knows everyone here. But no, she didn¡¯t tell me about that personally. We take a life debt very seriously here, with each debt owed by who to who being writ down in the records. Each day, any new debts are shown in the hall. I remember yours since it was a name I had not seen before.¡±

    ¡°And how do you know I am who I say I am?¡±

    The vendor stepped aside for a Gold ranker before replying.

    ¡°I don¡¯t, but she will.¡±

    He pointed to a building further down the road; a figure leaning against one of its walls. Sazcha.

    ¡°If you¡¯re lying, she¡¯ll kick your ass.¡±

    Sazcha looked up at them as she noticed the vendor pointing. A series of expressions passed over her face starting at surprised, moving through concerned and ending on mildly annoyed.

    The vendor left them to it, going back towards the centre of the city. Zalia closed the distance between herself and Sazcha.

    "Hey!"

    Sazcha looked her up and down.

    "Hello. Come to cash in the debt I owe you I see."

    Zalia held up a single finger.

    "Actually, no, it didn''t start that way. I came here to learn about your people and find you again. I happened to learn about this whole debt thing from that vendor back there. If you''re willing to help me out with why I came to find you though, I''ll consider it repaid."

    Sazcha pursed her lips, thinking.

    "Alright, I''ll bite. I was going to go find the ruins that vendor got his pottery fragments from but it''s always best to be rid of your debts when they come calling. What do you want?"

    Zalia clapped her hands, rubbing them together with excitement.

    "Alright! So, I want to know a few things, then I want to find a place. Which would you prefer to do first?"

    "Well, it depends. What kind of place are you looking to find and what kind of things are you hoping to know?"

    Zalia tapped her fingers rapidly on her leg.

    "Ok so, I''ve got this... thing I want to set up but I need a relatively nice place out here to do it in. Well, I guess I don''t necessarily need a nice place first, but I''d like one. I suppose I''m looking for an oasis or something like that, one that people aren''t too attached to. As for the things I want to know, I''d love to know how far the desert goes and what''s on the other side. I''m also here to learn about your people but I can do that along the way."

    Sazcha eyed her.

    "You know, maybe we can both get what we want here. The place I was about to head out to is an old, old temple dedicated to some god that no one remembers, once a part of the great civilisation of Yi''thar, if that vendor is to be believed. People say that the place is haunted, that those who are unwary will be killed entering its premises. Now I know that all sounds pretty bad but it''s surrounded by a nice copse of trees and a deep reservoir. What say we go there, I''ll tell you what I know about the other side of the desert, split whatever is inside the temple fifty-fifty, then call it a done deal. It''ll be safer with two of us."

    Zalia watched the woman closely, trying to judge if she was trying to trick her somehow. She hadn''t given Zalia any reason to distrust her so far, nor had she last time they had met. Sazcha had been Iron rank then, but now boasted a powerful Silver rank. It seemed life in the desert was just as dangerous as Zalia''s normally unusual life was. She wasn''t worried about being able to defeat Sazcha in a fight if it came to that, as unlikely as she thought that would be. The only concern was being led into a trap or being taken by surprise. She had to be a little more careful out here alone, without Boreal by her side. Of course, she still had extremely powerful healing, anti-death ability and protective abilities such as Protection of the Wilds.

    Active 2 - Protection of the wilds - spell - area - counter execute

    Tin - You call upon the protection of the wilds. You and nearby allies are protected by a biome specific shield and are subjected to a moderate heal over time effect. The heal over time heals exponentially more based on how low the target''s health is and remains until the shield is broken.

    Iron - Protection of the Wilds now has a more ethereal and moving visage. You and Allies within a shield created by this ability may still see and move as normal. Additionally, you may enhance this ability with a single effect replicable by the Iron rank ability of Herbal magic.

    Bronze - Upon activating Protection of the Wilds, you and your allies within the shields are not only healed over time, but the healing effect becomes more potent as the shield absorbs damage. The shield''s resilience increases with the amount of healing it provides, creating a symbiotic relationship between protection and restoration.

    Silver - The shield created by Protection of the Wilds now stores all damage it takes, releasing a single powerful attack focused on who or what broke it. The nature of this attack is based on what type of damage is done to the shield.

    Mana - very high mana

    Cd - 6 hours

    The rank-up effect was representative of her often using the ability not as a tool to heal up from a dangerous wound, but to give her the room to ignore incoming attacks and launch her own carefree.

    "Alright, I''m down for it. When do you want to head out?"

    Sazcha gave her a broad, almost predatory smile.

    "Right away, if you''re ready."

    Zalia felt that the woman had somehow gained more out of this than she had. She wasn''t bothered by that one bit.

 Interlude 3: 4 - Pyramid

    Zalia slowed to a hover, again, as Sazcha dropped down to the sand.

    ¡°Do you really have to land every time you check we¡¯re headed in the right direction,¡± she called down.

    Sazcha looked up, then shaded her eyes against the sun, panning around.

    ¡°Yes, the dunes can¡¯t guide me from up there.¡±

    It hadn¡¯t taken Sazcha long to adapt to the flight, yet for some reason she was unable to guide them unless landed. While Sazcha wouldn¡¯t tell her why, Zalia guessed it was one of her abilities. In fact, despite seeing a lot of high-ranked people, she hadn¡¯t seen any flying. She would have guessed it would be extremely common, making the traversal of the desert much easier. Sazcha didn¡¯t have anything against flying or she wouldn¡¯t be doing it, so Zalia doubted it was a cultural thing.

    She tried discerning where they were from in the sky but the desert all looked the same as it had the day before and the day before that. Landing next to Sazcha, she tried to figure out what exactly the woman was seeing that she was not.

    ¡°How¡­ are you determining where we¡¯re going?¡±

    Sazcha glanced at her, then went back to what she was doing.

    ¡°It¡¯s complicated.¡±

    Zalia waited.

    With a sigh, Sazcha looked back at her.

    ¡°I know where we are by how the dunes form. Even though the dunes might all look the same to you, there is a chaos to the order that you can use to differentiate between one place and another.¡±

    Zalia stared blankly, not understanding a word.

    ¡°Come here and look over there.¡±

    She stepped over and looked towards where Sazcha was pointing.

    ¡°Um¡­ what am I looking at?¡±

    Sazcha shook her head, muttering.

    ¡°Look. Dunes form in waves perpendicular to the wind. The small section of land between the desert and the sea west of Endaria, north of us, is a plains. Winds are always blowing off the sea into the desert, causing the dunes to build in a certain pattern. If you use that, plus the location of the sun, you can figure out where we are.¡±

    Zalia stared at her. Whoever had figured that out and passed it down to Sazcha must have been incredibly intelligent. She knew that the hot air created in the desert would rise, pulling in the cooler air from the sea and surrounding land but using that and the formation of the dunes to determine one¡¯s location was incredible, something she never would have come up with.

    Granted, the method wasn¡¯t perfect and by no means accurate but when you were in a desert filled with a whole lot of nothing, you didn¡¯t have to aim for your destination with any amount of exactness unless it was hidden.

    ¡°Ok, I get it kind of. So is that how you all navigate the desert then?¡±

    Sazcha scoffed.

    ¡°What? No, only this part. The dunes tell a different story wherever you go.¡±

    Zalia rolled her eyes.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got some kind of ability that helps you read the dunes though, don¡¯t you? Something that you need to be landed to use.¡±

    Sazcha looked down from the sky, checking the dunes once more.

    ¡°Ah, this way.¡±

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    She took off into the sky once more.

    With a sigh, Zalia followed.

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    Zalia and Sazcha stood atop a dune looking over a single structure. It was made of huge, roughly shaped sandstone blocks forming a pyramid shape that was missing a wall. It was hollow, a wide set of stairs leading down into the ground and out of sight. Chiseled into the sandstone blocks was imagery of sandstorms, many with people fleeing from them.

    Around the pyramid were two dozen trees that reminded Zalia of palm trees, only these had branches that stabbed diagonally into the sky rather than large arching leaves. Centred in the trees and on the side of the pyramid with the opening, sat a small calm pool of turquoise water.

    ¡°Well, that is pretty much exactly what I asked for.¡±

    Sazcha lay a hand on her shoulder in a friendly manner.

    ¡°I thought it might be.¡±

    Zalia took another look at the markings on the sandstone blocks.

    ¡°Now I probably should have asked this before, but how haunted is this place exactly?¡±

    She wasn¡¯t exactly prepared to fight spirits, though she was certain that her sword and bow would be able to harm them with their starlight powers. If that failed, she could always use Manifest to cast spiritual rituals. Her preference would be to make peace with any possible spirits though, as they might prove valuable to Aylie in the use of her Spiritual Connection ability.

    ¡°Well, if the person I spoke to is to be believed, which they should be, there are a few Bronze ranked spirits on the first few floors of the place, with Silvers appearing further down. The guy I spoke to, who was a contact of that vendor, never got to the bottom. Said something warned him away from going down any further.¡±

    Zalia nodded a few times.

    ¡°Okay, sure. Don¡¯t go too deep and we should be fine.¡±

    Sazcha peered at her.

    ¡°I usually wouldn¡¯t do this but before we go in, it¡¯s best we share what our skill sets are,¡± she gestured to her long bladed spear, ¡°I am a fighter class, with sand magic as a specialisation. I mostly do melee combat with disabling abilities related to my sand magic and a little bit of minor healing.¡± She sighed. ¡°And yes, an ability that helps me navigate.¡±

    Zalia pointed at Sazcha.

    ¡°Ha! I knew it wasn¡¯t just you looking at the dunes.¡±

    ¡°All of us learn to navigate by the dunes before we ge-¡±

    ¡°And are any of your abilities capable of hitting something incorporeal?¡±

    Sazcha sighed.

    ¡°Kind of. I can enhance my weapon with magic, which usually hits most things.¡±

    Even if it didn¡¯t, Zalia thought she might be able to cast some kind of weapon enhancement ritual.

    ¡°Alright, sounds good. I¡¯m a Hunter, Herbalist and Druid. Focus around hunting things down, ritual magic and powerful long cooldown abilities. Usually use a bow but can use a sword when necessary. I¡¯ve got a lot of healing and good defensive abilities. Here, these are the three that are probably most important for you to know about.¡±

    She shared the descriptions of Healing Presence, Nature¡¯s Wrath and Protection of the Wilds with her.

    Active 1 - Nature''s Wrath - spell - area

    Tin - You invoke the wrath of nature. Nearby enemies are bound by vines, sinking sand or other area related hazards. Enemies are also subjected to a damage over time effect relevant to biome that lasts until the restraint has ended. The damage over time effect deals moderate damage per second.

    Iron - When used, Nature''s wrath now summons two short lived allies of nature. The allies are one rank lower than this ability. The allies are of a type based on the surrounding environment.

    Bronze - Upon using Nature''s Wrath, you gain temporary control over the natural elements within the area. You can manipulate the environment to your advantage, causing vines to entangle enemies, rocks to rise as barriers, or water to surge forth and sweep foes away.

    Silver - The mana drain from continued use of Nature¡¯s Wrath is reduced. The range and ability to manipulate the elements from this ability is increased greatly. You now summon five elemental allies instead of two. The Tin rank effect no longer restrains enemies in place, instead dragging them all towards each other.

    Mana - extreme mana

    Cd - 6 hours

    Sazcha frowned.

    ¡°Hunter, Herbalist¡­ and Druid?¡±

    ¡°What!? Three? Is that something that you Endarians can do somehow?¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°No, just me. Still haven¡¯t figured out why or how it happened yet, though I do have some clues.¡±

    ¡°That should help, having three classes must be great assuming you get just as many abilities per class. These abilities look very strong as well. How are you against spirits?¡±

    Zalia stepped off the top of the dune and started floating down towards the pyramid.

    ¡°I¡¯ll manage!¡± she called back.

 Interlude 3: 5 - Spiritual Unrest

    Zalia knelt by a palm tree, inspecting it. With a touch, she received flashes of images lost to time as the desert transformed around the tree, pond and pyramid. The dunes around shifted and moved, some building and others being worn down. Just as Sazcha had said though, they always formed facing in the same direction.

    She was pulled from the flashing images as they ended, met with a little notification.

    Woody Palm - Unranked.

    These trees grow by small pools formed across the northern edge of the desert. They are seen as signs of safety, leading the way for thirsty desert dwellers.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m ready to go in.¡±

    Sazcha was waiting nearby, watching as Zalia inspected the trees and pool. There wasn¡¯t anything growing or living in the turquoise water, just the trees nearby.

    They walked up to the pyramid, Zalia summoning her sword as Sazcha cast a spell. A swirling mini storm of sand floated up and wrapped around her blade, some of the grains of sand glowing as they heated up.

    ¡°You have two heirlooms?¡± Sazcha asked, glancing from her glove to her sword.

    ¡°Three,¡± Zalia corrected, summoning her armour as well.

    Sazcha stared at her wide-eyed.

    ¡°Where did you find so many? Who are you?¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°I just kind of stumble across them. One was given to me and the other two I found in an abandoned city filled with undead in another world.¡±

    Sazcha stared at her in confusion for so long Zalia wondered if her translation power had broken.

    ¡°I-¡±

    Sazcha shook her head.

    ¡°Nevermind, let¡¯s go.¡±

    They moved down the wide stairway leading into the darkness, both at the ready.

    The stairway slowly narrowed until it stopped at a doorway, the arch of which was covered in more depictions of sandstorms, this time they had some human features like eyes or were shaped in a vaguely humanoid manner. She wondered if this old civilisation had worshipped the sandstorms or if she had discovered what might be another nature spirit.

    They walked through the arch and into pitch darkness, Zalia able to see by her many forms of vision and Sazcha by her warmly glowing sand embers. Past the arch was a complex, with corridors and doorways set into walls.

    ¡°Want to head deeper straight away?¡± Zalia asked in a whisper.

    Sazcha nodded and they walked forward, coming to a T intersection. To the right was another corridor and to the left, a set of stairs spiraling down with a single glowing spirit stood at its top.

    Disturbed Spirit - Bronze rank.

    Zalia glanced at Sazcha and she gestured as if to say ¡°all yours.¡±

    She stepped around the corner and walked towards the spirit, weapon stored away and hands held in a placating gesture. The spirit was an amorphous torso with a head and two limbs that could be called arms, though there were no hands present. The head had two eyes and no other shape or form.

    ¡°Hello spirit, I see you¡¯ve been disturbed by something. Do you need help?¡±

    The spirit turned ever so slightly to look at her and an opening formed where its mouth would have been if it were a person. A quiet whispering echoed around the halls saying something she couldn¡¯t understand.

    She furrowed her brow, trying to decipher its whisperings.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t understand. Is there something you could show me?¡±

    The whisperings grew louder, angrier.

    She took a step back, hands still held open in front of her.

    ¡°Woah, okay. Please don¡¯t attack me.¡±

    The spirit must not have understood her either because the moment she spoke, it attacked.

    Her blade was in her hand before it reached her, the spirit floating towards her at speed. It had one arm reaching out towards her head which she immediately slashed at.

    The blade passed straight through, leaving a burning blue gash. The whispering turned to a high-pitched scream as it flinched away from her. With the strike, Hunter¡¯s Mark was applied.

    Active 2 - Hunter''s Mark - spell - targeted - channel

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Tin - Marked by the hunter, there is no escape. This ability marks a creature you can see. Marked creature takes a small amount of extra damage when damaged by you. You know the general direction of the marked enemy. Marking a second creature removes the first mark.

    Iron - you may apply Hunter''s Mark to three creatures at once

    Bronze - the three creature limit increases to ten and a small amount of damage a marked creature takes is applied to other marked creatures as well.

    Silver - Any damaging ability or attack now applies Hunter¡¯s Mark. When applied this way, the mark does not count towards the mark limit. Marked creatures are more susceptible to controlling effects such as restraint and are slowed.

    Mana - very low/s

    Cooldown - n/a

    The blue starlit fire burned through its arm, severing it in moments. Zalia took a step forward and cut upwards with her blade, setting the spirit alight down the length of its entire body. The scream withered out and died, just as the spirit did.

    She turned back to Sazcha, sword still held overhead.

    ¡°Well, they¡¯re pretty easy to kill at least.¡±

    Sazcha snorted in amusement.

    ¡°Easier to kill than to make conversation with apparently.¡±

    Down the stairway, Zalia saw something glowing. She prepared her sword, thinking it was another spirit at first. Looking closer though, she could see that it wasn¡¯t a spirit at all, rather a little ethereal root sprouting from between the sandstone brickwork.

    Sazcha stepped past her and down the stairway to touch the root but her hand passed right through it.

    ¡°Damn,¡± she muttered.

    Zalia stepped up and nudged her aside.

    ¡°Watch and learn.¡±

    She opened her vault door and stepped inside, letting Sazcha stare in wonder at the beautifully decorated sandstone arch that had appeared out of nowhere. Walking to the back, she collected a little wooden bowl of paste, something she had discovered with Ember all those years ago.

    Manifest Paste (Potent) - Silver rank.

    Capable of solidifying incorporeal beings.

    Turning about and leaving the vault, stepping around the gawking Sazcha, she applied some of the paste to the root and found that it went on as if the root were entirely solid. Once that was done, she checked it with Flora Identification.

    Hundreds of years flashed by in an instant, each image the same as the last. It had been here¡­ forever and the only image that was different was one of a man wandering down the steps, some pottery fragments sticking out of his bag.

    Soulroot - Iron rank  - Use in rituals to add an element of Soul.

    This root forms in places of spiritual unrest, often accompanied by various disrupted and enraged spirits. The cause of these kinds of places is extremely varied.

    She used Natural Matter Alteration to harvest the root sending it straight to her vault, the process enhanced by her passive, Harvester.

    Passive 1 - Harvester - passive - skill enhancement

    Tin - The herbalist harvests herbs and other flora, with which they do what they will. You gain an instinctual understanding of how to harvest flora of your rank and lower. When harvesting flora of your rank or lower it has increased potency.

    Iron - You are able to sense nearby herbs and flora of a type you have already harvested before.

    Bronze - Plants you harvest of a rank lower than yours are granted additional potency to match your rank. Additionally, plants that are transplanted by you have increased resiliency.

    Silver - Once you have harvested a plant, other plants of that type communicate with you. The information these plants communicate with you is dependent on their nature but will often be things such as insights into the health of the environment, or a source of corruption as well as potential dangers.

    Immediately, her perception of the underground complex was widened. She could sense more and more of the Soulroot growing further down and a sense of both danger and corruption was emanating from the bottom floor. It was obvious that it was the bottom floor, as there were no more of the plants growing below that point.

    She could feel it, the sense being communicated to her by the plant. A powerful presence, the source of the spiritual unrest.

    This felt like something that she was better equipped to handle than almost anyone else, the amount of time she had spent around Ascendant beings and other shades and souls, as well as trying to teach Aylie about her own soul and astral related powers. Hell, she had revived a god, how hard could it be to fix a little spiritual unrest?

    They descended further, finding the place emptied of anything valuable. She had a feeling that the guy who had been here before them must have cleared out the first few floors. As such, they agreed to find the quickest way down to the point they started finding Silver rank spirits.

    While the Bronze ones were easy for the two of them to take out, both of their weapons being equally effective, the Silvers were much harder.

    Once again, Zalia tried to talk to the spirits.

    ¡°Please, I want to help. Why are you attacking us? I can stop whatever this is that is causing your pain.¡±

    Once more, her pleading didn¡¯t work.

    A more effective weapon she had found to fight against the spirits was soulfire. Using Flame-root and Soulroot, she cast a ritual that burned through the spirits in moments. With Hunter¡¯s Mark cast on ten different spirits, the soulfire also appeared on all ten.

    Passive 2 - Herbal magic - passive - varied

    Tin - Minor herbal-based rituals are a keystone of magical herbalists. You gain an instinctual understanding of herbal rituals of your rank or lower. Herbal magic you use of your rank and lower has slightly increased potency.

    Iron - you may emulate the effects of herbs you have used in rituals of a rank lower than this ability.

    Bronze - When applying a Herbal ritual effect to a target marked by Hunter¡¯s mark, all other marked targets are also affected. In addition, you are able to combine certain herbs to gain a new base effect.

    Silver - Your living rituals become almost indistinguishable from natural magic. The scale of your ritual magic expands, allowing you to now perform significantly larger and longer rituals.

    The spirits dissipated with hissing whispering sounds, their anger dissipating in her soulfire.

    They were four floors down now and Zalia could feel the cause of the spiritual unrest was on the next. Sazcha was starting to look unsettled and Zalia knew why. Where the Soulroot did not inform her, her magical senses did. Whatever it was that was on the next floor, it was Ascendant rank. It was easily distinguishable as such, yet the power radiating from it might have been something of Gold rank, like it was diminished or lessened in some way.

    ¡°I can see why that other guy didn¡¯t go further down,¡± Sazcha said.

    They stood before the stairs down the next floor, both of them hesitant.

    Sucking in her fear, Zalia took the first step down the stairs.

 Interlude 3: 6 - Spirit

    As they stepped into the room at the bottom of the stairs, Zalia was taken aback by its contents. It was a lab, a rectangular room filled with tables covered in various scientific instruments that she didn¡¯t recognise. The source of the Ascendant aura was a giant sphere in the centre of the space. It was made of hundreds of rings, each bigger than the last and each spinning on a different axis. Something at the centre of the sphere was glowing with a golden light that only escaped through a gap in the rings once every few seconds. In the irregular flashes of light, a single Gold rank spirit could be seen. The only reason they didn¡¯t immediately leave the room was that Zalia¡¯s soulfire was able to take out the Silver ranked spirits in seconds.

    Sazcha immediately prepared herself for a fight, spear enhanced by her swirling molten sand.

    Zalia did the same, holding her sword up. Despite having seen them, it wasn¡¯t yet attacking so Zalia tried once again to talk to it.

    ¡°Hey, I know you¡¯re angry because of¡­ whatever this spinning orb is but please, let us help.¡±

    The spirit looked at them, opening its mouth in a silent scream.

    ¡°Oh for fuck¡¯s sake.¡±

    The silence was broken by an ear-splitting sound so loud it burst her eardrums. She held her hands to her ears as the broken silence was returned to her and blood dribbled out.

    While Healing Presence worked on repairing her wound, Zalia cast the ritual of soulfire, lighting the spirit up in a ghostly flickering flame that worked hard to eat at its being. Sazcha, quicker on the beat than Zalia was, had already dashed up to the being and was slashing through it with her spear. The spirit ignored the fire and the spear, then punched Sazcha with lightning speed.

    A scream left Sazcha as a ghostly afterimage pushed out of her body, flying backwards. Her physical body followed quickly, snapping back together with it. The spirit had tried to punch her soul out of her body.

    As Sazcha lay panting, arching her back in pain, Zalia shot four, then five arrows through the spirit. Each left a glowing line that burned at it from the inside. It was beginning to look tattered at the edges, like a piece of parchment left sitting in dust too long.

    It floated towards her and Zalia activated Protection of the Wilds, using Soulroot as the enhancing herb for the ability. At first, nothing seemed to happen and Zalia was worried that the spirit had somehow countered her ability. Then she felt, rather than saw, that the shield was indeed in place over both herself and Sazcha. The woman began to recover, the healing and protection of the ability now both altered to affect the soul.

    The spirit tried to do to Zalia what it had done to Sazcha, punching at her with a single powerful strike. Zalia felt the impact on her shield, cracks forming across its entire surface. It wouldn¡¯t take another hit.

    She shot with her bow point blank, using the little boost of speed and invisibility to try to get away from it. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t seem the thing saw using any type of normal sight. Another quick punch made her shield explode, a spike of energy with power equal to two of the spirit''s punches being returned right back at it. Half of its torso and one arm were blown away by the strike yet it seemed unphased, still approaching Zalia.

    She activated Fight or Flight as the spirit suddenly sped up towards her.

    Active 3 - Fight or Flight - spell - cleanse - body enhancement

    Tin - choose one;

    <ul>

    <li>When used your perception increases greatly for five seconds.</li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li>Remove all slowing and restraining effects and prevent further slowing and restraining effects for the next five seconds.</li>

    </ul>

    Iron - Option one now grants the ability to sense if you''re going to be hit by an attack and where the attack is coming from within the duration.

    Option two now grants you increased speed and dexterity.

    Bronze - Fight or Flight now grants both options at once rather than having to choose between.

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Silver - Your body now temporarily adapts to the danger when this ability is used. In addition, your Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Resilience all increase for the duration of the ability.

    Mana - medium

    Cooldown - 1 minute

    She felt her body surge with power even as time seemed to slow. The attacks of the spirit were no longer untraceable as she dodged its next strike and her body had fundamentally changed somehow so that it could resist the spirit''s soul attacks better. Her bow turned to sword and she struck out at the spirit in every opportunity she could get.

    It just wasn¡¯t enough.

    Zalia might have been quick and able to see where the spirit would attack but after using her teleport to dodge the previous attack, the thing spun around and dashed at her, managing to grab onto her with a sweeping arm.

    She felt it latch onto her soul and pull.

    The pain was excruciating as she saw her own ghostly afterimage being ripped from her body. She fought with everything she had, casting a Soulroot major Dodge-vine minor ritual to increase her resistance to the attack. Her attacks didn¡¯t stop even as the pain increased, her sword swiping through the tattered and torn spirit as quickly as she was able.

    Her attacks slowed as her consciousness began to fade but then Sazcha was there, striking through the spirit with her spear in precise quick attacks.

    All the damage they had done to it soon added up as the strength of its pulling lessened. Zalia fought even harder, pulling on an invisible string between her soul and body to pull herself back together.

    Just before she lost consciousness, Zalia used Hunter¡¯s Mark on the spinning sphere and gave the spirit a final stab empowered by Kill Shot.

    Active 1 - Kill Shot - spell - targeted - execute

    Tin - Enhance an attack, go for the kill. This ability deals a tiny amount of damage. The damage of this ability scales exponentially with the target''s missing health.

    Iron - Kill Shot deals increased damage based on how many separate effects you have active on the creature.

    Bronze - Kill Shot gains Enhanced Shot. You are able to infuse arrows with an element your herbal magic ability can create or execute a kill shot putting this ability on cooldown for thirty seconds.

    Silver - if Kill Shot kills the target, excess damage is transferred to the nearest target marked by Hunter''s Mark. Enhanced Shot becomes Enchanced Attack with the element infusion working on any weapon you have a proficiency with.

    Mana - high

    Cooldown - 30 seconds

    The spirit, which was so close to dying that it was almost entirely faded away, evaporated. The overkill damage done by Kill Shot bounced towards the sphere and Zalia passed out.

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    Zalia woke up what felt like seconds later but must have been quite some time. She was propped up against the wall with Sazcha nearby inspecting the sphere. A cough racked her body, followed by a few more. Everything hurt in that weird way it tended to when she overstrained with passive abilities. Using a Frozen Heart major and Soulroot minor ritual, she applied a healing spell to her soul. The strain and strange pain began to fade away.

    ¡°I guess I owe you a debt now.¡±

    Sazcha looked at her and cocked her head in confusion.

    ¡°You owe me? Why? You¡¯re the one that took its attention away from me after it smacked my soul out of my body with that first hit.¡±

    Zalia held a finger up.

    ¡°But, you wouldn¡¯t have come down here if I didn¡¯t take the first step, then you did enough damage to it that my spell could finish it off before the thing killed me¡­ or rip my soul out or something.¡±

    Sazcha shrugged.

    ¡°Alright, I can see your side of it if you insist. But remember we don¡¯t take these debts lightly.¡±

    Zalia gave her a weak smile.

    ¡°I know.¡±

    It might have been a bad idea for her to insist on the debt like that but it was for a good reason, or so Zalia thought. She wanted to make allies with the desert people and it seemed like honouring their way of life might be a good way to begin going about it. Yes, she would have to pay out that debt when Sazcha came calling but it gave her reason for a continued presence amongst their community in future. She would need their goodwill if they were going to be alright with her setting up a Grove in their desert.

    ¡°You chipped one of the spinning rings. Might clueing me in as to why you did that?¡±

    Zalia looked back up at her and the sphere.

    ¡°Oh, because I think I figured out what exactly is in that thing.¡±

    Sazcha turned to look at her again.

    ¡°And what is that?¡±

    ¡°A god of nature, an Ascendant like the others, possibly the god of the desert. Trapped here in this sphere somehow.¡±

 Interlude 3: 7 - Freeing the Storm

    Sazcha stared down at Zalia from where she stood next to the many-ringed sphere.

    ¡°And you thought it was a good idea to break the cage holding that thing why exactly? If it is some god like you say, we don¡¯t know it wouldn¡¯t just kill us the second we let it free. Did you not see all the pictures of storms chasing people engraved on this pyramid?¡±

    Zalia stood up, groaning at how sore she felt. Not sore in her muscle or bone, but her very soul.

    ¡°I did and we don¡¯t know, that¡¯s true. A simple fact remains though and that is that this god does not belong here, it should not be trapped in this sphere. The nature gods might seem purposeless and vacant but I know that they serve a very important purpose. I know it is not evil, just as I know it isn¡¯t good either. It simply is nature, the nature of the desert.¡±

    Sazcha crossed her arms, remaining unconvinced.

    ¡°Sure but I¡¯m not letting you break that thing free until you tell me how exactly you know it is what you say it is. How do you know it¡¯s one of these nature gods you talk of.¡±

    Zalia walked over to the sphere and held her hand over it. Floating along the line of power that was the Ascendant aura was a¡­ nature. As Nateysta had once explained it, the aura of an Ascendant was not the same as a normal persons, it was their very being. What escaped only once every few seconds was the desert, the dunes, the hot breeze that flowed above it, the beating sun, the freezing nights and the desert storms. To Zalia, it was clear as day that whatever lay in this sphere could be nothing else and she had been around enough Ascendants to know.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you feel it? To me, it feels like the desert itself resides in this sphere.¡±

    Sazcha put her hand up next to Zalia¡¯s, trying to feel what she felt. After a minute she furrowed her brow.

    ¡°Kind of? All I get is a sense of¡­ home.¡±

    ¡°And home to you is?¡±

    Sazcha sighed.

    ¡°Alright, point taken. Fuck it, why not? What could go wrong?¡±

    Zalia put a supportive hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°That¡¯s the spirit!¡±

    Sazcha glared at her.

    Zalia smiled.

    ¡°Get it? Spirit?¡±

    Sazcha continued glaring.

    ¡°Anyways, let¡¯s open this.¡±

    She considered how she could go about actually doing that. Destroying it carelessly was certainly an option but Zalia checked around for some kind of manual first.

    The lab itself was filled with old and dusty equipment, vials and books. The one that drew Zalia¡¯s attention the most was a journal of a sort that logged the scientist''s path to discovery written by none other than Et, most likely the Et that founded Et¡¯s Way. What he had been doing out here she had no idea, until she read through some of the journal that was.

    The man had learned of the Ascendant nature spirits that existed all across the world and had gone in search of one. He had found this pyramid that had been ancient even then. According to his research, it was an old building built by worshippers of the desert spirit dedicated to its being. He had used its connection to the desert spirit to draw it to him and capture it in this prototype device. Unfortunately, it had gone wrong and some of the spirit''s aura was still able to escape by the slight miscalculation he had made. Zalia thought that was the brief flashes of light that escaped every now and then, it made sense.

    As she was reading that, Sazcha was searching over the rest of the room. She slapped her hand on the page lightly.

    ¡°Ha! Knew it. Here, come read this.¡±

    Sazcha took the book from her and started reading while Zalia went back over to the sphere. She was tempted to try jamming her sword into the rings, forcing them to stop. Or, you know, breaking her sword. She really didn¡¯t want that to happen and something capable of containing an Ascendant might actually be able to do that too.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Alright, you were right then. How do you want to break this thing?¡±

    Zalia was barely able to track the ring that had a chip off of it caused by her first attack. That had been as strong an attack as she was able to do in one strike, its power massively increased by the exponential damage it did depending on the target''s missing health.

    ¡°I was thinking ¡®violently disassemble¡¯ is a better way to describe it.¡±

    Sazcha rolled her eyes.

    ¡°Ok, fine. How do you want to violently disassemble this thing?¡±

    Zalia pointed to the missing chip. Tried to, at least.

    ¡°I think we could just break a single ring at a time until the god is able to escape on its own. No need to destroy the entire sphere.¡±

    Sazcha nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Alright, how you want to go about this?¡±

    Zalia summoned her sword and instead of trying to jam the blade between the spinning rings, she slashed at it.

    The blade bounced off with a deep vibrating hum.

    ¡°Well that didn¡¯t work.¡±

    ¡°Apparently not.¡±

    Remembering the only way she was able to damage the obsidian skin demon when she had been Bronze rank, Zalia turned to Sazcha.

    ¡°Try to hit me and let me parry it.¡±

    Sazcha stared at her.

    ¡°What? Why?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an ability I have, just do it.¡±

    Sazcha struck at her and Zalia stepped to the side and into the strike, letting the haft of the spear slide down the blade of her sword. Using the strength from pushing against the spear and the increased power from parrying, she continued the blade in a glowing arc overhead to her side, hitting the sphere. It struck the outer ring, the one with a chip in it, and a whole section of that ring broke off, got caught in the lower spinning rings and was flung across the room at speed, embedding itself into the wall.

    Now unstable, the outer ring slowly dropped, grinding against the next ring a few times before its edge got caught and the entire ring exploded into several pieces, all of which were flung across the room. One cut a slice across Zalia¡¯s bracer as she raised her arm to block it.

    The desperation and thirst for freedom coming from the trapped god was now easily readable in the room as its power was able to escape a little more. Hidden in the aura was also a little ray of hope.

    ¡°Alright, that worked even if it was a little dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Next then?¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Next.¡±

    They got into stance and with another series of moves Zalia struck again.

    Each of the next rings took three of four hits to chip or crack, with the next strike often enough to shatter a piece off of it. Breaking the symmetry of the rings seemed to be enough for them to become unstable and shatter the rest of themselves on their own.

    Each time a ring broke, Zalia sheltered any exposed flesh of which there wasn¡¯t a lot due to her armour, and Sazcha would shelter behind Zalia.

    As the regular humming vibration of metal striking metal sunk Zalia into a rhythm, she started thinking about Hidey. The poor soul was still locked inside the cube that was his prison, not free despite the invasion being over.

    Clang.

    She had been thinking about how to find his true name so that she might free him and be safe in the knowledge that there was nothing anyone else could do to turn him against her ever again. Juniper would know, her soul floating around somewhere in Cormaine. Zalia hadn¡¯t been thinking about it then but if she had simply used Juniper¡¯s name to get her to reveal Hidey¡¯s, she would have had it by now. There had been too many other things on her mind at the time though and she hadn¡¯t realised.

    Clang.

    Another ring shattered and the intermittent light from the sphere became steadier, now shining for longer than it was hidden away. The aura got stronger with each broken ring.

    They would find a way to get back to Cormaine eventually. In fact, Zalia wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Ro was out there doing just that right now. She hadn¡¯t spoken to him for a long time and had started to wonder where he had gone.

    Clang.

    He was safe out there she was sure, perhaps making his own connections with the other gods of nature and trying to get their assistance with destroying the demons and taking back Cormaine. It was a sister world to their own after all.

    Clang

    Three more strikes and the next ring broke. The room was littered with shattered pieces of rings, a few stuck into the walls or ceiling though many just laying about.

    They both stepped back after the aura of the god got stronger, then didn¡¯t stop growing in power. She had a feeling that the sphere had reached the point it could no longer contain it.

    This was the moment of truth, the moment they found out if this particular Ascendant would be vengeful for the years it spent trapped.

    The sphere stretched, the rings warping as the god pushed to escape. Zalia built a wall of stone in front of them just as a few of the rings collided, causing the entire thing to explode. The room was filled with a whirling storm of sand moving so quickly it left little cuts in Zalia¡¯s armour and skin.

    The god did not speak, the only sounds that of the storm and the feeling of victory and joy coming from it.

 Interlude 3: 8 - Desert Grove

    The storm slowly faded, both Zalia and Sazcha¡¯s cuts healed instantly by Healing Presence. As the storm faded, a little notification popped up before the storm disappeared entirely.

    Scour, The Desert Wind wishes to grant you a blessing. Do you accept?

    She pushed the stone wall she had built back into the ground and looked around the room.

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    Sazcha glowed with a golden light and Zalia looked over at her to see a sheepish expression on her face.

    ¡°Did you just accept the blessing immediately?¡±

    ¡°I got excited!¡±

    Zalia sighed.

    She took a few tentative steps and peered up the stairs to the floor above. There was nothing there.

    ¡°I kind of expected it to at least¡­ talk to us.¡±

    Sazcha, obviously distracted reading whatever the blessing had given her, only murmured a reply.

    ¡°Why would you expect that? We freed it, it paid that back with a blessing. Deal done.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, all the other ones have spoken with me quite a bit¡­ the ones I knew about at least.¡±

    Sazcha murmured a bit, eyes flicking over invisible text.

    Zalia sighed again.

    ¡°Alright, what does it do?¡±

    Sazcha finally looked up.

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s basically a free pass to the entire desert. I could only dream about something like this!¡±

    Interested, Zalia considered it. She had taken blessings from many other nature gods before and it hadn¡¯t ever gone wrong.

    ¡°Accept.¡±

    Blessing of Scour, The Desert Storm.

    When in the Yi¡¯tharan deserts, you are protected and led to your destinations. This manifests in several different ways:

    <ul>

    <li>The deserts seem to shift in a way that naturally leads you to your destination. Follow the dunes and they will guide you.</li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li>The desert will periodically bring to the surface long-lost items that will be of use to you.</li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li>The desert will warn you of dangers before you stumble into them.</li>

    </ul>

    ¡°Wow. Not exactly what I thought with what you said but I can definitely see it being useful.¡±

    Sazcha was looking more and more excited.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think you know what this means for me! Life is going to be so much easier with this. We lose people sometimes and it¡¯s always to a mistake or something overlooked. I would have been one of those losses if it hadn¡¯t been for you saving me from that rock outcropping a few years back. The chances of me making it high rank enough to survive have just gone up significantly.¡±

    That sounded a bit off to Zalia.

    ¡°Making it high rank enough to Survive? What does that mean?¡±

    Sazcha waved like it should be obvious.

    ¡°We¡¯re a very small group of people Zalia, everyone needs to contribute to the city or things fall apart. The choices are contribute or be exiled and either option means going out to the desert. As you might have noticed, it¡¯s not exactly safe out here. Silver brings relative safety but if I make it to Gold rank, there isn¡¯t a lot out here that can kill me then.¡±

    Zalia drummed her fingers on her leg, thinking about it. It made a kind of sense, everyone had to pull their weight or there wouldn¡¯t be enough to go around.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°What about your parents? Surely people normally wouldn¡¯t be expected to go about alone at Iron rank like you were that day?¡±

    Sazcha shook her head, face darkening.

    ¡°Normally, no. My mother died on a trip out to the desert. Surprise attack by a group of sand elementals going wild for some reason. Dad just wasn¡¯t ever the same after that day. I¡¯ve had to look after him ever since.¡±

    Her face had hardened but a hint of pride was showing through.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve survived so far and if this blessing helps you survive further, well, it¡¯s a godsend.¡±

    Sazcha looked over at where the remains of the sphere lay on the ground, then back at her.

    ¡°Uh, yes, it was a godsend.¡±

    Zalia stared blankly for a moment before realising.

    ¡°Oh, no. Godsend is a turn of phrase where I come fr¡­ never mind. We¡¯re splitting everything fifty-fifty right?¡±

    Sazcha nodded and Zalia headed straight for the sphere¡¯s remains. It was a shame the thing had been destroyed because she would have loved to have one, for personal use. The ability to trap a god was no small thing.

    Ruffling through the debris, she found something that gave her hopes.

    God-Trap Core (Constructed Heirloom) - Gold Rank.

    ¡°Oh, ho ho I like this.¡±

    Sazcha came over to look at it.

    ¡°Not super useful despite its power. You can have it.¡±

    Zalia tapped on the metal plating, hearing that it wasn¡¯t entirely solid.

    ¡°I¡¯ll cut you a deal. I¡¯ll take this, all of the debris from the rings and the journal and everything else is yours. I was more looking for a location like this than the stuff in it anyway.¡±

    Sazcha shrugged, agreeing easily to the request and Zalia opened her vault to start collecting and storing all the pieces of the sphere. She had to pull a few out of the walls and ceiling but managed to get everything, even the tiny fragments, stored away in one of the vault pockets. While she had no idea how it worked, what it was made from, or how to fix it. Hopefully, the remains and the journal would allow someone smarter than her to figure that out though.

    When they were both done, they left the bottom floor and started exploring upwards. There were no more spirits or Soulroot to be found, like Scour being free had dispelled them all. It was interesting to Zalia that the distress of an Ascendant was actually enough to change the environment around them. There were a whole lot of broken and old fragments all of which Sazcha wanted to take. Zalia even had to store a few of them in her vault for the woman after she was unable to carry any more in her own bag. They used similar spacial bags as the one Zalia had once had here and while the strength of a Silver ranker was able to carry a lot, there were also a lot of fragments.

    When they reached the top, Zalia asked Sazcha to wait for a moment while she created her Grove.

    She¡¯d started the preparation for the ability right at the bottom of the pyramid, wanting it to be a part of the Grove, leading all the way up and then circling out around the few trees on the surface. When she went back to the entrance of the pyramid, change exploded across the surface of the desert.

    While she couldn¡¯t see it, Zalia could feel every change that took place. The very bottom floor of the pyramid was cleaned of dust and cobwebs, the tables were repaired and placed themselves orderly. The floor was covered in soft comfortable sand and little yellow glowing orbs floated about the space. Similar changes flowed up each floor of the pyramid, creating a complex of rooms fit for all kinds of creatures.

    When the changes reached the top, the pyramid itself was wiped of the imagery dedicated to Scour, replaced by starry depictions of Boreal, Ember, Aylie and the journeys they had all been on. It became a beacon to what they had been through during the war and invasion.

    In front of the Pyramid, a section of sand cleared away to reveal a square plot of dirt. From that dirt grew a huge tree of the same species as the others, a leafless palm tree with spiked branches reaching diagonally up into the sky. In the base of that tree a portal arch like Zalia¡¯s vault portal opened and through it she could see the front of the statehouse all the way back in Nature¡¯s Reclaim.

    All around the pyramid and portal, the desert transformed from steep dunes to soft rolling waves of sand. Multiple pools of clean turquoise water formed all around the place, with many more of the palm trees growing from the ground. Some small, tough shrubs like the one Zalia had saved also grew, transforming the dead desert to a beautiful oasis.

    When that was all done, Zalia turned back to Sazcha.

    ¡°This is where I¡¯ll leave you for now. I¡¯ll put all of the things you can¡¯t carry in a pile within the pyramid''s entrance for your return.¡±

    Sazcha was still gazing about in wonder at the transformation.

    ¡°Wow, that is some ability you have there.¡±

    Zalia nodded in agreement, waiting.

    ¡°Right, yes. I¡¯ll see you later I suppose. How can I find you if I ever need to?¡±

    Zalia gestured to the portal.

    ¡°You should be able to get back here easily now because of your blessing. If you ever need me, you should be able to find me or someone who knows where I am through there.¡±

    Sazcha nodded a few times, then stepped forward, hand outstretched. Zalia shook it.

    ¡°Good working with you.¡±

    ¡°And you.¡±

    Sazcha wandered off, still gazing about the Grove. If she had never left the desert, Zalia thought this might possibly be the most green the woman had ever seen.

    Zalia looked about a bit herself, then stepped through the portal to Nature¡¯s Reclaim, ready to be with her family again.

 Interlude 4: 1 - New Life

    Three years after the invasion

    Ember walked casually through Zalia''s Grove, still a little awed by the whole thing. The fact that her wonderful, beautiful partner was able to create something like this, especially at Silver rank, was a certain sign of her competence as a Druid. People often thought that the power of your abilities came from luck of the draw, whatever classes you were fortunate enough to get access to before you chose. She had always thought differently though.

    In Ember''s opinion, the power of the abilities you developed was entirely based on what you had been through to get them. She knew Zalia had been through a lot to get hers.

    Hildebrandt was another example of this, a woman so capable and determined that she had become the strongest person in the kingdom and nigh unkillable. She hoped that Zalia would reach that rank and she dearly hoped she would be able to keep up.

    Ember had reached Silver rank a few months after Zalia had, the opportunity to level up many of her skills how she usually did limited by the lack of people around. Not that she hadn''t gone on her own journeys across the kingdom to help people and not that it was an issue anymore.

    They''d had a good few years of peace and silence as the rest of the kingdom recovered and rebuilt but people had eventually started flocking to the Grove once word got around.

    As people had started arriving, Zalia had begrudgingly allowed them to live in the town. The only reason she had done so was because of the three ancients who looked after the Grove.

    A building near the centre of town had been transformed by the Ancient of Life and Ancient of Wisdom working together. It had become a temple to Nateysta, the god whose image the Ancient of Wisdom had been made in. That very Ancient now stayed in the temple, taking in anyone who needed help or guidance in what to do and taking care of their needs with the assistance of the other two Ancients.

    Thus, a thriving town had been born.

    The animals that lived in the town lived there as citizens, with their own jobs, homes and lives. It was a bit of an adjustment for the newly arriving Endarians but they soon grew used to it.

    Ember nodded to Grey the cat as she walked down the street, receiving a little purr in return. She plucked a sweet fruit off a nearby tree as she went, on her way to help settle a dispute.

    The Ancient of Wisdom had asked her to mediate between a group of farmers who wanted to set up a farm just outside the walls and the giant moles who lived there. It was an excellent distraction for her as she was waiting for Zalia.

    The moles were an extremely productive group within Nature''s Reclaim, often bringing up raw metals and minerals for everyone''s use. They didn''t ask anything for it, nor did anyone else ask anything for what they contributed. If you needed something, you simply went to the Ancient of Wisdom and it would make sure it happened.

    These newly arrived farmers had been a bit of a problem however.

    They insisted that they deserved more space, materials and almost everything else than the animals of the Grove did simply because they were human and this was a human kingdom. Well, that kind of mentality had started angering not only the animals but the Bathar that lived with them as well.

    For some reason, the Bathar population in the kingdom had surged after the invasion. Ember thought it might have to do with the amount of space they now had with how many people had died but Zalia said it might be because of all the souls she released in Cormaine. Ember didn''t question that as Zalia often had thoughts and ideas seemingly from nowhere that turned out to be right. Kind of like Aylie.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Parenting Aylie had become harder and harder of late, ever since her powers over the astral had reached Bronze rank. Now fifteen, the girl had a tendency to know exactly what you were thinking, often because she could literally see it.

    Ember hadn''t figured out how to stop her from doing that though Zalia had somehow managed to block it entirely. Either way, it was hard to make an argument about anything with the girl when she''d just break it down with information pulled from your own brain. Issues for another day.

    For now, she had to resolve this dispute.

    She had reached the town gates and could hear the arguing already. A few of the farmers were yelling something about this being their land to which the moles were replying loudly through mental communication that they were here first and the farmers should find some other dirt further out from the town.

    She strolled towards them and one of the farmers spotted her.

    ¡°Finally! The Ancient of Wisdom has finally sent someone to get rid of these pesky moles for us.¡±

    Ember scowled at him.

    ¡°The fuck is your issue man?¡±

    The farmer stood silent, mouth agape.

    ¡°Good, now stay shut up while I explain something to you. The moles have been here for years and have contributed more to the Grove than you may ever do. They''re hard-working, peaceful and most importantly, mind their own business. You''ve been angering a lot of people in this town so you can either figure your shit out and be respectful to the others or take your shit and leave. This is not a place of opportunity, this is a community for those who want to live as equals.¡±

    Some of the farmers began to look angry, so Ember soothed their emotions.

    Emotional Soothing

    Tin - You may heal emotional wounds.

    Iron - This healing is applied in a gentler way. This may cause it to take longer but the resulting healing will be much greater. This is further amplified by your understanding of the emotions within your patient.

    Bronze - You can develop a temporary empathic link with another person, allowing you to share their emotional burden. This will allow you to better understand the emotional wound and provide greater care with lesser risk.

    Silver - You are able to heal and soothe emotions and emotional trauma in a way that the patient is unaware of. The degree to which you can dull down extreme emotion is significantly increased.

    Usually, she tried to avoid using the ability on people unless it was necessary as messing around with others'' emotions without consent is something she considered disrespectful at best and downright intrusive at worst. For these farmers, who had been walking around disrespecting the denizens of Nature¡¯s Reclaim, however, she felt no shame in using it.

    She watched the anger slowly vanish from their faces, a calm settling over the group. The muttering and yelling stopped as they watched Ember through unsettlingly calm eyes. She let up on the ability, allowing them to feel their own emotions again.

    ¡°So, will you be staying here respectfully or leaving for a different town?¡±

    One of them grumbled under his breath.

    ¡°What¡¯s that sorry?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll be respectful,¡± he repeated, louder.

    Ember nodded.

    ¡°Good, now go to the temple of Nateysta in the town centre and talk to the Ancient of Wisdom there. They will give you what you need to get by. If you continue to disrespect the others in the town, it will be the Ancient of War that comes to deal with you next time.¡±

    She pointed back into the town and the grumbling group of seven farmers went through the gates.

    Shaking her head at the idiots, she apologised to the moles before going back into the town herself.

    After ten minutes of walking about the town, giving respectful nods to people and animals alike, she finally got the mental message she had been waiting for.

    ¡°Alright Ember, you can come see them now.¡±

    She rushed back to the statehouse, excitement pulsing through her body. It had been a stressful seven hours of waiting, her nerves so wrecked that Zalia had sent her from the room. Why she was so stressed out she didn¡¯t even know but now that the message had come, all that stress had faded away.

    Rushing through the front door, she ascended the stairs quickly and down a hallway to the new room the Grove had made for them. Going inside, she saw Aylie, Zalia and Boreal with five new fluffy little kittens.

 Interlude 4: 2 - Kittens and Concerns

    Ember rushed over and knelt next to Zalia and the exhausted-looking Boreal. Lumin burst into the room through the door she had forgotten to close. Zalia had to quickly hand Ember a mewling pile of fur and catch Lumin before they annoyed Boreal into smacking them again.

    ¡°They¡¯re so small!¡± Aylie exclaimed.

    Zalia held firmly without issue onto the wriggling Lumin, her grip like steel. While the bouncy and energetic Lumin was usually a joy to be around, it looked like Zalia really didn¡¯t want them annoying Boreal right now. Ember wasn¡¯t even sure if even Lumin could keep Boreal awake at that moment, however, as the purring feline slowly nodded off.

    The new room the Grove had created for them was a cat¡¯s dream. The floor was covered in plush, soft bedding while many thin poles fashioned like tree trunks led up toward the high ceiling. All across the sides of the room and leading up the walls were various paths and bridges, crossing across the room and along the ceiling. All of it, the proper size for a feline of Boreal¡¯s size.

    It would be heaven for the new kittens, Boreal¡¯s kittens, to play around in a safe environment

    Just to be sure, Ember used Triage, her ability that had evolved from Holistic Diagnosis, on them all.

    Triage

    Tin - You can tell how severely someone is wounded by touching them

    Iron - You¡¯re now able to tell by sight rather than touch and can tell where the wound is located.

    Bronze - You can tell exactly what the wound is and what it was caused by. Additionally, you¡¯re able to tell who is in more need of immediate healing.

    Silver - Using Triage on a wounded creature stops bleeding and any other damage over time affects temporarily, allowing you to heal them without concern.

    Happily, they were all safe and sound, healthy as can be. Most importantly, Boreal was fine as well. The constant stream of healing from Zalia during the process had been a comfort for them all.

    She put down the kitten next to the other four and wrapped her arms around Zalia, resting her head on her shoulder, Lumin still struggling under their arms.

    ¡°She¡¯s so grown up now.¡±

    Boreal was breathing calmly, her crown still floating ever so slightly above her head. She was huge, reaching up to Ember¡¯s shoulders when she stood. Aylie was six feet tall now so was a bit less dwarfed by the feline than both Zalia and Ember were but compared to the tiny kitten that had stood on Zalia¡¯s shoulders all those years ago, the Boreal before them was massive. Ember still remembered the day Zalia had picked up the icy cold kitten from the mountaintop where her mother had died. Seeing the five kittens, Ember wondered if Boreal had siblings out there somewhere, others that weren¡¯t with them at the time or had already left by the time they had gotten there.

    There was a wide variety amongst Boreal¡¯s kittens, ranging from one that looked like a replica of her to one that looked like a replica of the father, with the other three somewhere between. The Ancient of War, the same plains feline that had protected Zalia¡¯s first Grove, was the father. Ember hadn¡¯t seen him on her way in but had no doubt he was prowling about protecting the statehouse at that very moment. She also had no doubt he would come in to see them the second Zalia went back outside. For some reason, he thought one of them had to be out there making sure nothing would attack.

    ¡°That was an extremely strange experience,¡± Zalia murmured.

    Ember lifted her head up, looking at Zalia.

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    She waited as Zalia sat silent for a moment, collecting her thoughts, her fingers drumming on her leg now that she had one hand free. Ember loved that about Zalia, how she always thought about what she was going to say just a little longer than most people would.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Well, I could feel everything through the bond. It was like I was there with her the whole time, sharing the anxiety and excitement, then the pain.¡±

    Ember smiled, resting her head on Zalia¡¯s shoulder again.

    ¡°That¡¯s pretty normal dear, though I¡¯m sure you were sharing those emotions on a deeper level than normal because of the bond you have. I was so anxious you had to kick me out, remember? Though, you two have a deeper bond than many ever get and sharing the pain must have been a strange experience, I¡¯m sure.¡±

    Zalia nodded, finally putting Lumin down.

    The starlight puppy had not grown even a pinch since they had gotten them. Still small, still Tin rank with an Ascendant affix and still excitable as ever.

    Fortunately, once they had gotten over the initial excitement, Lumin was able to calmly greet the new kittens with curiosity rather than explosive energy. Sniffing at the crawling pile of kittens, Lumin got an accidental wack on the nose by the one that was a replica of Boreal.

    Laughing at the offended look on Lumin¡¯s face, they all watched as the kittens slowly oriented themselves to their new world. Each of them was already Iron rank as Boreal had been when she was born and Ember wondered what kind of abilities they would have. A mixture of Boreal¡¯s and the Ancient of War¡¯s was her best guess, but how that would show was entirely unknown to her.

    Boreal soon woke up under the gentle healing of the Grove and Zalia alike and proceeded to fuss over her kittens, cleaning them and making sure they were all okay. It didn¡¯t matter how many times Zalia and Ember told her they were fine, she had to be sure. None of them expected anything else.

    Zalia got up and left so that the Ancient of War could finally come inside. The patter of paws heralded his arrival and he was soon fussing over the kittens and Boreal as well.

    Ember watched their happy little family and dragged a complaintive Aylie in for a hug. A few more of her abilities had reached Bronze in the past year yet her progress was slowing down. To advance in rank any further, especially at her young age, would require a lot more dangerous situations than any of them were willing to allow her into. Sure, she could very well handle herself against a lot of enemies now and had shown just that in some of their excursions but she was still too young to be anywhere near anything super dangerous. Eliminating a demon nest under the careful protection and guidance of three Silver rankers was a lot different from going out and doing the same thing alone.

    Still, they didn¡¯t want to shelter her too much from what was coming. They all knew that war would come again eventually, whether it was started by Endaria or the Astar or even the demons invading again, it would come. None of them had seen Nateysta, Ro-ak, for the past three years and it might even be him that started the next war. Ember had started to worry about where he had gone but Zalia didn¡¯t seem to be concerned at all.

    They had been talking about making a move to the desert Grove for a few months and exploring it together recently. Not only would it be good for Aylie¡¯s continued progression into Bronze rank but it would be exciting for Ember too. Despite having lived in Endaria for a much longer time than Zalia, she hadn¡¯t ever gone that far south. Sure, she had gone through the portal and had a tour of the place from Zalia, but entering the dunes was something else. The only reason she had been considering it was the blessing that Zalia had gotten from Scour that allowed her to find her way in the desert, a guarantee that they wouldn¡¯t get lost.

    Ember often found herself worrying about whether they were raising Aylie right or not. While she could be a bit strange at times due to the abilities she had, Aylie was still a respectful and kind person, someone nice to be around the majority of the time. Sure, they had arguments but who didn¡¯t with their fifteen-year-old teenager?

    What Ember worried about the most was the way they were almost subconsciously preparing her for the next war. They both thought of it as a when, not if and she wasn¡¯t sure if that was something healthy to do to the girl. If one did come, they would most certainly be in the middle of it. There was no way either she or Zalia wouldn¡¯t fight for the kingdom and that meant Aylie either needed to be ready and powerful, or left behind. Perhaps it was selfish of them both to think that way when they had Aylie to care for but Zalia had been the reason they had won the first invasion and might be the reason they won the next. Not through her personal power but through her ability to bring people together.

    On the other hand, it might be selfish of them to not help Aylie become more powerful in preparation for the next war when they knew it was coming. If they could get her to a place where she had the power to guide her own life, wasn¡¯t that better than the alternative?

    She hadn¡¯t expected to be so worried about whether she was doing the right thing when she had decided she wanted to be Zalia¡¯s partner and raise Aylie together. Maybe that was just a normal part of parenting though. Zalia and her had spoken about this more than a few times, both of them similarly worried about whether they were doing the right thing but neither of them had ever asked Aylie what she wanted.

    Thinking about it, Ember realised more and more that they should do just that. She wasn¡¯t a child anymore and would need to start taking over her own life more and more as she became a young adult. Perhaps now was the time to start giving her these kinds of decisions.

 Interlude 5: 1 - Meeting the Parents

    Three years after the invasion.

    Zen woke up, stretching as wide as he was able in the little cot he slept in. It was much too small for him but oddly comforting, reminding him of simpler days on the farm with too many of them squished into a too-small house. They could have built a bigger one but as Grandmother Polina always said ¡°Living with too little grows character and I would know about growth, I¡¯m a farmer.¡±

    He had always complained about it when he was younger but after coming back from experiencing the wider world, he couldn¡¯t help but believe some people needed to have just a little less comfort growing up. There was only so much privilege and entitlement a person could have before it became a little obnoxious.

    Life had been good as of late. While still new, things were going well with Mel and he was starting to think that it might be something that could work for them both in the long term. He hadn¡¯t expected to find a partner out here in the frozen north but things had just evolved ever since she had arrived from the south a few months ago.

    The south. It was strange thinking of his old home as the south. All of his life, he had lived in the north with places like the capital being the south. Now the entire kingdom was ¡°the south¡± to him.

    The last time she had been up to see him, Zalia had offered for him and his family to come down and live in the town Indis had given her. He had been tempted, a beautiful, nature-filled place where the people and animals of the land lived in harmony, protected over by the magic that Zalia had imbued it with. Who wouldn¡¯t be with a description like that? After all, it definitely sounded more pleasant than the frozen north. Life there sounded¡­ easy.

    That had been part of the reason both he and his family had decided against it though.

    Sure, he had given up on the life of an adventurer and member of the Morning¡¯s Shade but that didn¡¯t mean he wanted to live an easy and boring life. No, he still wanted a challenge and they had found that here in the north. Learning to farm and live in a place that naturally didn¡¯t want you to do either in it had been a fulfilling day-to-day life. Building a friendship with the Born of Heat and Stone people had been an amazing addition to that, though had turned out to be the easier of the two.

    They worked flawlessly with each other, like a hivemind. They basically were one, from what Zalia had told him. While it was a bit harder for them to work in the same way with the humans now living with them, they had taken to it and after the difficult early days, things were good.

    His younger cousin Jasper had been working with Glemp quite a lot and under his teaching and guidance, had taken an alchemist class. Glemp loved to talk about how much easier it was to work with Jasper than it had been to work with Zalia, which always got a laugh out of Zen. Having worked with Zalia himself, he tended to agree. Not that he didn¡¯t love Zalia and respect her greatly for the things she had done, she just tended to be very strongly inclined about her decisions with little room for argument. It worked out more often than not but it felt a little like working for Zalia, not with Zalia.

    He groaned a little before throwing himself out of bed. The sun wasn¡¯t up yet but his father had always said getting up before the sun got the work done.

    His mother Annette was already up and handed him a bowl of mushrooms, bread and meat. They traded for the mushrooms from the Heat and Stone denizens, made the bread themselves and the meat came from hunting parties that were a combination of both their peoples.

    After eating, he bid his family a good day and left, walking further up the mountain toward his current project.

    While his mother, grandmother and two younger siblings, Jaz and Harry, worked on the farm below, he and his father had been building a house up the mountain. The houses made for them by the Heat and Stone denizens out of obsidian were nice but just weren¡¯t as easy to make comfortable. The colour and hardness of the material made it feel like a bit of a prison no matter how much you decorated.

    So, when Zen had gone to his father and told him that he wanted to build a house for himself and his possible future family, he had agreed.

    The forest below had been cleared away a bit to accommodate the farming fields, the wood put away in the mountain for future use. Zalia had even used some of her magic to make the fields warmer and protected from the snow which was a boon for the growth and continued life of the crops. Previously, they had been trying to farm the natural plants in the north, various types of berries for the most part. With the strange mini biome Zalia had made, they were able to grow some of the more traditional crops they were used to. Eating bread again was great.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    The wood from the clearing had dried out nicely now, the process sped up a bit by the constant high temperature inside the mountain. It was this wood that he and his dad were using to build the house.

    Zen trudged through the snow to the frame of the house, looking over their previous days'' work with fresh eyes. His dad had taught him to always check your work the day after and it had saved him more than a few mistakes in the past.

    His dad arrived a few minutes later, layered up against the cold. For some reason, he and Grandmother Polina had never developed the Cold Resistance passive that the rest of them had. Zalia had given some explanation about developing passives being harder the older you get when he had asked. He had no idea how she knew that but it did make sense.

    ¡°Ready to get to?¡±

    His dad nodded and they started building.

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    It was later in the day that they finally stopped. They had made good progress that day with the framework all done now. A few more days and they might have some of the walls going up. One of his dad¡¯s mates had fashioned the stone floor for them with his stonemason abilities and would come by when they were doing the walls to help. He was a builder with the stonemason specialisation which made him the perfect man for the job to help finish off everything. While Zen and his dad could build it themselves, the builder would help to properly weatherproof everything so that they didn¡¯t have constant drafts blowing through the house. That was especially important when they were living on a frozen mountainside.

    Today, Mel was coming over to meet his parents. They had seen each other peripherally a few times but today was the day they would meet properly. His nerves were a little wrecked but he was certain they would like her. She was honest and hardworking, an earth mage with a landscaper specialisation. It was quite unusual to ever go for a utility specialisation when choosing a mage class yet she had done so. With the specialisation she obtained Plant Manipulation as well as a skill that made a landscape she created provide benefits as long as it existed. Examples she had given of that were fields that helped plants grow, gardenscapes for houses that radiated calm and happiness, even defensive scapes that provided defensive bonuses to those using them. It was a truly unique class combination that Zen hadn¡¯t ever seen before and one he knew his family would love to make use of. Just another piece in his belief that they would like her.

    He also thought Mel and Zalia would get along well, which filled him with dread. He loved plants and ritual magic as much as the next guy but if those two ever got to talking about it, it might be the death of a few hours of time.

    In comfortable silence, Zen and his dad arrived at the family home. They were put to work by Annette as soon as they entered, set to cutting up the few vegetables they had, butchering meat, preparing herbs and starting the oven fire to bake bread.

    Polina was sitting on the couch with baby Ingrid in a cot, simultaneously rocking the cot while crocheting. Jasper would still be with Glemp for a while yet, with the rest of the cousins making themselves scarce for the night and taking his younger siblings with them. Today would just be his parents, grandmother and the baby Ingrid.

    When dinner was almost ready, he quickly washed up and put on his only nice clothes. He made his way down the mountain to where Mel lived, in a smaller one-person house and knocked on the door. Mel opened it within seconds, wearing her own well-tailored thick leather coat, auburn hair pulled up into a ponytail. She had pleasant features, not stunningly beautiful but the face of a hard-working woman who has spent most of her life in the sun and fields, just like Zen.

    ¡°Hey, are you ready?¡±

    His nervousness was growing but he tried to contain it.

    ¡°Hey, yeah absolutely!¡±

    She caught on to how obviously nervous he was.

    ¡°... are you?¡±

    He nodded a few times, nervously wringing his hands. Then forcing his hands to stop.

    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go then!¡±

    They walked up the hill towards his family¡¯s home, Mel chatting casually while he tried to reciprocate as concerned thoughts rushed around his head.

    When they arrived he opened the door and led the way in.

    ¡°Everyone, this is Mel. Mel, this is my Father Anton, my Mother Annette, my Grandmother Polina and my baby cousin Ingrid.¡±

    Mel stood beside him as he made introductions.

    ¡°Hey everyone, wonderful to meet you all¡±

    His mother came forward first and gave Mel a big hug.

    ¡°Come on in, dinner is just ready.¡±

    Mel hugged her back.

    ¡°Smells lovely!¡±

    Zen¡¯s worries faded away as an easy conversation sparked up between Mel and his mother, his father chiming in every now and then as he set the table. He wondered why he had even been worried in the first place.

 Interlude 6: 1 - To Act

    Three and a half years after the invasion.

    Indis sat at her desk, finishing off a letter with a flourished signature. She folded it up and sealed it with one of the many magical stamps at her side. This stamp meant the letter could only be opened by key members of the Morning¡¯s Shade, more specifically, those whose imprints had been put upon a Morning¡¯s Shade signet. She handed the letter off to the messenger who waited by her desk at most hours of the day. He checked the stamp mark and went running.

    Taking over the Morning¡¯s Shade had not only been easy but one of the best decisions she¡¯d made in her time as civilian seated to the council. When she had gotten word that Hildebrandt no longer wanted to be their leader, she had very quickly offered herself up as a replacement. Being a member of the order herself and already one of the leaders of the Endarian council, Hildebrandt had agreed.

    Before long, she had the organisation assigned as a civilian task force under the jurisdiction of the civilian seated, who just so happened to be herself. In a sweeping move, she had given herself more power and secured her place on the council because people knew that as long as she stayed there, the Morning¡¯s Shade would work for them.

    The order she had just sent off to them was due to a resurgence of demon dens in the kingdom. It happened every year as winter ended. Animals would leave their winter burrows or hibernation and suddenly the dormant demon dens would have a significantly increased food supply. Their population would increase dramatically and they would start probing into towns and villages nearby. As such, she sent off almost every team in the Morning¡¯s Shade to hunt down and eradicate as many of these dens as they could.

    Doing so had a dual purpose for her. Mainly, it would help keep her people safe but as a bonus, it would build their goodwill toward her as people saw her task force roaming around killing the demons that were hounding them. Sure, the military seated General Faian would be doing the exact same thing but Indis had made it very clear in the proclamations the council made that the Morning¡¯s Shade was under the control of the civilian seated. Which was her.

    The way the council worked suited Indis just fine. There were the civilian and military seated to the council and then there were the civilian and military councils. Each council was built up of eleven members who assigned their respective seated to the council member, those people currently being herself and Faian. Each council group had authority over their own areas of responsibility with some matters that were deemed important enough being ruled over by both councils.

    Every member had responsibilities within their own civilian or military council and would bring related issues to be debated and then voted upon, with the seated to the council being the deciding vote in a draw. Members held office for four-year terms at which time a kingdom-wide vote was taken. They had yet to take one of these votes, with the current members having been assigned after the invasion as an emergency matter to get the kingdom back up and running before any more people died. That very vote was six months away now and Indis had been currying as much favour amongst the people as she could to maintain her position amongst the council.

    Most of the other council members had gone home for the day, leaving the castle at the top of the hill in the capital to return to their families down below. Indis sometimes wished she¡¯d ever had the opportunity to live a life like that.

    She stood up from her desk and walked out of the room, nodding to the guard on duty. When her mind was off on a tangent like this, she often found it easier to work through her thoughts on the move. That hadn¡¯t been the case a few years ago but her time as a Morning¡¯s Shade member traveling across the country with Zalia, Zen and Ember had affected her.

    The tall lavish hallways and communal areas of the castle were hauntingly familiar to her. They might be decorated differently, used for a different purpose and lived in by different people but they were the same rooms and halls that she had grown up in. She sometimes expected her friend Prince Alistair to walk around the corner and crack some wise joke about one lord or another. He had been the only person who could break the mask she put up so easily and so often.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    In her mind, Prince Alistair and King Alistair had been two different people. The man he had become when his father had died and he had taken the throne had not been the same man that had walked these halls with mischievous abandon with her. Both she and Faian had thoroughly searched the castle and capital for any explanation as to what had happened to Alistair to cause him to turn like that but neither of them had come up with any evidence or leads. One day he had been an energetic, mischievous, charming and funny prince, the next a cold, calculating thrall of the demons without any apparent reason.

    But that was enough thinking about the past, it was the future she needed to look to.

    Despite Zalia having turned Et¡¯s Way into some kind of animal haven, something she should have expected, Indis was somewhat happy with how that whole ploy had turned out. The woman was kept close and invested into a part of the kingdom now and that was all she had been working towards. All she had to do to keep up appearances was appear disgruntled every now and then and Zalia would continue living as she had been.

    She had known that first day that keeping Zalia close would yield great results. Someone with three classes was just bound to end up attracting the attention of powerful beings and someone who came into the view of powerful beings was likely to make a few friends amongst them. And she had, thus bringing the salvation of the kingdom.

    The concept of power had always been interesting to Indis. Someone such as the king of an entire kingdom like Endaria theoretically had an unimaginable amount of it yet within the span of a few weeks, that was all gone to a power from another world. Someone like Zalia on the other hand was given power by nature of luck or circumstance, a power that couldn¡¯t be taken away unless by death. As she advanced in rank, the gap between her and others of her rank would only increase due to the scale of abilities.

    The power Indis had was different from both of those. She had been neglecting her advancement as a magic user only having reached Bronze rank as of the year before, some two and a half years after Zalia, Ember and Zen had. Her power didn¡¯t exist in her magic, nor did it exist by luck of circumstance or having it handed down from her parents. The power she had was in her ability to manipulate others into doing what she wanted without them knowing. People thought that made her a bad person, Zalia thought that made her a bad person, but that wasn¡¯t true.

    At the end of it all, everything she did was for the good of the kingdom and its people. Yes, she had manipulated Zalia into the position she was in now but that was so the kingdom would remain safe. Yes, she had done things to maintain her position amongst the council as the civilian seated but that was so she could continue to keep Endaria safe. And yes, she had lied to friends, allies and everyone around her but all of it for the kingdom. If it came to it, she would die for the safety of the kingdom.

    That was what Zalia didn¡¯t understand about her. She didn¡¯t need her to understand though, as long as Indis, and therefore the kingdom, could continue getting what was needed.

    Today she had to make a decision. One she had been putting off for a few months now. Recently, General Faian had been pushing back on a lot of the things Indis had been trying to do. At the start, it had been mildly annoying and just a little amusing. The general was obviously fed up with Indis¡¯ ploys and politicking, which she somewhat understood. She thought she knew what was best for the kingdom just as Indis did, they simply didn¡¯t agree with what the other thought was best in all cases. Indis had been willing and able to work with the woman for a long time now but with the increased aggression of what the general was doing just six months out from the election vote, she would have to start acting now.

    As such, she stepped up to the office of one of the other civilian council members and knocked twice politely.

    ¡°Come in!¡±

    She opened the door, walked in and closed it behind her.

    ¡°Oh! Civilian elected Indis, I didn¡¯t expect to see you this late at night. How may I help?¡±

    Indis sat down casually in the chair on the other side of the woman''s desk and folded one leg over the other.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got a proposal for you.¡±

 Interlude 7: 1 - Ro Returns and The Star Falls Clumsily

    Three years, nine months after the invasion.

    Aylie watched Ember and Zen speak in hushed tones with the newcomer. While she couldn¡¯t hear them with her ears, she was able to see the words coming from their minds, mostly from the newcomer. From what she gathered, they had come here to see Zen and get his help.

    Ember had brought her and Lumin here to see Uncle Zen with Zalia and Boreal unfortunately unable to join them because of issues at home. Ember had offered to cancel the trip but Zalia had insisted she was fine and they should come along and see Zen anyway. Everything had been as pleasant as usual, both of Zen¡¯s parents and his grandmother were sweet as usual and his younger siblings as annoying as usual. It was a nice little break from training though, something her mothers had started ramping up at her insistence.

    She had been surprised when they had asked her if she really wanted to train to become someone strong enough to combat the demons directly. If she was sure she didn¡¯t want a normal life. Of course, she wanted to! Her life hadn¡¯t been normal for a long time and there was no way she would let the demons continue their horrible invasions, not after what they had done to her family. With her decision made, Aylie got to see a side of her mothers that she hadn¡¯t before. Usually, they were quite held back with the training they had done over the years, being quietly supportive and letting her explore everything at her own pace. Now, they pushed her limits as much as they could manage without putting her in any serious harm''s way.

    And she loved it.

    It felt good to properly test her limits, to grow her abilities and her mastery of them quicker. For the first time, she felt like she might actually be ready when the next war came.

    They hadn¡¯t ever spoken to her about that but she had picked it up from their thoughts. It was always there if she knew where to look, a tag-along riding hidden in the depths of everything else. Not that she could ever read Zalia without her letting down her defenses yet.

    She tried focusing on the conversation Ember and Zen were having again, more focused on the man they were talking to than either of them. There was something odd about him she couldn¡¯t quite place. Thinking of how the next war rode along Ember and Zalia¡¯s thoughts, she swore there was something hidden amongst this man''s thoughts too. Something sinister.

    Tapping her leg repeatedly, she inspected the man closely. He didn¡¯t seem sinister, or untrustworthy at all. Ember and Zen looked like they trusted him.

    The astral was suddenly filled with another presence, one she recognised. She spun around and watched as Nateysta, Zalia¡¯s friend Ro-ak, grew from the ground. Roots twisted amongst themselves to form the two trunk-like legs, the body and wings of leaves topped by the vine hair of the Ascendant they all called their saviour. She ran forward and embraced him in a big hug.

    ¡°What are you doing here! It¡¯s been so long!¡±

    ¡°Your growth has not slowed in all that time either, I see.¡±

    Aylie pulled away from the soft leafy crow as the conversation behind them had stopped, the three adults having noticed Ro.

    ¡°Ro!? Where in the worlds have you been?¡±

    Ember came marching up, looking annoyed. Not annoyed for her own sake, Aylie could see, but for Zalia¡¯s.

    ¡°I apologise for my absence these years. The other spirit who lives here and I have been working together to fashion a prison so secure for the Thousand-eyed one that it will never escape. Our work is only now finished.¡±

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°What, you mean the god in the lava? If you¡¯ve been here the whole time why didn¡¯t you ever pop out to see us?¡±

    Ro¡¯s head cocked.

    ¡°I have not been here Ember, my essence has been deep in the earth. Forming a permanent cage for an Ascendant is no easy feat,¡± he paused for a moment, ¡°Well, maybe not permanent but such a long time that it is so even by my perception of time.¡±

    Ember crossed her arms.

    ¡°Still, you could have told us where you were going to be.¡±

    Ro¡¯s head flicked back and forth a bit like he was trying to decipher the words.

    ¡°Why? It has not even been a decade.¡±

    Ember pressed her face into her palm and took a deep breath.

    ¡°Right, you should probably go and see Zalia. There¡¯s a lot I think she¡¯d like to talk to you about.¡±

    She thought a moment before adding,

    ¡°It¡¯s good to have you back.¡±

    Ro dipped his head.

    ¡°It is good to be back. I would like to see how this kingdom has advanced in the past four years, you humans might not have much power but you change with incredible speed. If your progress is any basis to go on Starblessed, I will not be disappointed. I shall speak with the Starlight wolf before I go to see Zalia, as I sense them nearby.¡±

    With that, Ro took off with a single beat of his wings. He shot off and landed further up the mountain where Lumin was no doubt getting up to no good.

    Aylie and Ember turned back to where Zen and the other guy were busy shaking. Their first experience with an Ascendant and a very strong and vocal one at that.

    As they started talking and Ember tried to calm the two down, Aylie focused on the man¡¯s thoughts again. The sinister undertone to them had disappeared, replaced by something akin to fear. There was no need for such a feeling in relation to Ro, but humans often reacted weirdly when faced with that much power.

    At the end of the conversation, it was decided that Aylie, Ember and Lumin would swing past the man¡¯s town to try and help them with their demon problem on their way back home. The man said that a team from the Morning¡¯s Shade had been sent out to clear it out but they hadn¡¯t been able to find it. The demons hadn¡¯t attacked during that time but as soon as the team left, the town was under attack again. Being close to the kingdom¡¯s northern border, he had decided to come here for help instead. It was a town Zen had even helped before, some years back when the invasion first happened.

    Aylie could read from Ember¡¯s mind that she expected it to be a den of the illusionist demons. They were the hardest ones to find, often hidden extremely well and guarded by intelligent demons. It would make sense that such a den wouldn¡¯t attack while a strong Morning¡¯s Shade team was nearby. Aylie would have believed it if the man didn¡¯t still have those hidden sinister under thoughts escaping his mind. If she could only read them, then they would know what was up.

    ¡°This man is not what he seems,¡± she sent to Ember.

    Ember didn¡¯t visibly react, used to Aylie¡¯s mental communication. Unlike Zalia, Aylie had developed a way to perform the task through her ability to see and touch the astral rather than an ability that could do it specifically.

    ¡°How so?¡± Ember asked back.

    Aylie sent a mental shrug.

    ¡°He has sinister thoughts hidden in his mind. I believe he means to trick us somehow.¡±

    Ember smiled and nodded, reassuring the man that it was okay as he thanked them for offering to help.

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll play it safe then.¡±

    For the second time in the short conversation, an Ascendant interrupted.

    Lumin, now in the body of a young starry wolf, dropped from the sky like a falling star. They landed in a crash, sprawling across the snow, limbs tangled. Lumin was yet to perfect their landings.

    Luminescence - Iron rank (Ascendant).

    Shaking her head at the silly wolf, she waved goodbye to Zen and followed Ember as she led the man away from the mountain.

 Interlude 7: 2 - Dreaming of Death

    Aylie trudged through the snow behind Ember and the man they were following. His name was Ren, a piece of information she had read from his mind about twenty minutes before Ember had remembered to ask.

    Their travel time had been cut considerably shorter by Aylie¡¯s use of Starlit Portal and they were due to arrive within the next few minutes.

    Starlit Portal - Spell - Target

    Tin - You may teleport a short distance

    Iron - You may create a portal that you and one other creature are able to step through, that travels a longer distance.

    Bronze - The number of creatures that may step through increases to a total of five and the distance increases further.

    She had been attempting to read Ren¡¯s mind the entire time they had been walking and yet still couldn¡¯t pull out whatever hidden information resided in there. It was strange, as the man was an open book except for this single thing.

    Normally, she would avoid purposefully attempting to read someone¡¯s mind like this. It was hard enough in cities to avoid catching stray thoughts from the thousands of people living their lives even when she wasn¡¯t focusing on the ability. When she did do that, it became hard to determine her own thoughts from those of the people around her.

    Out here in the wilds, it was a bit easier. Without many creatures around, the only stray thoughts she caught were the base instinct urges of the animals living in the snow and those were easy enough to ignore.

    She knew it was an invasion of privacy to read someone¡¯s mind, yet the little sinister thing attached to this man¡¯s thoughts was too strange not to look into. It felt like something was calling her attention to it with all the strength it had.

    The more she looked, the more certain she was that it was a type of demonic influence.

    In the almost four years that they had been fighting the demons, during the invasion and after, she hadn¡¯t ever felt something like it. Was this a new type they hadn¡¯t seen before?

    She had told Ember about it but she hadn¡¯t wanted to act on it yet. Ember had confidence that they would be able to deal with whatever it was, seeing as the highest-rank demon they had seen during the invasion had been Silver rank, excluding the Thousand-eyed one. While that may not hold true four years down the line, it wasn¡¯t an illogical assumption.

    Through the trees, Aylie saw a deep red thread of mist floating in the air, twisting. It was like an ethereal thread going from one invisible point to another. She was about to point it out to Ember when Ren turned to them with tears on his face.

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m so sorry. The- They threatened my chil- children.¡±

    Red threads trailed out of the forest, shifting back and forth like they were searching for something. Ember didn¡¯t react to them, watching the man with concern, the scan of her diagnosis ability visible to Aylie.

    She spun around, watching the threads behind her inch ever closer. They looked and felt dangerous to her and she didn¡¯t want to touch them unless there was another choice. Starlit Portal was still on cooldown and would be for a while longer. The threads weren¡¯t natural in any way, their essence antithetical to the living nature around them. They definitely came from demons.

    A ripple in the astral drew her attention back behind her, where Ember stood with a red thread attached to her head. Like they had finally caught a scent, a dozen other threads surged forward and attached themselves to Ember, the woman standing rigid.

    Aylie didn¡¯t panic, trying to read what was happening. They were some kind of mind control, the power feeling incredibly strong despite being undoubtedly Bronze rank. She wouldn¡¯t be able to beat this thing with power directly, she knew that. There was always a way though, and she knew what she needed to do.

    Stepping forward, she grabbed one of the red threads in her hand and felt an immediate link to the demon¡¯s mind.

    Active 3 - Worldweave - spell - varies (Previously Dreamweave)

    Tin - You may weave the dreams of creatures that are asleep. The more familiar you are with the creature the further away you may use this. Additionally, these dreams can have an effect on the target''s real body.

    Iron - If the target of this ability is tired but not asleep, you may weave a waking dream that has only minor effects on them.

    Bronze - You are able to weave waking dreams on any creature but these dreams may be broken if the dreamer realises what you are doing.

    She used Worldweave, letting the demon see a simple change to reality when she had grabbed the thread. Rather than it being stuck to her hand, it was stuck to her head and she was under its control.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    The demon accepted the waking dream easily, as it matched the demon¡¯s expectations of events better than reality did.

    Weaving dreams was a complicated thing. It was easy to get something to accept one if the change you made was small enough, careful enough. Maintaining one, then changing it to suit your needs, was a bit more difficult. If something too outlandish happened, it would snap them out of it. Aylie would have to read the demon¡¯s mind so that she could change its reality from what it expected, to what it feared.

    She felt a nudge of command come down the thread and she followed it, turning and walking towards the town.

    As they walked, she slowly pulled information from the demon¡¯s mind through the thread. It had been born here, in a den not too far north of the town. Slowly, it had taken over the people one by one, each controlled mind increasing its power enough that when the remaining third of the town had figured out why people were acting so strangely, it had been strong enough to take them all by force.

    Unluckily for the demon, it had missed one person. It had noticed too late, the person too far away by then to be caught. A short time later, the escaped man had come back with a group of mercenaries, ready to eradicate a demon den. However, all they had found was a perfectly normal town.

    The demon had worked hard, studying the minds of its victims to figure out how they lived, spoke, ate, walked and all the rest. It had fooled the newly arrived mercenaries into believing the escaped man was crazy and they had left. Little did they know, it had taken the mind of that escaped man before they had even stepped into the town.

    Then it had run into an issue.

    Without more people to control, it was stagnant. If it didn¡¯t grow in power, it held no hope of standing up to the other powers of this world. It wouldn¡¯t take much for it to be found out, the right person with the right set of abilities and when that happened, whatever had defeated the Thousand-eyed one would be able to kill it with ease.

    So, it had to find more people. Luckily, it had known of a few secluded people in the mountains northeast of the town thanks to the memories of the townspeople.

    Aylie opened her eyes, able to figure out the rest for herself. She had let her body unconsciously follow the commands coming through the thread and found herself in the town now, walking about and performing daily tasks as if nothing was wrong and she had always lived here. Ember was still near her thankfully.

    She knew what its fear was now, the arrival of something too strong for it to handle. Someone like¡­ Zalia.

    If it was beginning to search through Ember¡¯s memories, it would find Zalia there first. It would feel the bond between her and Ember.

    A plan in mind, she began weaving the waking dream, manipulating reality for the demon. When the man who had brought them here had turned around with tears in his eyes, Aylie had felt a little slip of control from the demon. She played into that, making the demon believe that the man had escaped control.

    A thread became visible, attached to Ren¡¯s head. Then, it pulled free and the man had control of his own body once more. He immediately ran, chased by more threads and all of the townspeople.

    Aylie lay a little trail of power in the dream, an ability that belonged to someone else, the feeling of the power being that of Zalia¡¯s.

    It took a while for the demon to notice it but when it did, it went on alert. No, Ren hadn¡¯t escaped its control, Ren had been freed from its control by another power, one too strong for it. Aylie had that power rip another townsperson from its control, though that person just stood there stunned.

    The demon began to panic, searching around for the source of the power, the powerful being that was taking away its control. So Aylie gave it one.

    Zalia flew through the sky on wispy wings of air, bow in hand, her mind as Aylie knew it, impenetrable.

    A few abilities from the townspeople flew up to strike the dream Zalia but were either ignored or blocked with ease. Another person was ripped from the demon''s control.

    The power of belief was an interesting thing to Aylie, being someone who could control it so viscerally. It wasn¡¯t actually her own power taking away control of the people here from the demon, it was her power convincing it that it wasn¡¯t strong enough to maintain that control in the face of a stronger enemy. The demon¡¯s fear become reality.

    She began pulling more people from its control, one by one. Each person lost weakened its power even further, its strength drawing in line with Aylie¡¯s.

    Ember was still nearby, frantically searching for a way to stop the dream Zalia from taking away its control. Aylie stepped up to her and grabbed one of the threads linking her to the demon and ripped it away. Aylie felt the demon¡¯s panic as it realised there was another being here capable of ripping away its control. Yes, that was right, Aylie was more powerful than it and she had been free all along. She pushed that thought into its mind.

    Grabbing the rest of the threads, she pulled them free with ease. She held onto them all, following them back to their source. Ember looked around confused, then jogged up to Aylie.

    ¡°What is going on?¡±

    Aylie gave her an easygoing, confident smile.

    ¡°I¡¯m dealing with the problem.¡±

    She followed the thread out of the town, continuing to pull townspeople out of the demon¡¯s control with the dream Zalia behind her. She could feel that the demon wasn¡¯t focused on Zalia anymore though, no, it was focused on her as she followed its own threads back to where it lived.

    They found it, a den opening with hundreds of threads leading out of it, many of them receding back inside. Aylie walked through and into a cave. There was a small demon sitting centrally in the space, curled up and whimpering as she pulled its power and control from it.

    Then, she felt bad.

    It had only been trying to survive. Yet so had Aylie. When it came to survival, it was either you or them but that didn¡¯t mean she had to feel good or bad about it. Zalia had told her that long ago and she had remembered feeling angry about the words then, yet she thought she understood now.

    As more and more of the townspeople were taken from the demon¡¯s control, she had it fade into a real dream and the whimpering stopped. Now asleep, she was capable of much stronger effects. In its sleeping dream, she made everything slowly disappear until only the demon remained in the pitch blackness. Then, it popped out of existence.

    As that happened, the demon died.

 Book 4: 1 - Making The First Move

    Four years after the invasion

    Zalia sat leaning against the base of the Ancient of Life, legs resting up on a root. It was winter, a blanket of snow resting across the Grove, dulling down the sounds from all the animals and people living in it. Despite the surface calm of the Grove, there was an excitement pulsing through the town for multiple reasons.

    The results of the elections had been sent across the kingdom and Zalia had been surprised when she had read it. Lady Leyra Indis had failed to get re-elected, along with two others, one each from the civilian and military councils. Zalia had no idea how that had come to pass until she spoke to the Ancient of Wisdom about it.

    Apparently, there had been rumours spreading about Indis¡¯ previous involvement with the now-dead king. The people of Endaria held no love for the former king and her closeness to the man had done her no favours. As such, she had lost the election and was now just a citizen like everyone else.

    Zalia didn¡¯t think this was something that had happened naturally, rather being a cause of some politicking or the other. If she had to guess, General Faian had wanted to get rid of Indis simply because she was too self-obsessed to realise that what she thought the kingdom needed wasn¡¯t always what it actually needed.

    She admittedly felt a bit bad for Indis as this was the thing she had been fighting for most of her life. Still, it might bring some perspective and a life lesson to the woman. Hopefully.

    It had been stressful to learn of Ember and Aylie¡¯s fight in the north, with Aylie having to defeat some kind of mind-controlling demon, saving not only the town it had under its thrall but Ember as well. If she had just been with them, it might not have been an issue at all. Still, she was proud of Aylie. Not so much of Lumin, who hadn¡¯t even been there until the demon had been dead. What was the point of having an Ascendant follow your loved ones around if they weren¡¯t even going to be there when they were in danger?

    It had sparked an argument between her and Ember because she had been hard on herself for not being there, while Ember argued that she couldn¡¯t always protect them, that they had to hold their own once in a while. Zalia had realised Ember was right, eventually. If she was always protecting them from everything, they wouldn¡¯t ever stretch the limits of their powers and grow to a point where they could protect themselves from most things.

    Despite all that, life was still good. She had been working with the Ancient of War to devise a method to block teleportation into and out of Nature¡¯s Reclaim. This was mostly because she and Ember were getting stronger and if they were right about the Astar taking any stronger humans and doing¡­ who knew what with them, they needed to be prepared for that eventuality. The Astar had already taken her once after all.

    They had come to the conclusion that while she could maintain a certain level of protection using a large Dodge-vine and Adastem ritual, its adaptive nature meant it wasn¡¯t extremely well protected against any one thing in particular. It might block some weaker teleportation but that term could not be used to describe the Astar¡¯s.

    So she had needed to find some herb with the teleportation or spacial element. Without any confirmation that such a thing even existed.

    She had never needed to search for a particular element in a herb before, relying on what she had to get by. To be fair, what she had was quite expansive, covering a lot of different scenarios.

    It had been a conversation with Glemp that had found her what she needed.

    Years ago, when she had first arrived in this world, she had found a plant called Frozen Time. She had almost forgotten about the thing, having given the only piece she had ever found to Glemp to experiment with. While Glemp still hadn¡¯t reached Silver rank, they were close and had learnt a thing or two about the plant since then.

    Glemp had learnt that when you reversed the element of time that Frozen Time held, you got Space. So, she had collected some more of the plant from the mountaintop and come home, ready to perform a new ritual.

    This was the other reason that the people of Nature¡¯s Reclaim were so excited. Zalia had told them all about the ritual she was going to perform today, so they were prepared and aware of its effects. She had been planting Frozen Time all across the town for the past few days, along with making sure Dodge-vines were in the right places for what she had in mind.

    Something she had learnt about Herbal Magic a while ago was that she could cast a ritual over the span of a very long time, with the time spent meaning the scale of the ritual could be much larger. She had figured out that it would take her two days to perform this one at the scale she wanted, a huge amount of time to invest over the course of which she would need to be standing still.

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    With a sigh, she stood up and stretched. With a twist of her head, her neck cracked ever so slightly. She wished this slower aging would hurry up and slow it faster.

    She had prepared a comfortable little spot outside of her house to perform the ritual. While it looked like a cultivated garden of plants, it was an extremely well-protected place. It was a series of living rituals that had the anti-teleportation ritual, spiritual, physical and adaptive protection from both perception and attacks. That was on top of the protective effects of the Grove that affected both herself and the plants that made up the living rituals. It was a lot, but well worth it to make sure the investment of time worked out.

    There were seventy nodes around the town that made up the pieces of the larger living ritual she was about to perform and each of those was protected by a similar setup as well as enchanted physical barriers to ensure no one could break the living ritual once it was complete. The ritual would be able to handle the breaking of multiple nodes as long as she replaced them quickly enough but she didn¡¯t want to take any risks.

    With all that ready, she moved over and sat down in the centre of her setup to begin.

    The first step was summoning all the material needed for the ritual using Herbal Magic¡¯s Iron rank ability. She had spent time growing all of the Frozen Time she needed due to its lower-rank limitation but hadn¡¯t bothered with the Dodge-vine.

    Piles and piles of glittering petals made of ice appeared around her, summoned from her spacial storage. They were soon followed by Dodge-vine that was dried and crushed into a rough dust. More and more appeared, all of it Silver rank because of the Bronze rank effect of Harvester.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    Twenty hours later, she had finished summoning the Dodge-vine. It was an improvement on the weeks she had spent growing Frozen Time but still a painful amount of mana and time. She could feel the very slight buildup of pain in her soul due to over use of a passive but compared to the Gold rank spirit trying to separate her from her own soul, it was nothing.

    The piles of Dodge-vine and Frozen Time petals around her lifted up and floated across the town. The few people who had slept and then come back to watch the ritual exclaimed as it happened, excited to see something other than summoning herbs finally happen.

    They continued to spread until a haze of herbs lay over Nature¡¯s Reclaim, each leaf and piece of dust spinning gently as it floated in place. Then, nothing happened.

    Many of the people down the hill were looking around expectantly as if they thought the ritual would go off immediately. Zalia could only wish it were so.

    ? ? ? ?????? ? ? ?

    Across the next day and seven hours, Zalia sat in the middle of her living rituals, protected from outside distraction¡­ mostly.

    She was attacked a few times by miniature fluffy missiles throwing themselves at extremely high speeds towards her shoulders, back, head and body. This was due to the not-so-small kittens escaping Boreal¡¯s careful watch.

    They were getting bigger now, nowhere near fully grown yet large enough to have a bit of momentum behind their pounces. Luckily, Zalia was quite immune to their attacks because of her rank and abilities. She was also used to that kind of behaviour, having raised Boreal herself.

    In a way, she was a grandmother to the litter. Where Boreal had to be stern and strict in her mothering, Zalia got to relax and have joyous times with the five, leaving the important stuff to Boreal.

    They all had names that Zalia couldn¡¯t make with her own voice, all of them different sounds that Boreal could make. They also had names given by Zalia and Boreal together that she could pronounce.

    The carbon copy of Boreal was named Frost, both for the abilities she had as well as the colour and body shape that was the heritage of the mountain cats that lived in the north.

    The other carbon copy kitten that was the exact same colour and body shape of the father, also known as the Ancient of War, was called Rush. This kitten had a long and lithe body, his fur flat and yellow-gold instead of fluffy and grey as well as missing the distinctive icy spines that Boreal had. This kitten''s powers were focused on pure speed, with the force of his attacks being based on the very same thing.

    There were three others, all of them with different mixtures of fur colour, body shape and abilities. Breeze was lithe with flat fur but had Boreal¡¯s icy spines along his shoulders, back and tail. His abilities focused on mobility and dodging rather than speed, as well as many that affected the mobility of his enemies.

    The two other girls both had Boreal¡¯s fur, one with her stockier, stronger body and the other with the lithe body of the Ancient of War. These two were named Prance and Pounce, for the way they often fought. The two of them had been close since birth, lacking the icy spines of Boreal and the flat, yellow-gold fur of their father. Prance was uniquely gifted at distracting things while Pounce did exceptionally well at taking them down with a single, well-placed strike without being seen.

    Often, if one saw Prance hopping around something, catching its attention, that meant Pounce was somewhere near about to strike.

    Despite the best efforts of the five, Boreal¡¯s constant supervision and Zalia¡¯s immunity to such shenanigans outdid them. The ritual built and built, the herbs in the air glowing brighter and brighter over the time of the casting, as mana was poured constantly, if slowly, into it.

    Towards the end of the ritual, most of the people of Nature¡¯s Reclaim had to wait inside as the sheer brightness of the ritual blinded them.

    Finally, with a surging flash, it activated.

 Book 4: 2 - Fear on the Horizon

    Zalia finished packing away her clean clothes, threw the bag of dried lavender in and closed the lid on the trunk. She sighed, stretching her arms up and arching her back.

    Back in the days she had been adventuring across Endaria, she¡¯d had one set of clothes that both repaired and cleaned themselves. Now, she had more outfits than she could keep track of. That wasn¡¯t because she went out and got them herself but because the people of Nature¡¯s Reclaim dropped off food, clothes and other useful items on a regular basis. It was because of the way that the Ancient of Wisdom ran the town that the people were so happy they did this of their own free will.

    The animals of the town often did the same but those items were usually a lot less¡­ useful. Boreal loved their gifts though, so it wasn¡¯t an issue.

    She turned around and went to the door, opening it. To her surprise, all five of Boreal¡¯s children were lined up, politely sitting, with Boreal behind them. With a little nudging from Boreal, the five young cats gave a discordant chorus of apologetic meows.

    Zalia raised her eyebrow at Boreal.

    ¡°An apology, for disturbing your ritual so much,¡± Boreal explained.

    Zalia held back her laughter and tried to look serious, nodding as if deep in thought.

    ¡°Apology accepted.¡±

    She reached an arm to her right, picking up a hairbrush she kept there for Boreal¡¯s children specifically. An item that brought terror to them.

    ¡°Now run!¡± she exclaimed evilly, raising it high.

    The five young cats scattered, dashing away at their top speeds. Zalia only gave a half-hearted chase, letting them get away.

    She put the hairbrush back and started walking towards their home¡¯s exit, Boreal following along.

    Over the past four years, the armies of Endaria had grown in strength significantly. With the Morning¡¯s Shade now a force controlled by the council, many people from around the kingdom, strong through their survival of the invasion, had joined one group or the other. The continued need to destroy nests of demons had provided a constant stream of experience for both armies, the average level much higher now.

    Ro-ak had spoken to her after his return, informing her of the Thousand-eyed one¡¯s burial. He had also told her that it was almost time for the next war.

    She didn¡¯t know why or how Ro knew that, but believed him all the same. Anxiety wracked her body every day now, dreading the return of the horrors of war distracting her mind. It was why she had created the anti-teleportation ritual now of all times. Preparations had to be made.

    This ritual wasn¡¯t the Grove¡¯s only defense though. She hadn¡¯t been lax in the past years, experimenting with her powers as much as possible while bringing some of her passives and weapon proficiencies up to speed.

    Profile - Zalia Taori

    Health - Excellent

    Mana - Full

    Stamina - Full

    Class one - Hunter - Silver 4

    Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity

    Active skills

    Kill Shot - Silver 4

    Hunter''s Mark - Silver 5

    Fight or Flight - Silver 4

    Passive skills

    Hunter''s Sight - Silver 6

    Survivalist - Silver 8

    Class two - Herbalist - Silver 6

    Linked attributes - Vitality, Resilience

    Active skills

    Flora Identification - Silver 6

    Natural Matter Alteration - Silver 8

    Druid¡¯s Grove - Silver 9

    Passive skills

    Harvester - Silver 8

    Herbal Magic - Silver 10

    Unity class - Druid - Silver 5

    Linked attributes - Wisdom, Intellect

    Active skills

    Nature¡¯s Wrath - Silver 5

    Protection of the Wilds - Silver 5

    Passive skills

    Healing Presence - Silver 11

    General Passives

    Heat Resistance - Silver 8

    Cold Resistance - Silver 8

    Aura Observation - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Enhanced Vision - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Poison resistance - Iron 7

    Mobility - Silver 10

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Stealth - Silver 8

    Trapper - Silver 8

    Teaching - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Flight - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Physical Resistance - Silver 8

    Mental Resistance - Silver 8

    Weapon proficiencies

    Bow - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Sword - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Throwing Knives - Tin 17

    Bonded Items

    Druidic bow, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Druidic Armour, Blessed by Nature (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Bronze rank.

    Blessings

    Blessing of Scour, The Desert Storm.

    Aura Observation - passive

    Tin - you are able to identify what rank a creature is by sight, unless it has a method of hiding that information.

    Iron - you are able to identify a creature''s general progress to the next rank.

    Bronze - your strength of observation increases. Fluctuations in the auras of undisciplined beings can give insights into their emotional state.

    Silver - You are able to see the aura of beings in their magic. This allows you to identify the owner or controller of magics. This is the maximum level of this passive.

    Enhanced Vision - passive

    Tin - You see better in low light areas.

    Iron - Your vision is able to pierce magical darkness of the same rank or lower of this ability.

    Bronze - You are able to filter out too-bright light to a certain extent, as well as gaining the ability to discern details at greater distances.

    Silver - Your vision is no longer dependant on your eyes. This is the maximum level of this passive.

    Teaching - passive

    Tin - you gain a better understanding of what methods of teaching will work with certain people, scaling with the level and rank of this ability.

    Iron - when teaching someone, they have an easier time grasping concepts that you explain, scaling with the level and rank of this ability. You are also able to convey simple concepts even when there is a language barrier.

    Bronze - Attempting to teach someone about something you aren¡¯t fully educated in will give you insights into the subject, allowing you to learn even as you teach others.

    Silver - You become a master of the craft of teaching. You know what others need to learn even before they do. This is the maximum level of this passive.

    Flight - passive

    Tin - Your manoeuvrability is increased and your air resistance is reduced while in flight. This scales based on the rank and level of this passive.

    Iron - Your ability to perceive your surroundings while flying becomes exceptional. You can spot distant details and potential threats with remarkable clarity, allowing you to anticipate and counteract aerial assaults effectively as well as see threats on the ground.

    Bronze - All flight based abilities are easier and cheaper to maintain. This effect increases based on how many allies you also give flight to.

    Silver - You are an expert in flight and may maintain flight abilities on yourself indefinitely. This is the maximum level of this passive.

    Mobility - passive

    Tin - Your speed is increased. Your stamina is less affected by movement.

    Iron - You may step on air one time before stepping on a solid surface once more.

    Bronze - You are able to step on air three times before resetting this ability. Additionally, you may perform a short range teleport with a long cooldown. Finally, when travelling long distances, you are able to maintain a fast pace while maintaining your stamina indefinitely.

    Silver - You can set a point in space over the course of an hour. You may teleport to this point from anywhere with a seven day cooldown.

    Bow - Weapon proficiency

    Tin - Arrows shot from a bow you are using have increased speed based on rank and level of this skill.

    Iron - Arrows shot from a bow you are using have increased penetrative power based on the rank and level of this skill.

    Bronze - Bows you use will now shoot entirely silently. Additionally, when you draw the string back, you will gain insights into the weak points of your target.

    Silver - You no longer need to hold your bow to shoot it. It floats next you to, acting by your will. This is the maximum level of this skill.

    Sword - Weapon proficiency

    Tin - you can wield a sword faster and hit harder with it based on the rank and level of this skill.

    Iron - the durability of a sword wielded by you is increased based on the rank and level of this skill.

    Bronze - When you successfully parry, you gain a burst of speed for a short time. Additionally, you can gain slight insights into the movements of your enemies when engaged.

    Silver - Your strikes now create slashing winds that may hit targets from afar. These winds are weaker than a normal strike and are blockable. This is the maximum level of this skill.

    The biggest change in her passives was something entirely new to all of her abilities. They were at their limit. The final rank abilities were stronger than was normal for passives yet she could not rank them up any further.

    Because of Flight¡¯s Silver rank ability, she always had her wings active these days, folded behind her back but at the ready. She still walked everywhere unless she was really in a hurry and had grown used to the feeling of weightlessness the wings brought.

    She had also made a few more defenses using Herbal Magic, living rituals that she had come up with.

    Scattered around Nature¡¯s Reclaim were living rituals using Zephyr, Manifest and a lot of Bitterbalm. These rituals were inactive most of the time but when activated by the Ancient of War, would summon earth golems around the perimeter that would defend the town. That, along with all the permanent traps she set around the place provided a good amount of protection.

    There were also hundreds of smaller living rituals set and ready outside the walls that would create various effects from explosions of fire to poisonous living vines to blasting winds. All of these were inactive as well, Zalia not wanting to accidentally blow up or otherwise kill the people of the town. All someone had to do to activate these rituals was remove the Frozen Time that sat at their centre. Anyone could do so, yet only herself, Ember, Aylie, Boreal and the three ancients protecting the town knew about it. The people of the town knew to avoid any living ritual and so far, there hadn¡¯t been any incidents.

    The two of them stepped out of their home and looked out at Nature¡¯s Reclaim. It had grown in population quite a lot since its creation, housing more than five thousand people and animals at last count.

    ¡°War is coming again Boreal, I can feel it.¡±

    Boreal said nothing as Zalia turned to look up at the Ancient of Life, a giant tree looming over the entire Grove. It had grown with the town, now standing at over a hundred and fifty metres tall, its base split around the house it sat atop. It had become more and more awake as the years passed, in control of the healing aura permeating the entire town. It had yet to learn to speak but still used its control of the aura to amazing effect, ensuring that the life within the Grove was kept safe.

    She looked around the town square, wondering what to do today. Ember and Aylie had gone off for some lunch and she knew that Boreal had plans to go hunting with her children. Similar to Zalia¡¯s wish to get Aylie to Silver as quickly as possible, Boreal also wanted to get her own children to Bronze. They were getting there, having started at Iron rank and making quick progress under Boreal¡¯s teaching.

    Maybe she should check the defenses again, to make sure they were in good order. She¡¯d done that only five days ago though, so perhaps it could wait.

    She could go hunting with Boreal and her children but it didn¡¯t hold any appeal. It wasn¡¯t that she didn¡¯t want to spend time with them, more that she found no joy in hunting down and killing defenseless animals. She didn¡¯t even need to eat anymore, so what was the point?

    With Mobility¡¯s Silver rank ability, she could teleport back to the Grove in an instant. That meant she could pretty safely travel a much further distance without having to worry about either herself or the Grove being attacked.

    She shot off a quick message to Ember through their bond and gave Boreal a quick goodbye hug. In a burst of motion, she took off into the sky to begin the short flight west to the Capital. While she wanted to find out what had happened between Indis and Faian, the main reason she was going was to see Hildebrandt. She had a few questions that needed answering.

 Book 4: 3 - Casual Grill Chat

    Zalia flew in low over the capital, watching the patrolling guards all along the city walls. The capital was a thriving city now because most of the remaining population of Endaria had centralised there after the invasion, for the support of the government more than anything else.

    The only other place in Endaria that had kept an even remotely large population had been Ostoss in the north, the town that Zalia had helped defend. The Enchanter there had eventually figured out her anti-demon ritual and incorporated it into his defense, lending the people there safety. Other than those two cities, the final places in the kingdom that had remained populated were the far, far northern villages. On the very edges of Endaria, those villages were usually considered the most dangerous parts of the kingdom. That had changed over the course of the invasion, with many people having fled to those villages and only a few of those returning once the invasion was over.

    That was all in the past now though. Sure, the odd demon popped up here and there but life had gone back to normalcy. The people of Endaria were tougher than ever and many of the previously abandoned towns were receiving seeding populations from the capital as people started to look outside its walls for opportunity. For those who put in the hard work, there was limitless land around already-built infrastructure for the taking.

    The reason Zalia had come to the capital was none of that, however. She had come to see Hildebrandt, the most singularly powerful person in the kingdom. Zalia wasn¡¯t sure if the entire kingdom¡¯s army was capable of beating her in a fight. It was good then that Hildebrandt was also one of the most selfless people in the kingdom.

    When she had ceded control of the Morning¡¯s Shade to the Endarian Council, Hildebrandt hadn¡¯t stayed with them as a member also under the council. Instead, she had been living the quiet life in the capital in a nice cozy house towards the upper tiers of the city.

    Having seen her approaching the city at speed, a pair of shadowy guards born on dark wings flew up to meet her. Once they drew closer, Zalia recognised them as the twins, members of the Morning¡¯s Shade who now apparently acted as air control for the capital.

    They let her pass with a simple nod of greeting and she dropped down towards the area she knew Hildebrandt to live in.

    Zalia had been to her house only once in the past four years, some year and a half after the invasion. It wasn¡¯t that she didn¡¯t want to see the woman, just that they were so often both busy. That and the fact that Zalia had to fly a mind-numbing twenty-five hours straight to reach the city, even at her faster speed. She often wished that she could make some portals in a few other places of Endaria as well. Actually, couldn¡¯t she just¡­

    She shook the thought from her head as she landed, peering up at the compact two-story house surrounded by a neat little garden with a waist-high fence around it. The building itself was made of giant log posts with plastered walls between them, making what was a beautiful, simple cottage in a city filled with wonders of architecture. Unlike most of the buildings in the capital that were essentially grown by magical builders, this one had been built by hand by none other than Hildebrandt herself.

    Zalia walked up to the huge, thick wooden door that served as the house¡¯s entrance and gave it two solid, satisfying knocks. It wasn¡¯t often that a door would handle the unrestrained strength of a Silver ranker but this house had been built for someone much higher than that.

    Her head turned at a called ¡°Over here!¡± from around the side of the house. She stepped down the two steps and walked over the stepping stones through the garden. While she kept her aura as restrained as possible in cities, she did notice some of the grass growing wildly despite her efforts. She absentmindedly trimmed it all back to normal as she turned the second corner into the backyard.

    There was Hildebrandt, in a singlet and shorts that showed off her obscene amount of muscle, whistling away as she cooked some type of meat on a flame grill. The woman picked up another log and chucked it through the hatch into the fire beneath as she turned to look at Zalia.

    ¡°Zalia! So nice to see you, it¡¯s been a while¡±

    It was odd to see Hildebrandt out of her armour, no shield or mace in sight. When you saw Hildebrandt in battle, it was easy to forget that there was a person under all that power.

    ¡°Your garden is lovely as ever, how have you been?¡± Zalia asked, walking over to give her a big hug.

    Hildebrandt returned the hug, one hand still holding a pair of tongs.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°Great! I¡¯m still grateful you persuaded me to pick up gardening, I¡¯ve even managed to develop a passive for it since the last time you were here¡±

    Zalia gave her a warm smile, happy for the woman. The last time she¡¯d been here the house had only just finished being built and the ¡°garden¡± at the time had looked like a war site. Which it kind of had been. Zalia had convinced her to fix it up rather than leave what remained of the grass to grow in wild patches. She was fond of wild growth but all nature could flourish under a careful eye and a caring hand. Her smile slowly faded as she remembered why she was there.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Hildebrandt asked, seeing her expression change.

    Zalia¡¯s hand tapped repetitively on her thick pants as she thought.

    ¡°I wanted to talk to you about Indis if you know anything. And I wanted some advice.¡±

    Hildebrandt nodded but made no move to sit, continuing her cooking. Zalia waited as she finished up with the meat and took a few fruits off a nearby tree, crushing them with ease into two cups. She also brought out another comfortable chair and some fresh bread, setting everything on a table between the two chairs. Only once that was done did Zalia talk.

    ¡°How exactly did Indis lose the election?¡±

    Hildebrandt sipped some of the¡­ fruit juice before responding.

    ¡°You¡¯d have to ask Faian if you want details but as far as I know, she started plotting to have Faian removed but the general was one step ahead. She got politically outmaneuvered for once.¡±

    Zalia was a little shocked. It appeared Faian had taken to her role quite well then.

    ¡°Is she still in the city?¡±

    Hildebrandt shook her head.

    ¡°No, she left. Don¡¯t know where she went though.¡±

    Zalia frowned, worried. She didn¡¯t have any warmth for the woman but they had been close once. Endaria and its people had been everything to her and to be rejected by them¡­ well, she probably hadn¡¯t taken that well. Maybe she could get Aylie to send a dream message.

    ¡°The other thing I¡¯m worried about is the Astar. I know it¡¯s been peaceful for a while now but I have this feeling, this fear on the edge of my mind all the time recently. A few months back Ember and Aylie ran into a new type of demon and I can¡¯t help but think the Astar were behind it somehow. I have this¡­ I have this certainty in my mind that they¡¯re going to attack, and soon. It might be a strike against me, or even against the capital. I¡¯m not sure.¡±

    It was Hildebrandt¡¯s turn to frown as she inspected Zalia closely.

    ¡°Where is this feeling coming from?¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know but it¡¯s got me through more than one bad situation in the past. I trust it.¡±

    Hildebrandt looked at her sympathetically.

    ¡°Are you sure you aren¡¯t just so used to watching for danger that you¡¯re seeing something that isn¡¯t there? Maybe triggered by whatever it is Ember and Aylie ran into?¡±

    Zalia hadn¡¯t thought about that. During the invasion and the months coming up to it, she had been so constantly in danger that it had become normal to her. After each fight, there was already another enemy waiting. Maybe the close run in Ember and Aylie had with the demon had set something off in her, some trauma from the war.

    She sighed deeply.

    ¡°You might be right. I just can¡¯t shake the feeling. We know that the Astar have come after powerful Endarians in the past. Matth¡­ Matthias still hasn¡¯t reappeared. When it comes to the next most powerful people in the kingdom after you, it''s the twins, a few of the council members and my family. I think we should strike before they decide to start up that particular habit again.¡±

    Hildebrandt gave her a serious look, apprehension apparent on her face.

    ¡°Zalia, I understand your fear but striking against an enemy whose strength is unknown is a surefire way to start a war we might not be ready for. The kingdom has only just started recovering, properly recovering from the last one. Don¡¯t do anything foolish. If you need some closure about this issue, talk to General Faian while you¡¯re here and maybe she can work something out.¡±

    Zalia nodded slowly, hearing the logic in her words. She was right that they weren¡¯t yet ready for another war.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll talk to Faian later then.¡±

    They chatted idly for the next half hour as they, though it was mostly Hildebrandt, finished eating. Zalia asked about what ranking up as an Emerald ranker was like and Hildebrandt explained how she had reached a level where she felt no push to reach the next rank. She was essentially unkillable and had all the time in the world to rank up, which made for less of a desperate push to reach the next rank than what Zalia was used to.

    Hildebrandt asked after Ember, Aylie and Boreal, becoming incredibly excited to learn that Boreal had had kittens. She now wanted to come for a visit as soon as possible to see them.

    Zalia eventually had to leave, knowing that Ember would be waiting for her return. With a wave and a hug goodbye and promises to see each other soon, Zalia started the short flight up to the capital¡¯s castle. A short talk with Faian and she would return home to test a theory she had come up with to do with her ritual magic. If her idea worked, it might change Endaria forever.

 Book 4: 4 - Now Shes Thinking With Portals

    Zalia waited patiently at the castle gates as the messenger that was posted there ran off to inform General Faian of her arrival. She tapped her finger repetitively on the side of her leg as she stood, trying to be understanding of the precaution. It was entirely fair, as they couldn¡¯t exactly allow just anyone to walk around the castle grounds, nor should they allow looser safety precautions when it came to specific people.

    She felt a brief bit of annoyance as the guard there requested that she cut open her palm to prove she wasn¡¯t a shapechanger, but pushed through that feeling with logic once more. Of course they should check.

    The messenger returned a few minutes later to tell Zalia that Faian was in a meeting but would be available within the next half hour. She was fine with waiting a little longer as the guard finally let her through to wander the gardens there.

    There was an intriguing mystery around the garden in the castle that Zalia always tried to figure out when she was here. Most of the garden was well kept and tended, obviously looked after. However, there was a patch of plants that were dead and even when reinvigorated by her magic, would soon die once more without constant tending.

    It was the place where the Thousand-eyed one had once rested.

    No matter what anyone tried, that piece of land always died soon after being healed or replanted. It was a mystery, though one that only occupied her mind when she was in the capital. Thinking about it, she wondered if Nateysta would be able to remove the tiny slice of permanent corruption now that he was back. Her train of thought trundled onwards towards the God-trap, a giant contraption made of hundreds of spinning rings that had the power to trap an Ascendant being.

    When she had returned to Endaria from the adventure that had given her the item, she had wanted to find someone to give it to who could work on repairing the thing. It had escaped her mind for a few weeks and when she had pulled it out of her storage after that, she had found it already repaired. She hadn¡¯t taken into account the self-repairing features of Heirloom items. Sure, it was a constructed Heirloom, not a normal one, but it held the same properties all the same.

    The only problem she had now was in figuring out how to use the damn thing.

    She hadn¡¯t been able to bond to it so far but knew it could take years for that kind of thing to happen. At the very least, she knew it had to be used in a location that was significant to the Ascendant you were trying to trap. If Nateysta hadn¡¯t already gone through the trouble of spending years creating a prison for the particular Ascendant that had created this dead zone in the castle, she might have considered using it here. Assuming the area of dead life was significant to the Thousand-eyed one at all and not just some after-effect of its existence.

    Time flew by as Zalia wandered the gardens and a secretary came to retrieve her, leading her through the castle and towards Faian¡¯s office.

    The castle had received some major interior relaying, with its function as a space for a council of twenty-two rather than a monarchy of one requiring a much different layout.

    When Zalia entered Faian¡¯s office, she had to admire the efficiency with which the space was used. The two file cabinets were within easy reach of the desk, a spare quill and inkwell as well as a stack of sheet paper available on its top. The desk was off to the side, with a comfortable but straight-backed chair sitting in front of it. Most of the rest of the space was taken up by a series of more reclined cushioned chairs around a low wide table with a spinning centre.

    There was also a small glass showcase cabinet holding various military medals belonging to Faian, the majority of them granted by the king that Faian had served as General, King Horum. His son, King Alistair had been the last king of Endaria and the one that had almost seen to its end. In a way, he had seen to its end, as Endaria was no longer a kingdom but a nation free.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    General Faian was in her office, sitting in one of the more comfortable seats around the low table, sipping a cup of tea. She dismissed the secretary with a smile and a wave, then gestured for Zalia to be seated.

    ¡°Tea?¡±

    Zalia nodded her assent and Faian poured out a cup of tea from a teapot for her. Zalia took it with a murmured thanks, taking a small sip. It was minty with a slightly sweet taste that reminded her of honey. Strange, she hadn¡¯t ever seen a bee in Endaria.

    ¡°To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?¡± Faian asked.

    Zalia took one more sip, savouring the taste. She might not need to eat or drink but that didn¡¯t mean it couldn¡¯t be pleasurable. Might as well get straight to business.

    ¡°The Astar. I¡¯m worried about what they might be doing. Ember discovered a new type of demon and with the Astar having been so silent after the invasion, I fear they might be involved in this.¡±

    Faian leaned forwards, not immediately dismissing Zalia¡¯s fears. A good start.

    ¡°I see, and has there been any further evidence of Astar involvement other than your suspicions?¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    Faian put down her teacup with a sigh, looking thoughtful.

    ¡°I believe something does need to be done about the Astar Zalia, even if it is just to get an explanation. I agree with your suspicions about them, but I can¡¯t allow a strike against them until we have confirmation of their interference with Endaria. Yes, they did capture and torture you and yes, you have confirmed them to be working with the demons through that experience but¡­ what if that was just a splinter group of the Astar as a more varied people?¡±

    Zalia thought about it, had already thought about that very thing. She knew all that, yet couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Something was going to happen and she didn¡¯t know what to do to stop it.

    ¡°Look, I¡¯m not asking for you to send the army to attack them. All I want is for you to look further into it and¡­ well, just be careful.¡°

    Faian nodded in agreement.

    They spoke a little more in detail about what exactly Faian would do. She agreed to convince the civilian council seated to send a Morning¡¯s Shade group to investigate the new demon as they were much better suited to such a task than the military was. Additionally, she was working on anti-teleportation for the capital as well. Zalia couldn¡¯t perform a ritual that large but Faian was convinced that her people would be able to incorporate it into the city¡¯s existing magical defenses.

    When all was said and done, Zalia activated the Silver rank ability of Mobility and vanished from the capital.

    She appeared moments later, just outside the city limits of Nature¡¯s Reclaim. The anti-teleportation appeared to be working just fine.

    While her mind was on teleportation, her thoughts turned to the idea she¡¯d had back in the capital. When mixed with Bitterbalm, Frozen Time gave the Space element to a ritual. Zalia had used it for the very anti-teleportation that had just stopped her from appearing in the middle of her home and instead outside the city gates.

    Well, what if she could set up more portals?

    The idea was perhaps an absurd one but the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to try. It would require the two plants she had just listed, as well as Manifest for its element of Physical Manifestation of course. Those three in combination should combine to create a ritual that would create a physical manifestation in a space. It was easy enough to alter the ritual so it would create a physical manifestation in a space of a person. What she couldn¡¯t figure out was how to set the destination.

    All of the rituals she had used up to this point had a very specific target area with the target area being the very same area that the ritual encompassed. It was easy enough to have the ritual target a person by having them simply stand in it, what she couldn¡¯t figure out was how to get it to send that person to somewhere far, far away.

    She was still stuck in those thoughts when she arrived back at home, finding Ember standing there waiting for her, arms crossed and an expression of annoyance on her face. Uh oh.

 Book 4: 5 - Portal

    A thousand thoughts crossed Zalia¡¯s mind as she observed Ember¡¯s annoyed expression. Had she done something wrong? Had she forgotten something?

    She briefly considered whether it was too late to pretend she was just walking by, but eventually steeled herself and approached.

    ¡°Good morning honey,¡± Zalia said in greeting, keeping a cheery expression.

    Ember narrowed her eyes at her and Zalia waited for it to drop.

    ¡°These kittens Zalia, I swear to the gods!¡±

    Zalia breathed a sigh of relief.

    ¡°What did they do this time?¡±

    Ember gestured for her to follow and went inside the house.

    They walked through the main hall and up the stairs to the second floor. Zalia spotted Boreal in a passing room, pacing back and forth in front of her five kittens, tail flicking aggressively. Whatever they had done must be pretty bad to have Boreal that angry.

    Ember brought her to the kitten''s playroom and she walked into a scene akin to that of a town after a tornado had passed through.

    Firstly, everything¡­ everything, was soaked in water. There was ice all around the place that was still melting and many of the bridges and high-up posts had been either shredded to pieces or ripped down from the walls and ceiling. The floor was coated in wet shreds of cloth and wood. They had really done a number on it.

    Zalia didn¡¯t really think it was as bad as it had seemed but wasn¡¯t about to say that to Ember. She knew that the room would repair itself slowly so it wasn¡¯t a big deal.

    ¡°Well, they appear to be getting a bit restless in the town.¡±

    Ember gave her a look that said, ¡°No shit.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking, Boreal wasn¡¯t ever this bad. She was a bit of a menace but most of her childhood was spent wandering the world with you.¡±

    Zalia waited for the rest.

    ¡°Maybe we should go on a long journey somewhere, take them with us and show them more of the world. Give them some space to stretch out and explore.¡±

    Zalia thought it over. It wasn¡¯t a bad idea and in a world where they were living out in the wild, Boreal¡¯s children would be beginning to stray further away to find territory of their own. Zalia still thought of them as kittens but in reality, they were getting quite big and very strong. It wouldn¡¯t be long before they were Bronze rank and when that happened, they would be stronger than a good portion of the human race already.

    They would also level much quicker than a human would, as they only had the one class. Zalia had only been able to keep up with Boreal because of the increased speed her abilities had ranked up to begin with due to her very late start to magic. Boreal would probably pull ahead in rank now that Zalia¡¯s ability levelling had slowed down.

    ¡°Okay, we can talk about it. I¡¯ve been thinking of scouting out the Astar lands personally but we could take all of them and Aylie along with us. With you, me and Boreal, they would be somewhat safe.¡±

    Ember frowned.

    ¡°Are you sure that is a good idea? I was thinking more along the lines of taking them up to the north to see their homeland, even exploring further than we have gone before. The Astar lands might be a bit too dangerous.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± Zalia said, ¡°Aylie is ready and this is what we have been preparing her for. She proved her capability against that demon in the north. The more I think about it, the more I realise we don¡¯t know anything about the Astar. I¡¯m not saying we should attack them by ourselves but surely we can get some kind of intel. Find one of their towns or¡­ anything.¡±

    ¡°Okay, well let me think about it. We¡¯ll also have to talk to Boreal about it as well, they are her children after all.¡±

    Zalia nodded in agreement and they both looked back down the hall towards where Boreal and the kittens were.

    ¡°Speaking of, we should probably go check on them.¡±

    They went back to the room and found that the Ancient of War, the kitten¡¯s father, was also in the room now. He was trying to calm Boreal down while the five kittens sat nervously.

    ¡°Alright, what happened?¡±

    Rush, Breeze and Prance all started speaking at once, the mental communication soundless yet deafening.

    Zalia shook her head, gesturing for them to stop.

    ¡°Stop, stop, please. Frost, you first.¡±

    Frost was the most similar to Boreal, both in appearance and temperament.

    ¡°Well, Pounce and Prance were hunting Breeze but they couldn¡¯t catch him so I tried to freeze them all but¡­ accidentally froze the entire room.¡±

    She was looking down at her paws, shuffling nervously and Rush, quick as ever, spoke up before the other three.

    ¡°Then they all attacked Frost! So I had to help her fight them.¡±

    It felt strange how they communicated. Boreal had developed a passive ability that allowed her to speak full sentences and understand language and not long after that, she had taught her children. It was odd hearing them all talk normally, rather than the short words linked with images that Zalia was used to.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Pounce went on to explain how Prance had gotten in the way of her attack and had been thrown into one of the posts breaking it. They tried to continue blaming each other and explaining how everything got broken but Zalia stopped them, knowing enough. The echo chamber of chaos created by five carefree kittens was a dangerous thing. When the five of them were alone, there wasn¡¯t anyone to dampen their unbridled violence enhanced with magical abilities and strength and she had seen how that had turned out.

    ¡°Can I talk with you a minute?¡± Zalia sent to Boreal.

    Boreal stopped her pacing and walked out of the room with Zalia.

    ¡°I¡¯m sor-¡± she started.

    Zalia waved her off.

    ¡°Nothing that time won¡¯t fix, little one. Ember and I think it¡¯s time that those five got to see more of the world, explore, make some mistakes and learn from them. I want to explore some of the Astar lands and I think all of them coming with would make for a good opportunity. Of course, you, Ember and Aylie would come along as well.¡±

    Zalia could tell from Boreal¡¯s posture that she was unsure of that idea.

    ¡°Think about it and talk with the Ancient of War about it too. I¡¯ve got some other things that I want to do before heading out anyway.¡±

    She watched Boreal as she quietly considered, her tail still flicking with annoyance at the kittens. Boreal bowed her head in acknowledgement of the idea and they went back inside. Zalia squeezed Ember¡¯s shoulders to get her attention and whispered.

    ¡°Where is Aylie? I have an idea she might be able to help with.¡±

    Ember turned her head, whispering back.

    ¡°She¡¯s down at the market, practicing blocking out people¡¯s thoughts.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to be okay with these five?¡±

    Ember reached a hand up to Zalia¡¯s and squeezed one of them back, huffing.

    ¡°These little ones? With ease. Oh hey, I was going to go for a walk outside the city this evening, you want to join me?¡±

    Zalia gave her a quick kiss.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    She left the house, feeling just a little bad for the kittens. They were a lot bigger now sure, but they were also still very young. By Zalia¡¯s reckoning, even Boreal was still young but the life cycle of cats was much quicker than that of humans. She wondered if the Astar thought something similar about the other races of the world and that¡¯s why they seemed to treat them with such neutrality, nothing other than a small race of creatures that died easily, quickly and often to be culled so they didn¡¯t grow too annoying.

    It didn¡¯t take Zalia long to find Aylie in the market, the teenager sitting in her usual spot in the high branches of a tree. Aylie had always loved flying and high places, loved the wind and feeling of freedom that came from them.

    She waited at the tree¡¯s base, unhurried and not wanting to disturb Aylie¡¯s practice. The girl would notice Zalia there eventually, she always did.

    Zalia counted to twenty-eight seconds before Aylie¡¯s eyes opened, a new record.

    ¡°You¡¯re still getting better!¡± she called up.

    ¡°And you¡¯re somehow still getting stealthier,¡± Aylie said at normal volume. She knew Zalia would be able to hear.

    Zalia shrugged, watching Aylie jump down from the tree top, some fifteen metres. She had to resist the urge to tell Aylie off for the risk. Even if she had broken something, they were both Druids with healing abilities. Besides, Zalia herself had tested her limits more than once in much more dangerous ways.

    ¡°It¡¯s like every time I figure out how to detect that you¡¯re there, your magic fixes the hole in your stealth and makes a new one.¡±

    Zalia tried to keep an innocent face but Aylie narrowed her eyes at her.

    ¡°Me? Never.¡±

    Aylie¡¯s eyes narrowed further.

    ¡°Okay, yes, I have been doing that. It¡¯s a good way for you to learn to perceive all kinds of stealth specialists. All they need is a single give, one thing to show that they¡¯re there and I want you to be able to find those things.¡±

    Aylie gave a little sniff of annoyance, then said.

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    ¡°What for?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re always helping me in little ways like that, it means a lot to me.¡±

    Zalia stopped and dragged Aylie into a big hug.

    ¡°I¡¯ll always be here for you, I promised that remember?¡±

    Aylie nodded and Zalia let her go.

    ¡°Now, I actually came here because I have a problem that you might be able to find the solution to.¡±

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    They stood over a small living ritual outside the city bounds some thirty minutes later. It was the teleportation ritual Zalia had thought of. Just as she had thought, it worked as she wanted¡­ kind of.

    If she walked into the little barely glowing outline of a portal that hovered above the ritual she could feel herself being teleported but all it did was teleport her to the exact place she already was. To Aylie looking from the outside, it was as if she flickered for a second. There was also what Aylie saw in the astral but that was something else entirely, something that Aylie couldn¡¯t quite explain with words. She had tried to send mental images of what it looked like to Zalia but she couldn¡¯t interpret what she was seeing.

    ¡°What did it look like that time?¡±

    ¡°The exact same,¡± Aylie growled.

    It was getting a little frustrating, the way the ritual refused to work.

    There was another of the same living ritual a bit away, sitting there with a similar faintly glowing outline of a portal. Unfortunately, neither appeared like Aylie¡¯s ability did, where you could see the destination through the portal.

    ¡°Maybe we¡¯ve been thinking of this the wrong way.¡±

    Aylie looked up at her, her hand tapping against the side of her leg repetitively. Zalia smiled, realising she did the exact same thing.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Well, we¡¯ve been thinking about this like my portal. I choose a location and it makes a connecting portal from in front of me to there. What if we need to give the rituals something that belongs to something the other ritual has.¡±

    The second Aylie said it, Zalia knew she was right. She could make the portals target something that was within itself but not outside of itself so she just had to have them both target something that had a fundamental connection through the astral to whatever the other portal held.

    She grabbed Aylie¡¯s shoulders

    ¡°You¡¯re a genius!¡±

    It only took her a moment to come up with something, pulling out the gloves of her heirloom armour. She put one in one ritual and one in the other, then remade each living ritual, this time targeting the glove within. When she recast the second ritual, the inside of the portals flickered a little before settling into the view of the other, like doors through space.

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    All it had needed was a little input from an astral expert.

 Book 4: 6 - Act Before Acted Upon

    After Aylie had left to go see the damage the kittens had done, Zalia stayed around and fiddled with the teleportation ritual a little more. She tried further and further distances until the small ritual no longer functioned, finding it could only work across a couple of kilometres without making it larger. That was until she made it to Gold and could raise the rank of all her herbs to Gold as well. If she made it to Gold.

    She was more sure of the idea to head into Astar lands as the hours passed. Yes, Hildebrandt and Faian had cautioned her to be wary but she wasn¡¯t going to go in there to start a war. Instead, she wanted to scout them out, try and learn something that could help. With her living rituals being almost imperceptable as anything other than natural, they would be able to set up a little home base that was well hidden somewhere deep in the Astar¡¯s territory.

    Eventually, she broke down the two living rituals, returned her armour¡¯s gauntlets to their place within her storage and started the walk back to town. The size of the living ritual required to make a portal from Nature¡¯s Reclaim to the capital would be quite large, with something like a living ritual from Nature¡¯s Reclaim to the mountain home of the Born of Heat and Stone people being massive. It would have to be half the size of the town at least, something that she was capable of now but also something that would take a day or more.

    That wasn¡¯t to say it wasn¡¯t worth doing, more that she had more important things to do right now. Maybe it was something she could come back to down the line as a higher-ranked Druid, or, something that might become useful in their stay in the Astar lands. In fact, she had an idea on how to use it there already.

    The town of Nature¡¯s Reclaim was thriving, with the population having adopted the early days ideas of the Ancient of Wisdom. People didn¡¯t use coin anymore here, simply trading goods to get what they wanted. Zalia preferred it, happy with how respectful people were to each other. She had made it clear in the early days that anyone who was to stay here would have to be good to everyone else.

    She nodded to a quokka that waddled past, admiring the leather armour it wore, the cheery smile on its face in conflict with its muscled body, armour and Bronze rank in what was obviously a warrior class of some sort.

    It was a little strange how classes worked for humans. None of the animal population of Nature¡¯s Reclaim had classes as such, even Boreal didn¡¯t have one, instead just being titled as a creature type of Mountain Frostfang. It wasn¡¯t something she had ever thought about while the war had been going on but with the past few years, it was something that had interested her more and more.

    She had three classes, two normal ones and a unity class, which was something unusual even amongst the already unusual humans. At first, Zalia had thought it had to do with humans normally higher levels of sentience and sapience to most other animals but had learned the Bathar, who were on a similar level of those things to humans, also didn¡¯t have classes. Instead, they were born with abilities that were already fit for the nature of the person. Or perhaps each Bathar developed into a person that fit their born abilities, it was hard to tell.

    This felt like another piece in the ever-expanding puzzle Zalia was trying to figure out, a puzzle to which she had been given neither the image nor border pieces for. Perhaps one day, she would find something that would give her a better idea of what exactly caused her to have three classes.

    Saying that, she wasn¡¯t complaining about it at all. It had certainly been helpful and she would go so far as to say it had saved her life on more than one occasion, though she couldn¡¯t say if she would have taken the same risks without.

    If they did end up going to the Astar lands, she would have loved to take Hildebrandt or Ro-ak with them, either of the powerful allies capable of killing almost any creature Zalia knew of. With her uniquely powerful tank abilities, Zalia wasn¡¯t even sure if Hildebrandt could be killed. Surprisingly, out of the people she knew, Aylie had the highest chance of accomplishing that. Though, who was to say if Ascendants were capable of making attacks against the soul or not.

    Thinking about all of her old friends brought Zalia¡¯s mind to Delphi and the collective. Their memories still sat in her storage, centuries of thoughts, foreseen futures and experiences collected in one big, jumbled mess that she still couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of. More than a few times over the past years she had tried to decipher more of the mess and hadn¡¯t completely failed. She had gotten flashes of past events, days shared with Delphi in Cormaine, images of people she had never met or things that she had no idea whether they had happened yet or were so far in the past as to be unimportant. It all might have meaning if she was able to recall all the memories in their chronological order but the stored memories of dozens, even hundreds of collective members all pushed into her mind at once was an absolute mess.

    She would have sent the memories off to someone more capable if she could, but wasn¡¯t even able to accomplish that. At least in her storage, they would remain untouched by time¡¯s inevitable warping of the mind.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    There was another item sitting in her storage that had been occupying her mind of late, that being the little pouch containing the ritual Juniper had tried to use to summon demons from Cormaine. At least, that was unless Zalia was right about the ritual Juniper had performed being originally intended to drag Juniper to Cormaine where she would die, all part of the Astar plan.

    It might be possible for her to figure out that ritual and use it to her own ends, a way of getting them into Cormaine when the time came. She knew that Ro-ak, Nateysta, wanted to return there to end the demons once and for all. From what they had gathered from the keep in Cormaine, the Bathar had somehow developed a way of moving between the worlds in the ages past, as they had originally come from that world. Perhaps that had been the ability of a single powerful mage however, not an impossibility.

    Lost in thought, Zalia was almost back at the town when she sensed something¡­ strange.

    From the past hours of staring into portals, she was keyed into that type of magic, her mind having just spent a long time analysing it. When she felt that same type of energy fizzing around her, Zalia acted immediately.

    At the same time that she summoned her armour and sword, she cast the very same ritual that stopped teleportation magic in the town around herself. It activated just as an Astar appeared, hand reaching out to grab her.

    Its hand closed on her shoulder, her ritual stopped it from teleporting away with her and she severed its arm in a brutal slash. The startled look of surprise on its face, one of the very few times Zalia had seen them make an expression, was wiped off with a well-put and concisely explained fist to the face. The fist was followed by a blade through the chest, which swept upwards as Zalia twisted the blade around, grabbed the blade further down with her hand and pushed it up.

    Just like that, the Astar died.

    It had been Silver rank, same as her, but obviously untrained in the art of combat. Zalia on the other hand, had just had an entire war¡¯s worth of trauma, combat experience and the instincts honed through a lifetime as a hunter awakened in a single moment.

    A few of the nearby townspeople, animals and humans both, looked over at her startled but Zalia grabbed the body before it dropped, storing away her blade, then opened the portal to her storage and stomped in there, slamming the body into one of the storage slots.

    She left that portal, letting it close before dashing to the town entrance, yelling for everyone to get inside.

    Having heard her mental call, all of her family and the Ancient of War were racing to the gates.

    She raced through the streets as the town gates closed behind her, the buildings flashing past in a blur as she reached speeds that very few people could achieve. It was less than a minute before she met her family rushing toward the gate and she swept her gaze over them in a quick examination. It looked like everyone was alright. She would never know if the Astar had tried to take any of them at the same time as if they had tried, the ritual she had created had stopped them.

    A vision flashed through her mind, the Astar capturing her family while she remained the only one free. The vision progressed, her, alone, searching through forests and unknown lands, chasing the bond between herself and her faraway family. Astar dying to her sword one by one, yet her loved ones never recovered.

    She gasped as the vision faded away, back to where it was stored in the clump of collective memories.

    That was why she had been so on edge about the Astar. That was why she had felt the need to set up a zone of anti-teleportation now. She couldn¡¯t decipher the collective¡¯s memories, many of them memories that had yet to happen, but on some level, she could understand them. Once, she¡¯d had issues with the powers of the collective, their ability to see into the future and know what would happen. She had thought the ability was somehow capable of stripping her freedom of choice. Yet today, it had helped her change a future that she would do anything to avoid.

    Ember was examining her, eyes flicking over the blood that coated her gauntlets, its unnatural shiny darkness.

    ¡°The Astar?¡± she asked.

    Zalia nodded.

    She explained what had just happened, including everything about the collective¡¯s memories and the future she had just seen.

    At her agreement, the Ancient of War ran off to activate many of the traps around the town, even going so far as to activate the dormant living rituals that awakened earthen guardians around the perimeter.

    ¡°I knew they would try something, I just knew it! I couldn¡¯t shake the feeling. Gods, it makes sense now.¡±

    Ember eyed her.

    ¡°And going to the Astar lands, you still think we should do that?¡±

    Zalia nodded decisively.

    ¡°Yes, without a doubt.¡±

    Ember gave her silent assent and they both looked to Boreal.

    The feline stared at the blood dripping from Zalia¡¯s gauntlets then looked up, giving a deep, deep growl of anger. Boreal wanted to draw blood of her own.

 Book 4: 7 - To be prepared

    It was a week after they agreed to leave for the Astar lands that they finally left Nature¡¯s Reclaim. There was a lot of preparation they needed to do as town leaders and even further as parents to ensure that nothing went wrong at home or on their journey.

    By mutual agreement, Zalia focused on getting what they needed for the journey while Ember worked on everything else.

    Ember had messages sent out to Faian and Hildebrandt, letting them know what had happened, where they were going and why. She made sure to promise that they wouldn¡¯t do anything foolish that would start an all-out war. While Zalia thought that was a good thing to promise, in her mind they were already at war. They just hadn¡¯t realised this was how the Astar waged it.

    She also spoke with the Ancient of Wisdom in Nature¡¯s Reclaim and made sure they had everything they needed, to which she was assured everything would be fine.

    Ember did the same in the other Grove, the one located in the desert south of Endaria. They finally had an Ancient of Wisdom there, it having taken much longer due to the lower animal density in the desert. The Ancient of Wisdom in that Grove was like a fennec fox with fur that shimmered like a mirage, making the fox extremely hard to see.

    Few people had decided to move to the desert Grove, preferring Nature¡¯s Reclaim due to its less hostile and more beautiful environment. Many did travel through the portal to go there, however, enjoying the deep warmth of the oasis springs.

    Zalia had been surprised to find that some dozen desert dwellers from the city of Ulzahar had decided to move to the Grove after Sazcha had told them about it. Many of them said they were tired of the constant struggle for survival that living in Ulzahar entailed, choosing to live in the calmer, more relaxed desert Grove. That wasn¡¯t to say they didn¡¯t pull their weight, as they were still incredibly hard workers.

    While Ember worked on all that, Zalia had been working on getting everything ready for the journey. The preparations for the journey that she had to make looked very different to how one might expect, their needs being wildly off the norm due to the capabilities of their magic.

    They didn¡¯t need tents nor any form of cover, having a perfect place to sleep in Zalia¡¯s spatial storage. Neither did they really need to bring any food, though she did pack a good portion of dried nuts, berries and salted, dried meats all stored in her spatial storage.

    No, the majority of her preparation time went into working with Boreal to school the kittens.

    She explained to them where they were going and why they were going there but she made no illusions as to the trip being anything other than dangerous. They were still understandably excited about the trip and it took Zalia and Boreal the week to get across to them that they would need to be responsible. Attacking the wrong thing or making too much noise at the wrong time could lead to painful consequences. They would need to be on guard, watching for danger and careful of their every move, constantly.

    Zalia knew this was a risk, a big one. She also knew it was a necessary one.

    The five needed to learn as soon as possible how the real world was. The brutality of nature, the way the world could beat you down over and over and it was up to you to pick yourself back up again each time. But, she also didn¡¯t want them to have to learn that the way she did.

    When she had left home at a young age to live by herself in the wild, frozen north of her world, she had been running from something, looking backwards at what she was trying to escape but not looking forward to what she would have to survive. That mistake had almost cost her life more than once.

    Here, the kittens would experience that but if it came to it, Zalia, Ember and Boreal were all around to ensure they didn¡¯t pay for a mistake with their lives. There was no reason to allow any of them to die in the process of trying to teach them how to survive.

    This wasn¡¯t a lesson she had to teach Aylie. No, Aylie had already learnt that lesson at far too young an age in a horrible, scarring way. The only thing Aylie needed was love and support.

    There was one other thing that Zalia did during that week of preparation time. The incident outside the city walls had her thinking that while a zone of anti-teleportation was good, it wasn¡¯t exactly helpful for anyone outside the town bounds, anyone who, say, was travelling long distances each day in hostile territory.

    So she tried making something that was a little more portable.

    The result of her efforts was an armband of herbs stalks woven together, made from the same herbs that the ritual of anti-teleportation required.

    It wasn¡¯t active all the time, unfortunately, laying dormant but still useful as all the wearer had to do to activate it was push a tiny bit of magic into it. This did lead to Zalia learning that this wasn¡¯t something that any of the others, even Aylie and Ember knew how to do. None of them had abilities that needed them to do that with, simply activating their spells and letting them work. The way Herbal Magic worked meant that Zalia instinctively knew how to create and activate rituals, by pushing her mana into them.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Everyone else was capable of performing these herbal rituals, they just needed a much, much longer time and a lot of learning to do it. If any of them put in the time to carefully lay out the herbs for a ritual in the right configuration, they could push their mana into it to activate it just as Zalia did. Her advantage was in being able to instinctively create rituals in an instant.

    After teaching her whole family how to manipulate their mana in this way, Zalia finally got them all to activate the armbands at least once each.

    The armbands were one use each, falling to dust after their power was used. What they did do was provide whoever wore them about thirty seconds of time in which they wouldn¡¯t be able to be teleported. That time could be increased by feeding them more mana but in the event of an Astar attack, Zalia would simply create a larger ritual and feed that for as long as was needed, the mana use more efficiently than if everyone was maintaining their own. It also stopped the Astar teleporting, making them easier to kill.

    Aylie made some of her own preparations as well. She had acquired a backpack of the type Zalia had used long ago, an enchanted one that allowed you to store as much as you wanted in it so long as you could still carry the weight of all those items combined. In it, she had stored a tent, some food, an enchanted rock that could be used to create a fire, spare clothes and even a few potions that would heal or remove disease, sickness and other ailments.

    All of her meticulous preparation, while possibly over-eager, made Zalia proud. Aylie wasn¡¯t planning to be caught unprepared it seemed.

    It made sense for her to keep some things outside of Zalia¡¯s storage, as it wasn¡¯t certain they would remain together. They might get separated for one reason or another and in that case, the people who needed to eat might find themselves suddenly without a source of food.

    Ember knew how to hunt, even if she wasn¡¯t great at it, while the kittens were¡­ well, Zalia was sure they would figure it out.

    With everything prepared, they set out. Amongst their group was Ember, Zalia, Aylie, Boreal and her children, Frost, Pounce, Prance, Breeze and Rush. The only one from amongst their family that didn''t join them was Lumin. Instead, Lumin had gone to spend time with Ro-ak, also known as Nateysta. Apparently, there were some things that he wanted to teach the little Ascendant pup, some things about his powers that the others were too low rank to yet learn.

    Nature''s Reclaim was quite central to the kingdom, being right in the middle of the farthest north and farthest south points and just a bit east of the centre, where the capital stood.

    Zalia, Ember, Aylie and Boreal were all used to travelling and soon set into a comfortable, easy pace that their magically enhanced bodies had no trouble with. The kittens, however, soon grew tired. They were the lowest rank in the group and unused to long-distance travelling.

    Over the course of the first few days, they had to stop more frequently because of this but as they were unhurried, Zalia didn''t particularly mind.

    The kittens slowly grew used to this but as they did, the others picked up the pace even more.

    Zalia had learnt long ago that while it was easy to rely on the strength and endurance you gained from rank, you could still train and become stronger or more enduring than someone else of the same rank who didn''t.

    It also came down to your natural state of being. She''d learnt that when as an Iron rank she could defeat higher ranked Ironfur rabbits simply because she was so much bigger than them, the same way that Boreal as a full-grown Bronze rank was so, so much scarier than a full-grown Bronze rank human.

    She wondered if that had something to do with her having three classes. If it wasn''t anything other than where she was from that gave her the advantage.

    Had she been alone or had it just been her and Boreal, she would have travelled all through each night and day without stopping for food or rest. As it was, however, the group stopped often to hunt, rest and sleep as much as was required.

    It was a long journey before they arrived at what the Endarians thought of as the border of their lands between them and the Astar. They stopped there for a time, looking out across a flat marshland filled with flitting insects and the occasional animal roaming through the wet, spongy land. There would undoubtedly be unknown threats laying in wait in the marshes but Zalia was confident that they would be alright. They might be able to defeat a Gold rank animal if it came to it, as animals usually only had one class and two or three bonded attributes.

    After a brief rest, Ember and the children all eating a bit of food, they set off down the hill and into the marshes.

    It stank like rotting things, the insects trying to figure out some way they could eat the passersby but failing to do so thankfully. The ground underfoot wasn¡¯t an issue to Zalia, Boreal or the kittens but did become so for Aylie and Ember. Boreal fixed that issue by freezing the ground along their path, turning the high water content earth under them rock solid.

    A few days of travel in the marshes had them used to the tedium and they had to start eating into the supplies of food that Zalia had brought. While they had seen a few animals from above looking down on the marshes, they had only managed to find one such animal to hunt while down here. A strange, slimy frog-looking thing that was as large as a horse. Zalia had a feeling that most creatures found ways to hide amongst the still water and spongy earth with skill. She would use Hunter¡¯s Sight to find them, if it came to it, but didn¡¯t particularly feel like hunting in an area that ambushing creatures may lie in waiting.

    Her fears became realised the day after as they travelled.

    They were walking through the seemingly endless marshes as they had for the past few days, stepping over the frozen ground towards the horizon when with a crackling sound the ground under their group exploded upwards.

    Everyone was flung into the air, Zalia and two of the kittens going one direction, Ember and Boreal in another, Aylie and two kittens in another and Pounce in a fourth. The creature that had attacked was a huge earthworm with a gaping toothless maw. It stood ten metres out of the ground with who knew how much more of it under the ground.

    Zalia caught the kittens midair, reorienting herself masterfully and freezing the ground under her before she landed, dropping Prance and Breeze as she did. Her bow appeared next to her, floating on its own, and she launched herself at the creature, ready to fight.

 Book 4: 8 - Swallowed by Fear

    Commanding her bow with her mind, Zalia saw two glowing arrows flash past her in quick succession while she cast a ritual.

    Boreal was first to spring into combat, slashing at the worm with her viciously sharp claws. Immediately, frost began to gather over the slick skin of the worm, ice growing up the length of its body from its base.

    ??? - Silver rank.

    Zalia kept the two kittens behind her, keeping them safe from the creature as her ritual neared completion. She cast Hunter¡¯s Mark on her entire family, dropping the one on the worm from her arrows, as the ritual finished. They were all covered in a fiery armour born of her magic and the worm let out a screech of frustration as Ember cut a gaping slash down its side with her sword.

    Aylie grabbed Rush and Frost, running from the worm with them, knowing that the three Silver rankers amongst their ranks would manage.

    Unfortunately, none of them were near Pounce.

    Still stunned from the ambush, the kitten tried to flee from the worm but it saw her and the gaping maw came down with a crash, swallowing the kitten whole and continuing down into the ground. They managed to get a few slashing strikes and arrows into the side of the worm that rushed by as it dug into the ground, yet it wasn¡¯t enough as a large hollow was made deep into the earth.

    Zalia hesitated, staring into the dark depths, but Boreal didn¡¯t waste a moment.

    She turned to Ember and gestured to the others and Ember nodded in understanding. Then, Zalia chased after Boreal down into the depths.

    The creature was quick, burrowing further and further under the ground while Boreal and Zalia half ran, half fell down after it.

    Boreal, who was already faster than any of the others and spurred on by the danger to her child, caught up to the worm first. Ice exploded around its tail-end as she hit and a deep rumble went through the earth around them. Zalia could feel Healing Presence still healing Pounce deep within the earth worms stomach and she tried to run faster, knowing there was still time.

    The worm burst into a chamber deep in the earth, curling about to face its hunters.

    The space was huge, supported by thick pillars of stone, the roof a mess of sharp spikes while the floor was coated in a thick layer of mud and slime. Nearby was a pile of squirming shapes and it took Zalia a second to realise they were the young of the huge worm in front of them.

    Boreal didn¡¯t waste a second, pouncing at the creature with fury, striking the side of the adult worm, another patch of ice spreading across it.

    The creature''s mobility was dampened by the hardened sections of ice coating it but the worm didn¡¯t give up. A fresh slick coating of slime started flowing from the worm, pushing Boreal away and bogging her down.

    Zalia stepped in for her friend, bow firing off shot after shot into the creature leaving glowing arrows embedded in its skin. Those wounds glowed with a spreading pale light that burned away its flesh.

    She had to throw herself sideways and use Mobility to step off the air to get further distance as a burst of acid bile was ejected from the worm, splattering against the stone where she had stood but a moment before and melting through the ground.

    Meanwhile, Boreal had freed herself by freezing the slime and manipulating it away from her body. She used the newly solid slime as a footing, Boreal launched herself at the worm and this time managed to land on top of it. She ripped through its flesh with sharp claws and teeth, tearing the creature apart to get to her child.

    Zalia felt her anti-death activate and started in alarm, realising it had triggered on Pounce.

    They needed to end this quickly.

    She finished off the ritual she had been casting, watching the explosion of fire take a chunk out of the worm''s side. Her floating bow stopped shooting and changed to a sword that she snatched out of the air. With quick slashes, blades of starry air cut deep into the worm exactly where the explosion had taken a chunk out of it. At the same time, she sprinted up and began hacking through its side in close contact.

    The worm struggled, slamming into stone pillars that came crashing down around them. Zalia jolted as a large boulder slammed into her shoulder plate but she continued attacking, very literally shrugging off the stone.

    Counting down the time in her head, she activated Protection of the Wilds just as the anti-death measure from Healing Presence ran out. She enhanced the ability with water, hoping that it would help in diluting the stomach acid of the worm to protect Pounce for just that little bit longer.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    The cuts grew deeper and deeper into the creature''s flesh as it managed to throw Boreal across the room with its flailing. Focused on her attacks, Zalia didn¡¯t react in time as the entire side of the creature swung away, then came speeding back, slapping her across the room in an approximation of what a sack of potatoes being thrown by Hildebrandt would look like.

    Her shield protected her, cracking ever so slightly as she was embedded a metre into the wall.

    Boreal was already up and dashing across the room and it took a few moments for Zalia to get herself out of the wall.

    Just as Boreal was about to launch yet another attack, there was a dull exploding sound and the side of the worm that Zalia had been hacking into burst outwards. Pounce rolled out and Boreal grabbed her by the scruff and sprinted away.

    They watched as the worm slowly died, not wanting to get close to the thrashing beast to finish the job. Once it stopped thrashing so much, Zalia used Kill Shot to finish it off. There was no sense in needless suffering.

    Boreal sat nearby, fussing over Pounce who looked no worse for wear than she had when being swallowed by the worm in the first place. Zalia knew this was just because of the healing properties of Protection of the Wilds. The poor kitten looked shaken up, eyes wide.

    A rumble spread through the cavern and Zalia looked up to see a section begin collapsing. She searched around desperately for the exit as another pillar came crashing down.

    Off to their left, there was an opening in the stone wall and Zalia ran for it. Boreal followed, carrying Pounce once more.

    They made it through the opening just as the cavern behind them collapsed fully, a spray of dust and dirt billowing through after them. Zalia used her minor element manipulation to clear out the air and block the entrance so that none of the dirt or stone could come through.

    She looked around the new room they were in and was surprised to find that it wasn¡¯t just another cavern, but a room. There were structural supports placed evenly throughout the long and wide room, benches placed in rows facing towards a pedestal at one end. Towards the opposite side of the room there was a single doorway that led out, the wooden door that had once been in the frame lay rotted on the ground.

    Utterly confused as to why there was a building this far underground but convinced they weren¡¯t in immediate danger, Zalia turned back to where Boreal and Pounce were lying on the ground. Pounce was slowly recovering as the shock wore off and Zalia was happy to give them some time.

    Using the deep magical bond between herself and Ember, Zalia let the rest of her family still on the surface know that they were okay and making their way up soon. She received confirmation and a similar message from Ember, a little unrest settling as she learnt that they were all okay too.

    While Pounce recovered, Zalia walked over to the doorway and peered out. There was a long hallway leading off into the darkness, far enough that her magical vision couldn¡¯t see the end of it. It didn¡¯t seem populated with anything so she turned back to Boreal and Pounce.

    ¡°Hey, there¡¯s nothing out this way but it might be a bit of a walk so let¡¯s get started, alright?¡±

    Boreal stood and carefully helped Pounce to her feet, letting the younger cat lean against her leg.

    They followed Zalia as she left that room and began the walk down the hallway.

    The architecture wasn¡¯t anything that Zalia recognised. Where Endarian buildings all looked like they were grown from the materials used by magic builders, this place looked constructed by hand. The walls were rough, the marks made by some type of chisel or other finer stone hewing tool. Still, while not perfect, digging out this tunnel must have taken quite some time by hand. Zalia wondered who had built it and why. The room they had been in had been some kind of meeting room where announcements would be made, yet it was connected to a single hallway that led for hundreds of metres. Why was it hidden down here?

    After a few minutes of walking, they came to a set of stairs that led up to another level. There, they found a circular room with seven alcoves set into the walls. Each of those round alcoves had runes inscribed in the floor, forming what Zalia recognised as rituals. While she didn¡¯t have any learnt knowledge of rituals, only what she was given by her ability, they were meant to be portals. Their similarity to her own living ritual portals was undeniable.

    She had a look at each ritual and found all of them to be the same except for a single rune each that was different. The language of magic was strange, being different for each person who used it yet fit for the same uses. It was as if each person who used it had their own language yet could understand most words in everyone else¡¯s particular version.

    It was this that allowed Zalia to read the rituals and it was this that allowed her to recognise what the single different runes in each ritual meant. By what was placed around them, she could identify the unique runes in each ritual as¡­ something like names.

    In the few smaller portals she had made, the target of the ritual had been something that was linked to whatever the target of the other side. In the case of what had worked for her, each of her heirloom armour¡¯s gauntlets. It looked like whoever had made these just used a name. A simple but effective solution to the problem, assuming it worked.

    She saved a memory of each ritual in her vault, then turned around looking for an exit. There was none.

    Looking at the ritual portals, she realised that there might be another way out.

    Reaching towards that magical bond between herself and Ember, she sent a message.

    ¡°Can you ask Aylie to try make a portal? She might be able to use our bond to place one side next to me.¡±

    Aylie had an ability that could make a portal and it had far fewer limitations than Zalia¡¯s living ritual ones. She was also capable of touching the Astral which is where the bond between people existed. The unique duo of abilities might make her capable of this feat.

    Her theory proved correct as a star-lit portal appeared next to her.

 Book 4: 9 - Mist

    Boreal, Pounce and Zalia appeared on the surface as they stepped through Aylie¡¯s portal. It had worked seamlessly, undisturbed by the dormant ritual circles already down there below the surface. There had been something familiar about those rituals down there, yet Zalia couldn¡¯t place her finger on it.

    Regardless, they were out now and she might have learnt something useful from them. While a terrifying situation for Pounce, it had turned out about as well as it could have.

    Zalia smiled as Pounce was, well, pounced upon by her siblings. She was smothered by the four young cats, cleaned and fussed over even more. The five might fight and tussle quite a lot as siblings often did, but they also loved each other. The loss of one of the five would change each of them forever.

    She felt sadness at having had to kill the mother worm and was concerned for the young. If the initial cave-in hadn¡¯t crushed them, they should be able to escape being a creatures made to live in such a manner. While that was true, she didn¡¯t know how old they were or what stage of life they had reached. It might be possible that they would be able to survive, not that she would ever know. They didn¡¯t deserve to be killed but sometimes life dealt an unfair hand.

    They dawdled only for a short moment before moving on. They knew now that the humid, musty swampland was filled with more life than the surface showed. If there was one depths dwelling creature, there may be others. Having seen some creatures moving about when they were above, there were also undoubtedly other things camouflaged amongst the dull greens, greys and browns of the shrubs, mud and water.

    During the night, they slept safely in Zalia¡¯s vault, the only entrance being the small portal that Zalia and Boreal protected whilst the others slept. It was a very rare thing for Zalia to ever sleep anymore and when she did, it was never for more than an hour at most. Even then, it only happened once every two or more weeks.

    The dank swamplands slowly but surely turned into a flat plain, the small sickly looking shrubs becoming big bushes and tall grass. The younger cats that took after their father more than Boreal rejoiced at the change in scenery, loving the land that was akin to the land that their father came from.

    In fact, they saw some other wildcats that looked like the young ones, though both parties avoided each other.

    Zalia was beginning to wonder just how far away the Astar lived.

    When she had been captured, it hadn¡¯t been far from the border of Endaria. It had taken them two weeks to return from that now ruined castle to the war camp, though half of that time had been within the borders. That ruin would presumably be one of their outermost outposts.

    They were now further away from Endaria¡¯s border than that ruin, though not by much. She should have perhaps taken them to the ruin to see if there was any sign or hint of the Astar there but her memories of that place¡­ no. No, she wouldn''t go back there unless there was no other way.

    At the very least, they did have a small hint as to where they were going. When Hildebrandt had freed her, Zalia had managed to affect one of the Astar with Hunter''s mark before they teleported away. She knew the vague direction they had gone before she had dropped the ability and was heading that way now. It would be another few days of walking before they got close to that area, however.

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    It was two days later that Zalia began to see mountains in the distance, large and looming over the flat plains beneath them. These mountains were huge, taller even than the ones that the Heat and Stone denizens called home. Casting her eye down their range, she couldn''t see the end of them either north or south and had a feeling that they very well might link up with that very same mountainous terrain in the north.

    Fortunately for them, the place Zalia had let go of the Hunter''s Mark was before, or at the base of, that range.

    It was three or so hours of travel before there was another change in the landscape. A hint of mist appeared, slowly growing thicker and thicker until they couldn¡¯t see past a few metres, with normal vision at least. It took Zalia and Boreal a moment to adjust their vision that was based on vibration. The way the mist swirled made each sound and each movement of a body look strange, distorted. They eventually got the hang of it. Their normal and heat vision was useless, as was the vision of the rest of their family, Ember and Aylie were latched onto either side of Zalia, barely even able to see where they stepped, while Boreal circled behind and around her children, keeping them roughly in line as they walked.

    The mist didn¡¯t get any less thick, instead blocking their vision for the next hours of walking. By Zalia¡¯s assessment, it would be another two hours before they reached the base of the mountain.

    She was about to ask if everyone was okay when a shift in the vibrations within the mist made both her and Boreal stop. The others immediately stopped as well, looking at the two of them in confusion.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Zalia could feel Boreal¡¯s aura release, the warm fog around them freezing to a chilling temperature. At the same time, she radiated fear. Zalia had to snap herself out of the effect and she noticed the others doing the same. While they were all used to Boreal¡¯s ability, they still had to adjust when she released it.

    The fog around them began to freeze onto surfaces, their skin, clothes and boots, the ground beneath them and the short grass growing out of it. As the fog thinned ever so slightly, they were able to make out an amorphous shape within it, slowly drifting along.

    It didn¡¯t react to Boreal¡¯s aura, neither did it have ice accumulate on it from the freezing mist. It was incorporeal.

    They watched it warily, but the mist creature ignored them, drifting onwards and out of sight. Slowly, they all relaxed as it did, Boreal constraining her auras once more.

    Zalia looked over at Ember, who shrugged and gestured to keep walking. She did as suggested, continuing through the mist.

    They ran into the odd mist creatures twice more on the way to the base of the mountain and were ignored both times. The second time, they just continued their walking and still, the mist creature paid them no heed.

    In time, they reached the base of the mountain and began to climb out of the mist. The air got lighter, easier to see through and easier to breathe. It was refreshing, to be able to use their eyes and lungs as usual, despite needing neither.

    Once they were high enough above the mist, they looked back down towards the base of the mountain, searching for any sign of an Astar settlement. Unfortunately, if there was one down there it wasn¡¯t visible above the mist. Zalia knew it wouldn¡¯t be easy yet had hoped all the same.

    By agreement, they moved horizontally across the mountain range above the mist until they reached the point Zalia thought the Hunter¡¯s Mark had stopped.

    There was still nothing to be seen, so after a short conversation they agreed to set up a small base. From here they would spend the next few weeks, or even months, looking for any kind of clue. The mist would slow things down considerably but Zalia had hopes that they would be able to develop a passive to see through it if they spent a significant amount of time searching for something in it.

    Zalia had the best chances of finding something due to Hunter¡¯s Sight, which not only allowed her to see anything that the Astar who had tortured her interacted with but would also allow her to place a Hunter¡¯s Mark on anything she tracked for long enough. This meant all they needed to do was find the tracks of an Astar and she could locate where they were. Next in line would be Aylie, who could see things that others could not. She had a strange perception of reality, perhaps one closer to the reality of things due to being able to see and touch the astral, the place where thoughts and magical bonds existed.

    First though, they needed to set up that base.

    There was some argument about whether to make it in the mist or up the mountain but eventually, the side in favour of the mist won. While it did have the strange creatures dwelling within it, the mist was too well hidden to pass up as a place to create their base that was meant to be out of sight.

    Over the next few days, Zalia did most of the initial work.

    Using her ability Natural Matter Alteration, she created a large clearing. The small trees, shrubs and grass within the area were moved to the edges while she worked, out of the way. She lowered the level of the clearing as she flattened it out, pushing the dirt up to the sides to create a small wall of earth with only one dip in it to form an entrance. The larger plantlife was placed on top of that wall, with progressively smaller plant life being placed lower and lower down to form a block. It would look natural to most, a little clump of plant life that would be easier to walk around than through.

    Within the clearing, she used Herbal Magic to create many living rituals.

    The first of these was a ritual using Dodge-vine major and Adastem minor to give the clearing protection from different types of perception. The next was the Anti-teleportation ritual so that if they were found by the Astar, they would still be safe from teleportation.

    The next set of living rituals that were placed were using Adastem, Dodgevine and Soulroot. These created a dormant ritual that when activated would create a golem made of whichever material was appropriate that would protect the clearing.

    The two final living rituals used the same herbs as the anti-teleportation ritual but instead protected the area from that anti-teleportation, and a living portal ritual. Zalia had an opportunity to test out what she had learnt in that underground structure.

    She made the portal ritual normal but this time, instead of the part of the ritual that allowed it to target something as a bond to the other side of the portal, she replaced that part with the new peace she had taken a memory of, allowing it to use a name.

    In place of a name, she just made up a new rune. It had no meaning other than what Zalia wanted it to mean.

    That was all the protection she created for the clearing and once it was done, she dug deep into the ground and made an underground cavern. It wasn¡¯t huge, maybe four metres tall and ten wide. At the centre of this cavern, she made a portal ritual the same as the one above. Miraculously, it worked.

    She gave a mental thanks to whoever had created that underground structure, the occupants most likely long dead.

    With all that done, they all spent some time decorating the inside of the clearing and cavern. The underground bit was a fallback location in case the clearing was found while they created some small hovels up top to live in. Zalia and Ember shared one, with Aylie creating her own with Plant Sentience as it retained its abilities from when it used to be Plant Manipulation. Boreal and the young cats had Zalia make them a small covering under which they placed a mattress of leaf litter and moss. All together, the clearing wasn¡¯t super comfortable but in the short term, it would do.

    With their temporary home created, it was time to roam.

 Book 4: 10 - Lessons and Learning

    It had been two weeks since they had arrived in the misty lands beyond Endaria¡¯s border, yet there was still no sign of the Astar. During the trip across the land to get here, the five young cats had been quite exuberant, energetic and joyous. That was, apart from when Pounce had been swallowed by the worm, though their dulled mood from that event hadn¡¯t lasted long once they left the swamps.

    Over the past two weeks, Zalia, Ember and Boreal had been taking one or two of the kittens each out into the mist to look for clues pertaining to the whereabouts of the Astar. Four of the five had already developed passive abilities to see better in the mist, with none of the higher-ranked members of the group having acquired one yet. Throughout this time, Zalia had noticed a definite switch from the young cats to a more careful and reserved behaviour. Perhaps the attack by the worm had finally sunk in, or the strangeness and danger of their current surroundings had got to them but whatever it was, they had definitely been calmer, more alert and a lot quieter.

    Each of the three had been teaching the young cats a different skill when with them. Boreal taught them how to sneak and how to fight, as she had the best knowledge when it came to both, especially when you took into account that the others wouldn¡¯t even know where to start with how to fight as a cat. Zalia could have taught them stealth perhaps, but Boreal was just that little bit better.

    Zalia taught them some of the finer points of hunting, though the skills were applicable in a much wider range of use cases. It might sound odd to the average person but she had to teach them how to see properly. Sure, they had quite perceptive eyes naturally, but being able to see something and actually seeing it were two different things. One required only sight, while the other required the right skills and mindset to process the information your eyes collected for you.

    What that entailed was a proper introduction into tracking others, as well as seeing things from afar. She taught them to see the trails in the nature around them, how different materials from mud to dirt to grass to the plants around them showed that something had moved through. It also included trying to get them to see not only what they were looking at but to process what they saw in their peripheral vision.

    This was just a start in the long process of training them, but it would hopefully yield results down the line. Many of them would most likely develop other types of perception as Zalia, Boreal and Aylie all had. When that happened, this process of learning would begin again, though quicker each time they would have to do it.

    Ember taught them the most important lesson of all, compassion, mindfulness and empathy.

    This might have been the hardest of all the lessons as well, as it didn¡¯t exactly entail definites and easy-to-follow instructions. For the most part, she tried to get the young cats to think about their actions and the effects they had on others. This could range from something small, like how it made one of their siblings feel when they ganged up on them in a play-fight, to bigger things like ethical hunting.

    When you go about the action of killing a creature for its meat or leather, you can do it in a brutal manner that puts the animal through a huge amount of suffering and fear before the end. You could also do it in a quick, efficient and instantly lethal manner that left the animal without the knowledge that it was even being hunted before it died.

    Zalia herself had been a culprit of the former more than a few times and sometimes it was hard to avoid such things. What Ember tried to teach them was to be mindful of their actions and to treat others in the way they wanted to be treated back. Of course, these were lifelong lessons that Zalia, Ember and Boreal were all still in the process of learning and most likely always would be as well.

    While they were all doing their own things, Aylie was focusing on her way of seeing the world.

    She found the mist to be strange, unnatural. Zalia agreed with her on this, as the mist had not faded since their arrival there, ever-present and too thick to see far in. she was most interested in the strange amorphous mist creatures that lived within as while they showed no visible rank or aura, they were an extremely strong presence in the astral.

    Most of the time, Aylie resided on top of an old tree stump, shaped into a comfortable seat by Zalia. There, she tried to make contact with the mist creatures, hopeful that if she was successful, they could provide some information as to where the Astar lived. It wasn¡¯t a bad idea and Zalia encouraged her to continue the efforts.

    Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Today, Zalia was going to teach Prance and Pounce a little about how to observe creatures from a distance.

    She pushed through the undergrowth with Prance and Pounce by her side, emerging out the top of the blanket of mist and making her way up the mountainside. Pounce was quite formidable in her stealth for her rank, better than Boreal had been at that age, while Prance was still inept at it, managing to trip over or bump into what seemed like every stick, twig and trunk in the forest. That wasn¡¯t to say she wasn¡¯t getting better, as she was, but she had a long way to go to reach Pounce¡¯s skill, let alone Boreals.

    They made their way up as high as Zalia risked, a light touch of snow here and there amongst the rocks, boulders and grass of the higher mountain. She found a nice covert spot between two particularly big boulders that offered shade and a good hiding place. There, they waited, observing the mist down below.

    Zalia was learning from this experience too, the Silver rank Teaching passive especially useful. By attempting to teach the young cats how to see into and within the mist, she was learning the best ways to go about it herself.

    Over the next few hours in their spot amongst the boulders, Zalia managed to spot three of the mist creatures as they made slight disturbances within the mist in their wanderings, while Pounce and Prance both spotted one each. Unfortunately, they saw no Astar. Zalia held back the frustration, knowing that with time, they would find something.

    They left their spot there, travelling further out from the little clearing they currently called home. Each day, they tried to range out further and further in hopes of stumbling across something. The one place they hadn¡¯t gone very far towards was into the mountains. Zalia wanted to go there eventually with her flight powers but thought it could wait for a bit. For now, there was much space to cover at the base of the mountain and if she wanted to place a hidden outpost to launch stealth assaults against Endaria, this is where she would put it. Of course, the Astar might not follow any kind of logic that was similar, seeing as they were quite proficient with teleportation abilities.

    It was there, a few hour''s walk away from the clearing and far up the mountain that they saw their first hint of the Astar. Well, something more than a hint, really.

    Out of the mist, a solitary figure hovered upwards. It hung there for a moment, long braided hair reaching down to its feet, as a circle of runes appeared beneath it, activating a moment later. The Astar vanished in a brief flash, moving instantly across the world.

    Meanwhile, Zalia, Pounce and Prance were frozen where they stood, thankfully having gone unseen.

    With a gesture, Zalia and the two cats moved away from where they were and back a bit to a safer location.

    She thought for a moment on what to do. On one hand, she wanted to go down there and scout out where the Astar had come from immediately. On the other, she didn¡¯t want to do so with the cats following her, nor did she want to send them back to the clearing on their own. While they were out here, the cats had to stay with one of the higher-ranked amongst them at all times.

    With a start, Zalia realised she should be able to teleport the little ones out of there. She worked quickly, crafting a ritual circle much larger than usual. The ritual targeted the living one back in the clearing, using the same keyrune as that did. She knew instinctively that it would work, though the time required was quite significant.

    It took half an hour for the materials to be created and then the mana to be pushed into the ritual but once it was done, the entire thing activated with a flash, sending the cats back to the clearing. She had explained what she would be doing to the young ones at the same time she had told Ember through their bond. Her return point for the long-distance teleportation ability of Mobility was set to the clearing which meant that even if the others were here, it would be safer for her to scout out whatever was down there on her own anyway.

    Zalia crept down the mountain and back into the mist, relying on the vibration perception to make her way through it toward where the Astar had risen from. Quicker now that she was alone, Zalia reached it within ten minutes, finding a lot more than she expected.

    There was some kind of invisible barrier in the mist that held it back, though the mist collected atop it creating a squat cylinder of clear space within the mist. In that space, sat what she had been looking for.

    The Astar outpost she had expected turned out to be a town instead.

    There were many squat buildings throughout the space, all of them shaped in that strange geometrical way that the keep she had been imprisoned in had been.

    As she watched from out of the very edge of the mist, Zalia saw not only Astar moving through the town but humans as well. Each and every one of them was miserable, shackled at the ankles and wearing power-subduing bracelets. The Astar weren¡¯t killing off the high-rank humans, they were using them as slaves.

 Book 4: 11 - Doubt

    Zalia crouched just within the mist and stared at all the humans roaming about the town, many of them performing basic labour. A few were carrying sacks or stacks of food, wood, metal and stone in carts or on their shoulders. Others yet followed after Astar that were presumably their masters, holding things for them. There were so many of them, so many that they outnumbered the Astar floating about by quite a bit.

    Even from this distance, she could see that these humans were indeed the powerful of Endaria, not a single person below Silver rank in sight. She was immediately confused by how subservient they all were, backs bent and eyes vacant. What had been done to these people to make them act this way? They had the power-subduing bracelets on but surely they could still overpower a few of the Astar with pure strength alone.

    There had been no word, no tales or stories of humans being enslaved by the Astar. She hadn¡¯t even heard of people presumed mad rambling about something like this. That meant that, as far as she or the ruling council of Endaria knew, no one had ever escaped and made it back to the kingdom. How was it that this had happened?

    She captured a memory of the town, storing it in her vault. For now, she couldn¡¯t afford to risk getting any closer. Finding this place was a success in itself and one of the main reasons they had come here. It wasn¡¯t time to head back home to Nature¡¯s Reclaim just yet though, as there was still much to learn.

    Zalia stood up out of the crouch and retreated inside the mist, unsure of what to do next. She started her way back to their temporary home, her sense of direction unaffected by the mist thanks to Hunter¡¯s Sight.

    They would have to find a way to infiltrate the town to find out more. This seemed like a small outpost of the Astar¡­ kingdom? And if they were to truly go to war with them, they would need to find some larger towns. They would need to figure out the military power of the Astar as well, for if they were a race of much higher-ranked people, Endaria wouldn¡¯t stand a chance.

    An idea came to mind, though perhaps one that was a little risky. Using Natural Matter Alteration, Zalia would be able to make some fake power-subduing bracelets and manacles for her legs. Then, hopefully, she would be able to infiltrate the town and learn a little bit more. Since the power-subduing bracelets would be fake, she could teleport out in an instant if needed. This way, she would be able to pretend to be one of the slaves and walk about a bit, pretending to do some drudgework.

    It was risky and the chance of being found out was a real one, but it might be worth it. Of course, she would have to talk to Ember about it first.

    Her mind also went to thoughts of breaking out the slaves of the town. Since the proportion of combat-based classes was much higher the higher-ranked you got, it was likely that they would be able to take over the town. Something about them gave her pause though, an oddity in their behaviour. She just couldn¡¯t see how the Astar were so comfortable being outnumbered by the human slaves without them having some other type of control over them. She would have to get Aylie within sight of the town so that she might see if there was anything odd in the astral.

    The run back home was long but made shorter by Zalia¡¯s speed and abilities which made it much easier. When she arrived back at their clearing, Aylie was still meditating on her stump so she let her be. At the entrance to the clearing, however, Ember was waiting¡­ patiently.

    ¡°You found it!?¡±

    Zalia gave a nod as she moved past into the clearing.

    ¡°Oh yeah, and it¡¯s bad. Where are the others?¡±

    Ember came up behind her, gesturing to the other side of the clearing where Prance and Pounce were animatedly talking with the others.

    ¡°They¡¯ve been talking about your trip with them for hours.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°They didn¡¯t even come to the town.¡±

    Ember shrugged.

    ¡°They got to see an Astar though.¡±

    That made Zalia smile. It definitely wasn¡¯t something to be excited about but it was something new to the young cats, and so they were.

    ¡°Well, we have some decisions to make. Once Aylie is ready for a break, we¡¯ll go over everything,¡± she paused for a moment, ¡°We were wrong about one thing Ember. They haven¡¯t been killing the humans they¡¯ve taken. They¡¯ve been enslaving them and perhaps doing something to their minds. I am going to have to take Aylie to have a look.¡±

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Ember looked up sharply.

    ¡°Shit, how many were there?¡±

    Zalia shrugged her shoulder.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but a lot. I didn¡¯t stay long because I didn¡¯t want to be seen.¡±

    They stood around for a few more minutes before Aylie walked in. Zalia called over the others and they all sat for a family meeting, the first in a while.

    First, Zalia explained to them what she had seen in the Astar town. After that, she went through her idea for possible infiltration of the town to find out more using fake power-subduing bracelets.

    When she was done, there was silence until Aylie spoke up.

    ¡°And what if the Astar, as spatial magic experts, find a way to stop you from teleporting out and you get stuck in the town?¡±

    Zalia had no response to that, it was a good point.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I think it¡¯s worth it to find out more. Isn¡¯t it?¡±

    Ember looked thoughtful but unconvinced, while Boreal¡¯s tail was swishing back and forth. Boreal¡¯s children sat quietly while they spoke, a strange but pleasant experience.

    ¡°I think we need to look further into it,¡± Ember said, ¡°but I also don¡¯t think your idea is necessarily a good one on its own. You tend to put yourself into danger while keeping the rest of us at arm¡¯s length from that danger at the same time. We decided to come here and learn something about the Astar as a family and we will do it as a family. I know you want us to be safe, but you have to let us help with this.¡±

    Zalia opened her mouth to respond but shut it closed again as she thought. Ember wasn¡¯t wrong, she was just used to doing everything on her own, a habitual remnant from her previous life.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, I know. I hold to the fact that I have the best chance of escape should the person in the town get caught though.¡±

    Ember reluctantly nodded.

    ¡°That is true. I think we should explore some other avenues before we go that far however.¡±

    Aylie piped up.

    ¡°I want to see the town, perhaps I can see something that you cannot. There is something about the mist creatures that is important, I can feel it.¡±

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll all go to see the town first. Then we can make plans for how we will infiltrate the town, agreed?¡± Zalia asked.

    The others nodded.

    ¡°Agreed, but we should not do this today. It is almost time for the young ones to sleep and we should think of some other ways to learn more about the town while we are here.¡±

    Zalia looked over at the young cats and realised that they did look like they were about to fall asleep. No wonder they were being so respectfully quiet.

    They all spent the next half hour trying to figure out how exactly they could infiltrate the town. It was decided that Boreal would go with Zalia, being the stealthiest and fastest amongst them, as she could most likely go unseen in the town. Zalia had not seen any Astar above Silver rank which was promising. If it came to it, she would be able to help Zalia escape.

    There was no other ideas on how to get into the town unseen, so they left it at that.

    As the others went to sleep, Zalia retreated into her vault where she did some gardening. She loved the simple task. It was not only calming but was helpful down the line for when she performed rituals. While she could create herbs from mana using Herbal Magic, having the ingredients to summon from the vault made them cheaper.

    When Ember joined her in the vault, they worked together to make a poultice from Soulroot. They had to apply some Manifest Paste onto it to solidify its form before crushing it down into a gel-like substance. The Manifest Paste had a slight effect on the resulting poultice.

    Soul Poultice (Potent)  - Silver rank.

    A dab of this gel poultice applied to the forehead will help a creature descend into a meditative state in which they may dive deeper into their own soul, as well as see into the astral ever so slightly.

    They had been making the poultice for Aylie each night, to help with her exploration of the mist and the creatures within it. While during the day they were both busy, Zalia and Ember took this time before Ember slept to just be with each other. Often, they didn¡¯t even speak, simply working efficiently side by side.

    Ember would apply the Manifest Paste to the roots and Zalia would use Natural Matter Alteration to turn a lump of stone she kept for this purpose into a mortar and pestle. She would then crush up the roots Ember handed her and store the resulting Soul Poultice in little wooden orbs she sealed up. Aylie could open up these orbs with her own abilities to use it.

    Zalia could do all of this herself, probably faster than with Ember there, but it wasn¡¯t about that. It was about spending time with her partner.

    ¡°Do you think the young ones are alright?¡± Ember asked, breaking the silence.

    Zalia thought for a moment.

    ¡°I think so. I know Boreal has been talking to them about what we are doing and why we¡¯re here. They were born after the war, so they don¡¯t quite understand the things we have been through but I think they¡¯re beginning to. I¡¯m starting to doubt whether we should bring them into the next war if it comes, though.¡±

    Ember nodded and Zalia could feel that she¡¯d had the same thought.

    ¡°I¡¯m not so certain we¡¯ll be able to beat the Astar.¡±

    Zalia pursed her lips.

    ¡°Neither am I.¡±

 Book 4: 12 - Infiltration

    The next day, they were all travelling towards the Astar town as a group. It was the first time they were all together like that outside of the clearing since coming to these strange misty lands and despite their individual stealthiness and the obscuring fog, Zalia couldn¡¯t help but feel they were much too easy to spot.

    While the young cats were still the only ones to acquire a passive that allowed them to see in the mist, Zalia had given Ember and Aylie some Adastem Juice to drink, the tingly liquid making their bodies adapt temporarily. This allowed them to see in the mist, if only for a few metres more.

    As they approached the Astar town, Zalia¡¯s nerves felt like they were being stretched further and further like a bowstring about to snap. She was maintaining a ritual across all of her family members that made them more stealthy, yet it would only take one of them being spotted now for things to go terribly. An extended flight back home could prove disastrous if the Astar had any method of seeing or detecting them in the mist.

    Instead of focusing on that, Zalia tried to go over the plan again and again in her head. She and Boreal would go into the town and try to learn something about the Astar, Boreal hiding in the shadows while she pretended to be one of the slaves herself. Ember, Aylie and the young cats would hide just across the border to the town in the mist, ready to lend help if needed.

    That was all if Aylie didn¡¯t see something that warranted a change in plans when they got there.

    Zalia had made the fake power-subduing bracelets the night prior as everyone slept, her memory of them from her time as a prisoner stark in her mind. She had also made a pair of manacles for her legs from iron sourced from the ground. Natural Matter Alteration was becoming quite a useful ability, especially so due to the years of practice she had manipulating things on a finer level. The decision to start doing that long ago was paying out now. That had originally started out as woodworking but the ability had evolved to include all natural matter, which encompassed a very large range of things she had discovered. Iron was one of those, though it didn¡¯t stretch to materials like steel which while it could theoretically form naturally, it realistically happened on such a rare basis that it could be considered a made material.

    She tried to distract herself with thoughts of how the abilities decided what was considered ¡°natural matter¡± while they walked, yet found herself dragged back to reality once they reached the town.

    Aylie noticed they were closing in on it first, her ability to see on the astral informing her somehow. She signalled to the others and they slowed down, approaching at a crawling speed now. The younger cats stuck close to Boreal, while Aylie and Ember stuck close to Zalia.

    With a gesture, Zalia told the others to stay back a good distance while she and Aylie moved up to the border of the town and looked through. Aylie stared towards the town, tilting her head in confusion and scrunching up her face as she tried to discern something. Her eyes traced around the odd barrier around the space that kept back the mist, then back to the enslaved humans. Zalia could see anger there in her expression. She felt that emotion mirrored in her own mind.

    They didn¡¯t know how the Astar rationalised the abducting and enslavement of Endarian people, whether it be through a sense of superiority, them seeing humans as nothing more than animals or a wrong that the Endarians committed against the Astar long ago but there was nothing Zalia could think of that justified what they were doing here.

    Aylie turned to Zalia and shrugged her shoulders a little.

    ¡°There is definitely something strange going on here, something that has been done to those people. I can¡¯t figure it out from out here though, so I don¡¯t see no reason not to go ahead with the plan.¡±

    Zalia nodded her agreement and they went back to the others.

    With some real basic pants, a shirt and worn workboots that she had in her vault, Zalia looked the part. She had to store away her armband that protected against teleportation but that wasn¡¯t a concern where they were going.

    Ember helped her put on the fake bracelets and the manacles, which she would be able to remove using Natural Matter Alteration in an instant if needed, then gave her a passionate kiss.

    ¡°Good luck in there, don¡¯t take risks, learn what you can and get out.¡±

    Zalia nodded her assent, then stepped away towards the town. She had to remind herself a few times that if things went truly wrong, Aylie would be able to create a portal through her and Ember¡¯s bond to bring them both out instantly. That was, if her own teleportation ability failed somehow in addition to the many other ways of getting out she had, slaughtering a bunch of Astar being one of them.

    Boreal sat with her as they waited by the border for an opening. She had a sack with her, filled with pieces of chopped wood. She planned to pretend to be carrying it to the home of one of the Astar, as many of the other slaves could be seen doing at that very moment. The only issue was that they didn¡¯t leave the bounds of the town, ever, as far as she could see. If she could get into the town without being seen entering, they should be alright.

    Deciding against just teleporting in, as Astar could be attuned to that kind of thing, Zalia circled around the edge of the town until she found a section that was less populated. Once there, she waited until there was a break in people and shuffled out to one of the buildings as quickly as she could. She put her back to it and waited, hoping that she hadn¡¯t been seen or heard.

    There were no shouts of alarm so she slung the sack of wood over her shoulder and shuffled out from behind the building and into the street, head down and eyes cast to the cobblestones beneath her boots.

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Astar floated past to her left and right, yet didn¡¯t say a word. She had all of her passives restrained as much as they would go such that she had the appearance of having her abilities subdued and it looked like it was working.

    She shuffled past another human and tried to catch their gaze but the man¡¯s eyes were empty, soulless like there was nothing inside the body as it shuffled past. Concern filled her as she found similar dead eyes and emotionless expressions amongst the other humans there. With a quick glance around, she tried to find Boreal but couldn¡¯t see or hear the feline, a good sign. If she was unable to find her, it was doubtful any of these Astar would be able to either.

    The town was larger than it first appeared from the borders, stretching far enough that after a good twenty minutes of walking, she still couldn¡¯t see the other side. Over the course of the walk, she made sure to keep her expression as blank as the other humans, eyes down. It was hard to observe the city around her that way and so she allowed a single passive to function, that passive being Enhanced Vision. With it, she could see all around her as her vision didn¡¯t require her eyes any longer.

    Much of the town was the same as she had seen from the border, buildings made of dark stone formed in odd jagged shapes. The cobbled roads seemed entirely aesthetic as the Astar all floated past, some less than half a metre off the ground, others further up in the sky.

    The place she was aiming for was a building that loomed over the others some distance from the edge of town. She didn¡¯t have anything she was looking for in particular, so it seemed a good place to start.

    Towards the presumed centre of town, the density of human slaves was significantly decreased. It appeared to Zalia that only a few were even allowed there, so she avoided going directly to the large building. Instead, she found a secluded alleyway and went down it, allowing herself to relax for just a moment. It was hard to keep the churning anger and confusion at the state of the humans here from reaching her face and body, the blank slate expression important to her disguise.

    She peaked out of the alley and towards the bigger building and observed for some time. The large gateway entrance to the building was filled with passing Astar, as if the structure was a main thoroughfare for the town. There was a constant flashing light that emitted from the structure and it took Zalia a while to realise that it was the flashing of teleportation. The building must contain a teleportation room, like the one she had found underground. In fact, thinking about it now, it was likely that the underground structure back in the swamp had probably been built by the Astar. Which other race with an expansive knowledge of spacial magic lived out here?

    Deciding that she had seen enough, Zalia turned from the building and resumed her blank expression state as she made her way back to where Ember and the others awaited her. She was mostly certain that the Astar didn¡¯t travel via any method other than teleportation between their towns, which provided both an issue and a solution to that very issue. The issue was that there would be no roads or signs of travel between their towns, meaning it would be hard to transport an army from one town to the next should they decide to invade. The simple solution to that, however, was to use the Astar¡¯s own teleportation rooms as launch points. There would undoubtedly be protections in place, but they might find a way around that.

    On the way back, she was stopped by an Astar and her heart beat hard in her chest as she looked up at it. A voice pierced her mind.

    ¡°Where do you travel, human.¡±

    Luckily, she had seen Astar stop other humans before as well. Following what the other humans had done, she simply pointed in the direction she was going.

    The Astar handed off a sack to her and she hefted it over her other shoulder. The Astar turned and moved away, so she grudgingly followed it. It was going in the same direction as her, but had apparently grown tired of carrying its own things.

    Adrenaline pulsed through her, a fear of being found out causing an internal struggle so loud she was surprised the Astar couldn¡¯t hear it.

    The Astar entered a house and gestured to a long central bench within the entrance room. Desperately maintaining her blank composure, she deposited its things there and then left, hoping it wouldn¡¯t stop her. She managed to regain some semblance of calm as she was allowed to leave without issue.

    Zalia was beginning to think that they had been successful as she reached the edge of town once more, ready to be out of this place. It was then that she noticed a group of Astar moving through the border into the mist. A single sentence came to her mind through the bond with Ember.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been found!¡±

    In an instant, the manacles on her legs were broken apart, the fake bracelets following a moment later. Her armour appeared on her body and she teleported straight into the mist after the Astar.

    It was hard to see what was happening as the vibrations within the mist went crazy. She could see the young cats fleeing in all directions, Aylie and Ember standing their ground against a dozen or so Astar. The bracelets on their arms were active, blocking whatever magic two of the Astar just cast on them.

    Zalia¡¯s bow appeared next to her, shooting two arrows that took down an Astar each as they pierced through heads. Ember killed another as her blade slashed through its arm and half its torso. The plants around them came alive under Aylie¡¯s control and two more Astar were torn limb from limb under their strength. Zalia tried to get the zone of anti-teleportation active but was too late, as the spent bracelets didn¡¯t protect Ember and Aylie any longer. The two of them vanished a moment before the zone came into affect, trapping the Astar there.

    Then Boreal was there, landing amongst the remaining Astar with an explosion of icy fury. Three of the Astar tried to run but were frozen in place as their fear of Boreal overcame them. The four last Astar held their ground and a barrier appeared around them as they attempted to attack. Zalia felt a warping in the air and threw herself to the side as the very air seemed to rip itself apart where she had stood. Her bow continued shooting, forming a web of cracks in the Astar¡¯s shield.

    They were outnumbered by the Astar, but only one of them was Silver rank. The shield broke under Boreal¡¯s next pounce, another Astar freezing into a statue as its fear got the better of it. The two remaining Astar tried to fight off Boreal using their spacial magic while Zalia combated the Silver rank one.

    She ran towards it, her arrows being displaced as they fired towards her enemy, the spacial magic somehow getting past her ritual. The Astar flickered as it tried to teleport away but failed and Zalia was upon it. Her sword appeared in hand and she slashed once, twice, cutting a long gash in its torso and removing one of its legs. The physical weakness of the Astar was their downfall as she applied a Hunter¡¯s Mark to the two Bronze rank ones that were somehow keeping Boreal frozen. A Kill Shot enhanced strike felled the Silver rank Astar and the remaining damage bounced to the two Bronze ones, their bodies exploding into mist under its force.

    Zalia looked desperately towards the Astar town where she could feel Ember through their bond. She was still fighting in there, somewhere, with Aylie by her side. She looked to Boreal and an agreement passed between them. Boreal dashed off to find her children and Zalia ran back towards the town, terrified and unsure what she could do. It had all gone so wrong.

 Book 4: 13 - Lost Souls

    Zalia stopped her dash towards the town as she saw multiple more groups of Astar floating towards her. They hadn¡¯t seen her yet, as far as she could tell, yet it wouldn¡¯t be long before they did.

    It was in that moment that she realised she wasn¡¯t going to be able to save Ember and Aylie. If they were going to get out, they would have to do it on their own. Zalia was strong, stronger than these Astar who weren¡¯t warriors or great fighters, yet she couldn¡¯t fight that many of them. Could she?

    Most of these newly arriving Astar were only Bronze, easy enough to deal with individually. Together as a unit, however, it was a bit harder. Without using her most powerful magic, that was.

    She thought desperately, trying to come up with something, anything that would allow her to save her family. Even if she did defeat all of these new groups of Astar, she couldn¡¯t destroy the whole town on her own. And she would need to do that if she were to save Ember and Aylie. She could feel through the bond that they were deep towards the centre, where she had just come from not long ago.

    Instead, she ran away from the border, laying out a large anti-teleportation ritual on the ground. She would have to kill these Astar if she were to keep Boreal and the young cats out of their hands as well.

    Moments passed, each an eternity as she waited with baited breath. She could see the Astar floating through the mist on invisible waves of magic. There were ten, then fifteen of them. Fortunately for Zalia, while powerful in their use of auras and magic, they were physically weak.

    The ritual activated at the same time Zalia used Nature¡¯s Wrath.

    Thick, sharp vines grew from the ground in an instant, dragging the Astar down to the ground and into a clump of bodies. Five Bronze rank fire elementals appeared, releasing jets of flame into the group of Astar. Zalia used all of her concentration and power to rip a huge boulder of stone from the ground, swinging it from behind, over her head and down on top of the pile of screaming Astar.

    The screaming stopped.

    She could feel the power flowing through her, the nature around her answering to her call. It told her to go forward, break down those who would wrong her.

    At her bidding, the five fire elementals moved through the barrier and into town, sending fireballs before them. They crashed into buildings setting them alight, the force of the attacks strong enough to break the stone. Hopefully, they would cause enough of a distraction that they would be able to get away.

    She ran, finding her way towards Boreal through their bond, hoping that she at least had managed to collect the young ones and get them to safety. The misery Zalia felt at how wrong things had gone almost crushed her, but she shoved it away for now. She had to focus.

    It only took her two minutes to find Boreal, who was thankfully huddled with her kittens, waiting for her. They joined her in a desperate flight for safety.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Aylie woke upon a cold stone table, arms bound. Something was wrong, so very wrong. Her powers were contained, pushed inside and locked. She couldn¡¯t breathe properly, the oppression of the bracelets that bound her so strong as to send her back to that time so long ago. It felt like another life, the day she had lost her family, yet the helplessness she felt in that moment drew those memories back to the front of her mind.

    That wasn¡¯t all. There was something else so fundamentally wrong happening to her. She could feel herself being pulled, hard. She was being pulled, yet her body remained still. It took her a moment to realise it wasn¡¯t her body being pulled, but her soul.

    She fought against it, yet the magic was so strong, so powerful. It clawed and grabbed until she felt herself floating upwards and away. She looked down and saw herself lying there on the stone table, glassy-eyed with a blank expression. This wasn¡¯t right, why was this happening?

    As the feet of her soul lost contact with her body, another force grabbed her in its grip and ripped her away. She flew through the wall, floating high above the town before being dumped into the mist-laden forest outside the borders.

    She stood, shaking her head, trying to clear the sluggishness of her¡­ body. Where was she? Where was Zalia? Where was Ember?

    There was a strand attached to her chest, leading away through the mist. She followed it, feeling that it was where she needed to be. The end of that strand was where she belonged, it felt right.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    After only a few seconds of walking, she slammed into something solid. She looked up and saw the Astar town in front of her. That was right, wasn¡¯t she meant to be doing something in there?

    She reached a hand up and tried to walk towards the town again, yet something blocked her once more. Why? Why did it block her? She needed to get to where that strand went.

    Tapping at it with her hand still, she took a few steps to the left, then tried again. Again, she was blocked. She hit it with her hand and saw a wobble go through the wall. It wasn¡¯t a visible wall, more of a¡­ spiritual wall. The idea of one, the soul of a wall, there only in spirit.

    She hit it again, and it wobbled once more. She hit a final time, as hard as she could, yet the wobble stayed as exactly that. It still didn¡¯t let her through.

    Turning around, she saw another strand, much smaller and thinner, more translucent. It didn¡¯t feel like home, like the place she was meant to be, but it did feel safe. Perhaps she could go to where this one was?

    She wandered off, following this new strand. It slowly grew more and more opaque, before she found another figure in the mist. It was a woman, much shorter than her. She should recognise this woman, shouldn¡¯t she?

    The figure turned to her, slowly, and looked at her in an odd way. Did the figure recognise her?

    It was made of mist, slowly fuzzing at the edges like someone had taken an eraser to it. A name came to her mind. Ember.

    Aylie stepped towards the figure and took its hand in her own. Memories flashed through her mind, years spent living with her, one of her mothers. Ember. Yes, this was Ember!

    But, it wasn¡¯t how she remembered her. Ember wasn¡¯t made of mist, she was a living person, vibrant and full of life. What had happened to her?

    As she touched Ember¡¯s hand, another strand appeared. This time, it reached from Ember¡¯s chest and into the mist. It was much, much thicker than the one that linked Aylie to Ember and the woman looked down at her own chest as it appeared. An expression of longing crossed over her face and she took a step in its direction.

    Aylie stopped her and touched the strand. More flashes of memory went through her mind, this time of another woman. Stoic and strong, quiet and independent, a force of nature in this world. Zalia. She remembered Zalia, the one who had saved her from¡­ from what? From something, yes, she had saved her. Then, she had become like a mother to her. Perhaps Zalia could help her get through that wall, to where she belonged.

    She began following that strand, Ember following along as well. As they walked, other figures started to appear in the mist as well, people who stood there with blank expressions, staring into nothing. Some of them were fuzzing around the edges like Ember, others had entire limbs missing. Some were amorphous blobs of mist that only had the vague signs of a face. The worst of them were simply eyes whose bodies were indistinguishable from the fog around them.

    Aylie felt like there was something important about those figures. They meant something, something important. Didn¡¯t they?

    Those thoughts escaped her as they found the end of that strand connecting to Ember. A woman was crouched there with a giant mountain cat by her side, five much smaller ones huddled together nearby. This was Zalia and¡­

    Aylie tried to open her mouth to speak, yet found no sound or words coming out. She turned to Ember, who stared longingly at Zalia yet said nothing. Looking back at Zalia, she tried to speak again. Nothing. She stepped closer, trying to get the crouched woman¡¯s attention. Zalia glanced at her but looked away quickly as if dismissing her presence. Then she stood and ran off into the mist, the mountain cats following.

    She tried to lift a hand to stop the woman, but she was too quick and Aylie¡¯s body was too sluggish. Didn¡¯t the woman recognise her?

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Zalia waited, crouched, as the younger cats caught their breath. They were far enough away now that they weren¡¯t in immediate danger of being discovered which was good. It also meant that Zalia¡¯s mind was turning towards what had happened.

    It had gone so terribly wrong. She should have gone to that town alone, without the others. If she had been by herself, she could have escaped easily enough. If she had been by herself, she wouldn¡¯t have been caught.

    She glanced up at two of the amorphous mist creatures as one of them floated towards her but dismissed it. They hadn¡¯t ever attacked before and she doubted they would start now. She gestured to the others and they began running again, the journey home a long one. Once they were there, then they could sit and go over what had happened. Hopefully, the young cats would be able to explain how they had been found.

    Then, she would have to figure out how they were going to free Aylie and Ember. This town was on the outskirts of the Astar lands, at least she thought they were, so hopefully there wouldn¡¯t be many high rank Astar here. Getting back into the town would be easy enough, as she could sneak in the same way she had before. It would be harder now as they were probably on high alert, but she was certain she could do it. Then, she would be able to get to where they were being held and free them. At the very least, if they were enslaved like the other humans there were, she would be able to get them out eventually.

    Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t know if the Astar would be able to get anything out of their minds. That meant they would have to move home to somewhere else. Somewhere closer, perhaps. Once the young ones were safe somewhere, then she and Boreal could sneak in and break the others out.

    After that, they would go back to Endaria, to bring back the news of what was happening here. Zalia had a feeling that there would be a war between the humans and the Astar soon. A surprise attack launched on this town to free all the slaves would mean a massive influx of high-ranked humans who would hopefully be more than willing to fight the Astar.

    As the day wore on, Zalia tried to convince herself that Ember and Aylie would be okay, that she would be able to free them. If she believed anything else, she wouldn¡¯t know what to do with herself.

 Book 4: 14 - Broken Barrier

    Zalia paced back and forth as her magic deconstructed their home base. There was no point leaving it and its defences here to be discovered, as that may allow the Astar to figure out how to take them down safely.

    Since Ember and Aylie had been taken, she had been closely observing the bond she shared with her partner. It felt strange, blocked like the Astar had some kind of magic in the way. She couldn¡¯t read Ember¡¯s emotions or thoughts through it anymore and the lack of this ability after so many years of growing used to it brought her pain and anxiety. Ember was still alive at least.

    Out of the corner of her eye, Zalia watched two of the mist creatures wander about the clearing. There was something off about these two that she couldn¡¯t quite put a pin in, an oddity that brought her attention to them. While used to ignoring the things by now, they very rarely moved in groups and lingered in the same place even less often.

    The plants used in her living rituals vanished one by one into her vault, the plants that had previously occupied the space moving in and taking their original positions. The artificially raised earthen wall surrounding the clearing lowered and before long, there was no sign of their having lived there. She collected Boreal and the young ones and set off back towards the Astar town.

    They wouldn¡¯t want to set up too close to the town, as the chances of being discovered now that the Astar knew of their presence were considerably higher. Unfortunately, if they were to save Ember and Aylie, they would have to be near enough to do so. Having to walk or run for hours each way every single time they wanted to scout out or infiltrate the town just wouldn¡¯t do.

    Both Boreal and Zalia were silent as they walked, the deep magical bond between them describing their respective emotional and mental states better than words could ever manage. Should they have given in to those roiling emotions, they might have rushed in to try to save them right then. Yet logic won out against those urges. The correct path was to plan out their attack, and time it for an appropriate moment with a plan set in stone.

    Upon nearing the town, they decided to circle it to the other side. It took a while to do so at a distance Zalia deemed safe but they did eventually find a nice location for a home some forty-five minutes walk from the town. There, she set up everything as it had been, a well-protected and hidden home with a portal at its centre that led to a cavern deep underground should they need to retreat.

    The younger cats were also silent throughout the whole process of moving, perhaps understanding of exactly how bad things had gone. Zalia blamed herself for this. It had been her idea that brought them here, her plan that had gotten them caught and her incompetence that had meant she couldn¡¯t stop them from being taken at the time. This was a large part of the reason she didn¡¯t like involving others in dangerous situations. It was okay if she made mistakes when it was just her own life on the line, yet when her mistakes caused the ones she loved to be hurt¡­

    Shaking her head, Zalia looked to the others and began planning.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Aylie floated along in the mist, lost in purpose. They still followed after that thread, the one that attached Ember to the woman she knew to be Zalia. Even when they had caught up to her in that little clearing she had been disassembling, the woman still didn¡¯t pay attention to Aylie or Ember. That was odd to her, as she thought that Zalia normally wouldn¡¯t have even thought to do something like ignoring them.

    As she and Ember floated quietly along, visions began to flash through her mind. Strange, jagged shapes of buildings, a sack of firewood, floating people with long hair and depthless eyes. Other people, people she didn¡¯t know, shackled and hauling their own goods.

    What were these images?

    The mist felt comfortable to her, like a safe haven from those jarring images. She didn¡¯t like what they told her, what secrets they whispered into her formless mind, what truths they spoke of.

    They ran into another spirit and the three shared looks, before silently going their own way. Who were these other spirits? Did they receive these flashes of images too?

    She turned to Ember to ask the question but once more, as she tried to speak, nothing came out. Why was that? Shouldn¡¯t she be able to communicate these things with her?

    The thought escaped her mind, fleeting as every other seemed to be. Was that normal?

    That question fled as well. How was she supposed to know the answer anyway?

    The only thing that seemed permanent in this place was that thread, connecting her to Ember, then Ember to the distance, far off to where she knew it ended at Zalia.

    It was important that they stayed close to Zalia, even Aylie¡¯s porous mind knew that. It was something fundamentally embedded into her, a truth that came not from that far off presence that sent her images, but one that came from the soul of her being.

    They eventually found Zalia again, setting up a new clearing like the one before. The magic was a stunning display, waves of power flowing this way and that, grasping plants and earth alike, moving them to where they needed to be. The casual strength of the magic was awe-inducing.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    There was something she needed to tell this woman, wasn¡¯t there? Something important. Something¡­

    Aylie looked to Ember, hoping she would remember what it was. Ember¡¯s blank eyes stared back at her. Did she remember what¡­ what¡­ what Aylie needed to remember?

    She shook her head in frustration. Why? Why was this happening?

    Looking at Zalia again, she raged against her own mind, so elusive as it was. She would remember, she would keep control over her own thoughts. There was something she could do, wasn¡¯t there? Some power she had that would let her communicate. She might not have lungs, a voice box or a mouth to speak with but she did have something else. A power.

    A power linked to that distant presence, the one that sent her images. It had something, she was sure of it. But¡­ but¡­ it wasn¡¯t available to her, was it? Why was that?

    She pulled and pulled on that distant presence, trying to bring it to her. It moved, a little, but there was something resisting her efforts. An image of bracers, around thin wrists. Her wrists.

    With a final pull, she felt something break, a wall somewhere in the distance, a wall that was stopping her from acting, from using her power, from thinking.

    A flood of memories came to her, precious, beautiful thought and the presence of mind.

    Congratulations! You have broken through the astral barrier that forms a protective wall between body and mind.

    Power came with that flood of memories, the power that she knew deep within herself, the power that was her own.

    ¡°Zalia!¡±

    She screamed that word towards the woman as loudly as she could. Zalia didn¡¯t look up.

    ¡°Zalia!!¡± she screamed, even louder. She projected it, putting as much effort, as much energy, as she could into it.

    She looked up.

    Aylie waved at her desperately, trying to get her attention. Zalia¡¯s brow furrowed as she looked around, an expression of simultaneous hope and devastation on her face.

    ¡°Zalia!¡±

    Hands waving, a flood of joy washed through her as Zalia finally looked at her.

    A booming voice filled her mind.

    ¡°Can you hear me?¡±

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Zalia stared at the mist creature, half convinced that she had lost her mind. The two had followed them all the way from the other camp, the same two that had seemed just a little off. She swore one of them had called her name, a voice projected into her mind.

    They had tried to talk to the mist creatures with mental communication of course, but it had always seemed to scare the things off. It was worth another try though, wasn¡¯t it?

    ¡°Can you hear me?¡±

    The mist creature flinched like it had been struck hard.

    Unlike each other time, she had tried to talk to the mist creatures, this time a response came.

    ¡°Yo.. m¡­¡­ lis..en. I..¡¯s ..e, A..lie.¡±

    What?

    ¡°M.. ..nd ..m..er a..e ri¡­.t h..re, can¡¯.. y..u see ..s?¡±

    Zalia shook her head in confusion.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡±

    The words were strange, distant like they were whispers brought to her on winds from a far place.

    As she spoke to it once more, it flinched again. Were her words hurting it? Perhaps¡­

    ¡°What do you want from me?¡±

    She spoke in the mental version of a whisper this time and it didn¡¯t flinch. That was one part figured out.

    The mist figure pointed at the one next to it.

    ¡°..m..er, E¡­.er, Em¡­.r, ..mb..r, Em..er.¡±

    With the word repeated over and over, Zalia finally understood. Ember.

    ¡°Ember!? How could that be Ember?¡±

    The part of the mist creature that held its indiscernible eyes nodded vigorously, then pointed at itself.

    ¡°A¡­.ie, Ay¡­.e, ..y..ie, ..yl..e.¡±

    Zalia understood after the first time. It was Aylie.

    She had many questions, but only one was at the forefront of her mind.

    ¡°How? How are you here?¡±

    She continued speaking in a whisper, not wanting to hurt the mist crea¡­ to hurt Aylie¡¯s mind.

    Aylie¡¯s form moved in what looked like a shrug and Zalia began to pace, unsure of what was happening. Memories of the blank slate expressions of the slaves inside the town came to her mind, closely followed by images of the hundreds of mist creatures she had seen over the weeks. It couldn¡¯t be, could it?

    Somehow, the Astar had found a way to pull the souls from the slaves they kept, using the powerful body of the high ranked people yet rendering them nothing more than empty shells. That was¡­ that was horrific. It was horrific and it had been done to her partner and daughter. What was wrong with the Astar, what led them to do things like this? How did they justify ripping people¡¯s souls out to use their bodies as nothing more than mindless labourers? Zalia would tear them apart for this abomination, this savaging of nature. She didn¡¯t know how, but she would find a way.

 Book 4: 15 - Caught Up By Your Soul

    ¡°Where is your body?¡± Zalia asked the misty form of her daughter.

    Aylie turned and pointed through the mist towards the town. Zalia turned her head to look at Ember and tried to talk to her again, yet she only tilted her head in confusion once more. She didn¡¯t know exactly why Aylie was able to talk and Ember was not but thought it might have something to do with Aylie¡¯s astral powers.

    ¡°We ..an¡¯.. g..t th..o..gh the w¡­.l.¡±

    Each time Aylie spoke, she had to repeat herself many times for Zalia to understand. She eventually got ¡°We can¡¯t get through the wall.¡± from the whisperings.

    So this was how the Astar kept the human population enslaved. They ripped their souls from their bodies and blocked them from re-entering the town via some type of impassable wall for the spirits. What was Zalia to do about that?

    Her first idea was to make a break in that wall somehow, which would release the entire human population in the city so their souls could get back in. Unfortunately, that might mean a slaughter as the Astar put down the rebelling humans. Perhaps she could perform a simultaneous attack to distract the more combat-oriented Astar while it happened.

    She stepped up hesitantly and tried to take Ember¡¯s hand but found her own passing straight through it as if she weren¡¯t there. The Manifest Paste she had could solidify incorporeal beings but she wasn¡¯t ready to risk that just yet. Who knew what consequences solidifying one¡¯s soul would have?

    ¡°How can we fix this? Do you have any ideas?¡±

    Aylie¡¯s head slowly shook from side to side.

    ¡°Th¡­.ki..g, ha..d.¡±

    A few repetitions and Zalia discerned the words, ¡°Thinking hard.¡±

    Aylie¡¯s speech was slowly getting more and more coherent, which was good. Perhaps she was managing to shake whatever effect had her so hard to hear.

    Zalia began pacing back and forth, her hand tapping incessantly on her leg as she thought. She had no idea the long-term ramifications of someone¡¯s soul being detached like this. Hell, she didn¡¯t even know if their souls could be put back.

    She wanted to attack immediately but put that idea aside. At the very least she needed to wait until Nature¡¯s Wrath was back up. Then, she could fight.

    While she thought, she explained what was happening to Boreal who tried to brush up against the spirits of their two family members, failing to do so. It was disheartening to see the sadness in her cold blue eyes.

    Zalia had to find a way to break a hole in that wall. That would be the first step in this process, the most important one for sure. As such, she left the clearing and moved towards the town.

    It was a long walk, over the course of which Zalia spent a good amount of time thinking about her actions and what she could have done differently. Apart from not coming here in the first place, she didn¡¯t see any alternative. It was under Ember¡¯s insistence that they had both come on the infiltration and Zalia wasn¡¯t going to try to take her freedom of choice from her.

    Her thoughts were still roiling when she arrived at the town but she put them aside momentarily. Boreal had stayed at the clearing so it was just Zalia and her ghostly family that stood just outside the barrier. Aylie stepped forward and tried to push through in the demonstration and was blocked quite thoroughly by the invisible wall. Zalia waved her hand through, finding nothing stopping it. Strange.

    As hard as she looked along the line where the mist stopped, she just couldn¡¯t see anything that could explain the phenomenon. There were no enchanted stones or material that would support the magical effect, not even any visible magical aura as seen by her Aura Observation. This was even stranger, as the ability should have allowed her to see something, anything that denoted where or who the magic came from. The only alternative to all of that was the barrier existing entirely on the astral. It was possible, the magic that was used to remove Aylie and Ember¡¯s souls had somehow thrown them into the astral where usually nothing but bonds and thought existed.

    With that in mind, Zalia realised she might have to figure out a way of affecting the astral. If Aylie were capable of using her abilities, she would be able to do it easily. Without her, that was a lot harder.

    Her mind immediately went to the herb Manifest. It was capable of making the physical manifestation of things, usually dependent on what other herbs were used in the ritual. Maybe she could find a way to make that target the wall instead.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    It was all theoretical for now, however, as she didn¡¯t want to actually do that just yet. She would have to wait for Nature¡¯s Wrath to be back up.

    Instead, she went back home, reading through the level-ups she had received over the past weeks while she did.

    Congratulations! Kill Shot has reached Silver 5.

    Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Silver 5.

    Congratulations! Flora Identification has reached Silver 7

    Congratulations! Druid¡¯s Grove has reached Silver 10.

    Congratulations! Herbalist class has reached Silver 7.

    Congratulations! Nature¡¯s Wrath has reached Silver 6.

    Her progress was much slower now, thanks to the high rank. Even this much progress over a few weeks was the most she had gotten in a while, the frequent fights and constant new discovery playing a large role in that.

    Looking around her, Zalia wondered if it was best to just try bring Nateysta here to deal with this problem. Through his use of aura and absurdly strong magic, he might be able to break down the wall and free her family. Something he said when she had left Endaria to come here nagged at her though. He had said that his ability to contribute was greatly diminished and she had taken it at face value, simply thinking that now the Thousand-eyed one had been imprisoned, he felt like he didn¡¯t have much to contribute. Now though, she wondered if it¡¯d had a deeper meaning. He was brought to this world by the power of Balance, a force more powerful than any Ascendant in this world and perhaps he was held in check by that very same force.

    Still, she decided to try to reach out anyway. Just in case.

    When she arrived back at the clearing, she brought out the tiny altar she kept in her vault, the one she had taken from Cormaine dedicated to her friend Nateysta, also known as Ro-ak. She kept it with her always, both as a keepsake from her time there and as a way of reaching her friend should she need it.

    Putting the altar down and kneeling in front of it, she summoned Glowing Cave Mushrooms, ones that were specifically from the caves in Cormaine that she knew were often used in rituals around Nateysta in the far past. She placed them haphazardly in a circle around herself and the altar before beginning the ritual of communion.

    The mushrooms began to glow, bright dust floating away from them as they were disintegrated.

    ¡°Nateysta, I need your help.¡±

    She had to wait for a few minutes, kneeling there with her eyes closed, before a reply came.

    ¡°Zalia, what is wrong?¡±

    She breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he would at least be able to talk to her.

    ¡°We were seen by the Astar and Ember and Aylie were caught. Their souls have been separated from their bodies, now blocked from re-entering them by a wall that cannot be seen or felt by anyone other than them. Can you help us?¡±

    Once more, she had to wait.

    ¡°I cannot help you, dear friend. I can, however, send you one who may be able to.¡±

    The last of the mushrooms burnt away in a flash of light and Zalia found herself kneeling in darkness once more. All the others waited nearby in anticipation, yet were quickly subdued by Zalia¡¯s expression.

    She looked around, wondering what exactly he had meant by sending someone who may be able to help. There hadn¡¯t been any portal opened or anything of the sort.

    ¡°Well, he said he could send someone to help but¡­¡±

    She trailed off as a bright light brought her attention upwards. Through the mist she saw a pinprick star, shining strong enough to reach them all the way through. She stared at it hopefully, the others looking up to match her gaze.

    There, the star grew brighter and brighter until a lone wolf fell down upon them, landing in a stumbling crash.

    Zalia stared at Lumen. Lumen stared at her. Then barked quietly, licked her face for good measure and ran around excitedly greeting everyone.

    She stood, trying to get out of licking range and looked at Lumen, then back up at the sky expectantly. Surely Ro hadn¡¯t meant Lumen might be able to take out the wall, did he?

    Thinking that however, Lumen was different to the last time she had seen them.

    Luminescence - Bronze rank (Ascendant)

    Being Bronze rank wasn¡¯t the only change that had overcome the wolf since leaving them with Nateysta. Lumen was also considerably bigger, now matching Boreal in size. Considering Boreal was up to Zalia¡¯s shoulders, that made Lumen massive.

    Lumen looked at Aylie and Ember with confusion, tilting their head from one side to the other and back before approaching. They licked Aylie¡¯s face and to everyone¡¯s surprise, managed to make contact. Lumen could touch them. That meant¡­

    Zalia ran up and grabbed Lumen in a big hug, thankful for the wolf¡¯s presence. This would make things much easier.

    Lumen wagged their tail in happiness, jumping around energetically and almost bowling Zalia over.

    ¡°Alright, calm, calm. Stop that¡­ stop it!¡±

    After a moment of calming the wolf, she turned to Boreal who was giving Lumen the stinkeye. She did not like Lumen being that big, which was fair considering how much the wolf liked to play fight with her.

    The young ones for their part were extremely excited as well, soon swarming over Lumen and climbing up the wolf¡¯s thick fur, causing another bout of excited jumping around. Caught off guard, Zalia tried to get out of the way of the runaway wolf body but was knocked backwards by an off-kilter spin. She was sent stumbling into Ember, who caught her.

    Zalia looked down at the misty hands holding her, then up at the amorphous head of Ember, then over at Lumen. Lumen had done this.

    ¡°You beautiful, beautiful wolf.¡±

 Book 4: 16 - To Anger Nature

    With Lumen now there, Aylie¡¯s voice came through stronger than before, holding a clarity to it that gave Zalia a bit of strength.

    ¡°The other spirits look like they are degrading to me as if in their extended time in the mist they are dissolving. I fear¡­ I fear that the mist is made of other people¡¯s souls.¡±

    That sent a shiver down Zalia¡¯s spine as she looked around. How many people had this happened to that it could create such a large area of mist?

    ¡°That¡¯s horrible. How many can you see that are still in one piece?¡±

    Aylie looked around at things that Zalia could not see.

    ¡°Many, dozens stand here around us.¡±

    Zalia looked around but could see nothing. It was chilling. She wondered if Matthias was here somewhere, his soul separated from his body. He had been one of the leaders of the Morning¡¯s Shade beside Hidey and Hildebrandt. During her time there, he had been a bit cold and dismissive to her, yet he had fought for his kingdom just as much as the others had. If he was here, she would try to save him too.

    She wished that Hidey could have been here with them. He would have been a powerful boon to their cause, especially so when it came to infiltrating the Astar settlement. No one was as sneaky as that shade. It was unfortunate that someone was still out here using his true name to control him.

    With Lumen now here, Zalia hoped that they would be able to affect the great wall that blocked the spirits from entering the town. If they could, that would mean freedom for her family.

    ¡°Aylie, I want you to go around and speak to the other souls. Tell them that I plan on breaking a hole in the wall. Hopefully, some of them will understand and be ready for it.¡±

    The amorphous form of Aylie nodded, achingly slow, before heading off into the mist. Ember followed as well, silently stepping away. Zalia¡¯s heart ached at the sight, wishing that she had Ember¡¯s warmth and strength to bolster her own. She turned to Boreal

    ¡°Boreal, one of your abilities lets you get help from wildlife, right?¡±

    Boreal dipped her head and a little box popped up in Zalia¡¯s vision.

    Active 3 - Predator and Partner - spell - targeted

    Tin - you can use your cuteness to make others less aggressive towards you. Alternatively, you may instil a primal terror instead.

    Iron - you¡¯re able to slightly affect the actions others take in regards to you. Additionally, you can cause others'' bodies to betray them, causing them to freeze or run in terror.

    Bronze - You become the embodiment of fear in the animal kingdom, radiating an aura of dominance and terror that can influence even the most ferocious of beasts. Wild animals will instinctively avoid confrontation with you, and you can call upon them to aid you in times of need. Additionally, particularly cowardly enemies may turn on their allies when confronted by your presence in battle.

    Silver - Enemies that are scared of you are frozen, literally. They are inflicted with Frostbite and cannot move.

    ¡°Okay good, can you and the little ones try and find some others to help us? We¡¯re going to need every bit of help we can get.¡±

    ¡°Of course Zalia,¡± Boreal replied, before collecting her children and moving off into the mist as well.

    That just left Zalia and Lumen.

    ¡°And we, litt- large Lumen, are going to find ourselves some help from nature.¡±

    Lumen bounced around excitedly and Zalia gave the wolf a calming pat. They made their way off into the mist towards the town.

    When Zalia arrived near, she found a spot nearby but still a good distance out. It was here that she started preparing a ritual.

    The day she had entered the kingdom of Endaria, there had been a large battle between the forces of the kingdom and the rebellion. Knight Alara had been leading one side, with the other led by an incompetent leader she had never learnt the name of. In that fight, a huge Gold rank elemental had interrupted the fight, dragging the attention of both sides and leading them to fight together. It had been a true force on the battlefield, unkillable to the point that both armies had to flee.

    She wanted to make something like that.

    Most of the rituals she had created that awakened little pieces of nature had been really small scale. Little activated living rituals that would create a low-rank elemental to distract the enemies for a while. They weren¡¯t particularly powerful, being less so than the ones created by Nature¡¯s Wrath.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    She started off here doing exactly that. Each ritual created a different type of elemental, earth, air and fire. These were all living rituals, yet to be activated. The elementals that these would create couldn¡¯t move far and were all Iron rank despite the magic being used to create them being Silver rank.

    That wasn¡¯t the same for what she started next.

    The final ritual Zalia began planning out was huge. It also wasn¡¯t a living ritual, it was going to be a single-time ritual instead. That would mean the elemental it created wouldn¡¯t be linked to any one location but it would also last for a much shorter time. That was okay, as all it needed to be was a distraction.

    The Silver rank effect of Herbal Magic allowed Zalia to create rituals of a much larger scale than she had been able to previously. The first one of this kind she had done had taken her two days to cast from start to finish, the town-wide ritual that stopped teleportation abilities.

    This one would take a similar length of time and Zalia based what she wanted it to do off of an elemental she had seen before.

    Years back, when she had been working as part of the Morning¡¯s Shade still, Zalia had seen Larel fight one verse one against a huge elemental that had once been a mine. That elemental had been an earth and metal one that used lava abilities. It had been powerful and the only reason Larel had been able to defeat the thing was due to her abilities being based around constantly ramping power against singular targets.

    Larel had been Zalia¡¯s rank back then, except with only two classes not three and lacking the number of Heirlooms that Zalia now had.

    The ritual she was creating had many parts. The core of it used a lot of Flame-root to recreate the lava abilities that it would have. Around that core, she placed anti-teleportation measures to stop the Astar from simply removing the elemental from the equation.

    Around that was a complex set of addendums made of other herbs from Manifest to Dodge-vine to Soulroot, all of them a requirement to make this work.

    It took her two days to finalise the creation. A lot of that time was spent waiting for mana to recharge so that she could create the herbs required.

    During those days, she had to hide to avoid Astar attention only twice thankfully. They missed the large ritual being arrayed in the forest as well, mostly due to how hard it was to see in the mist. Boreal came back and told Zalia of her progress three times and it looked like they would have the support of the local wildlife as well. Many of the creatures around had stories passed down from prior generations speaking of a time when there was no mist here at all, before the Astar had come.

    The wildlife that Boreal had managed to convince included many different species. There were a few other wildcats there, birds of many varieties, creatures that lived amongst the low-hanging flora of the mist-laden lands. All in all, a few hundred animals answered Boreal¡¯s call.

    It was a good turnout, much more than Zalia expected if she were honest. Apparently, the animals of this land hated the Astar as much as Zalia did. They were a cold cruel people.

    During the time, Aylie didn¡¯t return to speak with Zalia but many of the misty souls did gather. More and more appeared from the mist by the day and that was only the ones that Zalia could see. She imagined that in the astral there were possibly thousands there waiting. Now all she had to do was make good on her promise.

    With the ritual laid out and waiting to be cast, Zalia turned her attention to the wall that blocked the souls from entering. It was their biggest problem, the plan being pointless without finding a way through for the souls.

    At first, Zalia thought about creating a portal that passed through but knew that the Astar would be able to stop something like that with ease. They had shown time and again that they were much more knowledgeable about that kind of thing than Zalia was. Instead, she would have to create a hole in the wall.

    With Lumen there, she could indeed feel the wall. It didn¡¯t stop her from passing through thankfully, but she could touch it. It was like honey, thick and hard to move through.

    Now that everything else was ready, she tried many things to get through the wall. Cutting it with her sword did nothing and neither did any of her magic rituals. Lumen tried to claw and bite at it with no results. Boreal used her icy magic to try and freeze the wall and shatter it, but still nothing.

    The answer to their problem came when Aylie returned.

    ¡°I can feel something here. The wall is¡­ different in Lumen¡¯s presence.¡±

    The misty form of Aylie floated over to the wall and brushed a hand down it. She was still unable to pass through. Then Zalia began to see a glow in the misty form of her daughter and stepped closer.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    Aylie didn¡¯t respond and Zalia came all the way up to where she stood by the wall.

    ¡°Aylie?¡±

    The two eyes that marked where Aylie¡¯s face was were glowing too, a bright blue light reminiscent of the stars.

    ¡°Go, begin the ritual!¡±

    Zalia didn¡¯t question her and turned from the wall, running to where she had laid out the ritual for the larger elemental. It was five minutes from the wall at her top speed.

    When she arrived, she stepped straight up to the edge of the ritual and began casting it.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Boreal watched as Zalia ran off and turned back to the wall. Aylie was glowing even brighter now, so much so that she had to turn away.

    With a final flash of light, A piece of the wall must have disappeared because the mist billowed forth towards the town.

    Everyone, the wandering souls, the wildlife of the misty forest, Boreal and her children, all stood still. Everyone except Aylie, who took one tentative step over the border and into the Astar town.

    Boreal let out a low growl and ran through.

    A burst of motion followed from behind as wildlife and souls alike sprinted after her, all intent on one thing.

 Book 4: 17 - Power Of The Stars

    Boreal dashed forward into the town, her children close behind. They all had new anti-teleportation bracelets made by Zalia and would be safe as long as they were kept close to Boreal.

    The alarm must have been raised in the town with the breaking of the wall as Astar were forming in the air and the edge of the town in waiting. A few barriers went up and a forceful aura swept over them all. Boreal felt like the door to her soul had been torn open, her very being laid bare before the enemies ahead of her. She could tell that some of the wildlife felt this much more painfully than she did as they stumbled to a stop. Fortunately, these were the lower-ranked ones, mostly Iron ranked.

    Boreal reached the town first, an empowered pounce crashing through a hastily established barrier. The  Astar on the other side didn¡¯t stand a chance, most of them Bronze ranked, as Boreal crashed through them violently. A slash tore open one''s throat, piercing teeth and a strong jaw crushing the spinal cord below the skull of another. Her icy magic tore through three more, freezing them solid and killing them instantly.

    Her children followed, Prance distracting one as Pounce crashed into it from behind. Frost followed her example and froze another Astar who then quickly died to Boreal¡¯s powers as well.

    Breeze and Rush ran circles around others as they tried to block them in or kill them with space-warping powers.

    Boreal saw other wildlife fighting all around. Birds swarmed Astar with sharp pecking beaks, a few going down under dozens of birds each. The other wildcats were all tearing through their own groups of Astar while many of the land animals wielded earth powers that allowed them to pull Astar down from the sky.

    It wasn¡¯t all a one-sided fight, however.

    One of the wildcats was torn in two by a space-warping ability, some flocks of birds were enclosed by barriers that slowly collapsed in on themselves, crushing the poor things into a paste. A few of the ground creatures were teleported far into the sky, only to drop at much too quick speeds.

    The fight had started off well, with many of the Astar being shocked or not ready for the attack.

    It was at this turn of the fight that the first humans began to fight back.

    Souls had been rushing through the city since the start of the fight, yet now some were finding bodies that belonged to them. Many of these humans were Silver rank, strong enough to tear off the shackles that bound their legs. While unfortunately unable to break the power-subduing bracelets, they were still strong enough that when they ambushed the Astar around them, they were able to fight back effectively.

    Using lengths of wood or stones that they carried, some even swinging the entire sacks themselves, the human slaves turned against their masters and the fight turned chaotic. Where the Astar had been forming a line to fight the wildlife in an orderly manner, the humans waking across the entire town caused mayhem.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Zalia stood with eyes closed as she focused. She had no idea how the fight was going so far, but knew that she needed to get help to them as quickly as possible. The ritual in front of her would take precious minutes to activate, she knew that.

    At the same time as she spent most of her concentration in a quiet chant to bring this powerful elemental to the battle, she activated the smaller living rituals where she could. She could only do one or two at a time but slowly, these smaller rituals let elementals trickle towards the fight.

    Zalia had designed this massive ritual in a manner that it would take less time to activate than the anti-teleportation ritual back at home would have. The limited lifespan of the elemental was the biggest cause of that time reduction, changing it from something that would take hours to mere minutes. It would have been faster again, except Zalia had made it something that was really two rituals in one. The first created the massive elemental, while the other would teleport it straight into the city only a few seconds after it was created.

    It took all of her willpower to keep from thinking about her family in danger in the city and remain focused on the ritual. A piece of her mind was reminding her of the promise she made to General Faian not to start a war with the Astar, yet that piece was quieted by the need to save her family. The consequences of this day would be dealt with later.

    With a cracking sound, the ritual finally activated. A huge stone arm ripped itself from the ground, followed by another. These two arms pulled a massive twenty-metre-tall elemental from the ground. The thing looked down at Zalia, an intelligence in the two glowing chasms that formed its eyes. She saw it for only a second before it vanished into thin air.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Aylie floated through the streets of the Astar town as quickly as her misty body would allow. Ember had separated from her some minutes before, pulled in a different direction than she was. Aylie didn¡¯t have time to think about that now, as the thread linking her to that distant location that felt like home grew closer and closer.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    She could feel it, an escape from the slowness of her mind, the limitations of her body. The way back to how life should be. It was so close.

    An Astar flashed by in her vision, floating quickly to the edge of town where wildlife and hopefully elementals were fighting other Astar by now. Another misty form merged with a body and Aylie saw the dead, blank eyes of that person come alive, a frantic, wild expression replacing it. The person tore off their manacles and dashed off quickly catching the Astar and hitting it with a wild swing to the back of the head. The Astar dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, dead.

    Aylie saw all of this and more over a few moments, absolute chaos reigning in the once orderly and peaceful Astar town. Through it all, she finally saw¡­ herself.

    Her body was walking slowly, bound at the legs and carrying a sack slung across her back. Her arms had power-subduing bracelets on them.

    She rushed forward and collided with her body.

    In a rush, memory came back to her. She opened her eyes to see the town in front of her except¡­ different. She felt alive like she was finally awake after being asleep for so long.

    Strangely enough, she could feel her power there, ready to be used, unbound by the bracelets that she wore.

    Ignoring the manacles on her legs, she used Starlit Portal to teleport herself to the other side of town, where the battle was warring the hardest. There, wildlife, elementals and Astar fought in a wild clash as mist poured through the opening in the wall behind her. More and more elementals ran through that wall, flinging fire and earth, others flying upwards and throwing the airborne Astar around with strong winds.

    Her powers still unbound, Aylie summoned her staff and held it tightly, revelling in the sense of power that flowed through her.

    She started chanting, the words guttural and harsh, a language that she could not understand yet knew in her soul. As she did so, the light filtering through the mist above darkened until the entire town was cast in shadow.

    No one in the town could see what was happening, but Aylie knew. She was the one who did this.

    A few of the Astar looked upwards in confusion but quickly went back to fighting, much of the town lit up by fires being spread by the few fire elementals amongst the wildlife.

    Aylie kept chanting.

    A huge form glowing a deep red appeared and dropped a few metres on top of a few of the Astar buildings, an elemental so much bigger than the others as to cause a momentary stop in the fighting. It opened its mouth with a sharp cracking sound and lava poured forth over a few Astar, bathing the town in light and the screams of the burning.

    Aylie kept chanting.

    Many Astar swarmed around the bigger elemental, obviously marking the Silver rank as a threat. They chanted in unison, forming a ritual around it that went off. Nothing happened.

    The Astar seemed shocked as a long arm swept past and slapped a few of them into the ground with an earsplitting crack. Whatever they had tried had not worked.

    Yet more elementals came from the forests nearby and Aylie knew that Zalia would soon arrive. Their assault had worked, she was free. Now they just had to find Ember and get as many of the other people out as possible.

    Aylie¡¯s chant continued.

    More and more humans arrived at the edge of the town, some running to join the fight while others fled. Many of them, however, paused behind the lines to try to get the power subduing bracelets off.

    Boreal appeared from the madness and helped one take their bracelets off. Once done, they were able to begin helping others do the same. Apparently, all it took was the help of someone who didn¡¯t have the bracelets on themselves.

    More and more magic joined the battle as people got their powers back. Some were soldiers, going in and swinging with all their considerably increased strength, others throwing elements that were significantly more powerful than those of the elementals around. Others yet continued to flee, obviously without classes that would help in battle.

    Aylie continued her chant.

    Zalia appeared above the battle, flying on wide wings of air. Her bow floated next to her, firing off arrow after arrow, each making contact with an Astar head or heart. Zalia hung unconcerned in the air, casting rituals that started even more fires amongst the Astar buildings. Aylie couldn¡¯t see her expression from here she could tell that Zalia held no remorse or guilt for what she did. The Astar had done something to her and her people that would grant them no mercy from this Druid.

    Aylie watched an arrow strike one Astar, a bolt of power bouncing from it to seven others, killing all of them instantly. Purple fire spread through the town, jumping from building to building, some sparks lighting more Astar on fire.

    Finally, Aylie finished her chant.

    From the skies above, flashing bolts of light fell. They struck Astar all across the town, impacting with massive force and lighting beautiful ethereal fires. More and more fell, killing hundreds in an instant.

    A second wave came, quickly following the first, until the town was alight with the power of the stars.

    As the first two waves subsided, miniature undirected meteorites showered the town, smashing through flesh, wood and stone alike.

    Taking a longer time to cast Starfall through the staff, Aylie was able to bring down not one but two showers of the directed stars, each even more powerful because of it.

    With her contribution to the fight complete, she ran towards the people who were fleeing the town, hoping to get them organised and out before the Astar could regroup and fight back. They might have taken them a surprise in this storm attack and killed many of them, but she knew that they wouldn¡¯t hold this position for long. Even now, the big elemental Zalia had summoned was being torn apart by spatial magic.

    Even as she helped the people below, Aylie could see the power building where Zalia flew above it all and knew that she wasn¡¯t going to let up just yet. They could save many more still.

 Book 4: 18 - Storm

    Zalia floated serenely, letting her power flow through and out of her body as she channelled Nature¡¯s Wrath. Around her were five air elementals arrayed like the points of a pentagon, each focusing on its own magic.

    Usually, the way Zalia used Nature¡¯s Wrath was in an immediate and violent reaction, smashing mana into the ability to destroy whatever was in front of her. This time, however, was like the slow shifting of rocks threatening to fall in a landslide.

    The sky darkened as clouds built above her, shifting and growing ever blacker as a thunderstorm built. A bolt of lightning cracked down, hitting an Astar on its short path to the town below, its scorched body tumbling to hit hard on the pavement just as thick droplets of rain began to fall.

    She smiled in satisfaction, watching the Astar begin to realise what she was doing and fly up to stop her. It was too late.

    Many more cracks of thunder struck as lightning slammed down, each bolt seeking the Astar that flew up to meet her. A few of these bolts even travelled through Zalia herself but she was unaffected by the magic she controlled. The few drops of rain turned to a downpour, drenching the settlement below and beginning to extinguish the fires raging across the battlefront.

    More cracks resounded and more Astar fell. Zalia pushed more and more magic into the storm, letting it build in strength until winds began howling and the rain turned to hail. It was a blinding storm of ice and lightning, each crack signalling the death of another Astar as they desperately tried to reach the source of the magic.

    When she started running low on mana, her quite large pool already low because of the summoning of the elemental, she stopped growing the storm and instead fed it, the torrential flow of mana turning to a trickle.

    Flying down, she saw an Astar use an ability that tore a chunk of stone from her large elemental''s head. It stumbled around now, blind and missing large pieces of its body, lava dripping to the ground below.

    The wildlife that had joined them in this fight had all but retreated, no longer willing to continue the fight. The trick of elementals Zalia had been bringing to the fight had become one large final burst after she had come here but reinforcements no longer came. The low-ranked elementals stood no chance against the Astar without the support of the wildlife and were dying in droves.

    Many of the freed slaves were helping but the majority of them simply fled from the Astar into the woods beyond, seeking the safety of the mist that now trickled slowly into town.

    Boreal was fighting savagely, still tearing many Astar to pieces and freezing others. Aylie acted as a medic, healing the injured now that her single-use ability had been used. Every now and then she was forced to awaken a plant to distract an Astar as she did so.

    Zalia saw this with only a glance, however, searching with her eyes and soul for Ember. She could feel where she was through their bond, quickly approaching the battlefront now. She stared and stared until¡­ there.

    Her wings beat as she dropped from the sky at speed towards Ember. She had somehow managed to get her armour on and was glowing with a halo of golden fire, flickering steps of flame following her path. Two Astar were chasing her but as Zalia watched, Ember turned and stomped her foot. A burst of flame exploded from in front of the two Astar, distracting them. During that short time, Ember had reversed course and now jumped through the fire, slinging powerful, plate-covered fists in their direction. One of the two Astar died with a caved-in head, the other managed to dodge but died moments later with an arrow through its head.

    Ember turned sharply to see Zalia coming down and she could feel the burst of relief that flooded her partner''s body.

    Zalia only landed for the time it took to pick up Ember before launching into the sky again. There were many other freed slaves still running through the streets but she would just have to hope that the chaos they had caused would be enough for the majority of them to escape. They couldn¡¯t save them all, as much as she wished they could.

    In the distance, Zalia could see many more Astar flying in from the large central building in the town. They rose into the sky even as the hail and lightning continued pounding down. It was time to leave.

    She sent a mental message to Boreal, telling her to get Aylie and Lumen and get out, then flew to the battlefront where the chaotic but winning fight had turned to an orderly regroup by the Astar who pushed the disorganised humans back.

    Once they landed behind those retreating lines, it took Zalia a moment to get Ember¡¯s power-subduing bracelets off. They both ran in opposite directions down the line in silent agreement, yelling at the still-fighting slaves to get out. It didn¡¯t take long and soon they were all running towards the treeline, the Astar thankfully not giving chase.

    That was until hundreds of them appeared in the sky above.

    By the time they did, she had met back up with Ember and she reacted quickly, grabbing her and using Mobility to teleport into the misty treeline. The freed slaves that were lagging behind weren¡¯t so lucky, unfortunately.

    There was a strange sucking sound as the land, mist, hail, air and people between the town¡¯s edge and the treeline simply disappeared. Gone in an instant.

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    Zalia quickly checked her bond with Boreal and found that she was much further into the forest already, so she put Ember down and the two of them ran off as quickly as they could manage.

    ?                         ? ? ?????? ? ?                         ?

    Zalia held Ember close as she cried, painful sobs wracking her body.

    They were in her vault back at the clearing, now far enough away from the Astar for Ember to let her guard down. Her experience had been quite different to Aylie¡¯s. Where Aylie had maintained some semblance of control and thought, Ember had been an unwilling witness to her soul¡¯s wanderings, incapable of proper thought or action. She had described it like having your mind stuck in a cage within a nightmare where rational thought had all but vanished.

    For her part, Aylie seemed to be doing alright. The experience seemed to have less of an effect on her, perhaps having the power to actually do something changing it to an experience less like an imprisoning of the mind.

    Zalia tried to comfort Ember with offered strength and calming words and she did relax eventually. It was a horrible experience for sure but they would be able to overcome it together.

    ¡°I remember everything,¡± Ember whispered between deep breaths.

    ¡°It¡¯s alright, I know.¡±

    ¡°No, you don¡¯t understand. I remember everything my body did, where it went and what it saw. If I did, many of the others might have as well. They might know things about the Astar.¡±

    Zalia pulled away just slightly, enough to look at Ember¡¯s face.

    ¡°They might know how we can fight them, where they live, what other cities look like. That¡¯s the first bit of good news we¡¯ve had from this whole thing.¡±

    Ember nodded and Zalia pulled her close again.

    It was another five minutes before Ember spoke again.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m ready to face it.¡±

    The ¡°it¡± Ember referred to was the some two dozen freed slaves waiting in the clearing outside the vault. They were all that Boreal and Zalia had managed to drag along with them in their quick escape. Others undoubtedly wandered the mist and she did want to try find more of them but it would be extremely hard in these conditions. Still, they had to try. The part Ember would play was in trying to help heal the trauma of the people.

    Zalia had tried to dissuade her from that as she needed to rest but Ember insisted, saying that helping the others would help her deal with it too. It was hard to argue with that.

    After helping her wash up her face a little bit, they both stepped out of the vault to see how the group were doing. There were only a few people who stood strong, waiting patiently for Zalia. Many of them just sat and stared into nothing. They were either broken inside or trying to sift through the possible years of memories that awaited them. Maybe both. Who knew what effect the things they¡¯d been through could have on the soul?

    Aylie was nearby, inspecting each person in turn in the way that only she could. If anyone could determine what long-term exposure to soul separation would do, it was Aylie. After doing a round of the group, Aylie activated an ability and Zalia felt a strong surge of healing spread across the clearing. This healing was different, finding its way deep into the body in a more fundamental way.

    Tin - Your very presence grants life to all around you. You, nearby allies and any flora and fauna you so choose within your aura are affected by a heal-over-time effect. The heal-over-time effect heals for low health every second.

    Iron - Healing presence now heals the most grave injuries first and you may focus it onto a single target, increasing that target''s healing while reducing the healing other targets receive

    Bronze - Healing Presence now attunes to the specific needs of each individual target within your aura. It adjusts its healing output based on the severity of injuries or ailments, offering targeted healing to each person or creature accordingly. You may still change this manually if wished. Additionally, once every twenty-four hours, you may trigger a Healing Surge.

    Healing Surge - The power of Healing Presence is increased tenfold and gains the ability to heal the soul. This lasts for one minute.

    Some of the vacant eyes and troubled stares of the people faded away, the combination of Aylie¡¯s soul healing and Ember¡¯s emotional healing forming a complex net of powerful recovery. Some of the freed slaves blinked repeatedly like they had only just awoken. Many began talking to each other or staring at Aylie in awe.

    Amongst the two dozen freed slaves, there wasn¡¯t a Bronze rank person in sight. All of the assembled were Silver so while the small number of people might not seem strong, this was actually a group of some of the most powerful people in Endaria. Zalia wondered what would happen to the kingdom if she brought back all of the freed slaves, what kind of shift in power would happen.

    One man stood up and thanked Aylie with a gesture, hand forming a fist over heart. The others began to do so as well, while many also thanked Zalia and Ember in a similar manner. The broken camp had turned into a hive of activity.

    Now that people were looking a lot better, Zalia began to ask questions.

    Everyone was still trying to sort through their memories of the time in the Astar town, but she did learn some things. For one, the large building in the centre of town was indeed a portal hub. They even had someone who had been through one of those portals and she spoke of a huge underground cavern supported by jagged, oddly shaped pillars, an entire city built within. There were human slaves there too, though not as many as in this town. By her reckoning, there must have been tens of thousands of Astar living there, if not more than a hundred thousand.

    This concerned Zalia deeply. Unless that city was the major city of the Astar, it could mean that they had a population that exceeded the humans by a lot. What if they were advanced enough as a people to have cities containing millions? What could the people of Endaria do about that?

    The other thing that concerned her was the possible rank of those people. This town hadn¡¯t contained many high ranked Astar at all, only a couple of Silver ranked among them while the majority sat at Bronze. It had been a major reason Zalia had been able to take the town as while they were powerful spatial mages, the Astar were physically weak even compared to beings of similar rank that hadn¡¯t bonded the strength or dexterity attributes.

    With these thoughts in the back of her mind, she called all the freed slaves together.

 Book 4: 19 - Search and Rescue

    ¡°Alright, everyone! Hello, I¡¯m Zalia. I¡¯m sorry to do this to you so soon after being freed but we have to get to work immediately while the Astar are still regrouping and putting out the remaining fires in their town. We need to find and bring together the rest of the freed slaves as soon as possible and begin making our way back to Endaria.¡±

    There was some mumbling amongst the people and one spoke up.

    ¡°How are we meant to find anything in this mist?¡±

    Zalia tapped at her leg in thought, trying to find a good answer to that. The woman wasn¡¯t wrong.

    ¡°I have a drink that can help your bodies adapt to the environment, if only temporarily. That should help. Otherwise, the young cats here all have developed abilities to see in the mist. Some of you will be able to pair up with one of them and protect them as they search for others. They are trained in tracking so they should be of good assistance. Aylie and Ember will stay here to greet returning slaves while Boreal and I shall also head out into the mist to try to find them. Try to keep track of where you are and which direction you have walked while out there.¡±

    It was a risk, a large one at that. It was quite possible that some of them could get caught out there or even just get lost, but it was also important to find and help as many others as possible. Zalia knew that as Silver rank people, each of them would have a good sense of direction and an incredible memory. That should help in finding their way back at the least.

    Each of Boreal¡¯s children found themselves a human and wandered off into the mist after a stern word from Boreal. She made it clear that they were to protect her young with their lives or else face the consequences, which would just happen to come in a sharp, quick and furry manner.

    As the unchosen people grumbled and made their own way off into the mist, Zalia gave Ember and Aylie a quick farewell hug and ran off.

    It didn¡¯t take her long to start finding people.

    The first man she found was stumbling over a stretch of rocky ground with vacant eyes and she quickly stopped him in his tracks. Where the others would have to bring stragglers back to camp, Zalia held an advantage.

    Using the keyword of the portal back in the clearing as a guide for her magic, she prepared a ritual that teleported the man straight back to camp. Simple and easy as that, she went on her way again.

    Over the course of several hours, Zalia tracked down dozens of people. It was easy for her, the tracks left by their mindless wandering easy to see for her trained and enhanced eyes. Each person she found was quickly sent back to camp where she hoped Ember and Aylie weren¡¯t getting too overwhelmed.

    After the first few people, Zalia made sure to make her way further out from the camp as the others would have a harder time bringing these people back. She had a rough idea of how many had escaped the town in the general direction of the camp and would just have to hope that the ones who had fled out other avenues would find their own ways back to the kingdom. It was a long shot for many of them, unfortunately, as it was quite a long journey.

    After the first hours, she went back to the clearing to see how everyone was doing, looking through the few rank-ups from the fight while she did.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s Sight has reached Silver 7.

    Congratulations! Herbal Magic has reached Silver 11.

    You have fought many battles, each a powerful struggle in its own right. Throughout many of them, you have worn Druidic Armour, Blessed by Nature.

    Congratulations! Druidic Armour, Blessed by Nature (Blessed Heirloom) has ascended to Silver rank!

    The final notification had taken Zalia by surprise, as she hadn¡¯t felt any changes at all. She was so used to ignoring and dismissing messages during fights as not to be distracted that she hadn¡¯t noticed this one was different.

    Druidic Armour, Blessed by Nature (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Silver rank.

    Tin - wearing the armour applies Shadows Veil to you.

    Iron - Shadows Veil gains a new effect called Partial Intangibility.

    Bronze - When intangible, you may step through Flora to move out of similar Flora within a limited range.

    Silver - Your affinity for ritual magic has made its mark on your armour. You may have three rituals imbued into your armour that are constantly active without any upkeep cost. Changing one of these rituals requires many hours of work.

    Shadows Veil - Shadow Veil suppresses the wearer''s aura and magical signature, making it challenging for magical beings or entities with heightened senses to detect their presence.

    Shadows Veil now muffles any sound you make while wearing the armour, making your movements silent, even when moving quickly or engaging in combat.

    Partial Intangibility - Shadow Veil grants the wearer partial intangibility, allowing them to phase through thin barriers or objects, such as walls, fences, or closed doors, as long as the barriers are not too thick or magically protected.

    She gave an appreciative whistle. Permanently active rituals?

    It took her a matter of seconds to decide on which ones she would use. With a seemingly inevitable war with the Astar coming up, she would need anti-teleportation protection. If she could design a ritual that didn¡¯t stop her own teleportation magic then she would do that one. The next would have to be the Dodge-vine and Adastem ritual that provided adaptive protection.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    Her first thought for the third was to be the ritual that gave her the wings for flight. Then she realised she could already maintain that ritual on herself indefinitely without mana use, and already did. It would have to be something else then, but what?

    Her mind turned to less combat-oriented things. A ritual that enhanced her stealth, perhaps. There was time to think about it anyway.

    For now, she put her armour back into storage, then brought it out in front of herself rather than equipped. She quickly cast the Dodge-vine major and Adastem minor ritual on it and saw the magic imbue itself into the armour. A couple of runes etched themselves into different pieces of the armour and Zalia admired them closely, recognising them as the runes from the ritual. Could she do this kind of thing without the ability? Enchant items?

    It wasn¡¯t time to think of that now.

    She quickly re-equipped the armour, feeling it protect her just a little better now, and checked the description of that last ability again.

    Silver - Your affinity for ritual magic has made its mark on your armour. You may have three rituals imbued into your armour that are constantly active without any upkeep cost. Changing one of these rituals requires many hours of work.

    Imbued rituals:

    <ul>

    <li>Dodge-vine and Adastem (Adaptive Protection).</li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li>None</li>

    </ul>

    <ul>

    <li>None</li>

    </ul>

    Excellent.

    When she arrived back at the clearing, it was to a scene only slightly less chaotic than she was expecting.

    The number of people they had gathered so far spilled out of the too-small space and out, around and on top of the raised earth wall. Ember was having to walk around the perimeter, making sure none of the more vacant-looking ones didn¡¯t wander off again.

    Zalia quickly pushed inside and began expanding the walls, lowering them and building new ones further out. It was only minutes before she had a space more than big enough for the odd one-hundred and twenty people. Looking through their ranks, Zalia once again saw not a Bronze ranker in sight. There were even two Gold rankers among their number. If they could just get these people back to Endaria, they would undoubtedly be an amazing infusion of strength for the nation.

    She wondered how much longer they should try looking for other people. How long could they wait, in reality, before the Astar brought stronger forces to find them? It was a hard decision to make.

    Many of the people Zalia had sent back earlier were looking significantly better now, after the ministrations of Ember and Aylie. While it would be another day until Aylie could use her soul-healing magic, the emotional healing and basic healing that Aylie provided were still helpful.

    Ember found her shortly after she had extended the walls, questions written across her expression.

    ¡°Zalia, I agree with what we¡¯re doing here but how are we going to feed all these people on the journey back? For that matter, how are we going to keep them all safe?¡±

    Zalia looked around.

    ¡°Many of them are still capable of fighting. As for the feeding, you have your Universal Wellbeing, remember?¡±

    A light lit up in Ember¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Oh! I have only ever used it to help towns and the such, it completely slipped past me that it would apply here.¡±

    Universal Wellbeing was an ability that Ember had developed long ago. Previously called ¡°Help The Needy¡±, the ability was one that she used to provide a community of people with something that they needed. Previous examples of this were repairing buildings, healing wounds and most importantly, feeding towns. While it could only be used once a day, that would be all they needed to feed these people enough that they could make it back to Endaria, where the council could take over their wellbeing.

    Zalia nodded, glad to have helped allay those fears.

    ¡°The question on my mind is how long we should wait before leaving. I don¡¯t want to be here when the Astar finally decide to come looking. Worse even, if this mist really is made of the souls of enslaved humans, who¡¯s to say that it is going to stick around much longer? I¡¯d rather be long gone before we find that out.¡±

    Ember nodded, looking worried again.

    ¡°Give it another hour, then we should go.¡±

    Zalia had been thinking to leave straight away but agreed. She wanted to help these people as much as Ember did but they did have to be sure not to destroy any chance they had of actually escaping by leaving it too late. Being caught on their way back to Endaria could be disastrous, especially if they had hundreds of Astar using combined magic to make them all vanish from reality as they had just done hours earlier.

    With a timeline in place, Zalia left the clearing again. There was no time to waste.

    She spent the next hour as she had spent the previous few, finding stragglers and teleporting them back to the clearing for Ember and Aylie to look after. The anxiety and pressure of the situation made her stressed, yet she still felt better now than she had when Ember and Aylie had been captured. Nothing could come even close to that feeling.

    With the hour done, she went back to the clearing.

    Ember had been stopping people from leaving again once they had returned and they were now all there except for Breeze and the person that he had been with. Great.

    Zalia found Ember again.

    ¡°Take them and go, Boreal and I will find Breeze.¡±

    Ember gave her a nod and started collecting the people together and organising them. She began explaining where they were heading and how they could be found again if people got lost in the mist. Zalia only heard the beginning of the explanation as she and Boreal ran off into the mist once more.

    Using Hunter¡¯s Sight, Zalia was quickly able to track Breeze down. Glowing bushes, trees and patches of ground marked where Breeze had been, the tracks obvious to her now that she was on the right path.

    Despite that, Boreal saw them before Zalia did.

    Breeze was on the ground, writhing in pain as an Astar floated nearby, no expression on their face. There were two more who had the freed slave that had gone with Breeze in a similar pained mess on the floor.

    Boreal was upon them in an instant, motherly love turned weapon as she attacked.

    The one that was torturing Breeze had the tendons on the back of its legs brutally slashed before Boreal jumped up and grabbed its neck in her powerful jaws. She crunched down and threw the body against a nearby tree where it bent unnaturally around the trunk.

    Zalia attacked the other two, arrows peppering holes in one Astar. As she did, the freed slave managed to break free of the remaining Astar¡¯s grip and jumped to his feet. He grabbed the Astar¡¯s skull as it tried to escape via teleportation magic and slammed it into his knee. Twice more had the Astar¡¯s head explode in a gory mess.

    While that happened, Zalia scooped up Breeze and began setting up the teleportation ritual. A few minutes later and they appeared back in the clearing.

    She handed off Breeze to the freed slave and gestured for them to chase after the rest of their group while she slowly disassembled the clearing that had been their base.

 Book 4: 20 - To Escape The Mist

    Zalia chased after the group of freed slaves that her family was taking to safety. Following along behind, she used Natural Matter Alteration to make all signs of their passing vanish. The grass was healed, dirt was flattened back out, sticks and bushes were repaired. It might have been unnecessary but she wanted to give them the best chance at escaping possible. If that meant lagging behind to cover up their escape, so be it.

    Once they were out of the mist, she wouldn¡¯t do the same. In fact, at that point, they might actually want to be found. Hopefully, their tracks would be visible to other freed slaves they hadn¡¯t found who would then be able to follow them. The Astar would see them from up in the sky anyway.

    She eventually caught up to the slow-moving group despite her own reduced speed and continued cleaning up after them. Boreal and Breeze were there too, which meant everyone was together again. Now they just had to get back to Endaria. It was going to be a long, long journey.

    They didn¡¯t stop until many hours later when they arrived at the trailing edge of the unnatural mist. They waited here as Zalia finished up removing their tracks and made camp, if it could be called that. None of them had any bedrolls or tents, not even a backpack in sight.

    It was here that Ember used Universal Wellbeing to create a table covered in steaming soup and bread. It wouldn¡¯t be anything fancy but definitely a far sight better than what they had most likely been fed as slaves and infinitely better than the nothing they would have had to eat without her.

    While everyone ate, Zalia went from person to person, asking about their stories. If she got answers at all, they were usually brief. From her understanding, many of these people had been slaves for years, decades. Many even named the king of Endaria as being neither King Alistair or King Horum, which meant they were from a time before them. They might have been there for hundreds of years.

    The other thing she asked about, the more important matter at hand, was what each person was capable of. Three-quarters of the people were fighters of some kind, many being knights or powerful warriors though there weren¡¯t a small number of fighters of the more magical kind as well. Thankfully, there were a few people more like Zalia amongst their number too, people who travelled alone and without contact with the wider world. These people Zalia made good use of, asking them to range a bit further from the group as scouts which they were more than happy to do. Strangely they were also the ones who held better control of their mental faculties. Did they have stronger minds or souls as a result of the way they lived their lives?

    The other quarter of the people were less warriors and more merchant or craftsman types. The merchants were the travelling kind, capable of defending themselves but not excellent, while the craftsmen were people who had grown bored of city life and left for outer towns or a holiday from their usual day-to-day experiences. The memories those people had of being taken often lined up with their decisions to do this.

    Talking to all these people answered a question that had been hanging over her mind for a while now. How was it that the people of Endaria hadn¡¯t noticed that the most powerful members of their race had been disappearing?

    For the warriors, they often spoke of being abducted during battles, taken amongst the chaos of a fight. The merchants spoke of trade routes along dangerous paths and craftsmen being taken while leaving to find relaxation or adventure in farther lands. In this way, the Astar had managed to avoid suspicion. People died in battle, sometimes having their bodies completely destroyed and merchants did sometimes die when travelling the more dangerous routes. It happened.

    This was perhaps the reason that many Endarians thought that the North was so dangerous, not because it actually was that dangerous but because powerful people who went there often didn¡¯t return.

    And it was something that had been happening for hundreds of years.

    She didn¡¯t understand why the bodies of these ancient slaves hadn¡¯t deteriorated, some magic perhaps. With so many questions answered by these people, she did begin to ponder new ones, however. Why exactly did the Astar do what they did?

    There must have been a reason for it, even if she couldn¡¯t yet see it. Was it just so that they had a constant source of cheap labour? She didn¡¯t think so.

    She had to shake herself from these thoughts as people began to get restless. It was time to move on.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    They packed up what meagre things they had, some craftsmen had begun making low-quality weapons made from stone and wood for the warriors amongst them, while the more wild types had begun searching the nearby area for anything of use amongst the plants and environment they were in.

    It was approaching night time but none of the group complained as they set off again. All of them were tired, her own family amongst them, but they unanimously agreed that they needed to get further from the Astar than this.

    The sun set as they walked, yet they didn¡¯t stop until the light from the waning moon vanished over the horizon as well. At that point, it was agreed that they should rest and everyone collapsed with exhausted sighs. Everyone except Zalia and Boreal of course.

    They wouldn¡¯t need sleep nor rest for weeks yet, their bodies entirely maintained by Zalia¡¯s passive.

    While Zalia was a quarter of the way to Gold rank, Boreal had advanced to almost halfway there from this fight. She wouldn¡¯t be surprised if some of her quicker advancing abilities began to advance to Gold rank soon, with her average progress as seen by Aura Observation being held down by the slower ones.

    At final count, there were one hundred and fifty-seven people in their group, not including Zalia¡¯s family. They hadn¡¯t found any more Gold rankers amongst the people brought back in that final hour so they still only had the two. Those were recovering from their experience much quicker than the rest, both of them being tank types. Thinking about it, Zalia wasn¡¯t surprised that it was tank types that often made it to higher ranks than anyone else. Hildebrandt was one of those too. They might not be the strongest in how much damage they could put out but they sure were damn hard to kill.

    While everyone else settled down to sleep, Zalia found a tree to climb that she could use as a good vantage point. She wanted to keep an eye out on the entire group, not just the sky and surrounding lands for Astar. While they had saved these people, some of them might be the type that would kill or steal for a better chance at survival. Some might even be broken of mind or have spent so long in servitude to the Astar that they didn¡¯t know any other life. She wouldn¡¯t have someone sneaking off in the night to tell the Astar where they were.

    Fortunately, the night passed without issue and as the next day came, the group rose with the sun.

    They continued their journey and as the day progressed, things started to look a bit better. After a good night¡¯s sleep, some of the people were looking a lot better than they had the day before. Their eyes were clearer and their steps more confident. The constant emotional healing from Ember was doing wonders and not too long into the day, Aylie was able to activate her soul healing too. The effect was stunning, the zombie-like blankness of the last remaining members disappearing, though not entirely. There was still a shadow in the eyes of some, a trauma and experience that wouldn¡¯t ever fully disappear.

    The craftsmen amongst the group found a source of iron halfway through this second day and Zalia watched in awe as they crafted armour and weapons without the use of a forge. At Silver rank, they apparently needed nothing other than their bare hands to create some good quality gear.

    The hunters and wilder people amongst the group were outfitted with bows and arrows and they began to bring back small game from the area. With the leather from those kills, the craftsmen began to make boots, waterskins and some leather armour for the more agile people. Processes that would normally take weeks if not months were done in an instant with the powers of these high ranked people.

    The fears that she and Ember had at the beginning were proven unfounded as the group of people were more self-sustaining than they realised.

    By the end of that first day, they had even begun making tents and an enchanter amongst the group was enchanting the cloth so that the inside of the tents were significantly larger than the outside.

    As they rested for that night, it was to Zalia¡¯s astonishment that she kept watch over a proper campsite instead of the group of people sleeping in the dirt that she had seen the night before.

    There were fifteen tents, each enchanted to be large enough on the inside that they could hold more than ten people each. They were arrayed in a wide circle around a large campfire tended by a wildman who had a few abilities around cooking. He had prepared the kills that the others had made during the day and with the meat from those kills, Ember had been able to use Universal Wellbeing to create some better quality foodstuffs such as salt and spices.

    Spirits amongst the group were much higher and increased further as a merchant who was also a brewer turned some water from a nearby stream into various alcoholic drinks for the group with Zalia crafting a few hundred wooden mugs using a mixture of Healing Presence and Natural Matter Alteration.

    Be as that may, spirits weren¡¯t high enough and people were not familiar enough with each other for loud conversation. There was an occasional chuckle here and there as people spoke quietly, but for the most part, people were silent. A few of the more talkative members of the group had begun talking to each other about their experiences as slaves, building bonds over shared adversity.

    Zalia was¡­ surprised.

    She often forgot that while humans as a race fought amongst themselves often and rarely were in agreement, when there was something for them to fight together against they could often throw away those differences and overcome great difficulty. It brought her hope.

    That was a strange feeling to her, hope. Even after defeating the demons invading Endaria, her thoughts had turned to the Astar and even further a possible attempt at taking back Cormaine. Both were going to be horrible, hard experiences but if all of humanity could come together and work towards these common goals then maybe, just maybe, things would be alright.

 Book 4: 21 - Reclaimed to Natures Reclaim

    They were in the marshes now, travelling much like Zalia and her family had when coming to the Astar town in the first place. Across the past two days, she had figured out which other ritual she wanted imbued into her armour and had also created a version of the anti-teleportation ritual that would allow her to use her own abilities still.

    The final ritual had been something new. Herbal Magic gave her the ability to combine two herbs to create a new base element and this was something she rarely ever used, finding it easier to create differences in the ritual formation itself that gave her the effect she wanted. Now though, she had combined Flame-root and Zephyr which had the Fire and Air elements to create a powder with the element of Movement. She combined this new powder and Adastem to create an effect that gave her adaptive movement, meaning it could help her run faster or be more streamlined for quicker flight or swimming. Whichever it did, it would grant her increased mobility while wearing the armour which was never a bad thing.

    Everything had been running smoothly up to this point, the force of humans well-fed and in relatively high spirits. They hadn¡¯t even been attacked by any wild creatures, nothing quite stupid enough to attack such a strong group of people.

    It had been great, up until a hundred or so Astar appeared in the sky.

    The travelling group reacted quickly, the mages and hunters amongst them throwing magic and shooting arrows into the sky. Zalia¡¯s own bow appeared next to her and let off arrow after arrow. The Astar began casting a ritual, all of them working on a single power. Zalia knew what was coming, the people with her knew what was coming.

    Unfortunately for the Astar, Zalia had been ready for something like this. She had given each and every one of the people in the group the one-use bracelets that protected against spatial magic. As well as that, she had all the herbs stored in her vault ready for a group-wide protective ritual against the very same thing, which she immediately began to cast upon seeing the Astar.

    Her ritual snapped into place moments before theirs went off and while the air warped a little, the people within its area felt nothing other than a slight tug on their bodies.

    Chaos reigned as the Astar panicked.

    They were obviously not trained soldiers, more used to the abduction of people than the fighting of them. Perhaps they were not used to anyone countering their magic either.

    The group of freed slaves were not trained soldiers for the most part either, however.

    While many of them stood their ground and shot up at the Astar, the ones who were less used to fighting ran away, scattering in different directions.

    Wearing her armour, Zalia felt invincible to the Astar. She teleported up into the sky with them, the wings that gave her flight active as always. Having just appeared in the air, she had to swerve to the side to avoid a hammer flying end over end, barely missing her and slamming into an Astar¡¯s face with a crunch. Her bow released a final arrow before it was transformed into a sword already held in Zalia¡¯s hand. She slashed in a wide arc and a blade of wind swept forward.

    Only the closest Astar was hit, its arm severed. The few behind that managed to dodge out of the way while another destroyed the arc of wind with magic just moments before a ball of fire exploded on their chest, engulfing them.

    While they were focusing on the first attack, Zalia had already swept her sword in three more quick, small arcs that eviscerated two of them. She dashed between more Astar, avoiding magic and arrows blasting by from below, marking ten of them with Hunter¡¯s Mark. She grabbed one of the marked Astar in a headlock to hold it still while she performed a ritual on it.

    Water Lily and Bitterbalm floated about it before the ritual took place. All ten marked Astar slowly died as the water was pulled from their bodies into ten floating spheres. Zalia froze the water which then dropped down to the ground below.

    An Astar wielding twin lithe blades appeared next to her, swinging. She used Fight of Flight, time slowing to her eyes as she reacted, parrying one blade hard enough that the strike from the other blade was put off enough for her to dodge out of the way. By the time she recovered, the first blade was already swinging in her direction again as the Astar attacked in a flurry of beautifully methodical strikes.

    Taken aback by the nature of this Astar¡¯s attacks, Zalia barely held her own, feeling Boreal approaching her position. She took a single moment to look down and saw her bounding up into the sky using the balls of ice as platforms, controlling them with her magic.

    Zalia parried another blow, then had to deflect the other blade with her bracer. She kicked out at that moment, making contact with the Astar¡¯s chest and flinging them away from her and straight into Boreal¡¯s path. She used the Astar as her final stepping stone into the sky, her jaws clamping shut on their skull with a crunching sound. They immediately began to drop from the sky as the sword-wielding Astar died but Zalia cast a flight ritual on her friend, applying another anti-teleportation ritual to her.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    A quick check of her mana saw that it was depleting extremely fast. Maintaining the anti-spatial magic ritual for her allies down below was draining it too fast.

    Looking around at how many Astar still stood, Zalia realised that it would run out before they killed them all. They would have casualties soon.

    A bright light from below zipped up into the sky, the ball of starlight resolving into the form of Lumen as they savaged an Astar, changing into a ball of starlight immediately after and dashing over to another target. They were letting off a bright light and powerful heat that blinded Zalia¡¯s heat vision so much she had to turn it off. Ethereal fire coated the wolf, little sparks of starlight flickering off to land on Astar, lighting them up as well.

    The three of them killed many of the Astar before Zalia¡¯s mana dropped low enough that a deep headache throbbed in her skull. She dropped the large ritual below, only barely able to maintain Boreal¡¯s flight. The Astar obviously saw this happen as she heard screams and grunts of pain from below.

    She swept toward another enemy, missing her strike as they teleported away. It only took seconds for her to reach them again, yet another strike missed as they vanished once more. Strike, teleport, strike, teleport. Growing frustrated, she stopped and switched back to her bow, intending to shoot the Astar before an arrow from below hit it in the head.

    Some of the Astar began to retreat, vanishing from the battlefield and not returning. Once a few had gone, the rest began to follow quickly. Within half a minute, all the Astar were either gone or dead.

    Zalia went down below to see how the rest of the group was doing and found that they were all in good health. Ember had been down here the whole time, healing as much as possible. That wasn¡¯t to say that they came out of the battle unscathed.

    Many of the people were missing chunks of clothing where limbs had been destroyed. She saw a few expressions of shock, the memory of pain obviously not yet faded. Once the craftsmen and traders that had run away came back, she also realised that a few members of their group were just¡­ missing.

    She should have expected it, considering what the Astar had tried to do at the start of the fight.

    It took a good half hour for everyone to collect weapons and calm down enough for them to continue on their way. Zalia collected one of the Astar bodies during that time, putting it in her vault.

    They had lost fifteen people during the fight, not a large number but it still had an impact that was felt by the whole group. They couldn¡¯t afford to lose more people this way.

    Zalia was already back to making more anti-teleportation bracelets for the group, knowing that they had saved them from a potentially crippling fight.

    She was concerned about that twin sword fighter that had attacked her. They had been different to the rest of the Astar, obviously well-trained with the weapons. Was it possible that the Astar they had been fighting so far were not actually the warriors of their race? What if they were just slave traders, not warriors or powerful mages of any kind? Normal, day-to-day people, so to speak.

    It would make sense, as they were much too easy to kill. Looking at the fight they had just had, she could see that. There was no way these were the strongest of their race.

    Their journey back to Endaria continued, days filled with muddling their way through the swamp. They were attacked twice more in their time during the swamp, each attack with less Astar and holding a sense of¡­ desperation to them. They lost another eleven members during those two fights, bringing the total number of people in their group to one hundred and thirty-one.

    Once they made it out of the swamps, they were able to relax just a bit. That wasn¡¯t to say that they let their guard down but they were now within the borders of Endaria. It was Zalia¡¯s intention to bring the group straight to the capital but after talking with them over the course of the next few days about what they wanted to do, it came up that Zalia kind of¡­ owned a town. A town that held anti-teleportation measures over the entire thing. The group came to the decision that they would rather head there first.

    Zalia didn¡¯t want to take their freedom of choice from them and neither would she turn down a good number of high-ranked soldiers, mages, craftsmen and merchants. The ones that she could see were hard-working and powerful people.

    As the members of the group grew more accustomed to each other, they also opened up more about their experiences. Zalia learnt a lot about the Astar during that time, how they lived and what they were like as a people. Much like her experiences of them so far, they were a cold and calculating people, with members of their race that showed compassion or strong emotion often being exiled. That surprised Zalia, as it meant that they weren¡¯t that way naturally. Rather, it was an enforced coldness.

    She spoke to the member of their group who had been to another Astar city about the Astar there and learnt that as she thought, the twin sword-wielding Astar hadn¡¯t been an outlier by any means. He told Zalia that while the majority of the Astar were Bronze rank with few that ascended to Silver, there were of course the powerful few that made it to higher ranks. He had seen a few Emerald rank Astar and a single Diamond rank one over the many years spent in that bigger Astar city.

    Zalia wondered then if the real reason the Astar took higher-ranked Endarians was to make sure they didn¡¯t grow too powerful. Did the majority of the Astar just not bother ranking up?

    They weren¡¯t attacked again after entering Endaria¡¯s borders and the day soon came that they arrived at Nature¡¯s Reclaim. Everything looked to be at peace in the town and Zalia revelled in the expressions of joy and relief on the faces of the group she led into the half-forest, half-town. She might have started a war doing what she had done but it was more than worth it for the people that they had saved.

 Book 4: 22 - Good Morning

    Zalia awoke to soft purring sounds in the comfort of her own home. She had slept for a good half hour, longer than usual these days, and was ready for the coming weeks. The source of the purring was Boreal¡¯s children, sleeping in a puddle of fur nearby.

    It was the day that Zalia expected the military seated to the council Faian as well as General Ballast and Hildebrandt to arrive at Nature¡¯s Reclaim. She had sent for them the day after returning from her trip, knowing that they deserved to be informed of her actions. While she was not under their jurisdiction as such, she did have to live with them and getting along was good for that continued relationship.

    She stepped lithely out of bed, quickly and more importantly quietly getting dressed. Ember was still asleep in their bed and would be for many more hours still.

    Boreal was awake, overlooking her children, apparently having nothing else to do. Zalia gave her a gentle scratch between the ears as she left the room, hearing another purr join the chorus at the action.

    The freed slaves were settling in well, more than happy to contribute to the town in return for housing and food. The Ancient of Wisdom was already finding good use for the skills of the many Silver rankers, sending the mages and warriors to guard the walls and patrol the nearby area while the craftsmen and merchants were put to work on whatever various tasks needed doing. Their powerful utility would be invaluable within the town which, for the most part, held people of Bronze and Iron rank.

    Zalia had spent a good amount of time thinking about what to do now that the town was running pretty self-sufficiently. While in the early days she had needed to resolve problems between the people and various animals living in the bounds as well as ensuring everyone was properly housed and fed with the support of the Ancient of Wisdom, that wasn¡¯t the case anymore.

    The people living there had settled in, now used to their new life intermixing with animals. Where the Ancient of Wisdom had needed guidance when it was young, it now excelled at its tasks, quickly and efficiently allocating resources and labour where they were needed.

    The idea to go to the Astar lands had partly been a result of this boredom, in addition to the many other valid reasons for the journey. She probably should have chosen something a little less fragile to spend her days doing but what was done, was done.

    For the first time in a very long time, Zalia didn¡¯t have anything to do.

    When she had lived in the north of her old world, each day had been filled with the tasks necessary for survival. When she had come to this world, her time had been taken up figuring out what had happened to her and where she was. Once she had sort of figured that out, her time had been taken up by the demon¡¯s invasion of Endaria. Then had come the administration of Nature¡¯s Reclaim.

    Now, she might have started a war out of boredom.

    That was a bit of an overstatement, yet the idea wasn¡¯t entirely wrong.

    There were definitely advantages they would get from having freed the people they had, however. With their combined knowledge, there was a lot they could learn about the Astar and how they functioned. Something, anything to help in the war that would have come either way.

    She walked out of her home and down into the streets of town, nodding to people as she went. Aylie was out here somewhere, practicing her magic and¡­ delving into the astral or something. Zalia had noticed something different about Aylie after her time as a disembodied soul. Something just a little off.

    The girl could be anywhere though, so Zalia settled for a stroll through town.

    She took an apple from a nearby stand, smiling at the owner setting it up as she went. Food was free for everyone in Nature¡¯s Reclaim, freely available to those who contributed to the town. The occasion in which she would need to remove someone from the town for not pulling their own weight had yet to come and she hoped it never would. It was another point in humanities favour, that they were able to live in this way if given the chance.

    As she walked through town, she equipped her armour, feeling the increased sense of strength and mobility that came with it. She was greatly enjoying the new permanent rituals that could be imbued into its surface and often wore it just for the feeling, even though it probably scared a good few people seeing her semi-transparent form walking around the town.

    The rank-up had been unexpected as it was the first time any of her heirlooms had ranked up without the blessing of a god. She was looking to rank up the other two soon, if she could, hoping that they would advance to Silver rank now that she had been Silver for a while herself. Not that she could really force or train for that rank up like she could with abilities.

    She recognised a few of the freed slaves as she went, a good few of them already awake despite the early hour. It wouldn¡¯t have surprised her if a few of them didn¡¯t need sleep either.

    Most of them had decided to stay in Nature¡¯s Reclaim with her for a few different reasons. Some wanted to repay her for saving them, others yet just liked the look of the town. Not all of them decided to stay, however, having family or friends they wanted to find. Those were the ones that had been taken more recently than the others, the ones who still had a chance of finding friends or family. Some of the older slaves had been with the Astar for more than two hundred years, a mindboggling amount of time. Zalia couldn¡¯t imagine what it was like for them to come back to their home that wasn¡¯t really their home anymore.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Without any sort of destination in mind, Zalia found herself at the building that was both the home of the Ancient of Wisdom and a temple dedicated to Nateysta. Inside she found many crows hopping around doing their various tasks, with the Ancient of Wisdom talking quietly with some type of lizard. She gave them both a respectful nod as she passed, making her way to one of the many altars bordering the room.

    She found herself kneeling and giving prayer at the altar, trying to get in touch with Nateysta, known to her as Ro-ak.

    ¡°Hey bud, I hope you¡¯re doing alright wherever you are. Thanks for sending Lumen to help, it got Aylie and Ember out of the Astar¡¯s grasp, along with many others. I wanted you to be here today for when Faian and others from the capital come to talk about that very thing. I feel that we¡¯ll be planning the future steps in regards to the Astar and know you will have some invaluable insight into the topic.¡±

    It only took a moment before Ro-ak replied.

    ¡°Zalia of the Druids, it is good to hear you¡¯re thoughts again. I¡¯m glad that you got them out. Do not worry, I know of this meeting already, I will be there.¡±

    She smiled, still finding the experience odd. Back in her old world, she hadn¡¯t been a religious person. It was kind of hard not to be in Endaria when the gods replied so¡­ directly.

    Walking out of the temple, she decided that she really needed to find a hobby. Maybe meditation?

    As she pondered, a nearby vine started to wriggle around. It sprouted a branch that grew thicker, spreading out and upwards until the form of her friend, Ro-ak, appeared. It sat still as if it were a plant for just a moment before those infinite beady black eyes blinked. Then the head turned and looked down at her.

    ¡°Hello Zalia.¡±

    She blinked back.

    ¡°When you said you would be here for the meeting, I kind of expected you to show up when the meeting was happening.¡±

    Ro blinked back at her.

    ¡°The meeting is happening, in just a few moments.¡±

    Zalia looked around.

    ¡°The others aren¡¯t even here yet.¡±

    Ro-ak tilted his head.

    ¡°They will be, soon.¡±

    She sighed.

    ¡°Ro, are you getting your time mixed up again? You realise they probably won¡¯t arrive for a few hours, right?¡±

    Ro¡¯s nodded a sort of weird, jerky motion.

    ¡°Yes, soon.¡±

    She gave a louder, more pointed sigh.

    ¡°Alright then, come on back to the house before people start to realise who you are.¡±

    Ro did join her as they quickly walked back home, people starting to recognise Ro before long, his appearance too similar to the various imagery of him around the town.

    He had to shrink in size as she brought him through the normal-sized door to her house, guiding him to a sitting room with a fireplace in it. He settled like he was perching, on the thick, soft leaf litter coating the floor.

    ¡°Ember will wake soon so I¡¯ll be back in a bit, Do you want anything to eat?¡± Zalia asked.

    Ro looked at her curiously.

    ¡°Nevermind, forgot who I was talking to.¡±

    She left and went to their kitchen. It was a small room, both because it didn¡¯t need a pantry, fridge or cooking implements and due to its rare use. She had picked up a few things over the course of her walk and took them out now, using Natural Matter Alteration to prepare everything. There were thin slices of meat that she cooked to crunchy perfection using her heat manipulation, along with slices of different fruits that could be found in the town. She had also grabbed some fresh bread and cheese which she added to the plate.

    Once everything was ready, she went upstairs to their room, creating a table and chair from the floor. She set the plate down, taking off a few bits of the meat and laying it temptingly near Boreal¡¯s children. Using a tiny ritual, she pushed the air around to waft the scent of food towards Ember.

    Boreal¡¯s children awoke first, pouncing on the freshly cooked meat with abandon, their eyes still barely open. Ember woke not long after, blinking her eyes blearily.

    ¡°Hey, good morning.¡±

    ¡°Mmmmghhh,¡± Ember groaned as she stretched.

    Zalia smiled, still waiting.

    ¡°Sleep well?¡±

    The resulting groan of protest against the world told her all she needed to know.

    ¡°Breakfast is ready when you are and you should know that Ro appeared a little early for the meeting.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s here already?¡± The words were muffled by a blanket.

    ¡°Mhm.¡±

    The young cats began to stretch and yawn, Pounce bapping Prance on the head for getting too close.

    It took a few minutes for Ember to gather the energy to get up and Zalia kept the meat and bread warm for her all the while.

    They relaxed together as a family, Aylie coming in with Lumen shortly after Ember had gotten up. It was nice to just be there with them, an experience she had grown used to over the years.

    Their morning was interrupted when a knock came at the door an hour later. When Zalia went to open it, she found Faian, General Ballast and Hildebrandt waiting there.

    Faian spoke up first.

    ¡°Hello Zalia, you better have a good explanation for calling us here.¡±

    Zalia tapped twice on the doorframe with a knuckle.

    ¡°Good morning. Yeah, I do.¡±

 Book 4: 23 - Breaking News

    Zalia stood there as Faian, Hildebrandt and General Ballast all stared at her incredulously.

    They were in the living room of her house, Ro-ak also perched nearby. After a short greeting, Zalia had told them what she had done.

    ¡°You did what?¡± Faian asked.

    She wasn¡¯t usually the type to get nervous when confronted, but she had definitely overstepped the original reason she had given for being near the Astar.

    ¡°Attacked their town and liberated a bunch of people, mostly because they found and captured Ember and Aylie. I do apologise for being the cause of this in the first place but I won¡¯t apologise for doing what I had to do to save them.¡±

    General Ballast looked thoughtful as if considering the implications of the news while Faian paced with obvious anxiety. Hildebrandt remained calm, a stone wall of a woman as always. She did eye Ro-ak every now and then, however.

    ¡°Tell me what you did, exactly, please,¡± Faian said, trying to regain a semblance of sanity.

    Zalia obligingly went through everything that happened in more detail, explaining the mist, how they had found the town, her infiltration of the place and then the capture of Ember and Aylie. She paused there for a moment, the anger at herself for what happened resurfacing again, before explaining what the mist creatures really were and the attack on the town. The fact that they had freed hundreds of slaves while simultaneously destroying a good portion of the town was the nail in the coffin of peace.

    Faian had turned from anxious and angry to concerned and thoughtful now too. What was done was done and they needed to plan for the future.

    ¡°Okay, that will mean war in no uncertain measure. We are just going to have to figure out how to fight a war against them. It¡¯s not going to be like it was with the demons, a close contact, bloody war. I have a feeling that isn¡¯t how the Astar play things.¡±

    Both Ballast and Zalia shook their heads but it was Ro who spoke.

    ¡°They do not. You should expect strike teams of small but extremely powerful foes.¡±

    Ro was still staring into the fire, not looking at any of them as he spoke.

    Zalia looked over at him inquiringly.

    ¡°How do you know that?¡±

    He finally turned to her.

    ¡°I have been in talks with the other Ascendant beings here, the ones who remember times long past. Whether you might believe it or not, this is not the first time that events like these have happened. You will not be the only ones fighting a war here. The Astar have many Ascendants of their own who must be combated by the Ascendants of Endaria.¡±

    Ballast looked up at Ro.

    ¡°The Ascendants of Endaria? I wasn¡¯t aware we had any.¡±

    ¡°You do not. At least, not in the way you might be thinking. The gods of nature who live here are your Ascendants and though they might be mostly unwilling to act against their nature, they will listen to me.¡±

    It was Faian¡¯s turn to gain interest in his words.

    ¡°Why would they do that? Zalia told me that The Starlight Wolf once tried to get them to act and was unable.¡±

    ¡°The Starlight Wolf is a powerful, guiding aspect of nature, it is true, but the others are powerful aspects of nature too. Scour of the desert who destroys all unwary life without judgement. It of Heat and Stone, the bringer of heat who will nourish life but burn the unwary. Esser who rides the winds, ever free and never seen. These are the aspects of nature that live in Endaria and the lands surrounding it. The reason they will listen to me, Faian, is that I am nature.¡±

    Faian nodded slowly, looking like she barely understood but accepting the statement anyway.

    Ballast spoke up as Faian considered.

    ¡°Alright then, we go by what the nature bird says. With the Astar¡¯s powerful spatial magic, I can see why they would favour small but strong strike forces capable of taking out single targets. Get one or two Diamond rankers, send them on a spree across Endaria killing the leaders and important figures and you have yourself a kingdom so unstable that it can¡¯t wage war any longer. It sounds like a terribly effective tactic, how do we counter it?¡±

    A heavy silence encumbered the room.

    ¡°That¡­ that¡¯s a terrible thought. I¡¯m not even sure my anti-teleportation magic is capable of stopping a Diamond rank Astar. I know they have at least one of those, too.¡±

    Faian, who was looking paler by the second, snapped to Zalia.

    ¡°How do you know that?¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°Well, I did free all of those slaves. Many of them have had their aging stopped somehow and worked under the Astar for hundreds of years. One of the older ones said they had been to a bigger Astar city, perhaps their capital, and saw a Diamond rank Astar there. Just the one.¡±

    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Faian put a hand to her forehead.

    ¡°And here I was happy that we finally got the anti-teleportation protection in the capital up and running.¡±

    Hildebrandt put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°Don¡¯t fear, that protection is important. If there really is a Diamond ranker amongst them, I¡¯m not sure there is anything any of us can do, no matter their powerset. Not even me.¡±

    Zalia looked at Ro.

    ¡°Surely you could stop a Diamond ranker?¡±

    His big, leafy head shook in a jerking motion.

    ¡°No, Zalia, I could not. It isn¡¯t that I lack the power, it is the rules of interference that block me. In a fight that their Ascendants take part in, yes, I could do this. However, they won¡¯t be so stupid as to involve an Ascendant unless necessary as they have more strength in the pre-Ascendant ranks than you do. I could take part in the war with the demons as the Thousand-eyed one killed an entire city of your people. This opened up avenues for both my and the Starlight Wolf''s intervention. Here, however, they have only interfered once and I have already reacted to that.¡±

    ¡°Why is it that they can interfere first but you cannot?¡±

    ¡°I can, I just choose not to. It is not wise to give your opponent the freedom to interfere as they wish without repercussion when there are other ways to solve the issue.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°So how did they interfere already? To do what?¡±

    ¡°To find your family in hiding, Zalia.¡±

    Flashes of her family being found by the Astar town went through her mind, the fear and pain at Ember and Aylie being taken. The Astar Ascendants had interfered to do that? She had thought Boreal¡¯s children had given them away somehow.

    ¡°And you were able to react by sending Lumen to solve the issue.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m confused about these rules. Why is Lumen able to act and not you? Why are there rules to your actions in the first place?¡±

    ¡°You already know the answer to this, I believe. Your wisdom is great enough to see this.¡±

    Zalia thought about it, really thought about it, and found she did know.

    ¡°Because if Ascendants could freely destroy and create as they wish, to interfere with the lives of the lower ranked then they would not be able to live their lives. In a war, Ascendants would just destroy the lower ranked and nothing and no one would be left to even fight a war over. That''s why Lumen is able to do what they want, too. Their power isn''t that of other Ascendents anymore and may not be for a long time.¡±

    Ro nodded.

    Faian spoke up, obviously thinking about other things still.

    ¡°This is interesting but there are more important matters to speak of. How do we plan for these supposed Astar strike teams? Other than informing the leaders and influential people to be wary of attacks, what can we do?¡±

    Zalia had already been worrying about such things for a long time, ever since learning that it was possible the Astar were ferrying away the powerful people of the kingdom.

    ¡°I haven¡¯t figured out a good response to it yet. Anti-teleportation, localised and personal types, as well as being aware of the danger both help. I¡¯ve been able to fight off Astar ambushes several times now. These have seemed like the weaker Astar though, not the type that Ro is warning us of. Perhaps civilians or hopefuls attempting to prove their worth?¡±

    She had rarely seen Faian so troubled but being a leader of the council put her firmly in the court of the people the Astar would target.

    ¡°Well, whatever their skill, the issue is in the time frame with which they can get in and get out.¡±

    Ballast tapped his chin thoughtfully.

    ¡°We should have at least one Silver rank member of the Morning¡¯s Shade or army protecting each of the council members at all times, as well as any other particularly important figures. In addition, we need to find a type of magic that each person can use to protect themselves against teleportation. Other than that, there isn¡¯t anything else we can do, is there? It¡¯s not like we can hide in a clump of fear until it all passes us by.¡±

    ¡°I agree on both parts,¡± Faian said.

    Zalia pulled something out of her vault and handed it to Faian. One of her anti-teleportation armbands.

    ¡°These are a one-use protection against being teleported I designed in the Astar lands. I can mass-produce them since they¡¯re pretty easy to grow. Perhaps your enchanters can find a way to design something like this with more traditional materials, maybe even something that can be used more than once?¡±

    Faian took it with thanks, inspecting it closely,

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t understand how it works at all, but I¡¯ll have some people get on it.¡±

    She slipped it onto her arm, then looked up once more.

    ¡°Right, well keep brainstorming on that front as I¡¯d like some more precautions we can take in regards to the strike forces of Astar. We do need to talk about what we¡¯re going to do about potentially striking first and bringing the war to the Astar. We will need to convene the council for this talk, though I would like to have you and Ro there Zalia. You too Hildebrandt.¡±

    Zalia nodded assent.

    ¡°I would also recommend bringing a few of the people I freed from the Astar. Their knowledge will be invaluable. Ember, Aylie and Boreal should come too, they know as much about the Astar as I do.¡±

    Faian and Ballast nodded agreement then turned to Hildebrandt.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, alright. I suppose I can¡¯t avoid getting more involved.¡±

    Zalia looked at each person in turn but it seemed everyone had said their part.

    ¡°Alright, I guess that¡¯s all done then. There are a few of the freed people who don¡¯t want to stay here and are looking for family. Since most of the population moved to the capital I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they were there, if they¡¯re still alive. I¡¯m sure these people would go with you and tell you what they know in payment for help finding their friends and family.¡±

    ¡°Excellent idea.¡±

    Zalia gestured to the door, then tapped Ro on the wing.

    ¡°I want to talk to you in private if you¡¯re happy to stick around for a bit, I¡¯ll be back after showing Faian out.¡±

    Ro dipped his head slightly and Zalia led Ballast, Faian and Hildebrandt to the exit, quickly running upstairs to tell Ember where she was headed before leaving.

    She took Faian to the Ancient of Wisdom who told them which of the freed people wanted to leave. After finding and talking to those people, most of which agreed to Faian¡¯s offer, Zalia showed them to the town exit. Waving farewell to the group, she went back home to find Ro-ak with anger boiling in her veins.

    He still stood where he had been, staring vacantly into the fire.

    ¡°Tell me, Ro, who the fuck is this Ascendant that would interfere to get my family killed.¡±

 Book 4: 24 - Seek Revenge On A God

    Ro turned to her, deep, beady eyes filled with thought.

    ¡°Are you sure you want to know who did this?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    She stood, shoulders squared and anger boiling within. They would have succeeded in their stealth mission if it hadn¡¯t been for the intervention of whichever Ascendant had revealed them.

    ¡°It is the Monarch of the Astar. The Monarch is not Ascendant but is so close to being so that the rules of Ascendancy apply to them. They tread a thin line in their interventions, creating objects of power and giving information to their lessers that one who has properly ascended could not do. At the same time, I am allowed to tell you of them because of their not-quite-transgressions, yet they gain much. They balance these transgressions in¡­ ways that I cannot speak of, yet still end up stronger for doing so.¡±

    ¡°The Monarch of the Astar? Does that mean that they were there that day?¡±

    Ro shook his head.

    ¡°No, they were not. They are the first in a long, long time to approach ascendency, at least from what the others tell me. When a being does this, it begins to form an aspect. For me, it was nature itself. Others you have seen, the stars for the Starlight Wolf for instance. This being has somehow managed to gain the Astar as their aspect. It gives them leeway that others do not get.¡±

    Zalia stared in annoyance. It was kind of hard to get revenge on a near-ascendant being.

    ¡°Great, so the Astar are led by, well, a god basically. Wonderful.¡±

    ¡°It is not great, no.¡±

    ¡°But you will be able to fight them, right?¡±

    Ro paused.

    ¡°Perhaps. It depends on the events leading up to what will be the final fight. The Monarch¡¯s powers are still limited in their form, whereas an Ascended¡¯s is unlimited within the realm of their aspect.¡±

    ¡°Great,¡± Zalia muttered.

    ¡°Do not fear, this is a problem for a later time. For now, you have things to do.¡±\

    She sighed.

    ¡°Yeah, I guess I do.¡±

    Ro¡¯s form dried and shrivelled until disintegrating into a dust that drifted into the fire which burnt brighter for just a moment. Used to the way that Ro abandoned his physical form when leaving, she wasn¡¯t concerned about the process.

    She left the living room and went back upstairs to where her family was still relaxing, comfortable together.

    ¡°Hey,¡± she greeted sullenly.

    Ember immediately caught on to her foul mood.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? What happened?¡±

    She sighed again.

    ¡°Oh, just discovered that an Ascendant was the one that gave us away to the Astar, leading to your capture. Thankfully, that allowed Ro to send Lumen to us which led to your being saved but it still feels¡­ unfair, as stupid as that sounds.¡±

    Ember came over and gave her a hug.

    ¡°Well, at least we know it wasn¡¯t anything we did wrong, per se. Just got unlucky.¡±

    She hugged Ember back.

    ¡°That¡¯s a good way of thinking about it.¡±

    The anger had left her, vanishing along with her sour mood at Ember¡¯s hug, a powerful soothing calm flowing over her. They pulled apart as Aylie spoke up

    ¡°Alright, so what do we do?¡±

    Zalia tapped her leg, thinking. Inside the town bounds of Nature¡¯s Reclaim were safe, excluding the case of a high-rank Astar attacking. There wouldn¡¯t be anything they could do in that case anyway so it wasn¡¯t worth taking into account.

    ¡°Inside the town is as safe as it gets. We stay here when possible. Outside of the town boundary, we go in groups of two or more at all times. Also, wear the anti-teleportation bands at all times. We¡¯re going to be joining the council for a conversation about what happens now, then we¡¯ll decide what we¡¯re going to do. For now, think about whether you all actually want to join in on this war or not. We all remember what last time was like.¡±

    That brought a stillness to everyone except for Boreal¡¯s children. They weren¡¯t entirely unaware of the possible impacts of such a thing anymore though, having experienced true conflict for the first time just recently.

    Ember¡¯s calming aura spread over everyone and they all relaxed once more.

    Boreal looked at her children, concern flashing through the bond Zalia shared with her. She knew exactly what was passing through her friend''s mind, as she¡¯d had the same thoughts when bringing Aylie into the war with the demons. Well, the war had come to them but it had been her choice to keep them all in the kingdom rather than staying in the north or fleeing to the south.

    The young ones though, would have a choice whether they stayed here in safety, even living through the portal in the desert where the distance from the Astar might keep them safer, or came with them to the Astar lands to wage war¡­ if that¡¯s what the council ended up deciding in the end.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Her personal preference would be to get involved, it wouldn¡¯t be fair if she didn¡¯t after possibly starting the damn thing, but not to be a part of the large fights. She would better serve their side of the war by doing other things like infiltration and targeted attacks.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m getting involved,¡± Aylie said, ¡°They decided they had the right to separate my soul from my body, to separate Ember¡¯s soul from her body, to separate thousands of people¡¯s souls from their bodies for hundreds of years! I can¡¯t let that go. This isn¡¯t about taking their land or stealing their riches. This is about survival, pure and simple.¡±

    Zalia nodded slowly, in agreement with her. She would prefer to keep Aylie, to keep all of them out of it. Realistically, that wouldn¡¯t happen.

    Lumen stood by her, obviously in agreement with the one who was blessed with the power of the stars. Lumen¡¯s power.

    ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t stop you. We have to be careful about this though, there are many powers beyond us in this conflict.¡±

    They all gave their agreement to that.

    ¡°Alright, family meeting adjourned! We¡¯ll be setting off to the capital in an hour or two so everyone get ready to go. All of us should be there for this meeting.¡±

    Aylie immediately left the room and Ember gave Zalia a look a gesture. She nodded and went after Aylie, catching her in the entrance to the house.

    ¡°Hey, are you doing alright? We haven¡¯t really had a chance to talk since getting back.¡±

    Aylie searched her eyes for a moment, then looked down at the floor.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m alright. I won¡¯t say it¡¯s been easy. I felt so helpless, so¡­ violated when they separated my soul. It¡¯s unnatural, cruel and downright evil.¡±

    Zalia nodded aa few times, standing with an open body posture.

    ¡°I imagine it was. I was pretty scared for you two for a good while there. Hey, you seem different since then. Did something happen to you while you were separated? Why is it that you could talk to me while Ember couldn¡¯t?¡±

    Aylie was still looking at the ground, chewing on her lower lip.

    ¡°I think it was because of my astral ability. Since part of my soul already lives there, maybe it was more used to the experience? Or¡­ more capable of existing there, perhaps. I don¡¯t think souls are usually meant to be on the astral. They exist somewhere else, the Astar just somehow managed to pull the soul from wherever it usually lives within the body and expel it into the astral.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense I suppose. Was there anything else you noticed while you were there? I can see something about you that lingers, something that Ember or the other freed people don¡¯t have.¡±

    Aylie shrugged.

    ¡°Not that I know of.¡±

    Zalia kept the frown from her face. Aylie was lying to her, she just didn¡¯t know why or what about.

    ¡°Alright, if you need to talk about it though, I¡¯m always here, okay?¡±

    Aylie nodded and Zalia just gave her a single reassuring hug before letting her walk off. She was allowed to have her own secrets, of course, Zalia just wished it didn¡¯t worry her so damn much.

    Ember found her still standing in the door and grabbed onto her arm, leaning into her.

    ¡°She¡¯s alright, I think. Hiding something from us, but alright.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll tell us if it¡¯s important,¡± Ember reassured.

    Zalia nodded faintly, still worried.

    ¡°I know, I just wish that none of this had to happen. I wish the Astar would leave us be, that we could live in peace with them.¡±

    She felt Ember¡¯s agreement through the bond, louder than words spoken.

    ¡°Parenting is hard.¡±

    Ember snorted.

    ¡°Said no one ever,¡± she said sarcastically.

    Zalia poked her in the nose for the sarcasm and stood up straight.

    ¡°Need anything for the trip?¡±

    Ember shook her head.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m sure Boreal will get the young ones ready which means we have an hour or two on our hands.¡±

    Ember smiled.

    ¡°That we do.¡±

    An hour and a half later, they left Nature¡¯s Reclaim with the entire family in tow. Zalia knew the trip would take much longer than it usually did for her, with the slower young ones with them, but still helped speed up the journey using her flight ability.

    Flight - passive

    Tin - Your manoeuvrability is increased and your air resistance is reduced while in flight. This scales based on the rank and level of this passive.

    Iron - Your ability to perceive your surroundings while flying becomes exceptional. You can spot distant details and potential threats with remarkable clarity, allowing you to anticipate and counteract aerial assaults effectively as well as see threats on the ground.

    Bronze - All flight-based abilities are easier and cheaper to maintain. This effect increases based on how many allies you also give flight to.

    Silver - You are an expert in flight and may maintain flight abilities on yourself indefinitely. This is the maximum level of this passive.

    With the Bronze rank effect and Silver rank Wisdom, she was able to maintain the flight on the larger number of people for a much longer time than previous. She still remembered when they had made that journey up to Glemp¡¯s home with just herself, Ember, Aylie and Boreal. It had been a long trip and made all the longer by her inability to maintain flight on them all. Now, however, she was able to maintain it on all nine of them for a few hours at a time. They had to walk for ten to fifteen minute stretches while her mana replenished but it wasn¡¯t so bad.

    The young ones loved flight. Normally super energetic and chaotic as one might expect, the five small cats zipped around and about the more stable group of adults. They zoomed out and about, flying in closer to land on top of Boreal or Ember, though never Zalia, for a moment before jumping off and dashing away again. They managed to keep this up for hours at a time, their movement powered by Zalia¡¯s magic rather than their own bodies.

    Despite that, they quickly ran out of energy as the day passed and stopped to rest. Zalia had seen the small forms of Faian and their group below only a few hours into their trip but didn¡¯t mind getting there earlier than them. She wanted to go see Larel, hoping that the woman would be in the capital. She hadn¡¯t ever properly thanked her for freeing them from the jail years ago, when the kingdom-scale ritual to summon the demons had gone off.

    Zalia still had the piece of paper describing Juniper¡¯s part of that ritual and was starting to understand it the more she delved into teleportation magic. She had hopes that if she got the chance to study more Astar spatial magic, she might even be able to figure out a way to get to and from Cormaine. It was important to Ro that they get back that world someday, perhaps even reuniting the two sister worlds and giving the Bathar their real home back.

    These thoughts made the day-and-a-half journey zip by as they flew and occasionally walked all the way there, with only a single stop to sleep on the way.

    Arriving in the capital, she greeted the two Morning¡¯s Shade members who came up to identify them before flying to the castle at the top, intent on finding Larel.

 Book 4: 25 - Meet and Greet

    It took a while, with directions from the civilian seated to the council as to Larel¡¯s location, to find the woman. She was still a part of the Morning¡¯s Shade which was now an official policing force under the civilian council¡¯s control, the counterpart to the army which the military half of the council led.

    Larel was a Gold rank fist and ice magic fighter. She was one of the only Gold rankers in the organisation, the kingdom, even. With a specialty in ramping damage and quick speed, she was uniquely good at taking down single, slow targets that could take massive amounts of damage. That wasn¡¯t to say she wasn¡¯t dangerous outside of situations like that, any Gold ranker was. It was more to say that Zalia had seen this woman take down a Gold rank elemental by herself while she was only Silver rank and that was not something anyone could do. Zalia doubted even she would be able to do that.

    Being both quick and dangerous, the council often had tasks for her that were on the edges of Endaria. This included taking down high-rank threats that were approaching their borders and protecting the smaller border towns that lived on the edges of their civilisation more than anything else. Zalia sometimes envied her in the work, until she remembered that she could and often did do the same thing.

    She had looked for the woman the last few times that she¡¯d come to the capital and was pleasantly surprised to find her in a tavern, one that belonged to a man she remembered. It was Harrick, the Gold rank chef with a brewer specialisation that Ember had often went to for drinks during the days spent in the war camp that had been east of Nature¡¯s Reclaim. That was now a small town in its own regard, founded by the people who had stayed behind after the army had left to reclaim the capital.

    ¡°Harrick!¡± Ember exclaimed, walking past Zalia and giving the man a hug.

    ¡°Ho! Ember, good to see your face once more. And Zalia! Our saviour and the hero of Endaria. Is that the ever curious and hungry Boreal I see behind you?¡±

    Zalia stepped aside as Boreal padded up and sat politely in front of the man. Her young ones, however, were not so polite. Seeing Ember hug the man, they approached warily. Smelling the delicious aroma that often followed the Gold rank chef, they swarmed him.

    ¡°Oh my, good gods, you¡¯ve multiplied!¡±

    Zalia chuckled as he desperately searched for something to satiate the hunger shining in the young cats¡¯ eyes and turned to search the tavern.

    It was much, much larger than the previous establishment the man had owned which had been a small affair in the war camp. The place held a dozen or so large, round tables each with eight or nine chairs around it. Where the previous tavern he had owned had been mostly empty at the time Zalia had visited, this one was packed. There must have been half the city''s Silver rank population in the room, many sitting in big groups with three or four extra chairs from nearby tables pulled over, while there were some more solitary people amongst the crowds.

    Zalia spotted the twins, a powerful duo who used combined magic that often hit with a power that was a rank above their own and gave them a single acknowledging nod.

    She also spotted various other Morning¡¯s Shade members amongst the people there and realised that in truth, the majority of them were from the organisation.

    Harrick moved around behind the island along one edge of the room that served as his bar and found some dried meat snacks for the young cats and Zalia finally spotted Larel as she came out from a door behind the bar. She quirked her head at the woman, confused as to what she had been doing behind there, until she gave Harrick a hug and a fond kiss.

    They were together, apparently.

    ¡°Larel! Larel!¡± Zalia called over the din of the tavern.

    She turned towards where Zalia called her name and spotted her, waving as she approached, lithely sidestepping the many cats along her path.

    ¡°Zalia! Hey, long time no see.¡±

    Zalia accepted her proffered hug and followed the woman to a nearby table next to the bar that was mercifully empty. Ember and Aylie joined her while Boreal oversaw the young cats'' joint harassment of Harrick.

    ¡°I hope you¡¯re doing well,¡± Ember said in greeting once they were sat down.

    Larel gave a bright smile.

    ¡°I sure am! Life couldn¡¯t be better.¡±

    Zalia found it a little strange but mostly cute that the two Gold rankers, probably the only two in the city, had found each other.

    ¡°And you?¡± Larel asked before turning to Aylie, ¡°and Aylie, right? You¡¯ve grown¡­ a lot.¡±

    Aylie gave an obliging smile and greeting.

    ¡°Oh we¡¯re doing pretty good, all things considered.¡±

    Larel snapped her fingers.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    ¡°Oh! Right, I did hear you lot were going to find the Astar. How did that go?¡±

    Zalia almost winced, watching Aylie to make sure she was okay. The teenager didn¡¯t visibly react.

    Ember spoke up, answering.

    ¡°It went¡­ terribly in some ways, excellent in others. You¡¯ll probably be invited to the meeting when Faian gets back to town. We¡¯ll explain then.¡±

    Larel nodded, some of the cheerful enthusiasm fading for just a second, showing concern.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been out of town a lot this past year Larel, what have you been up to?¡± Zalia asked, changing the subject.

    ¡°Oh! Well, this and that. For the most part I¡¯ve been dealing with stray elementals that hadn¡¯t been destroyed or gone back to sleep after the war. There were quite a few outside our borders that wandered in from time to time, causing trouble. Most recently though, I¡¯ve been investigating that demon you lot killed up north, you know, the strange one?¡±

    Ember nodded and Aylie smiled, memories of her victory that day probably flashing through her mind.

    ¡°Yeah, weirdest thing. I couldn¡¯t figure out how it was killed until Faian told me Aylie had done it with some kind of dream magic. Seems like a strong ability, that one. Anyway, I haven¡¯t found any other demons like it since, so I¡¯m hoping it was a one-of-a-kind mutation maybe? It¡¯s hard to tell, what with most of the demon dens having been hunted to extinction by now.¡±

    Zalia nodded. With the Morning¡¯s Shade and the army regularly destroying discovered demon dens, they were getting less and less common. She figured it wouldn¡¯t be long until the things were gone from Endaria entirely, with only the odd few outside their borders. They wouldn¡¯t survive long out there though, with how dangerous some of the wildlife got. Hell, the bunnies in the north could probably take out a den with how savagely aggressive they were.

    ¡°Sounds fun! You must be travelling nicely along towards Emerald rank doing that kind of thing day in, day out,¡± Zalia replied.

    Larel wagged her hand side to side in a ¡°maybe¡± gesture.

    ¡°Kind of. Quick for the rank, I suppose, but still taking forever. It is going to be a while yet before I catch up to Hildebrandt. Though, with how much time she spends tending her garden and cooking on that barbeque of hers, I think I¡¯ll catch up eventually.¡±

    Harrick chimed in from the bar, where he was trying to remove Prance from his shoulders.

    ¡°Nothing wrong with settling in and taking your time with these things dear.¡±

    Larel rolled her eyes but the smile on her face showed that she took it in stride.

    ¡°Oh you know me, I couldn¡¯t slow down even if I tried. I¡¯m just too quick.¡±

    Zalia laughed as Harrick finally managed to life Prance down only for Rush to appear on his shoulders, stealing the piece of dried meat from the hand he was holding away from Prance.

    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of cats Zalia, how do you deal with it?¡± Larel asked.

    Zalia gestured to Boreal who was looking tired.

    ¡°Seeing Boreal deal with all the things she put me through lends me endless energy.¡±

    Larel and Ember laughed, even Aylie giving a small chuckle.

    ¡°I feel for her,¡± Harrick said.

    Boreal looked at him approvingly and as he managed to get Rush down, she lightly bapped Pounce on the head as she tried to jump up to his shoulders too.

    With some effort, she managed to herd the five teen cats to the table under which they proceeded to play fight. Zalia felt her feet and legs being run into or pounced on with regularity and knew the others were suffering similar fates. Boreal, who was absolutely massive, sat at the table, now taller than any of the sitting people.

    Larel leaned sideways to look down at Boreal¡¯s claws, then back up and to Zalia.

    ¡°You know, when you showed up to the Morning¡¯s Shade a Tin ranker with a kitten, I really didn¡¯t expect you to end up here. I didn¡¯t expect to end up here myself either, to be honest.¡±

    She shrugged.

    ¡°Shit happens, I guess. I never properly thanked you for freeing us from the prison that day Larel, so, thank you.¡±

    It was Larel¡¯s turn to shrug.

    ¡°You would have done the same and as a result, you spent a long time down there in Cormaine. Then you came back and proceeded to give us the means to win the war through Nateysta. I think you¡¯ve repaid my actions many times over.¡±

    Zalia was going to protest but Ember nudged her.

    ¡°She¡¯s right, you know.¡±

    She grumbled a bit, but accepted it.

    ¡°Alright, alright. Still, you took a risk on freeing us and I¡¯m glad you did.¡±

    ¡°So am I,¡± Larel agreed, giving a wide smile.

    They spent the next hour talking companionably while the young cats slowly ran out of energy. Eventually, Zalia and her family left Larel there with fond farewells, though they would probably see each other later that day or the next for the meeting anyway.

    Zalia took them all up to the keep on top of the hill and was given a space where they could all relax and wait until the meeting happened. It would be another four or five hours until the generals and Hildebrandt made it back and they had nothing to do until then.

    They spent the time productively, Zalia showing the others how she made the anti-teleportation armbands. She wanted to have quite a few of them ready and spent the next hours mass-producing them. These would go to the council as it was important that they had some type of protection as soon as possible.

    The hours passed and Faian, Ballast and Hildebrandt arrived at the keep, surprised to find Zalia and her family already there and settled in.

    They came back an hour later to tell her the meeting would be the following day so their family was given rooms to sleep.

    The next day came, Zalia having spent the entire night making armbands for the council. Ready for the meeting and ready to finally do something about the Astar, they left the often disruptive younger cats with an aide and made their way to the council chamber. They had seats on the outskirts and settled in for the long haul, hoping that some of the council members would have good ideas for what, exactly, they were meant to do about this.

 Book 4: 26 - Declaration

    Zalia sat waiting in the council room as murmurs and chatter filled the space. They were waiting for a final civilian member to turn up as they couldn¡¯t be found. She could see that the waiting was making Faian anxious as she probably wanted to get underway as soon as possible.

    The council room seemed a lot more packed than she was expecting, with a lot more people fitting into the space than the twenty-two council members. There were various scribes and attendants whose jobs were to record and hold relevant information or to be sent to obtain needed items. In addition to them, there was the group Zalia sat amongst. This seating contained herself, Ember, Aylie, Hildebrandt, Larel and a dozen or so other people, a large majority of them Bathar. Boreal and Lumen were also nearby, though both too big to sit in the chairs. She knew that Ro would be joining them once the meeting started as well.

    A man came up and said something to Faian, who then gestured to the civilian seated to the council, the counterpart to her own position. They walked over and began whispering back and forth in a quick manner. After a few words, the civilian seated nodded and Faian walked over to one of the people at the edge of the room. A few more words were passed before Faian turned to the room and raised her hands and called for order. After a few seconds, everyone quieted.

    ¡°Welcome everyone and sorry for the delay. Seated Jish and I have decided that we shall start this emergency meeting without the presence of Councilman Tillman. His associate, Hav, will be filling in for him during this meeting, an accommodation previously agreed to under the rulings of council, emergency meeting subsection.¡±

    No one argued against her proclamation as everyone took their places. There were twenty seats divided into two half-circle sections facing each other towards the centre of the room, with a large circular space in the middle with a step-up for speaking members. Behind each set of ten wooden seats was a higher-up stone seat in which Faian and Seated Jish took their places.

    As soon as everyone was in their place, Faian stood up and went to the centre of the council members, stepping up on the raised section.

    ¡°I have called this emergency meeting after receiving some troubling news from a noble amongst our nation. Zalia, whom all of you know as the woman who was integral in saving Endaria, undertook a journey to the Astar lands. There, she found one of their towns amongst a mist in which hundreds of Endarians were held captive, used as slaves. During this infiltration, members of her family were caught, then promptly freed with¡­ due diligence. In this attack on the Astar, many of the other slaves held in that town were freed from their bonds and have been brought back here.¡±

    There was a stunned silence amongst the council members as Faian spoke, not even a whisper to be heard.

    ¡°The information gathered in this mission has brought upon us questions that require answers. Our main point of talk this day is what we must do in retaliation for the hundreds of years the Astar have been secretly taking away our people, the high ranked amongst us, for use as labour. We must also discuss how we plan to defend ourselves from such future incursions.¡±

    This finally caused an outburst of chatter as council members spoke over one another to ask more of Faian. She waited patiently as they spoke, obviously not of a mind to reward their disorderly manner.

    Zalia had expected a disciplined council of members who made their points with order, yet this reminded her more of the type of politics that happened back in her old world.

    The abrupt chaos of voices eventually silenced as Faian waited with hands raised.

    ¡°Please, we must work through this with order. We shall start with the easier decision. What is it that we shall do about their continued abduction of our people? Zalia is here with us today and can answer some questions and even has something that may help in this regard, if you will allow her to speak?¡±

    Zalia jumped, not realising that Faian had been expecting her to talk in front of the council but a vote was cast and they agreed to let her speak. Trying to hide her anxiety, she stood and stepped onto the raised section as Faian took her seat once more.

    ¡°Um, thank you for letting me speak today.¡±

    She looked around at the circle of eyes, swallowing her nervousness.

    ¡°The Astar are powerful wielders of spatial magic. Each member of their race is capable of using this type of magic from my experience, which raises both an issue and an obvious path to a solution. My town of Nature¡¯s Reclaim and the city we stand in both now have anti-teleportation safeguards in place. This is an important protection but one we will need to implement across Endaria. We should also look to providing individuals with this type of protection.¡±

    At this, she took one of the armbands she had been making out of her vault and held it up for everyone to see.

    ¡°This is a temporary solution I have designed for the problem, a one-use armband that a wearer can push a little bit of magic into to activate. It stops an instance of teleportation and gives the wearer some time to react to the Astar. Unfortunately, it isn¡¯t super effective, as the Astar are quick with their magic. I fear if we rely on these they shall find a way around them quickly.¡±

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    As she arrived at the end of her speech, questions began flooding in from the people around her.

    ¡°How many of these armbands can you make each day?¡±

    ¡°Who authorised you to go into the Astar lands?¡±

    ¡°How did you free the people from the Astar town?¡±

    ¡°Who gave you the right to start a war on our behalf?¡±

    At that question, Zalia spun to face the speaker.

    ¡°Start a war? Did you not hear what Faian said? They have been taking the Endarian people for hundreds of years. What do you want to do, sit around and wait for them to take you next? What about Hildebrandt or Larel. I might have been the catalyst in this reaction, but they have been treating your nation as cattle since your nation has been around for anyone knows, and will continue to do so as long as we don¡¯t do something!¡±

    At the words, Zalia realised how strongly she felt about this. She had been pushing the problem to the back of her mind ever since she had found out about it, not wanting to think about the thousands of people taken by the Astar, even people she knew. Matthias had probably been taken by them, Indis may have been taken by them. Maybe, deep down, she had gone to the Astar lands specifically to bring the problem to the nation¡¯s attention, front and centre.

    ¡°Before I left to scout the Astar lands, a group of Astar showed up at my town and tried to take me. Two Astar have already fucking abducted me once. If you want to ignore the problem and sit here, do so, but I¡¯m not being a part of it.¡±

    She left the centre of the chamber and considered leaving the room entirely, before taking her seat at the edges once more.

    The council chamber was in silence once more and Faian took the centre.

    ¡°Now that Zalia has shown you a possible path to a defence against the Astar, and perhaps shown you the seriousness of the matter at hand today, we shall move on to the next question at hand. Before we do so however, I urge you, once this meeting is done, we must find ways to counter the Astar¡¯s use of this powerful spatial magic.¡±

    Zalia started to regret her outburst, just a little, though not because of the impact it had on the council members. She had just been thinking about how little order and control the members had as shown by their constant yelling of questions, yet the nervousness and pressure of the situation had gotten to her quickly.

    Faian kept speaking.

    ¡°Alright, our next point today is to decide whether we should consider this as war and what we should do about the problem. I think we can agree that simply hiding in our cities is not enough.¡±

    What followed was chaotic argument about whether to consider the Astar¡¯s actions worthy of war or not. There were people on both the civilian and military side of the council that argued against considering it war, the years of fighting against the king and the invasion of Endaria still fresh on their minds. Eventually, when arguments began to repeat and no progress was being made, a vote was called. It was close, but it was decided that they were officially at war with the Astar, with eleven for it and nine against. Neither Seated Faian or Seated Jish got votes unless there was a tie.

    Zalia could see that they held power in other ways, however. Faian was running this meeting, being the one who called it, which meant she got to decide on which matters were voted for and when things would move on. Jish was barely involved in the meeting at all however, only adding bits and pieces to the conversation.

    Once this decision was made, they moved on to what would be done.

    Here, Jish started to contribute more and it was decided that teams from the Morning¡¯s Shade would be sent to discover more about the Astar. They now knew where at least one of the Astar towns were and might be able to find more out that way. Faian informed them all that one of the Astar cities was underground, information Zalia had shared with her.

    It was also decided that invasion would wait until they gathered more information. They did agree, however, that attacking some of the Astar cities would be needed eventually. Their options in stopping the Astar actions were to destroy them entirely, a course of action that no one seemed particularly enthusiastic about, or to force the Astar into a treaty by way of overwhelming force. The issue was that they didn¡¯t know if they would be able to do either of those things.

    A recess was finally called after what felt like four or five hours to Zalia. Larel immediately sought her out and started hounding her for answers.

    ¡°When did this all happen?¡± she asked.

    ¡°A few days ago.¡±

    ¡°And-¡±

    Zalia interrupted her with a raised hand.

    ¡°Larel please, if you do want to know what happened, both Hildebrandt and Faian know.¡±

    She saw Faian walking up to them as she said this and turned to greet her.

    ¡°Zalia, I¡¯m sorry about that. I appreciate you standing up to talk anyway.¡±

    She shrugged.

    ¡°Probably should have expected it.¡±

    Faian nodded approvingly.

    ¡°Either way, you¡¯re free to go now. There will be a lot of endless argument now and I¡¯m sure you have better things to do.¡±

    That brought a smile to Zalia¡¯s face. She hadn¡¯t been looking forward to more of the council meeting.

    ¡°Thanks, I appreciate it.¡±

    ¡°No, thank you.¡±

    As Zalia began to walk away with her family, Faian called out.

    ¡°Oh, and please don¡¯t go starting any more wars, would you?¡±

    Zalia laughed.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m quite done causing problems I think.¡±

    At that moment, a bloodied man came to a stumbling stop at the door to the castle, guards chasing after him.

 Book 4: 27 - Towards The Future

    Zalia reacted immediately, focusing Healing Presence on the man. He stood up a bit straighter but seemed uninjured already.

    The guards came running up but Faian raised a hand.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we will take this from here.¡±

    Still alert, Zalia checked the skies and positioned herself close to the rest of her family. Ember stepped forward to check on the man with her diagnosis ability.

    ¡°Who did this to you?¡±

    The man shook as fear passed across his expression.

    ¡°Th- The Astar, they attacked us. Councilman Tillman, he¡¯s¡­ he¡¯s dead.¡±

    Faian stepped forward to grab the man¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Dead? How?¡±

    Zalia wanted to interrupt Faian and allow the man some room but his next words stopped her.

    ¡°A Gold rank. Appeared next to us and¡­ and slaughtered them. I¡­ I ran. I saw the monster and ran. That¡¯s the only reason I survived. Oh gods, I was meant to protect him¡­ oh gods. What can I do against something like that?¡±

    He dropped to his knees, tears streaking his face.

    Zalia could see Ember¡¯s abilities going to work, healing the fresh emotional wound. It would be most effective straight after an event like this, guiding a traumatic memory to a less painful place easier when it wasn¡¯t scarred over by time.

    Faian crouched down next to the man and grabbed his face with her hands, careless of the tears and blood mixing there, and raised his eyes to look at her.

    ¡°You did good, you hear me? You survived and you got this to us. We can help. Tell me, where did this happen?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡­¡±

    His eyes dropped again but Faian tightened her grip.

    ¡°Where soldier!?¡±

    He looked up, the firmness of Faian¡¯s tone and Ember¡¯s emotional healing working towards his next words.

    ¡°Outside the city to the north. We¡­ we were back from helping a town up north. We were so close to safety¡­ so close.¡±

    Faian looked at Zalia with a question in her expression. Zalia nodded.

    She went and found Hildebrandt, bringing her up to speed on what had just happened as quickly as she could. Hildebrandt agreed to come with and after giving Ember a promise that she would be safe, Zalia used the flight ritual on Hildebrandt.

    They soared out of the city on winds summoned by Zalia to make their journey quicker. She should have guessed that something had happened to the councilman when he hadn¡¯t showed for the meeting but Faian hadn¡¯t seemed worried. They had probably learned he had left to help whichever town he had gone to up north and not been concerned about it.

    This was off for the Astar, a change in how they acted. Usually, they kidnapped the people they targeted, intending to use them as slaves. Killing the councilman was different.

    How had that man gotten away?

    The thought came to her as it occurred to her that he had said it had been a Gold rank Astar. The man had somehow escaped from a Gold rank Astar?

    ¡°It might be a trap.¡±

    She sent the thought to Hildebrandt who looked at her and nodded.

    There were only two reasons they wanted that man to get away. It was either a message to the council of Endaria or it was a trap for whoever they sent to investigate.

    Zalia put her armour on and swerved in the air to give Hildebrandt an anti-teleportation bracelet, though she probably wouldn¡¯t need one. It was highly unlikely that anyone would ever get close enough to teleport Hildebrandt, even a Gold ranker.

    They flew high, using Zalia¡¯s incredible eyesight to scout the ground until she saw a patch of deep red just off to their left. She banked in that direction, Hildebrandt following as she noticed. Zalia¡¯s heart beat harder as the dipped from the sky and the details of what they were about to see became clearer.

    She landed amongst what could only be called a massacre.

    It wasn¡¯t the first time she had seen things like this but there were a few key differences here. Where an animal might tear something or someone limb from limb in a rough and violent war, the people here looked like they had been carefully chopped into pieces. Each cut that had severed a limb, head or bisected a torso was made with perfecting precision, a clean, smooth slice.

    ¡°Fuck.¡±

    She looked back at Hildebrandt.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a pretty good assessment.¡±

    They stood in silence for a moment, both still on guard for an attack.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Which one is the councilman?¡± Zalia asked, gaze shifting from one mixed body part to the next.

    Hildebrandt just shook her head, unsure.

    ¡°Should I bury them?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, can you see anything that might give us a hint to where the Astar went?¡±

    It was Zalia¡¯s turn to shake her head.

    ¡°No, I¡¯ve never seen one walk on the ground and even if there were tracks, they would disappear when they teleport away. It¡¯s impossible to track them now.¡±

    ¡°Do your thing then.¡±

    Zalia stored a mental image of the scene, then began roiling the earth using Natural Matter Alteration until the scene had vanished into the earth. Going off a whim, she pulled some stone from the ground and formed it into a gravestone with the words, ¡°Here lies Councilman Tillman and his retinue.¡±

    She didn¡¯t even know any of the other people''s names.

    ¡°There¡¯s nothing else to see here.¡±

    They turned and took flight again, leaving the fresh patch of earth behind.

    When they returned to the capital, Faian was waiting for them. Zalia gave her as many details as she could, even going so far as to send the mental image she had stored when asked. Without more information about the Astar who had done this or any kind of lead towards them, there wasn¡¯t really anything they could do.

    Zalia watched as, with spirits low, the council all reconvened in the chamber to continue their talks with this new event hanging over their heads. She had a feeling that the amount of arguing would be lessened now that the council members had a better idea of the dangers they faced, not only to the nation but to them personally.

    She left, taking up Faian¡¯s offer of freedom from the talks. Without anything else to do until it was over, she found the rest of her family and left the castle grounds at the top of the hill, making their way down into the city proper.

    They wandered for a while, the scene of the massacre weighing heavily on Zalia¡¯s mind.

    The implications of being at war with the Astar weighed on her too, the realisation that they very well might be deep within the kind of death, pain and misery that had come with the last war soon enough. She tried to steel her mind and push past those thoughts, but they always came back around.

    While not worried about herself in the coming conflict, she was worried about her family. It wouldn¡¯t take much for one of the young ones to be killed and it wouldn¡¯t take much more for Aylie or Ember to be killed either. While they were higher rank, they were still vulnerable to something like a Gold rank Astar ambush. They might stand a chance against such an attack altogether as Boreal, Ember and herself were all quite strong Silver rankers, but it would not end up well for them otherwise.

    Eventually, a message came to her mind from one of the telepaths that the council kept. They made their war back up the hill to the castle there and re-entered the grounds to find Faian.

    ¡°Well?¡± Ember asked once they found her.

    ¡°Proceedings were much quicker once they learnt of Councilman Tillman¡¯s fate. The members protesting against the war were a little more compliant once they realised what was at stake. We nailed down some details and have decided that we don¡¯t want to take any other actions for now. We will wait on the Morning¡¯s Shade to bring us more intel.¡±

    Zalia felt restless, ready to act.

    ¡°And us? What are we supposed to do?¡±

    ¡°You? Well, if you are still willing to listen to what I have to say in this regard then please, stay home, keep your town safe and do some research into further protections against the Astar. We¡¯ll contact you if there is a task we need to do that we think only you can do but for now it is best that you don¡¯t cause any more¡­ warnings from the Astar.¡±

    The words made Zalia flinch like she had been struck. The scene flashed through her mind as she realised, yes, it had most likely been her actions that had caused Councilman Tillman¡¯s death.

    She nodded, not having the will to argue against what Faian had said, nor the grounds upon which to form an argument. It had been her actions that had gotten her family in danger and the death of Councilman Tillman was the result of her freeing them. She couldn¡¯t be held responsible for the actions of the Astar but she had been the one to kick that particular nest.

    ¡°I assure you that I won¡¯t be doing anything like that again. I think I¡¯ve learnt to be a little more wary of the Astar after everything that¡¯s happened. I let my anger at what they were doing to the people of Endaria get the better of me but I should have realised that the very people that were treating us like cattle wouldn¡¯t allow the cattle to fight back without responding.¡±

    Faian looked at her, eyes flicking back and forth as she inspected Zalia¡¯s. Then she sighed.

    ¡°It¡¯s not entirely your fault. This was bound to happen sooner or later. Who¡¯s to say we would be more prepared for this fight further down the line than we are now. The Astar might have just picked us off one by one until we weren¡¯t able to fight at all. We are stronger for the number of people you freed, at least. The past is the past, we need to look to the future now.¡±

    ¡°That we do. I¡¯m sorry, Faian, and thank you. I¡¯ll be ready when you need me.¡±

    She received only a nod in response and with a quick ritual, Zalia and her family took to the skies.

    They coasted out of the city and towards home. Concerned at the anger she could feel coming from Ember, Zalia sent a thought.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡±

    Ember looked over at her.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±

    Zalia exhaled deeply into the rushing wind.

    ¡°You forget I can feel what you feel. What is it?¡±

    There was no response for a moment.

    ¡°I just feel like she put the blame for the Astar¡¯s actions solely at your feet. That isn¡¯t fair, considering that they already covered Endaria in demons without provocation. You aren¡¯t to blame for this, the Astar are. It¡¯s their¡­ greed, or xenophobia, that is the cause of this. Whatever reason they have for doing what they do.¡±

    Zalia thought on that and found that while Ember was right, she still could have handled the situation much better. What if she had spent some months working with the council on protections against the Astar instead of rushing off to collect information, only to get some of her family captured and have to start a war to free them? Endaria could be much better prepared, each city protected against the Astar¡¯s particular form of attack. Instead, they would have to play catch-up. Though, they did have years beforehand to prepare for this.

    Still deep in thought, Zalia didn¡¯t respond yet as her mind turned to what came next. It would be a tense few days, weeks or months until the fighting started for real.

    ¡°You¡¯re right, but I¡¯m not blameless. It¡¯s as she said though, what¡¯s done is done. I¡¯m not worried about being blamed, we must find a way to protect Aylie and the little ones. They might not like it, but their safety comes first.¡±

    She caught Ember¡¯s eyes and received a nod. They were in agreement in that.

    As they flew toward Nature¡¯s Reclaim, Zalia heard a voice, Ro¡¯s voice, in her mind.

    ¡°We must talk.¡±

 Book 4: 28 - Exile

    Zalia stood out the front of her house as Ro grew from the plants around, vines drooping from trees and sprouting wings, thick trunk legs pushing out from the earth between. Soon, Ro stood at his full height before her.

    ¡°Alright, what is it? And why weren¡¯t you at the council meeting?¡±

    His voice came to her mind again, no words spoken aloud.

    ¡°I have been contacted by an Astar wishing to meet you.¡±

    Zalia froze, staring.

    ¡°And why the hell would I do that?¡±

    Ro¡¯s form shrank until he fit through the door into her house, stepping past her and finding a nice place before her ever-burning fire to perch. Zalia followed him in.

    ¡°You know of the Astar exiles, I saw the slave you freed inform you of them.¡±

    She sat down heavily on the couch there, mind racing.

    ¡°Yes, but why would they want to speak to me?¡±

    Ro sat for a time, his deep black eyes unreadable.

    ¡°The Astar are not cold, calculating and egotistical by nature, Zalia. It is their society that forms them this way by exiling any who would show emotion, particularly empathy, towards anyone or anything. It is their monarch that makes these rules, pushes them to fight amongst themselves in a scramble for power. It appears a group of those exiles saw what you did in freeing those slaves and wants to meet you, perhaps even work with you.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know Ro, I don¡¯t think I can trust any Astar. It feels wrong.¡±

    Ember came in and sat next to Zalia.

    ¡°Alright, what are you two secretly talking about now. Remember you promised Faian you wouldn¡¯t make any more trouble Zalia.¡±

    Zalia nodded absently, still considering.

    ¡°Apparently, a group of the exile Astar saw what we did and wants to meet me, perhaps work with me¡­ towards what, Ro?¡±

    ¡°They wish to overthrow the monarch and restore the Astar to be a better people. The memories of the Astar are long, their lives near endless. The Astar that spoke to me told of a time when they helped raise the ones around them, long, long ago. I believe he was ancient, perhaps even older than I.¡±

    That surprised Zalia, as surely anyone that was as old as Ro would be Ascendant by now, thus rendering them unable to interfere in the way it appeared they were.

    ¡°How did this Astar find you Nateysta?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°I used a little bit of my power in helping send Luminescence to you and they saw this. They are old enough to know of most of the Ascendants that live here and were intrigued by a new one.¡±

    ¡°How did they see you?¡± Zalia asked, actually interested in how that could be accomplished.

    ¡°There are ways.¡±

    Zalia rolled her eyes and saw Ember doing the same. Bloody Ascendants and their mysteriousness.

    ¡°Ways that you won¡¯t tell us because we aren¡¯t old enough or powerful enough to hear or understand them yet?¡±

    ¡°That is correct.¡±

    She sighed.

    ¡°Alright, fine. We¡¯ll have to think and talk about this. I assume you¡¯ll be going?¡±

    ¡°Correct. You know how to reach me.¡±

    His form withered and crumbled to dust that blew into the fire, burning away. She wondered if that last part was a hint as to how the Astar found him as she did in fact know how to reach him. Perhaps they had done something similar.

    She felt a tentative hope, a possibility of winning against the Astar. If whoever this Astar was actually wanted to help them in their fight, the knowledge Zalia could gain from them would be priceless.

    Of course, she would need to talk to Faian about this as soon as possible. She wasn¡¯t going to run off and cause more problems without at least letting her know about it first.

    As she started thinking about what else she could contribute to their efforts, an idea came to mind.

    ¡°We need to free Hidey,¡± she whispered.

    Ember turned from the fire to her.

    ¡°What? Why?¡±

    Thinking about her actions in retrospect, she couldn¡¯t help but feel she had been going about this wrong.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a spy or some kind of infiltrator. I spend most of my time with plants, not people, and while I might be stealthy, sneaking around a city is an entirely different prospect. Instead, I should have found a way to free Hidey then have him go and work on getting information.¡±

    Ember nodded in agreement

    ¡°Okay, that is true. You do have to remember though, that while things did go wrong, you also managed to do a lot of good. Just think about all those people that live here now, ones that will contribute not only to the war but to the good health and prosperity of your people.¡±

    Zalia grumbled a little, knowing that she was right.

    ¡°What do you think about meeting this Astar?¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Ember frowned, staring back into the fire.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know Zals, it seems dangerous. Would you go to meet them alone?¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Yeah, kind of. Ro would be with me, I¡¯m pretty sure he can interfere since the Astar brought him into it, which gives me a bit of comfort. I also have my armour which will stop them from teleporting me away so¡­ I guess it should be alright? Then again, they could be Gold or even Emerald rank.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m afraid of.¡±

    Zalia sighed.

    ¡°I just realised I¡¯ll have to fly back to the capital to talk to Faian.¡±

    Ember poked her arm.

    ¡°Just get Aylie to bring you both into a dream tonight, silly.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah.¡±

    Ember rolled her eyes and Zalia knew what she wanted to say. Something about forgetting others can help and contribute to the things that needed doing, or some such.

    ¡°Okay, okay, I¡¯ll ask her later. For now though, I want to figure out a way we can free Hidey. I think I¡¯ve got a plan but it might be a little dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t be you if it wasn¡¯t. Come on then, what is it?¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Zalia began, standing to turn and face Ember, ¡°So, Hidey is being controlled by someone who knows his true name, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we think so at least.¡±

    Zalia paced back and forth a little.

    ¡°Well, the way he emphasised what he said, I can¡¯t imagine it was anything else. Anyway, the chances are that whoever controls him is an Astar, since that was who Juniper was working with.¡±

    ¡°I think that¡¯s correct.¡±

    Zalia held up one finger.

    ¡°So we either have to find out his true name so we can counteract those orders, which would probably involve breaking Zayes out of Cormaine.¡±

    She held up a second finger.

    ¡°Or, we take Hidey out of his prison, take him somewhere that the Astar will try to ambush us but lay a trap first, then kill the damn Astar thus freeing Hidey.¡±

    Ember sat up.

    ¡°Zalia, what if the Astar is higher ranked?¡±

    Zalia pointed at her.

    ¡°Good point, but I already thought of that. Hildebrandt. We have to find a way to hide her nearby.¡±

    Ember started to look thoughtful, which was good because it meant she had run out of obvious problems with the plan.

    ¡°Okay, what happens if whoever this Astar is sends someone else to do it? We might kill that Astar but Hidey still won¡¯t be free.¡±

    That one made Zalia pause.

    ¡°Hmm, that¡¯s a little harder. We can¡¯t really control that, can we? We can¡¯t really control if the Astar even makes a play to free him either. Damn.¡±

    Ember sat back.

    ¡°It¡¯s still worth a try though, I guess. Either Hidey is freed from the Astar or we kill one of their underlings.¡±

    Zalia tapped a finger against her leg repetitively, thinking.

    ¡°We have to convince Hidey that we¡¯re moving him and not laying a trap for the Astar though. As far as we know they can hear what he hears.¡±

    ¡°Like you¡¯ll ever be able to lie in a way that he won¡¯t see through.¡±

    Zalia held a finger up, like she was going to protest, then didn¡¯t.

    ¡°Okay, fair. We need someone who is excellent at lying straight to your face¡­¡±

    She trailed off as she thought of someone. By the expression on Ember¡¯s face, she had thought of the same person.

    ¡°Indis.¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know where she is though.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t, but we don¡¯t need to. Fortunately for us, the range at which Aylie can bring someone into a dream when familiar with them is quite far.¡±

    Ember cursed.

    ¡°Damn, are we really going to go to her for help?¡±

    ¡°She owes us.¡±

    ¡°I know but I don¡¯t know that she¡¯ll see it that way.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll just have to see how her removal from office has affected her, then go from there. If she can¡¯t or won¡¯t help, we¡¯ll find someone else.¡±

    Ember nodded her agreement so Zalia moved on.

    ¡°Right, so I¡¯ll talk to Faian about this and the Astar that wants to meet with me tonight, then, if she agrees, I¡¯ll have Aylie reach out to Indis. I guess we¡¯ll have to go find Indis after that.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Ember didn¡¯t look too happy about the thought and Zalia felt the same. There were quite a few strong emotions between them and Indis. It had been a long time since they spoke properly though and things had hopefully settled since.

    ¡°What do we do if things go wrong with Hidey?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Like what?¡±

    ¡°Well, assuming we do get Indis to help and she does successfully lie to Hidey, what if, say, they send a Diamond rank Astar to get him back?¡±

    Zalia thought about it, realising it was a hole in the plan.

    ¡°Hmm, that isn¡¯t really something we can do anything about, right? Unless¡­¡±

    Something occurred to her, perhaps their only way to fix this issue.

    ¡°Ro is able to interfere with the talks with the exiled Astar and he is the only being in Endaria on our side that would be capable of taking down a Diamond rank Astar. What if we find a way to involve the exiled Astar in this, thus involving Ro as well?¡±

    Ember frowned.

    ¡°That¡­ seems convoluted. It could also lead to problems with the exiled Astar if we use them as bait. The Astar who knows Hidey¡¯s true name also might just now show up if they find out about the exiled Astar as well, which might lead to the Astar as a whole finding out that we may be working with them. No, that seems like a bad idea.¡±

    After thinking about it, Zalia came to agree with her. It was just a bit too complicated of a plan, one with too much risk for the reward of freeing Hidey.

    This put a dent in the wheel the plan had been rolling on, which brought Zalia to a stop.

    ¡°Damn.¡±

    How did you solve the problem of simply being too weak?

    ¡°I¡¯ve read Hildebrandt¡¯s abilities and I don¡¯t think the Astar are actually capable of harming her. I¡¯m not sure anything is really capable of harming her, as long as her mind remains firm. Maybe she would be capable of beating something Diamond rank?¡±

    Ember shrugged.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe she could but that would depend entirely on what the Diamond ranker¡¯s abilities are, wouldn¡¯t it? It wouldn¡¯t be the first time we¡¯ve seen beings capable of attacking the mind and soul, Aylie being one of those.¡±

    ¡°Well, you have a good point there. It¡¯s worth the risk though. I think if the Diamond rankers amongst the Astar were want to come wreak havoc in Endaria there wouldn¡¯t be anything we can do to stop them either way. There¡¯s no point planning everything with the expectation that they will, otherwise we would do nothing other than sit here and wait to die.¡±

    ¡°Alright, I can¡¯t argue that. I guess we talk to Faian and see what happens then?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    With their conversation done, their words turned to simpler things like what they were eating for dinner. It was nice, thinking of only the little things, because Zalia knew that it wouldn¡¯t be long before the mind altering stress of war was upon them again.

 Book 4: 29 - To Dream

    When night came, Zalia tried to fall asleep. She had slept just a week and a half ago so getting her body into the space where it would do so again was hard, but Aylie helped. Her control over the dreaming world allowed her to guide Zalia into the dream they had prepared.

    She found herself drifting off and allowed sleep to take her. As soon as she did, her eyes opened to see an endless blank mist stretching into the distance. Shapes began to take form amongst the mist, rocks, hills and grass. She walked forward and into a beautiful rolling landscape of green, glittering stars shining brightly above. Turning around, she found Faian standing there, looking confused.

    The dreams made by Aylie weren¡¯t like other dreams. Normally, they were foggy and odd, with illogical jumps and events. Aylie¡¯s dreams felt like reality, an experience so vivid you questioned whether you were in a dream at all, or if you had only just woken up.

    ¡°Hello Faian.¡±

    Faian¡¯s eyes finally focused on her.

    ¡°Zalia? What¡¯s happening?¡±

    ¡°Aylie has brought you into a dream with me so that I may talk to you.¡±

    Faian looked simultaneously confused and annoyed.

    ¡°Why, may I ask, have you done that?¡±

    Zalia walked around a bit, always pleasantly surprised by the realisticness of Aylie¡¯s dreams. They hadn¡¯t always been this way, she was just so good at it now.

    ¡°Ro has informed me that an Astar exile wants to talk to me and is even interested in working with us against the Astar monarch.¡±

    Faian froze and then immediately began pacing.

    ¡°Damn it Zalia, you really know how to throw a twist in a woman¡¯s day¡­ night. What do I even say to that?¡±

    Then she pointed accusingly at Zalia.

    ¡°You told me you weren¡¯t going to make any more trouble.¡±

    Folding her arms, Zalia stood her ground.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t, Nateysta came to me with this. I can¡¯t exactly tell an Ascendant what to do.¡±

    Faian threw her hands up.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll think about it. I¡¯m not so blind I can¡¯t see the possible advantages of an alliance with a rebellious Astar. There¡¯s a lot we could learn from them. Is that all? I¡¯d rather my sleep be restful.¡±

    Zalia tapped a finger against her arm.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Oh for- what now?¡±

    ¡°We have a plan to free Hidey.¡±

    She outlined the plan for Faian, going over everything she and Ember had gone over but in a quicker, more concise way.

    Faian listened attentively, despite her annoyed expression. Zalia couldn¡¯t help but wonder if she had interrupted a nice dream.

    When she was done, Faian reacted a lot more positively than she expected.

    ¡°The plan sounds good. You can contact Indis, I¡¯d rather know where she is and what she¡¯s up to anyway, but don¡¯t do anything more than that until I¡¯ve had a chance to talk to the council about it. Is that all?¡±

    Zalia nodded and Aylie released Faian from the dream. She faded away slowly, melding into the background until it was like she hadn¡¯t been there in the first place.

    Zalia had to wait a few minutes as Aylie tried to find Indis, the dream shifting and roiling in a terrible, hallucinatory way. She had to close her eyes to stop the motion sickness, yet could still feel the strange feeling of movement through her other senses.

    It eventually stopped, a feeling of intrinsic solidity passing over the dream. She wondered what these feelings were connected to in what was happening within the dream. In reality, was the roiling, shifting feeling the movement of the space through the Astral?

    The thought of reality, which meant something so, so different to her now than it did just five or six years ago, being involved in the dreamscape she stood in made her chuckle quietly to herself.

    The small smile quickly left her face as the faint outline of a person resolved into Lady Leyra Indis.

    She looked around in confusion, opening and closing her hand a few times, twisting it around to inspect it. Then Indis saw Zalia standing there and the confusion in her expression deepened.

    ¡°What a weird dream.¡±

    Indis murmured the words, looking away again and walking over to a tree, running her hand down the rough bark.

    Zalia waited a moment, wondering what Indis would do.

    Indis leaned down and picked a flower, smelling it and frowning again. Zalia had to agree that she found Aylie¡¯s dreams wonderfully realistic.

    Indis finally turned to Zalia again.

    ¡°Why are you here?¡±

    ¡°Aylie has made this dream and brought us both into it so that I can talk to you.¡±

    Looking closer, Zalia was surprised to find that Indis looked a little¡­ rough. The woman usually held herself to high standards and, even when travelling, barely had a fleck of dirt on her, when it could be avoided. Zalia had almost been convinced that she had developed a passive ability that kept herself clean.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Now though, that illusion was broken. While Aylie was able to draw people into dreams, she couldn¡¯t control how they appeared there. This meant that the bags under Indis¡¯ eyes and the drawn out look of exhaustion, mixed with ruffled hair and worn clothes were all real. Indis had definitely been through some shit.

    Though, Zalia supposed it was to be expected when the people Indis had worked towards helping her entire life rejected her.

    A passing look of worry came over Indis¡¯ face at Zalia¡¯s words, though it was quickly masked behind her signature look of superiority, the one Zalia remembered so well from their times together. A little bit of the old Indis was still in there then.

    ¡°And why, exactly, do you want to talk to me?¡±

    Zalia searched her expression, trying to see through the mask she¡¯d put up. Why was it that she always did this?

    ¡°I know we¡¯ve had our differences, but I need your help to free Hidey.¡±

    Indis waited, looking unimpressed.

    With a sigh, Zalia continued.

    ¡°We have a plan to free him, but we need someone who can convincingly lie to his face about something. Obviously, I¡¯ll never be able to do that, but I think you of all people could pull it off.¡±

    Anger broke Indis¡¯ mask.

    ¡°Right, so you¡¯ve brought me here just to insult me. Real grown up of you, Zalia.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°What? No. We need-¡±

    ¡°I heard you the first time. Why should I help Hidey?¡±

    This wasn¡¯t going how Zalia had expected at all.

    ¡°Because he can and will help the people of Endaria, surely that¡¯s something you can appreciate?¡±

    Indis scoffed.

    ¡°The people. The damned people of Endaria. They can go to Cormaine for all I care.¡±

    Zalia almost recoiled at the venom in her words.

    ¡°You don¡¯t mean that, I know you don¡¯t. Look, I understand that you¡¯re hurt about not being voted in Indis, but-¡±

    ¡°Do you!? Do you really!?¡± Indis yelled, continuing quietly, ¡°Do you know what it¡¯s like to be rejected by your own people, the ones you¡¯ve laboured and destroyed yourself for? Do you really understand that, Zalia?¡±

    Zalia was silent, speechless at the tears rolling down Indis¡¯ cheeks.

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t think so.¡±

    In that moment, Zalia realised that Indis knew that she¡¯d been doing things that were¡­ wrong, in the name of her people. She¡¯d known and done them anyway, through some twisted sense of morality that the result of her actions warranted them in the first place.

    Zalia knew what her childhood and early life had been like and thought that, perhaps, Indis just didn¡¯t know how to do things any other way.

    ¡°So will you not help? War has been called against the Astar for their actions and we need every bit of power we can get. Hidey would be invaluable to us right now and while I could find someone else to do this, I would much prefer someone I know would succeed.¡±

    Indis basically snarled at her.

    ¡°I will not help you. The people of Endaria decided that they would be better off without me, so be it.¡±

    At that, the dream began fading. Zalia met Indis¡¯ eyes and held them, searching deep within and finding a terrible loneliness there. As Zalia¡¯s eyes opened to the real world, she didn¡¯t feel anger or disappointment, instead finding herself sad. It was an emotion she was surprised to feel about Indis, yet it was the right one. There was no way to describe Indis¡¯ life up to this point other than tragic.

    Zalia sighed as she got up, stretching to relieve the tension in her muscles. They were step one into their plan and things had already gone very wrong. Without Indis they would have to find someone else to lie to Hidey. Or, perhaps, lying to him wasn¡¯t necessary. Could she find a way to draw out the Astar without tricking them?

    Ro had called them egotistical and had stated that their cold and calculating manner was not natural, but society driven. That meant that those emotions were bottled up and put away. What if¡­ what if she could taunt them into a fight?

    She would have to wait for Faian¡¯s go ahead but it might be possible.

    It would be many hours until the others woke up so Zalia went to Aylie, who would still be awake. She hadn¡¯t yet developed the ability to use her dream powers on others when she was asleep herself, if that was even possible.

    She found Aylie sitting casually, one knee up to her chest, on one of the large trunks that wrapped around their house from the Ancient of Life that grew above.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Zalia called up.

    Aylie looked down and gave a wave.

    Zalia climbed up with ease, her powerful body able to lift weights far greater than her own.

    ¡°I assume you heard everything?¡±

    Aylie nodded.

    ¡°Puts a bit of a hitch in my plan.¡±

    Aylie nodded again.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡±

    Aylie shrugged.

    Zalia brought her into a gentle hug, not saying another word. Sometimes it was better to get someone talking. Other times, though, it was best to let them find their words on their own. Zalia felt this was one of those times.

    They sat there under the stars, wind pulling at their clothes and hair as the heat from the day dissipated into the night.

    More than a few times, Aylie opened her mouth as if to say something, then stopped. Still, Zalia waited. She stared at the sky, drawing lines between stars to create constellations of her own. The sky here held different stars to the ones from her own world and as such the constellations she was used to weren¡¯t here. That saddened her a bit, sometimes. Her world might have been terrible in many ways, yet the stars had always been the same, without care for the small happenings on a planet far away. They had reminded her that while it might seem that the world was ending sometimes, it didn¡¯t really mean anything to the universe as a whole. To some, that was a horrifying thought. To Zalia, it was comforting.

    ¡°I did something that I think might be bad, back with the Astar.¡±

    Zalia snapped out of her reverie, pulling away just enough to look at Aylie.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°When I was out of my body, part of the mist, I was trying to talk to you for so long. Everything felt¡­ fuzzy and thinking was hard. I pushed and pushed and a message appeared saying that I had broken the protective barrier between my body and soul. I could talk to you after that.¡±

    Zalia frowned. This is what she had been hiding? It explained why the dream she had crafted had felt so much more solid.

    ¡°That is strange, for sure, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s something bad. Why do you feel that it is?¡±

    ¡°I- I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve just felt different since it happened. I¡¯m scared.¡±

    Zalia pulled her in close again as Aylie¡¯s voice cracked, hugging her tight and giving her a kiss on the head.

    ¡°We¡¯ll figure it out together, alright? You don¡¯t need to be scared.¡±

    Aylie started to cry. She had grown so tall and so strong that Zalia sometimes forgot that Aylie was still young, a teenager. It was a hard time in life, even without magic.

    ¡°Oh darling, it¡¯ll be alright. We¡¯ll figure it out.¡±

    She held Aylie as the night passed by, each hint of Aylie¡¯s pain and fear breaking her heart. How she wished she could just take that all away.

 Book 4: 30 - Astralbound

    When morning came and the rest of her family awoke, Zalia knew that Aylie would still be in bed and might be for some time. She was a little troubled by what Aylie had said and was starting to worry about its meaning as well. What did it mean that the protective barrier between her body and soul had been broken?

    After thinking about it all night while everyone was asleep and Boreal out doing who knew what, Zalia had become convinced that it did affect the dreamscape Aylie created. It had been so much more real, solid, this time. It had been a long time since Zalia had been in one so she¡¯d assumed it was a result of practice.

    Why Zalia was worried, she could not say for certain.

    The only effects of the change that she had noticed so far were the dream and the other odd something that she had noticed about Aylie a few days back. One of those things was good while the other wasn¡¯t impactful at all, which left no reason to be concerned. The way her body and soul existed in the world had fundamentally changed, for better or worse.

    Everyone was going about their day after a large shared breakfast. Zalia hadn¡¯t told Ember what Aylie had shared with her just yet, she would ask Aylie if it was okay for her to. While she most certainly shared everything with Ember, this secret wasn¡¯t hers.

    Boreal had come back for breakfast, only to take her children and leave afterwards. Had it been a few years ago, Zalia would have been sure she was up to some mischief but her once young feline friend had grown up, becoming more serious and grounded in doing so.

    Lumen was with Aylie, asleep at the foot of her bed. He was much too large to fit on the bed anymore and Zalia had a feeling he wouldn¡¯t fit in the house much longer, knowing how large his previous incarnation had been. That was an issue for later, however, one that probably wouldn¡¯t take much to fix considering the fluid state of their home. It would adjust the height of its rooms and doors to accommodate Lumen.

    With Boreal out, Lumen and Aylie asleep and Ember busy for the day ensuring that the people they had freed from the Astar had been given places to live, food and water, Zalia had to make her own plans. She would have gone with Ember but she wanted to do something for Aylie.

    There were a few things that Zalia had in common with Aylie and that was a love of high up, open spaces and the dislike of people. Not a dislike of the people themselves, they were just more comfortable without others around, free from the sounds, smells and sights of people going about their days. It wasn¡¯t the fault of people, rather a preference on Zalia and Aylie¡¯s behalf. Ember was very different, with a love and care for people that had drawn Zalia to her in the first place. It had been the trip the two of them had taken around the city of Endelbyrn going from farm to town to farm, healing and helping wherever they could that had made Zalia truly like Ember. It was perhaps Zalia¡¯s tendency to help people in need despite her dislike of being around them that had caused Ember to return the feelings.

    That was why Ember was out helping the people they had freed, while Zalia was planning to make a retreat in the town, just for Aylie.

    The Ancient of Life formed a canopy that spanned over and across the centre half of the town, its thick branches and massive trunk supporting the weight of countless leaves that allowed beams of light to shine on the town below. Zalia flew up to the top of the tree, where its trunk finally grew thin. Thin relative to the rest of the tree, at least. There, with two branches as supports, Zalia began her work.

    The Ancient of Life wasn¡¯t like the other two ancients. Wisdom and War were both animals, a crow and a plains cat. You could talk to them and receive answers, both having an active part to play in the day-to-day life of the people and animals that lived in the city. The Ancient of Life instead spoke with the plants that lived in the city.

    If she focussed, Zalia could hear them talking, not in voices but by some form of magic. It wasn¡¯t magic like Zalia had, but a type that all plants shared. She had felt it, even helped create it, but didn¡¯t have control over it like the Ancient of Life did. It made the plants in the city act as one being, working with each other to form a strong ecosystem. It was the Ancient of Life that oversaw this ecosystem, ensuring that the trees lining the main roads of the town bore fruit, that the grass growing between the cobblestones thrived yet did not overtake everything, that the vines climbing the buildings supported the structures rather than slowly break them apart. It was the work of the three ancients together that allowed so much life, plants, animals and people to thrive together rather than slowly destroy each other.

    Up amongst the branches of this tree, Zalia used her mental communication to talk to the tree, telling it of what she needed. She could have just used Healing Presence and Natural Matter Alteration to create what she wanted, but found it better to ask the tree to change of its own accord.

    When it was done creating what she asked for, Zalia spent some time walking about, planting a few choice herbs and making slight alterations. She tried her best to keep it as uncluttered as possible, wanting the space to remain open.

    When she was done, she flew back down to their house below and waited. It had been a few hours yet Aylie was still asleep. They had stayed up talking quite late the night before.

    When Aylie finally awoke, Zalia waited for her to eat breakfast before showing her what she had made.

    They stood in Aylie¡¯s room as Zalia pulled a small ritual from her vault. She had prepared this beforehand, creating the correct ritual on a little wooden plate that could be moved. After placing it in the corner of Aylie¡¯s room, Zalia activated it and gestured for Aylie to step through.

    Zalia followed her through to the platform high above the sounds and smells of the town below. It was a round section of rough but flat bark ten metres across. She had planted the portal at one edge, now linked to Aylie¡¯s bedroom below. In the centre of the space were two seats like trunks with soft leaves forming a comfortable place to sit. There were small trees around the platform, along with railings at the edges. All of it had a pattern of translucent Soulroot planted throughout, forming an active ritual. The ritual wasn¡¯t something that you felt immediately but the longer Zalia stayed in the space, the more she felt¡­ connected.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°What is all this?¡± Aylie asked in a whisper.

    They could see incredibly far from this high up, the lands around them visible far into the distance.

    ¡°I told you that I¡¯d help you work through this soul thing last night and I meant it. I thought I¡¯d make a place for us to do that, just you and me.¡±

    Aylie was staring at the Soulroot like she had started to feel what it was doing.

    Zalia went and sat on one of the stumps, crossed her legs and waited. Aylie sat opposite her, then closed her eyes.

    This would be the hard part.

    Making this place had been easy, a simple and clear way of showing that she meant her words. Figuring out what the change Aylie had gone through meant was another thing entirely and Zalia had no idea where to start.

    Souls were not her specialty and Aylie probably knew a lot more about it than she did. She knew that they didn¡¯t exist on the astral normally, as one of Aylie¡¯s abilities made it so that part of hers existed there. If part of Zalia¡¯s also did, then she would be able to do some of the things Aylie could. So, she supposed Aylie might not know more about it than Zalia did, considering it was the astral, the realm of thought, that Aylie had experience working with.

    So where did the soul normally exist?

    The obvious answer was in the body, as she knew it could be damaged by some abilities or the overuse of mana and passives. Aylie could even heal souls with the once per day use active that her Healing Presence had developed. Whether that was right or not though, she didn¡¯t know.

    ¡°Alright Aylie. I was able to feel that something about you has changed but does it feel different to you?¡±

    Aylie nodded.

    ¡°Okay, describe that feeling for me.¡±

    Aylie hesitated, then started speaking.

    ¡°It¡¯s like¡­ there used to be three parts of me, my body, my mind and my soul. Now it feels like there''s only two, my mind and¡­ my soul and body aren¡¯t two different things anymore.¡±

    She saw Aylie shiver, her eyes still closed.

    ¡°Alright. How about the part of your soul that is still in the astral, can you still feel that?¡±

    Aylie nodded.

    ¡°And you can touch the astral still?¡±

    Aylie nodded again.

    ¡°So it doesn¡¯t stop her abilities from working at least.¡±

    Then Aylie frowned.

    ¡°I can feel it better now though, it¡¯s almost as if I can¡­¡±

    Aylie reached her hand forward and pulled on¡­ something. It was like she grabbed an invisible curtain and pulled it over her body, her body that vanished as she did so.

    Zalia jumped up in alarm, staring at where Aylie had been.

    ¡°Aylie!?¡± she called.

    There was no response.

    She looked around but couldn¡¯t feel or see anything. Then she felt a touch on her mind, like someone had brushed her thoughts with a hand. It was her turn to shiver.

    Used to the action of mental communication through her magic, Zalia tried to open her mind to Aylie¡¯s touch and words flowed in.

    ¡°I¡¯m still here, Zalia.¡±

    The thoughts entering her mind had a sense of panic but also excitement to them. Where previously it had just been Aylie¡¯s soul that had been sent to the astral by the Astar, it was now her entire body that went there.

    ¡°Can you get back?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how!¡±

    This time, the sense of panic was much greater.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll find a way. Hold on, I¡¯ll get Lumen up here, they might be able to help.¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡±

    The thought was wavering, fear obvious.

    Zalia sent a thought down to Lumen who responded immediately, appearing out of the portal moments later.

    ¡°I saw that thought¡­¡±

    ¡°Alright Aylie, can you see Lumen?¡±

    ¡°I can.¡±

    They knew that Lumen had a way of solidifying things on the astral from their time back in the mists and Zalia was hoping that it would help now.

    ¡°Alright Aylie, try to grab onto the same thing you did before. Pull it open and step through.¡±

    There was a moment of nothing before Aylie appeared again, as if she pulled the curtain of the world back and stepped through.

    Aylie stared at her for just a moment before laughing, almost manically.

    ¡°Oh, gods. I was in the astral. Entirely.¡±

    Zalia put a hand to her head, looking up and letting out a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t do that again for the moment.¡±

    Aylie nodded in agreement.

    ¡°I don¡¯t plan to, don¡¯t worry.¡±

    They both sat back down and Zalia found she felt exhausted. Too much emotional turmoil.

    ¡°What was it like?¡± she found herself asking.

    Aylie looked thoughtful.

    ¡°... different, this time. When the Astar separated my body and soul, it was like a piece of me had been ripped away. This time it was like my whole being was finally in the same place for the first time ever.¡±

    Zalia shook her head in amazement.

    ¡°What did you do? How did you do it?¡±

    ¡°A part of me is still there, I just¡­ stepped over to it. Then there was nothing left of me here so I couldn¡¯t step back. Lumen let me feel the barrier though, so I just did the same thing I did the first time and came back. I think¡­ I think I might have been able to do this before, when I gained the ability to touch the astral, I just only figured it out. I think that I¡¯ll be able to do it without Lumen here, with practice. Now that I know what to do.¡±

    Zalia hugged Aylie close.

    ¡°You, are amazing.¡±

 Book 4: 31 - Overconfidence

    Zalia and Aylie had spent a good portion of that day practicing going into and out of the astral, with Lumen there just in case. There might have been some dangers involved in going there, but they hadn¡¯t found any as of yet. Zalia wondered if there was anything that lived there natively, some kind of creature that lived off thoughts, perhaps?

    Either way, she had made Aylie promise not to go back until she had spoken to Ro about it. Hopefully, the Ascendant would have some kind of insight into the place.

    She had also told Ember about what was happening, with Aylie¡¯s permission of course, and other than concerns for Aylie¡¯s safety, Ember was on board with helping her figure out the changes. Leaving it unattended could lead to a dangerous outcome. It was better she understood what she was capable of than accidentally do something that got her hurt or killed.

    Done with practicing for the day, Zalia was looking into setting up a portal to the capital. It would be extremely helpful not only with the things that she was trying to do, but it would also set up a path for trade that was worlds above the current caravans going from city to city.

    First though, she would need to find a way to condense the size of the ritual required for the portal. There just wasn¡¯t enough space in the town for another huge ritual. There must be a way to do it, she knew this because the Astar did.

    Stored in her vault was a memory of the dormant rituals that the Astar created, she focused on it, solidly centering the image in her mind. Without an understanding of the Astar ritual runes, it was hard for her to figure out how they worked though. None of the people freed from the Astar town knew about them either, it had been one of the first things she¡¯d asked them once they¡¯d been on the road back to Endaria. Studying Astar runes just hadn¡¯t been on their list of priorities as a mindless body forced to do labour.

    She gave up on it, after a while, deciding that it just wasn¡¯t going to happen. Not from the memory, at least.

    That night, she realised that she would have to go back to the capital. Again.

    It wasn¡¯t just that she was awaiting the decision of the council on her plans, it was the fact that Hidey was kept there. It made her sad every time she remembered the dark, blank cell that Hidey had been living in for the past years, sealed away in a tiny cube. He deserved better than that, for what he had been through and what he had managed to do for Endaria despite his situation.

    As often happened, thinking about Hidey dragged her mind to the topic of Zayes. It occurred to her that she knew what had imprisoned him in Cormaine. The Astar had done it, she was sure of that. Who else was capable of sending a powerful person to another world, who else was working with the demons that resided there. It was Hidey¡¯s bond with Zayes that had given him sentience and sapience in the first place and it was possible that Zayes death would have removed those things from him. It was her only idea for why the man was still alive.

    It also occurred to her that the very bond that Zayes and Hidey held might be the thing that allowed them to get back to Cormaine when the time came. Aylie had been able to send a portal from Ember to Zalia through their bond after all.

    Already having everything she needed for a trip to the capital, she bid her family farewell and began the flight. She could fly indefinitely and at a much faster pace than she could with the whole family there, meaning the trip would be much shorter. It would still be an annoyingly long time, though.

    Ember had voiced concerns about Zalia leaving the relative safety of the town with its anti-teleportation magic active but out of everyone, she was now the second least likely in Endaria to fall to an Astar ambush, after Hildebrandt of course. Zalia was also insistent that they needed to take a front foot in this, both because it was caused by them and the feeling she had that if they allowed the Astar to have their way, the powerful would be slowly stripped away until Endaria was nothing but people of Bronze rank and below.

    It was for this reason that she flew quickly, pushed by winds that she controlled and made weightless by an easy Zephyr ritual.

    Perhaps an hour out from the capital, an Astar appeared before her with twin swords at the ready.

    Zalia was ready, half expecting something like this to happen, and reacted immediately Her armour already on, she activated Fight or Flight and the speed at which she perceived things slowed down. She could feel where the sword in the Astar¡¯s left hand would strike her and twisted to avoid it, a powerful beat of her wings changing the course of her flight just enough that once the blade had passed her by, she was able to deliver a high-speed armoured boot to the Astar¡¯s face.

    She felt something crunch satisfyingly at the impact, orienting herself as the Astar went flying back. Without hesitation however, the Astar was right next to her again, a sword swinging at her.

    Fight or Flight saved her again as she summoned her own sword just in time to block the Astar, letting their strike slide down the length of her blade held hilt up, point diagonally down and left towards the ground. The parry gave her a burst of speed which she used to bring her sword around in a strike, blade glowing a bright blue, towards the Astar¡¯s neck on the right side.

    The Astar¡¯s second sword came up to deflect her strike but she surprised them by allowing her sword to disappear, a bow replacing it at her side. Instead of her intended strike, she continued the momentum past the Astar¡¯s angled blade to punch it squarely in the face, blood from her previous hit to its face coating her gauntlet.

    The Astar was thrown away from her again but this time arrows flew after them. Unfortunately, her enemy was Gold rank and well trained.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Her first arrow was struck aside and the next dodged due to the Astar teleporting straight up next to her again.

    Taking a gamble, Zalia teleported away from the Astar as it did so, hoping that there would be a cooldown on the ability.

    The gamble paid off as Zalia finally bought herself some space. She began a ritual, combining Zephyr, Water Lily, Flame-root and Manifest into a powerful combination.

    Seeing what she was doing, the Astar floated towards her as fast as it could, which thankfully wasn¡¯t very. It appeared that while the Astar were powerful spacial mages, they weren¡¯t very quick with their flight.

    As the ritual neared completion, the Astar used its aura like a weapon. The force came crashing down on her, ripping Healing Presence aside and striking at her soul. She gasped, barely maintaining the ritual as pain seared through her. The only reason she was able to was her experiences under the clutches of the Astar who had used a demon to torture her.

    The ritual activated, a storm that ripped at the Astar manifesting around her. The Astar continued its attacks on her soul until a second ritual, one made from Soulroot and Dodge-vine, snapped into place. This one protected her from the attacks against her soul.

    There was a momentary pause in the fight as the Astar considered its next action. It continued to deflect her arrows with ease before teleporting to her again. With Fight or Flight gone, Zalia didn¡¯t react in time, her sword appearing in her hand just as a strike hit perfectly between armour plates and took her arm off at the elbow. She let out a pained scream but had to ignore it as she caught the arm, activated Protection of the Wilds and pressed the arm back against the stump. The burst of healing allowed it to knit itself back on, the shield from Protection of the Wilds blocking the two strikes that followed the first.

    The ability was enhanced with Zephyr, further fueling the storm whipping around her that tore at the Astar. It had burns and cuts across its body and wasn¡¯t looking great considering the difference of rank in the fight.

    Things turned in Zalia¡¯s favour even further when the shield broke under the Astar¡¯s onslaught. A bright flash of light struck the Astar, blasting a small hole through its lower abdomen.

    At that moment, Zalia saw shock on the Astar¡¯s face. It obviously hadn¡¯t expected her to put up this much of a fight, let alone injure it substantially.

    Zalia prepared herself for it to attack again but the Astar simply vanished.

    She looked around wildly, expecting it to have gone behind her to attack, yet it wasn¡¯t there. Her heart beat as she spun around again, expecting a surprise attack at any moment. A headache built and she realised that she was running out of mana. She had to drop both other rituals, only able to maintain flight due to it no longer requiring mana.

    Still worried about where the Astar had gone but not planning to stick around for it to come back with more of its kind, she continued her flight towards the capital as quickly as she could. Concern came down the bond between herself and Ember so she sent a comforting wave back, a sign that she was alright. Ember would have felt the pain and stress that she had experienced during the fight.

    She was looking over her shoulder the rest of the flight there, feeling paranoid without someone to watch her back. This was the second time a Gold rank Astar had shown up near the city and she had a feeling that it was a trend that would continue. She would have to get the portals between the cities working sooner rather than later.

    When she arrived at the city, four guards met her in the sky this time. It appeared they had increased their security.

    They allowed her through and she went straight to the keep.

    A guard there showed her to Faian¡¯s room upon arrival and Zalia stepped in, thanking him for his help.

    ¡°Zalia, you¡¯re here again already.¡±

    It was a statement, not a question. Zalia came to the capital very rarely.

    ¡°To grace you with my chaotic presence, of course,¡± Zalia replied somewhat sarcastically, taking a seat.

    Faian tensed and Zalia held her hands up.

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t do anything or start anything. I did get attacked by that Gold rank Astar on the way here though.¡±

    Faian relaxed.

    ¡°Did you¡­?¡±

    ¡°No, didn¡¯t manage to kill it. The Astar kind of ran away.¡±

    Faian arched an eyebrow.

    ¡°You made a Gold rank Astar run away.¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°Their magic is strong, their auras even more so, but if you have a good way to counter both of those things then they are quite weak, physically. Even the ones that are trained with weapons aren¡¯t particularly strong.¡±

    Zalia had to ignore the slight ache in her elbow, well aware that the fight could have gone very, very differently for her. One wrong move would have been death for her, where the Astar had much more room for error.

    ¡°I see. And why are you here so soon, might I ask?¡±

    Zalia rubbed at her elbow.

    ¡°Ah, right. Yeah, Indis has completely refused to help so I have had to make a revision in the plan. I think I¡¯m going to have to annoy the Astar that controls Hidey into fighting me. Kind of um, play with its ego and insult it so much that it has to.¡±

    Faian put her face in her hands, voice muffled through them.

    ¡°Zalia, that is a terrible plan. Not to mention dangerous.¡±

    Zalia tapped the desk between them.

    ¡°It¡¯s not as bad as you might think. From my experience, the Astar are quite sure of their own abilities and have paid for that mistake more than a few times. A group of them attacked me and the large number of Silver rank people I freed and paid horribly for that, the two Astar that captured me played with me instead of just killing me outright, paying for it when Hildebrandt arrived. Now this Gold rank Astar wasn¡¯t able to kill me because I don¡¯t think it expected me to fight back as well as I did. If it had gone all out to start with, it might have actually got me. Instead, it wanted to play with its food and its food kicked it in the mouth. Not that they have mouths.¡±

    Faian looked back up.

    ¡°Alright, I see your point but why do you think this will mean insulting the Astar is going to draw it out?¡±

    Zalia locked eyes with her.

    ¡°Because, if I insult this overconfident asshole, they are going to want me dead more than they already do.¡±

 Book 4: 32 - Transport

    Zalia and Faian stood in the dark room that served as Hidey¡¯s prison. It was surprising to Zalia that Faian had allowed her to come here to mock the Astar in front of him so easily. She was also surprised that Faian had the authority to allow it without first speaking with the council, unless they had already agreed to grant Faian control over this.

    It had taken a little bit of brainstorming before they had decided on the best course of action and Faian had insisted that she be here for it. Hildebrandt had agreed to help when they went outside the city to bait out the holder of Hidey¡¯s true name.

    ¡°Hey Hidey, how are things?¡± Zalia started.

    ¡°A little cramped.¡±

    Zalia snorted in amusement. He still had his sense of humour intact it seemed.

    ¡°I see that. I¡¯ve come with some good news for you. We¡¯ll be able to let you out soon.¡±

    The surprise and hope in his voice was evident.

    ¡°You will? How?¡±

    Faian stepped up.

    ¡°Zalia has found someone who will be able to discern your true name and we shall be transporting you there to be done with this shortly. We will be able to trust that you are with us once that is done.¡±

    Zalia waited, her body relaxed but tense in her mind. This was the single lie that they would need to tell, the single thing that it was important for Hidey to believe and the reason Faian had come. Zalia wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell it without giving everything away but Faian had a little more practice than she did.

    ¡°I see. When will we be leaving for this person, then?¡±

    Faian smiled.

    ¡°We know better than to tell you that.¡±

    Hoping it had worked, Zalia interrupted to begin her part.

    ¡°Though, I did want to talk to you about the Astar a little. I¡¯ve been surprised recently to discover that they are all quite weak. Even those who are trained to fight are barely able to hold their own without their teleportation magic.¡±

    Hidey remained impassive, though Zalia could only tell that the cube-like shade was such by the lack of reaction.

    ¡°Not much is known about the Astar.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps not previously but I¡¯ve been learning and I¡¯m thoroughly unimpressed.¡±

    ¡°You should take care in your words, Zalia.¡±

    Zalia started. The way he emphasised the word was as if he were not only warning her to be careful with her words, but to take care in what she was doing as well.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Hidey, I¡¯m not scared of the Astar.¡±

    ¡°You should, perhaps, reconsider.¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°After everything I¡¯ve been through, both at their hands and those of the demons, I don¡¯t have space in my mind for that. They will feel what I have felt.¡±

    With that, she left.

    Faian came with her and once they reached the surface once more, Zalia turned to her.

    ¡°Was that too much?¡±

    Faian shrugged.

    ¡°It was a little dramatic but if they¡¯re as egotistical as you say, it should anger them a little. I would think they are already angry at you for the destruction you wrought in their town and the people you freed from their grasp.¡±

    Zalia nodded her agreement. She really did suck at being believable.

    ¡°Well, I think he didn¡¯t catch on to your lie at least. Though I¡¯m not the greatest at telling, it sounded like he might have been worried for us.¡±

    ¡°I caught that as well, though whether it be because he caught on to what we were doing and was trying to warn us or because he thinks we are unprepared for an attack, I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Nothing left other than to go ahead with it then, hey?¡±

    Faian nodded.

    ¡°When should we do it?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°Immediately. I don¡¯t want to give them time to break Hidey out before we take this out of the city, if they would do such a thing. Go and get Hildebrandt, I shall organise transport for Hidey.¡±

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Zalia gave an affirmative and ran off through the city towards Hildebrandt¡¯s house. They were near the castle that loomed over the rest of the capital and so Hildebrandt¡¯s house was close. It only took her a few minutes to reach her destination, knocking politely on the door.

    Hildebrandt answered it shortly.

    ¡°Zalia, how are you? Would you like to come in?¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°Don¡¯t have time, we¡¯re starting the transport of Hidey right now. Faian¡¯s idea, not mine. You ready to go?¡±

    Hildebrandt¡¯s armour, shield and large mace appeared.

    ¡°Always.¡±

    They ran down the slight incline to where Hidey was hidden and waited. Faian wasn''t there but a few soldiers joined them after their arrival. Ten minutes later, another group of soldiers came jogging down bringing their numbers from five to twelve. Two of these soldiers were Silver rank with the rest being Bronze.

    Trailing the final group of soldiers was a large covered cart being pulled by an animal Zalia didn¡¯t recognise. It was extremely muscled like a bison but in place of horns it had clumps of earth that floated about its head. Recognising the earth magic for what it was, Zalia also noticed that its steps landed with more weight than they should have, as if each step was a mini earthquake.

    They were sure to be noticed now.

    Faian was walking alongside the cart with another sat in the seat meant for the driver. Strangely, the man directing the bison-like creature wasn¡¯t doing so via whip or reins, but communicated with the creature by manipulating the earth that floated around its head. She watched as he pulled back on the earth very slightly and the animal slowed to a stop.

    Moving from the side of the cart, Faian gestured to the two Silver rank soldiers and Hildebrandt then made her way down into Hidey¡¯s prison. There wasn¡¯t a building attached to the underground room, just a door made from steel surrounded by even more steel. The grounds around them were unoccupied and bound by a fence with only a single gate.

    It was only a moment before the four came back up with Faian gingerly holding the black cube that held Hidey. Zalia hadn¡¯t ever asked where they had gotten the item and realised she probably should have. Something like that could be useful in future if she ever came up against shades or similar enemies. It was more than likely to happen when they went back to Cormaine.

    One of the soldiers opened up the back of the cart for Faian and she stepped up into it, placing the cube on a small pedestal inside. She locked it in with a cage and then jumped back out.

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯re set to go then. I unfortunately don¡¯t think we can bring any more people than this and even then I wouldn¡¯t want to put any more soldiers in danger. This is the least we can bring without it being suspicious. Hildebrandt, you¡¯ll wait within the cart itself as it has some protections against perception of different types.¡±

    Hildebrandt nodded her agreement and hopped inside.

    ¡°I can add some rituals to hide the inside of the cart of my own if you¡¯d like?¡± Zalia suggested.

    Faian agreed so Zalia cast two different rituals, one to protect against normal sight and another to protect against more magical means. They were both quite basic rituals and thus easy to maintain without loss of much mana.

    ¡°Excellent. I¡¯ll have you two at the rear, four on each side and Zalia and you two at the front.¡±

    Faian pointed in turn as she spoke, with the two Silver soldiers at the back. The general sat up next to the driver of the cart, settling in for the long drive.

    Zalia went to her place as told, summoning her armour and bow which floated next to her. It was strange never firing the bow herself anymore as it took a life of its own. Even stranger still was how she didn¡¯t see it as unusual at all. Had it been years ago when she first arrived in Endaria the sight would have caused her to think she was crazy.

    They made their way out of the city and onto the road between the capital and Nature¡¯s Reclaim. Their hope was that they would be attacked between the two cities by whomever knew Hidey¡¯s true name. Zalia just had to hope that the Astar who did know the name hadn¡¯t shared it with many others. She didn¡¯t know the Astar society that well but knew enough to know that it was unlikely one of them would share an advantage like that with the others, especially if they were of high rank themselves.

    So much of the plan relied on luck, in being lucky enough for the Astar to show themself, in being lucky that the Astar hadn¡¯t shared the name, in being lucky enough that Hildebrandt could defeat them.

    Zalia wasn¡¯t concerned on that half, as even a Diamond rank Astar would have a very hard time killing Hildebrandt. She also had a trick that would stop that same Astar from killing any of the rest of them.

    Was the plan reckless? Perhaps. That said, it would be a huge win to start off the war if it worked. A potential kill of a high rank Astar and Hidey freed from his constant servitude. Who knew what information the shade held already.

    Many hours later, they were still trundling along the road as Zalia thought of the Gold rank Astar that had tried to kill her. It was unlikely that the few wounds she had managed to inflict on them had killed them. If it had been a normal person, perhaps, but not a Gold ranker.

    It was even harder to kill anything of Emerald rank. Zalia had only seen Hildebrandt injured once, when she herself had shot her with an arrow that had sunk only the smallest amount into Hildebrandt¡¯s shoulder. That had only happened because Hildebrandt had allowed it, holding back all her passives during the practice. If she hadn¡¯t, Hildebrandt¡¯s retaliation passive would have turned Zalia to dust.

    The body became quite strange the higher rank you became and Zalia had started to notice the changes in herself as well. The body mattered less and less, able to recover from more injury. How could you die when your entire body could regenerate in the matter of seconds?

    The answer, obviously, was damage to the soul that existed within the body. This, it appeared, was how fights were fought at higher ranks. The epitome of this was Ascendants, who had reached a point that bodies no longer mattered, with attacks being inflicted on the soul which was then reflected in the bodies created.

    Hildebrandt was quickly reaching that point of existence, with her abilities being able to affect the soul, whether it be her incredible recovery or her Godly Strike.

    Zalia was hoping that she and her family would be able to reach that point as people became considerably harder to kill. There were only a few more ranks to go for herself, Boreal and Ember, with Aylie quickly catching up and the young ones not far behind that. Zalia expected them to reach Bronze rank soon with Aylie not far to go to Silver. Boreal was also very quickly approaching Gold, ahead of Zalia by a good margin.

    It had reached a point where the increased speed of her ranking up due to gaining magic so late in life had caught up and the slowing of her ranking up due to having three classes instead of two was becoming evident. Ember would also reach Gold before her and perhaps even Aylie would catch up sometime down the line, reaching Emerald before Zalia did.

    She was shaken from her thoughts at Faian¡¯s yelled alarm. Everyone around her burst into movement and she followed suit, looking up to see not one, but three Astar.

 Book 4: 33 - Fight for the Oppressed

    The cart behind Zalia vaporised as Hildebrandt shot up into the sky with a powerful jump. Only one of the Astar vanished from where it hovered, appearing again closer to the ground.

    At the peak of her jump, now at the same height as the Astar, Hildebrandt activated an ability.

    This was an ability Zalia had not yet seen, but had read when shown by Hildebrandt. It was called Defend The Kingdom and as she activated it, a large, golden dome covered Hildebrandt and the Astar, a floor appearing underneath, locking the three inside.

    Zalia had caught a peak at the rank of the two Astar still in the sky and worry filled her at having not one but two Emerald rank Astar to fight. It wasn¡¯t an impossible fight for Hildebrandt, but Zalia was concerned for her all the same.

    The dome was powerful against the Astar in that it was nearly indestructible, even by Hildebrandt¡¯s standards, and blocked anything except allies from entering or leaving its area, lasting for an entire day. Every time something struck the dome it would trigger Backlash, a powerful retribution ability, meaning even attacks that missed Hildebrandt would still cause the Astar to be struck.

    Zalia had to change her focus from the fight above to watch the Astar down with the rest of them. She swore it was the Gold rank Astar that she had fought, healed and ready to fight again. It hadn¡¯t yet been a day since her first fight with the Gold ranker and so Protection of the Wilds wasn¡¯t available yet. Fortunately, she wouldn¡¯t need the ability as she had three other Silver rankers with her.

    Faian called for the Bronze soldiers to retreat and make a formation around the cart and the earth mage that had been driving it began to work building a dome of their own. Metal flowed from the ground, building up and around to form an ever thickening barrier between the Bronze rank soldiers and the fight far above their power. They were there to ensure no Astar would teleport in and steal Hidey while the rest of them fought.

    The Gold rank Astar was waiting, having learnt to be wary of Zalia who now had allies, so she flew up to start the fight herself.

    Arrows flew from her bow as Zalia began a ritual. It was a curse effect that would hold the Gold rank Astar from teleporting. Not about to allow Zalia to cast her rituals without retaliation, the Astar deflected an arrow before appearing next to her, ready to strike.

    Barely a few metres in the air and ready for the attack, Zalia shot backwards as the soldiers below jumped to grab the Astar. They dragged it down from the air with their weight as Zalia¡¯s ritual activated, a slight warping of the air the only apparent sign of it working. The soldiers slammed the Astar into the ground but it got to its feet quickly with lithe movement, dodging out of the way of the soldiers blades.

    The Astar had to ignore Zalia for the moment as it fought the two soldiers, its duel swords flashing in the light as it defended itself. It even managed to deflect Zalia¡¯s arrows all the while.

    Faian stood back from the fight, radiating an aura that made Zalia feel energised and ready for battle. Her mana was recharging faster than the ritual could use it because of this, so she started casting a few more.

    Purple flames covered the Astar, a sizzling sound coming from its skin. It looked straight up at her as she did this and with a small flash of light, both of her rituals were dispelled.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Hildebrandt stood her ground as she waited for the Astar to make the first move. It would be a hard fight, she knew, and one that would take a very long time. She only hoped that it wouldn¡¯t outlast the lifespan of her dome.

    One of the two Astar held a massive two handed sword, while the other wielded two daggers, one coated in a blue light while the other seemed to pull the light of the world into itself. She was wary of the daggers, sure that whatever was creating the effects on them would be nasty to deal with. The greatsword was another matter entirely, something she was better equipped to deal with.

    She hefted her shield towards her enemy, watching as the aura from Stand Your Ground spread towards them, almost as if the air were alight. The effects of her shield and armour would be important in this fight, as she had no doubt that her body would be pummeled and very possibly destroyed at one point or another.

    Defender¡¯s Immutable Shield (Heirloom) - Deeply Bonded Gold rank.

    Tin - This shield cannot be broken by any normal means. In addition, the wielder takes slightly less damage from all sources.

    Iron - Damage mitigated by the shield, whether it be blocked or reduced, instead heals the wielder.

    Bronze - You may ignore all magic effects for five minutes. This ability has a twenty-four hour cooldown.

    Silver - When Backlash is triggered by blocking with this shield, it has further increased effect.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Gold - When you would otherwise die, you are instead healed to a healthy state. This effect is negated only if you die by a weapon impaling you.

    Defender¡¯s Godly Armour (Heirloom) - Deeply Bonded Gold rank.

    Tin - The material of the armour is magically strengthened.

    Iron - When standing your ground, you and the armour take less damage.

    Bronze - The strength of the effects this armour provides scales based on how outnumbered you are in a fight.

    Silver - Your Resilience and Vitality increase based on how damaged the armour is.

    Gold - If the armour is ever damaged beyond use while you are wearing it, your skin becomes like the armour until it is repaired, gaining all abilities and effects it would otherwise provide.

    The Astar with the greatsword moved in first, appearing before her already swinging. The sword impacted her shield but instead of throwing her off balance, she remained unaffected while the Astar was blasted backwards. Backlash triggered twice as always, empowered by Godly strike which attacked the very soul of the Astar. It slammed into the side of the dome and Hildebrandt followed up with Explosive Force, blasting it into the dome wall again as it bounced off.

    The explosion reached the other Astar as well, yet the dagger wielding foe went translucent, the wave passing over it without harm.

    The Astar that had just been slammed into the dome not once but twice, affected by four instances of Backlash, two from hitting her and two from surviving Explosive Force, stood up and rolled their shoulder. If the creature had a mouth, Hildebrandt had no doubt it would be twisted into a grin.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Zalia had to throw herself backwards as the Astar appeared before her, one of the swords missing her by a hair as she fell. She tried to kick at the hand holding the sword to disarm it as she went but was dodged.

    As she landed on her back with a painful impact, the Astar came down with her, twin swords held in preparation to impale her. Zalia rolled out of the way but one of the soldiers was already there, blocking the swords with the heater shield he wielded. He was pushed into a fighting retreat as Zalia got to her feet and the other soldier joined, spear flashing in at opportune times.

    A kick sent the shield wearer flying and the Astar got within the spear soldiers reach with a quick teleport. The soldier tried to ward the Astar off with the haft of the spear but only managed to block one of the swords as the other sheared through his armour and left a gaping slash from shoulder to hip. She stumbled backwards, gasping in pain, while Zalia jumped in to help with her own sword at the ready.

    Zalia activated Fight or Flight, the slowing of time to her perception and increase of speed helping her to match, then outmatch the Astar. For a moment she pushed the Astar into a retreat while Healing Presence healed the wounded soldier behind. The man with the shield was up already, dashing in slow motion to help her.

    Fortunately, Fight of Flight also told Zalia where strikes would hit her. She dodged one blade by twisting her body, stepping back with her right foot. The second blade would have hit her left shoulder had she not parried it, using the burst of speed and power that gave her to swing her own sword in a glowing arc at the Astar¡¯s own shoulder in a counterattack.

    Instead of making contact, her strike was avoided by the use of teleportation. She felt where the sword would hit her, a jab right between her shoulder blades. The feeling disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared and she turned to see the shield wielding soldier had managed to change the direction of his charge and shield bash the Astar in the face.

    Fight or Flight ran out at that moment but Zalia didn¡¯t need it as the Astar went stumbling. Now healed, the spear soldier helped her ally and together they pushed the Astar¡¯s stumble into further desperation, twin blades fending off the soldiers¡¯ strikes with blinding speed.

    Having had her rituals dispelled once already, Zalia instead began casting an anti-teleportation ritual on the area they were fighting in, hoping that the Astar wouldn¡¯t be able to dispel it in that way again if it weren¡¯t a curse on its body.

    Nearby, Faian was sweating as she continued to funnel strength, energy and mana into Zalia and the other two soldiers.

    Her sword now turned to her bow, Zalia realised the Astar was constantly speeding up as they began to block each strike with further ease than the one before. The occasional arrow from her bow joined the chaos as she continued to cast her ritual and the Astar failed to block one of them, catching the arrow in the shoulder instead. The impact knocked its block off balance and the spear soldier managed to impale it through the side of its abdomen.

    Acting quicker than she thought should have been possible for the Astar¡¯s rank, it cut through the haft of the spear with a powerful strike, leaving the tip still buried in its body. The shield wielder tried to continue the momentum of their advantage but the Astar managed to disarm his sword with a quick, twisting parry that sent the blade flying away.

    Without missing a beat, the soldier pulled a belt dagger as the spear wielder pulled out a side sword.

    Zalia¡¯s ritual activated as arrows continued to fly and seeing that Faian was about to run out of mana to give, she cast Nature¡¯s Wrath.

    Vines grabbed the Astar¡¯s legs as five elementals made of stone ripped themselves from the ground. The two soldiers stepped back to take a moment to calm themselves as the elementals began attacking the Astar with pummeling strikes. It couldn¡¯t block them all and was soon stumbling about trying to keep its feet, the vines easily tearing away, as it was struck over and over.

    Unfortunately, the stone elementals were only Bronze rank and couldn¡¯t inflict much damage on the Gold ranker. The rest of Nature¡¯s Wrath under Zalia¡¯s control, however, very much could.

    Fire rained down from the sky, spinning into a whirling tornado filled with flame. She threw spikes of stone into the mix, aiming them so that they would impale the Astar that had disappeared into the whirlwind. The Astar hadn¡¯t teleported from within its eye, she could still barely see it hunkered down in the middle, withstanding the bashing, impaling and scorching she delivered upon it.

    Then she noticed the power building within the Astar¡¯s hands as her attacks continued. With a powerful punch, it hit the ground and everything exploded.

 Book 4: 34 - Mutual Destruction

    Zalia woke up mid flight. She was arcing through the air with a torn body, tears, scrapes and pieces missing from her torso. It healed quickly, the remnants of her armour beginning to repair at a similar rate.

    She landed, rolling a few metres before coming to a stop with a groan. Her bow was still firing arrows from overhead and the ringing in her ears faded as they healed. Healing Presence was similarly healing the others as well. Faian had it best, having been far from the point of impact, while the shield soldier was pretty torn up but okay. The spear wielder had it the worst, having been as close as Zalia but without heirloom armour to protect her. Zalia could feel that her anti-death had triggered on the woman and that her five earth elementals were no more.

    The anti-teleportation ritual was still in effect; she had somehow kept it going through her temporary unconsciousness. That was good, because it meant that as she groggily got to her feet, the Astar was only sprinting towards her, not already at her side stabbing her with its swords.

    Her bow turned into her blade once more as she prepared herself, casting a ritual that would help further protect her. Mana thankfully high because of Faian¡¯s ability, Zalia inspected the Astar for wounds.

    It wasn¡¯t looking great either, with scorch marks, slashes and holes through its body. Even as she watched, however, she could see them healing over. Much slower than her own healing but still quick enough to keep it moving. The Astar was so quick now, reaching her within moments, swords swinging. It must have abilities like Larel; the longer the fight continued the stronger it became.

    She activated Fight or Flight, only just off cooldown, and met its swords with her own.

    They were evenly matched, for the moment, as she stepped to the right around a jab, deflecting with her blade as she did to throw the arm off balance. Her right hand came up and the Astar¡¯s other sword scraped down the remnants of her armour there, hitting the ground to her right. With increased speed and a glowing power within the sword, Zalia swung with her left hand at the Astar¡¯s arm. It had already managed to pull that arm from the deflection, however, and parried her own strike.

    Zalia instead kicked at the Astar¡¯s legs but the Astar intercepted with its shin which was guarded by a strange power she only now just saw. It had a similar power across its body, small places that were unharmed by Nature¡¯s Wrath.

    With her leg kicked aside, she used Mobility to instead push against the air in front of herself and jump directly backwards, coming to a stumbling stop as Fight or Flight ran out.

    Then the spear wielding soldier was there, now with only a side sword, having healed faster because of the anti-death measure. She struck at the Astar¡¯s turned back, managing a slash down the side of its spine. The Astar spun in place, disarming and then stabbing the soldier through the throat. Blood spurted as the soldier went down, gurgling.

    Zalia yelled and struck out with her own sword, managing to impale the Astar through the chest, her blade leaving a wound that glowed with burning light. She could feel Healing Presence healing the soldier on the ground even as she choked and realised that the wound would not kill the woman. Zalia just had to keep the Astar distracted.

    Without Fight or Flight however, she was far outmatched by the still increased speed and strength of the Astar. It was slowed considerably by its wounds, but not enough.

    Zalia avoided having her head chopped off by a thread, managing to push the blade aside just enough to continue living. She received a sword through the gut for her efforts, the Astar¡¯s blade punching through her armour. Attached to Zalia by the blade, the Astar came with her as she teleported next to the soldier with the shield who had recovered enough to rejoin the fight. He had another sword, Faian¡¯s she realised, and grimly set to taking the Astar¡¯s attention off Zalia as her wound recovered.

    Faian joined the fight as well, though she wasn¡¯t nearly as skilled with the sword as the rest of them, her powers mostly resting in the empowerment and leadership of an army.

    The three of them managed to hold the Astar off as the spear-woman got back to her feet, one hand holding her sword and the other her throat. She looked scared, more wary of the Astar than ever.

    There was a moment''s pause in the battle as they surrounded the Astar. Zalia¡¯s anti-teleportation was still active, its effects only applied to teleportation that wasn¡¯t her own, and so the Astar could not escape. It could have flown up, yet it looked confident.

    Zalia struck but had her sword deflected. The other three took the moment to attack as the Astar was distracted but it bent backwards under the spear-woman¡¯s swing, twisting as it did to avoid the shieldman¡¯s jab and stabbed its other sword through Faian¡¯s leg, receiving a dagger slammed through the chest for the stab.

    That turned out to be a bad trade for it as Faian¡¯s leg quickly healed, though the dagger was left behind in its chest as Faian stumbled back.

    Zalia continued the attack but found everything she did blocked or dodged. They continued until the shieldman had his sword arm severed. He gained Zalia¡¯s respect as he continued to fight without the arm, moving forward with shield raised to present a threat to the Astar. Zalia managed to get a slash down the Astar¡¯s leg in return with the Astar now having more than a few glowing wounds that refused to heal.

    Most of the damage done by Nature¡¯s Wrath was healed by now, however, though it seemed as if the Astar¡¯s healing had slowed significantly.

    Faian backed off, without a weapon, to retrieve the charred top of the spearwoman¡¯s spear. In that time however, the Astar managed to disarm the spearwoman once more. This time, it took off her head.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Zalia growled with frustration as the woman died but continued her attacks. She pushed for any advantage, struggling to get any hit in that she could. The Astar¡¯s confidence had grown at the kill and it now pushed hard, mostly ignoring the shieldman. It had one of its swords knocked out of its hands for the mistake but the shieldman received a whipping backhand that knocked him out.

    With the Astar¡¯s sole attention now on her, Zalia struggled to hold her ground. She only had to worry about the one sword now, however, so had a slightly easier time of things.

    Still, she retreated step by step, reaching the edge of the anti-teleportation ritual. Gritting her teeth, she held her ground and something clicked, a notification appearing and instantly vanishing in front of her. She didn¡¯t need to read what it said though, as her bow appeared next to her. With sword still in hand, she knew that the heirloom must have ranked up as she had both forms active at once. Steeling herself, she pushed back into the fight.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    Hildebrandt had to ignore the continuing fight she knew was going on outside of the dome even as she felt an explosion so large that it reached her despite being inside the dome. The two Astar before her were too skilled to allow her mind to be distracted.

    The greatsword wielder struck at her again but twisted the blade so it missed when she presented her shield towards it. The Astar had been learning to only strike her when it would hit anything other than her shield and her armour now had dents in its surface that represented that.

    She had avoided being struck by the daggers so far but had to give a good portion of her attention towards that Astar to avoid it, allowing the greatsword wielder to get in hit after hit, each denting her armour further.

    It was obvious what their play was in this fight. Keep her locked down with the threat of a dagger in the back while the greatsword wielder smashed her armour apart. Once that was done, they would have an easier time killing her. They couldn¡¯t have known that when her armour was destroyed, her skin took on its properties.

    She swung three times in quick succession, each strike throwing a bolt of energy that slammed into the greatsword wielder. The Astar arced with pain as her strikes inflicted damage on its soul, something not so easily healed as the body.

    The Astar wielding two daggers appeared behind her but she was ready for it, they had already tried something similar a few times. A quick step of her foot and a twist of her upper torso allowed her to bring the shield up to block the dagger that was going for her spine, angled in such a way that it would slip between helmet and breastplate.

    The triggered Backlash threw her attacker across the dome but as before, the Astar became translucent, slowing to a stop before reaching the wall.

    Hildebrandt growled in frustration, uncertain on how to deal with the duo. Her attacks hurt them, that much was obvious, but they could also wait her out as their recovery was enough to counteract the damage dealt by her aura and Backlash triggers. If things continued in this manner, she would lose the fight¡­ eventually.

    She hefted her mace, considering doing something stupid.

    Mutual Destruction, Warrior¡¯s Mace (Heirloom) - Deeply Bonded Emerald Rank.

    Tin - This mace hits with extra force.

    Iron - Godly Strike (Previously Strike) is empowered when used through this mace.

    Bronze - The damage this mace inflicts through physical attacks and Godly Strike (Previously Strike) is increased based on how injured you are.

    Silver - The Bronze effect of this mace is now also increased based on how damaged Defender¡¯s Godly Armour is.

    Gold - Mutual Destruction. You may temporarily lose all bonuses to Vitality, Resilience and recovery related to Health and Mana from all sources. Each bonus lost in this way provides an equal boost to both Dexterity and Strength. When this effect runs out, you lose all bonuses gained by the effect but do not regain your bonuses to Vitality, Resilience and recovery related to Health and Mana until seven days have passed.

    Emerald - The Gold rank effect of this weapon now also increases all damage dealt by you by an amount proportional to bonuses lost in its use.

    Yeah, she was going to do something stupid.

    She activated the Gold rank effect of her mace and felt all the stacked bonuses to her defences from armour, shield and numerous abilities and passives fade away. Strength flooded her body, her body which now reacted so quickly that her mind could not keep up.

    The two Astar noticed something was wrong immediately. The burning aura flooding from her suddenly intensified, its damage multiplying to many times over what it had just been. The Astars¡¯ skin began to melt off, though their natural recovery dealt with most of the damage.

    Unfortunately for them, the aura was more of an ability for weaker foes.

    She triggered Explosive Force on the greatsword wielding Astar and a deafening explosion filled the dome entirely. Hildebrandt remained in place thanks to Stand Your Ground but the Astar became a bloodstain on the wall.

    The dagger wielding Astar stabbed her in the back, having become translucent during her attack. She felt a coursing pain ink its way through her body but the backlash that hit the Astar was well worth it. It caused the Astar¡¯s body to explode in a gory mess leaving nothing but the stumps of two legs there.

    Their bodies being destroyed didn¡¯t mean they were dead, however.

    As the first Astar began to grow back from the bloodstain on the wall, the second began growing back from the stumps that remained of it. Hildebrandt didn¡¯t give it a chance.

    Her body burned with a fiery pain as she slammed her mace into the soul of the Astar that remained there, hit after hit, each empowered by Godly Strike. She could see the panic in the soul of the Astar as her empowered attacks burnt away its soul, piece by piece.

    The other Astar finally managed to free itself and came after her swinging. The strike landed, cutting her from shoulder to hip, all the way through.

    She ignored the wound as that Astar blew up as well. Her body just managed to hold itself together as she pounded on the soul of the second Astar over and over and over.

    With a final impact, the Astar¡¯s soul dissipated. The heirlooms belonging to the Astar dropped to the ground, two daggers and an amulet.

    She turned to the other Astar with a wicked grin wracked with pain. There was nothing to stop her relentless assault as she attacked the soul of the second Astar, each strike filled with power. She didn¡¯t know how long it had been when that soul died too.

    The grin never left her face, even as darkness pulled over her vision as the effects of the ability ran out. As she lost consciousness, the last sensation she felt was that of falling through the sky.

 Book 4: 35 - Hidden Pain

    Zalia blocked the sword swinging towards her body in a two-handed grip with her own, bracer held to blade for extra support. Even with that, she was knocked stumbling by the two-handed strike from the Gold rank Astar.

    As she stumbled however, her bow shot an arrow that hit the Astar in the shoulder, punching it back as well.

    Righting herself, Zalia prepared for another round with her opponent yet they both paused as the giant dome in the sky behind and above them vanished. Zalia¡¯s heart beat wildly, worry and fear flashing through her mind. Why had the dome disappeared? Was Hildebrandt dead? Had she lost to the Astar?

    She risked a look up and over her shoulder as her bow shot at the Astar again but all she saw was a single humanoid body falling from the sky. It could have been anyone with the brief glance she allowed herself.

    The Astar was obviously expecting its allies to come finish her and the others off as it waited lazily with sword idly blocking the arrows from her bow. Seeing the Silver rank soldier that fought with her sneaking up behind the Astar, Zalia engaged again.

    She struck, a solid overhead strike angled from the Astar¡¯s right shoulder to left hip. Her opponent hovered backwards gracefully, deflecting her strike for good measure. That gave her bow the good opportunity to shoot the Astar in the leg.

    That made the usually expressionless Astar¡¯s face, its face that had no mouth or nose, twist in an expression of¡­ annoyance?

    She was tired, exhausted from the long fight even though her body was in perfect condition, constantly healed by her ability.

    An impact sounded from behind, a body hitting the floor. Zalia ignored it, continuing her attack. She tried for a one-handed jab towards the Astar, knowing it would be blocked or dodged again. As the Astar moved to do exactly that, she dropped the sword and jumped at it. The Astar deflected the arrow that came from her bow, ready for it this time, but didn¡¯t manage to avoid her as she grabbed onto it and punched it in the face repeatedly. With one hand holding its sword arm and the other punching, she couldn¡¯t avoid the Astar¡¯s other arm that shoved at her.

    She stumbled back but managed to keep hold of the sword arm which she used as leverage to pull on the Astar as she kicked it in the chest.

    At the same time she did that, a sword came through at the very point she kicked, impaling her foot to the Astar¡¯s chest.

    She groaned in pain as she stumbled and then fell backwards without support and unable to bring her foot down to catch her, dragging the Astar with her.

    Zalia could see the surprise on the soldiers face as he realised what had happened but she let go of the Astar¡¯s sword arm to summon her own and throw it to the soldier. He caught her sword as she grabbed onto the Astar again, managing to free her foot and hold it for just a moment.

    The soldier stepped forward and jammed her sword through the struggling Astar again. Her bow shot it too, leaving yet another glowing wound in its body. She continued to hold the struggling enemy as her bow and the soldier shot and stabbed the weakening Astar over and over. Eventually, the struggles stopped.

    Zalia lay on the floor, utterly exhausted, as her final wounds healed. The soldier had accidentally stabbed her a few times and the burns left by her sword were painful and took much, much longer to heal. It brought her a kind of understanding, a realisation of what her sword and bow were doing to her enemies. That wasn¡¯t an understanding she ever thought she would have and it was one she definitely didn¡¯t need.

    She got up after a few minutes, realising that she needed to go check out the body that had fallen from the sky.

    It was Hildebrandt, laying unconscious on the ground with a large, two-handed sword next to her. Her own Heirlooms were nowhere to be seen and neither were the two Emerald rank Astar. Zalia checked her pulse and found her very much still alive. She wasn¡¯t even wounded, at least not on the outside.

    Searching around for a bit she also found two daggers and an amulet, all three items heirlooms along with the greatsword. She stored those away in her vault, planning to give them back to Hildebrandt when she came to.

    Except, she never did.

    Zalia waited next to the woman for nearly an hour while the soldiers mourned the woman who had died killing the Gold rank Astar. Still, Hildebrandt did not wake.

    Healing Presence was flowing through the woman but Zalia¡¯s magic didn¡¯t heal the soul like Aylie¡¯s could. She had a feeling that was what Hildebrandt needed right now.

    Faian came over to check on Hildebrandt, obviously as concerned as Zalia was. Not only was she Endaria¡¯s only Emerald ranker, she was also a good friend.

    ¡°Why won¡¯t she wake?¡±

    Zalia looked up.

    ¡°Damage to her soul, I think. I don¡¯t know what she did up there to kill both Astar like that but whatever it was has drained her. I think they must have attacked her with some kind of soul destroying attacks as well.¡±

    Zalia had received damage to her own soul before, through overuse of passives mostly, and it had never done something like this to her. Whatever had happened up there must have been truly damaging in a way that what she had experienced wasn¡¯t. That didn¡¯t surprise her considering the speed with which Hildebrandt had taken out not one but two Emerald rank beings. It wasn¡¯t an easy feat, despite her rank.

    Faian nodded, accepting Zalia¡¯s words.

    ¡°Alright, bring her to the remains of the cart, we need to get moving.¡±

    With that, Faian walked off to organise the rest of the soldiers. The Bronze rank soldiers that had been with the cart protected by a stone dome were all unharmed as no one had tried to sneak into the cart to steal Hidey while the rest of them fought. That was fortunate, as a single extra Gold rank Astar would have killed them all with ease.

    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    All things considered, this had been a great victory for them. Two Emerald rank and one Gold rank Astar dead in a single fight. It would increase their chances greatly in the war, assuming there were a limited number of Emerald rank Astar.

    Zalia was a little confused as to why these Astar hadn¡¯t been out and about, destroying towns and killing people. The power of these few they had just killed would have been enough to cripple their entire population, perhaps even end the Endarian¡¯s as a race. Most towns would be wiped off the map in minutes by beings such as these.

    She tried to pick up Hildebrandt to bring her to the cart, but failed. With a frown, she put her armour on for the extra strength it provided and lifted again. She managed to lift the woman just a bit before dropping her to the ground again.

    Damn she was heavy.

    After another failed attempt, she had to call over the other Silver rank soldier to help her. As he leant down to pick up Hildebrandt¡¯s legs while Zalia lifted her by the shoulders, she caught his eyes.

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    He shrugged, exhaling sharply with the effort of lifting Hildebrandt.

    ¡°Only following orders.¡±

    ¡°It takes a lot more than following orders to go up against something of higher rank like you did today.¡±

    He paused, then replied.

    ¡°For my son. We lost his mother in the invasion and now I fight so that he can have a future free from fear. I know it might be selfish, endangering myself like I do, but someone has to fight this battle. I know my mother will look after him if I die.¡±

    Zalia found herself nodding, strangely understanding.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got a daughter, of a kind. Saved her from the demons after her whole family was killed. I sometimes wish she didn¡¯t get involved in all this but she has her own to pay the Astar back for.¡±

    ¡°Pay them back for? For what?¡±

    It was Zalia¡¯s turn to pause.

    ¡°I guess it¡¯s not widely known yet. The Astar are the ones who brought the demons to Endaria. They¡¯ve been treating us as cattle, culling the population and providing challenge so that we¡¯ll¡­¡±

    It struck Zalia suddenly, the explanation to her earlier question. Of course the Astar weren¡¯t going about destroying towns, they weren¡¯t trying to wipe them out. They were cultivating Endaria to grow stronger so that they might use them as slaves. What better way to wipe out the weak amongst their number than send the demons. The average rank of Endaria was significantly higher now than it had been, though their numbers were reduced. They probably didn¡¯t see this as a war at all, more like a herd trying to escape its pen.

    ¡°So that we¡¯ll what?¡± the soldier asked.

    ¡°So that we¡¯ll grow in rank.¡±

    He frowned.

    ¡°What would they want to do that for.¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure the council will make an announcement about it all when they¡¯re ready.¡±

    They finally got Hildebrandt to the cart and managed to get her onto it. The little pedestal that held Hidey was still intact.

    ¡°Can you let me out of here now?¡± he asked.

    Zalia rolled her eyes.

    ¡°You know we can¡¯t do that yet, we have to make sure one of these Astar were the ones with your true name.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± she asked the soldier.

    ¡°Heston. You¡¯re Zalia right? I remember seeing you fight on the battlefield before the capital, in the air.¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Yeah, I remember that battle. Those were some terrible days.¡±

    Heston nodded his agreement to that.

    ¡°Aye, that they were.¡±

    He moved off to report to Faian and Zalia turned back to the Hidey cube.

    ¡°Though I would love to be able to let you out right now, if I could.¡±

    She received the mental version of a huff of annoyance from the cube.

    ¡°And how are you going to make sure that was the one who knew my true name? It was the one with the daggers, by the way.¡±

    Zalia paused for a moment, realising it was a good point.

    ¡°Well, there were things you haven¡¯t been able to tell me. What was Zayes¡¯ last mission before retirement, the one that ended with him being imprisoned in Cormaine?¡±

    There was silence and for a moment Zalia feared that they hadn¡¯t caught the real holder of Hidey¡¯s true name.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like thinking of that time. I will, though, just to prove this to you.¡±

    Silence again. Zalia waited patiently, understanding it must be hard for him.

    ¡°It was my fault, in a way, that he was captured. That Astar with the daggers, it caught me a few months before Zayes was meant to retire from the Morning¡¯s Shade and leave it to the administration of the others. It tortured me, in ways that I cannot describe to you but understand that there are things that can be done to a soul that should not be. It was in this way that it found my true name and in this way that it made me betray Zayes. I led him into a trap through pretence that I had something important to show him. He trusted me implicitly, you see, because of the nature of our bond. He didn¡¯t know that I had been captured, however. He didn¡¯t know I was being used.¡±

    Zalia could feel the pain in his voice, the obvious frustration at being unable to act to save his friend.

    ¡°I see. I believe you Hidey, but it isn¡¯t up to me to free you unfortunately. Faian and the council will have to decide that. It¡¯s them you¡¯ll have to convince. I¡¯ll speak for your side in that meeting when it comes.¡±

    Hidey didn¡¯t reply and she understood his continued frustration with his situation. He couldn¡¯t be free still, despite his mind being freed from the Astar. They had to make sure and Zalia wasn¡¯t going to act rashly in freeing him. She had done enough damage in the recent past with her rushed decisions already.

    With Hildebrandt on the cart and the soldiers organised, they started towards the capital. Zalia stopped them straight away, however.

    ¡°Wait, Faian, we should go to Nature¡¯s Reclaim.¡±

    Faian turned to her, confused.

    ¡°What, why?¡±

    ¡°Because, my daughter can help heal Hildebrandt. She is the only person I know of who can provide healing for the soul.¡±

    Faian considered, then agreed. They were halfway between the two cities but she realised it was more important to have their Emerald ranker up and about than anything else at that moment.

    With the decision made, they continued on their journey to Nature¡¯s Reclaim. Home.

 Book 4: 36 - Delayed

    Zalia ran in front of the cart as they arrived at the gates to Nature¡¯s Reclaim. On the wall above stood four of the new Silver rankers in the city while the gate proper remained closed. Seeing it was her, a man above called down the other side and after a moment, they swung open.

    She couldn¡¯t help but notice that the gate had a change made to them, swirls of a runic language she didn¡¯t understand marked into the timber that glowed a very dim white. Was it another change that came as a result of freeing people from the Astar?

    As they entered, a crow landed on a nearby post, staring at them with a cocked head. Zalia turned to Faian.

    ¡°Plan on staying for a day or two?¡±

    The woman hesitated, then looked at her exhausted soldiers.

    ¡°One night, then we¡¯ll be off to the capital. I¡¯ll need to talk to Hidey and inform the council on what happened.¡±

    Zalia nodded, then walked up to the crow waiting for her.

    ¡°Find temporary housing for these soldiers, preferably together and near my own home. I¡¯ll have Hildebrandt and Faian as my guests personally.¡±

    She paused, then added.

    ¡°And Heston.¡±

    As she spoke, she sent images of each person mentioned to the crow. It flapped off with a single affirmative caw.

    Some of the soldiers whispered amongst themselves, likely questioning why she was talking to a crow. A minute later, those whispers had stopped as the group was led away by a waist-high, round, four-legged creature with a long snout.

    Zalia led Heston and Faian, who drove the cart with Hildebrandt on it, to her own home.

    When they arrived, a little fenced off area with a covered barn section grew out of the grass nearby. The grass grew longer and thicker as well. Zalia helped Faian unhitch the animal that pulled the cart, two wheel stops growing to hold the cart in place, and directed it into the fenced off area where it feasted upon the luscious grass.

    All three of them struggled to get Hildebrandt inside and into a new room that the house had changed to create. It was small with only a single bed surrounded by a couple seats. The space reminded Zalia of a hospital room, though it was missing all the machinery that such a room would usually hold.

    She also showed Faian and Heston the two rooms that had appeared adjacent to Hildebrandt¡¯s before wandering away to find the rest of her family.

    Ember wasn¡¯t there, she knew that much from their bond. She was most likely out ensuring all of the people they had freed were okay. Boreal and her children were also out in the city and a slight questioning down their bond had Boreal informing her they were spending time with the Ancient of War, Boreal¡¯s partner and her children¡¯s father.

    Aylie and Lumen were in the house though, so Zalia brought them down to see Hildebrandt.

    ¡°Well? What can you see?¡±

    Aylie was staring intently at Hildebrandt, focussed not on the woman¡¯s physical state but that of her soul. Her ability Spiritual Connection allowed her to see damage that was done to a soul, while the Bronze rank of her Healing Presence allowed healing to the same. Zalia¡¯s didn¡¯t do that, instead preventing the death of herself or a nearby ally once a day.

    ¡°It is damaged alright. There is some sort of¡­ I don¡¯t know how to describe it. It¡¯s like there is an infection in her soul, a blue power riddling it. I can see a cut as well, from her shoulder to hip. There are many scars across the surface as well, perhaps wounds that have healed slightly.¡±

    Zalia was tense and she could see Faian was similarly worried.

    ¡°The blue power, can you heal it?¡±

    Aylie shrugged.

    ¡°Let¡¯s find out?¡±

    She activated the ability she had that healed the soul and watched closely. Instead of watching Hildebrandt, Zalia watched Aylie intently, trying to discern what she was seeing from her expression. It wasn¡¯t anything good.

    ¡°The cut healed, as did the scars. The blue power, whatever it is, did not. It¡¯s strange¡­ I feel like I could touch i-¡±

    Zalia grabbed Aylie¡¯s hand as she reached out to touch it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t do that.¡±

    Aylie pulled her hand back, abashed.

    ¡°Right.¡±

    Zalia didn¡¯t want to see what power that could take out an Emerald ranker would do to a Bronze one.

    ¡°So, what do we do?¡± Faian asked.

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    They both looked at Aylie but she looked just as lost.

    All of them glanced at Hildebrandt as she twitched slightly.

    Zalia pulled out some Soulroot and Frozen Heart.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°It can¡¯t hurt,¡± she said by way of explanation to Faian¡¯s curious look.

    Faian gestured as if to say, ¡°go ahead.¡±

    So Zalia did.

    Using the pieces of plant as seeds, she prepared a living ritual using the two herbs and once done, activated it. She felt some effects of the healing herself, less of the warm, comforting presence that normal healing gave but rather a soothing coolness. Not one she felt in her body, but instead in her soul, as strange as that was to experience.

    Between the two types of healing, Hildebrandt twitched a little more. It was like she was in pain or¡­ fighting something?

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what else we can do to help her. I think it¡¯s up to her own body to fight whatever this is off.¡±

    Faian sighed and sat back in her chair.

    ¡°Nothing to be done then?¡±

    Aylie nodded at the same time Zalia did.

    Faian pushed herself up out of her chair with obvious effort.

    ¡°I best check up on my soldiers, where did you house them?¡±

    Zalia gestured to a vine that grew out of the wall.

    ¡°Follow that, it¡¯ll lead you to them.¡±

    With an odd look at Zalia, Faian followed the vine as it continued to grow down the hallway and out the front door towards where the soldiers were, disintegrating back to nothing behind as Faian walked past.

    Zalia put a hand on Aylie¡¯s knee to get her attention.

    ¡°I¡¯m just going to go find Ember and tell her how it went, alright?¡±

    Aylie nodded, still focused on Hildebrandt.

    Zalia stood and made to move, pausing on her way out.

    ¡°Oh, and see if there is anything Lumen can do, would you?¡±

    Aylie didn¡¯t reply but Zalia knew she would do as asked.

    Going out into town, Zalia breathed in the fresh air to settle her mind. Ember was in the eastern section of town in a small grouping of houses that were the homes of the Silver rankers. The Ancient of Wisdom had put them all together in hopes that they could bond and help each other through their experiences. Solidarity could be a powerful tool in the healing of a group.

    Zalia started towards that section of town, watching the people that walked by as she did so. As the¡­ leader or creator of Nature¡¯s Reclaim, she felt a responsibility for the people that lived here. She wanted them to feel both safe and happy in their lives and did a good job at that for the most part, or so she thought.

    The ever-present healing that permeated the town was an important piece in that, as it meant everyone in the town was always healthy. No sickness spread, people¡¯s pains and injuries healed, albeit slowly. The effect was somewhat dampened when spread across such a large number of beings.

    By the expressions and body postures of the people she walked by, Zalia felt that the general mood of the town was good. It wasn¡¯t as high as years prior, as news of the coming war and events had been spread by the Ancient of Wisdom. It wasn¡¯t Zalia¡¯s place to hide anything from them and neither would she want to. It was important that everyone was ready.

    She found Ember sitting with a small group of people, only four others, at a bench in one of the town''s parks. Ember said something, gesturing grandly overhead and one of the men at the table laughed. Zalia couldn¡¯t help but smile at the sight of her partner doing what she did best; help people heal.

    ¡°Got a moment?¡±

    Ember turned toward her at the words then said a quick farewell to the others at the table before coming over to Zalia.

    ¡°Hey Zals, how did it go?¡±

    She knew that Ember would have felt the same things Zalia had during the fight and so would have a basic understanding already. They still enjoyed speaking to each other, however, rather than relying on the bond between them for all communication.

    ¡°Good, we managed to kill two Emerald Astar and one Gold. Hildebrandt isn¡¯t in a good way, though.¡±

    Ember immediately began walking towards their home, the conversation continuing at the table they left behind.

    ¡°What¡¯s happened?¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°There is some kind of power left over from her fight that is holding her down. It¡¯s something attacking her soul that we can¡¯t really do anything about at the moment.¡±

    ¡°Shit¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    They walked in silence for a minute, before Zalia realised she hadn¡¯t ever checked her heirloom weapon¡¯s rank up.

    ¡°My sword and bow ranked up to Silver as well.¡±

    Druidic Armaments, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Silver rank

    Tin - The blade and arrows of your armaments are kept magically sharp and remain so permanently. Arrows fired from the bow have a powerful seeking effect.

    Iron - Both blade and arrows fired from the bow gain the ¡®Starlit¡¯ effect. Additionally, drawing the string of the bow without an arrow will create a starlight arrow already nocked.

    Bronze - Parrying an attack or firing an arrow from the bow will infuse your next strike with a powerful cosmic force. In addition, it will also make you invisible and slightly faster for a short duration.

    Silver - Druidic Blade and Druidic Bow have fused into Druidic Armaments, combining and enhancing both items'' effects and allowing for both to be wielded at once.

    Seeking effect - arrows will adjust in flight to hit vulnerable spots such as joints in armour or scales and avoid other natural defences such as bone.

    Starlit - affected weapon passes through non-magical armour and applies Light from Within.

    Light from Within - affected target takes a small amount of damage over time as starlight glows from within

    Zalia was surprised to find that the heirloom had become a single item again. It had started off as just the bow, then split into two but now fused back to one; a single more powerful item.

    She shared the description with Ember who murmured in appreciation. The effects of her heirlooms at reaching Silver were showing themselves to be considerably stronger than prior ones, as expected.

    The Bronze effect applying to both blade and bow was incredibly powerful. Parrying making her invisible to her opponent would allow her to strike with enhanced speed and significantly more power, with each arrow fired giving the same benefits.

    About to reach home, they were stopped by a crow that landed on a fence in front of them. Zalia started hearing a commotion coming from the north as it did.

    ¡°North gate!¡± it yelled at her, its speech croaky and broken.

    Zalia and Ember immediately started sprinting towards the north gate. After a few moments, Zalia¡¯s flight ritual activated on Ember and they flew up over the crowds of people either running towards or away from the gate.

    They arrived to chaos. There was a group of townspeople, wearing armour and wielding weapons, surrounding something Zalia couldn¡¯t see. On the opposite side of the gate was a dead Astar with a spear of sand impaling it straight through the chest. There was blood all around them.

    Landing, Zalia and Ember pushed through the crowd, some people moving aside as they were recognised. There was red blood here, the owner of which was sat propped up against the open gate, having fallen there.

    The man had a sword sticking out of his gut, the source of the blood. Looking around, Zalia realised that there were a number of people who looked ragged and dirty, their appearance telling stories of a long journey.

    Zalia looked down at the bloodied man again and found she recognised him. Matthias, leader of the Morning¡¯s Shade.

 Book 4: 37 - Storm

    Indis stared down at her hands. The trees, snow and ice around her didn¡¯t register to her mind as she inspected the roughened, calloused hands. It was still strange seeing anything other than soft, smooth skin there.

    She grabbed a bunch of her hair and pulled it around to the front, hacking at the long threads until it was cut short. The damn stuff was just getting much too inconvenient. She discarded the hair, throwing it to the side as she continued trudging through the snow.

    It was quite peaceful out here, any sound dampened and all signs of life hidden by the snow. For this reason, she was beginning to understand why Zalia had enjoyed living out here by herself for so long. Of course, had it been a few months prior, Indis would have hated being out here away from her people.

    ¡°My people.¡±

    She huffed in derision at the thought. Her people indeed.

    Things were different now, her point of view changed by recent events. She wanted nothing to do with people anymore. People had betrayed her, throwing her out to the figurative wolves after everything she had done for them. Disposed of her after the years of her life that she had spent fending for them, giving of herself for them.

    A chittering sound came from her left and Indis spun, blasting the noise with a bolt of lightning from the sky. The crack of thunder broke the serene peace of the snow-laden land and she watched the charred remains of a bird fall the last few feet from a tree that was now splintered itself.

    She slowly lowered her hands, staring at the dead bird. Even this beautiful, natural place. She ruined even this.

    When she¡¯d arrived in the north, she had gone to see if Zen would take her in. Even Zen, young, naive, innocent Zen hadn¡¯t wanted her there. He hadn¡¯t said that outright, of course, but she could tell from his actions that her presence bothered him. So she had left.

    ¡°Where do I belong?¡±

    The question continued to bother her, it had ever since the day of the vote. Where was home?

    Another crack of thunder shook the sky and Indis looked up to see that a storm was brewing. Had she done that?

    Either way, she needed to find shelter. But where?

    Snow began to fall from the sky, slowly at first. It fell down thicker as Indis pushed through the already deep snow towards who knew what. A cave, perhaps, or a hollow of some sort.

    The cold didn¡¯t bother her usually, the time she had spent in the north prior lending her enough levels in Cold Resistance that the normal climate of the north couldn¡¯t harm her. This cold was different, somehow. She felt chilled to the bone and began to shiver violently. Lightning arced across her body as she used it to warm herself, a strange but effective use of the ability.

    Her struggle was only made worse as time passed. Lightning struck again to her left, a tree exploding at its impact. She ducked by instinct as a piece of wood shot by her face, impaling another tree to her right. Snow fell so thickly now that she struggled to see more than a few metres in each direction. Where had this storm come from?

    There was a sound of a wingbeat, far away. Then another.

    Indis shuddered and pushed through the snow with increased desperation. The wingbeats continued, growing louder and louder. She didn¡¯t know what was making the sound but she didn¡¯t want to find out.

    She spotted a small icy cave entrance, just ahead. Only a few more metres. Then she felt a sharp pain in her foot as she stepped on something, followed by a slight burning sensation like poison.

    A shadow fell across her as the beating of wings threw the wind into a cyclone. She had to hunker down, so close to the cave, lest the wind rip her away. Staring upwards, she could only see a form so massive it blocked out the sun, the glitter of scales as lightning exploded from the body of the creature. Snow whipped around her as another wingbeat blasted the land. She cringed down even further, trying to retreat into the snow around her even as it was pushed away by the beating of the massive creature''s wings.

    A hand grabbed her and she reactively arced lightning across her body. She heard a grunt of pain even as the hand continued to pull, dragging her out of the storm and into the cave. The hand let go as she whipped around to fight, preparing a lightning strike for whoever dared grab her like that.

    She wasn¡¯t prepared for what she saw.

    It was a man, tall but not extremely so, lanky limbs and a pair of goggles over his eyes. He wore a shirt and shorts with nothing on his feet but pieces of wood strapped by leather. The man had the appearance of someone heading for the beach during summer, not someone in the cold, snowy north.

    ? - Bronze rank.

    ¡°W-who the fuck are you!?¡±

    He stood there with his hands raised, the right one slightly scorched, obviously not in the market for another blast of lightning.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°Hey, wait, I just saw you were- -there. I didn¡¯t mean to surprise you.¡±

    Indis narrowed her eyes, glaring at him until he backed up another step.

    She could barely hear him over the wingbeats that continued outside, though they now faded into the distance.

    He gestured further into the cave saying something about tea, pulled up the goggles, then backed up and turned to walk the way he had pointed.

    The storm outside was weakening, apparently a localised effect around whatever that creature had been, so she could have left then and there. Something about the man drew her in, however. Perhaps it was the loneliness she felt, or the fact that he had invited her in rather than turn her away, as so many others had. Whatever it was, she warily followed him in.

    There was a faint smell to the cave, like it had once been the home of some creature and the ice that coated the walls had a slight magical sensation to it. She inched forward, limping slightly as her foot healed, the tiny bit of poison already dealt with.

    Poking her head around the final corner, she found the man crouched down next to a smokeless fire that had a pot of tea heating above it. The cold of the unnatural storm was fading from her bones but the warmth of the fire called to her all the same. She hesitantly joined the man by the fire, crouching down but not sitting. If he decided to attack, she would be prepared. She wore her battle robes still, an heirloom passed down through generations within her family.

    Lightning Mage¡¯s Battle Robes (Heirloom) - Bonded Gold rank.

    Tin - Slightly increase damage and slightly decrease mana use of all lightning based abilities.

    Iron - Foes struck by your lightning have their resistance to lightning reduced. This effect stacks.

    Bronze - Lightning based abilities become exponentially stronger the longer you channel them.

    Silver - Lightning controlled by you becomes more directed, changing course to jump from enemy to enemy rather than be attracted to the ground or other inanimate objects. Additionally, your magic cannot be dispelled or subdued.

    Gold - Lightning controlled by you that strikes enemies stays for longer, arcing across their body for a time before fading. Additionally, you are immune to all lightning damage.

    She had worn the robes since a very young age, gifted the Gold rank heirloom by her father.

    The man across from her watched her as warily as she watched him, perhaps wondering if she was going to blast again.

    ¡°My name is Hedion,¡± the man offered.

    She paused, uncertain, then decided to introduce herself.

    ¡°I¡¯m La¡­ Leyra.¡±

    She almost introduced herself as Lady Indis, but that wasn¡¯t really her anymore, was it? Without title, lands or even the remainders of a family left to her, could she really call herself nobility?

    If he noticed her hesitation, he didn¡¯t comment on it.

    ¡°Leyra, nice to meet you. Might I ask you what you¡¯re doing out here?¡±

    ¡°I could ask you the same thing.¡±

    He shrugged.

    ¡°Fair enough. I come out here regularly to collect different herbs and alchemical components that can only be found here.¡±

    She saw no lie in the words and trusted her own instinct in that regard. It was true that there were particular items that could only be found here and she had even collected some of them herself the last time she had been here with Zalia, Ember and Zen.

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for something.¡±

    He tilted his head just slightly.

    ¡°What for? I might be able to help.¡±

    ¡°Myself,¡± she thought.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not say.¡±

    He shrugged, indifferent.

    ¡°Alright, want some tea?¡±

    She stared at it.

    ¡°What¡¯s in it?¡±

    He looked down, then back up, obviously realising she was suspicious of it.

    ¡°A particular herb that grows a bit further north than most like to travel. When brewed like this it has long lasting warming effects on the body.¡±

    He poured a cup and held it out to her.

    ¡°You first,¡± she said.

    He shrugged again, then drank a bit before proffering it to her once more.

    She accepted the cup but waited, holding it and allowing the warmth of the drink to seep into her unshielded hands.

    ¡°What was that thing out there?¡± Leyra found herself asking.

    The man, Hedion, looked towards where the cave arced up and around to the surface.

    ¡°I don¡¯t fully know. I¡¯ve never seen anything like it.¡±

    Leyra hadn¡¯t either. She had a feeling that it was creatures like that which stopped the Endarian¡¯s from spreading their borders further north, with similar reasons to the south. Sometimes, she wondered just how big the world was, how much of it they would never see.

    She looked back at him, trying to decide if the tea was poisoned or not and he just had a resistance to it. Why would that be the case though? It wasn¡¯t like he had been here brewing poisonous tea in the expectation of finding someone else out here. She took a sip.

    It was good, relatively tasteless but she could feel the spreading warmth radiate through her body immediately. It was comforting

    ¡°It¡¯s quite dangerous out here,¡± Hedion said.

    Leyra shrugged.

    ¡°So?¡±

    He hesitated a moment.

    ¡°Well, if you are looking for something, maybe I can help you? If you¡¯d be up for helping me out a little along the way as well. There are a few creatures here that I¡¯d rather not fight on my own.¡±

    She thought about it for a moment. While the thought of being alone out here with a complete stranger was not a good one, he seemed¡­ harmless. In fact, she was entirely sure that she could defeat the man in a fight if it came to it.

    Besides, what else was she doing?

    Maybe she could find a place to belong here, away from the people she had once sacrificed herself for who had then rejected her.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll give it a go.¡±

 Book 4: 38 - Free At Last

    Zalia jumped forward, inspecting Matthias with a discerning eye. Apart from the sword in his gut, he seemed to be in good health. She crouched down, met his eyes and once acknowledged, pulled the sword out, throwing it with a clatter behind.

    The double layered healing of her Grove and Healing Presence grew new skin over the wound in moments.

    ¡°Matthias!? Where have you been?¡±

    He looked up, exhaustion obvious.

    ¡°Zalia?¡±

    She nodded.

    Matthias had vanished long ago after the huge ritual had brought demons to Endaria. He had once been one of three leaders of the Morning¡¯s Shade and also happened to be Gold rank, specialising in sand manipulation magic.

    ¡°What has happened to Et¡¯s Way?¡± he asked.

    She started, hearing the name of the town that she had replaced so long ago.

    ¡°This is Nature¡¯s Reclaim now and I¡¯m the appointed Lady of the town. A lot has changed since you disappeared.¡±

    He started getting to his feet and she helped him up. Ember shooed the curious townspeople away, though they still waited around at a distance.

    Matthias'' eyes went distant.

    ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve been in a dream,¡± he whispered.

    Zalia thought she knew what had happened.

    ¡°The Astar had you?¡±

    His eyes focused back on her.

    ¡°Yes, you know about that?¡±

    She looked at the other people who had apparently arrived with him, similarly exhausted. They all wore the same simple clothes that the Astar gave to their mindless slaves.

    ¡°Yeah, me and my family were the ones that freed you and the others from them.¡±

    ¡°That was you!? In the sky, summoning lightning?¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    Then, strangely, the man teared up and gave her a hug.

    How odd.

    She returned the hug, patting him on the back a bit awkwardly.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t get you out with the others, we didn¡¯t have time to wait any longer.¡±

    He shook his head, breaking the hug.

    ¡°I understand, how many did you save?¡±

    ¡°Around one-hundred and thirty. Would have been more if the Astar hadn¡¯t chased us the whole way.¡±

    Matthias shuddered.

    ¡°We were thirty, originally. They just wouldn¡¯t let us go.¡±

    Zalia looked around at the six remaining, including Matthias. It must have been a tortuous journey. They wouldn¡¯t have had anti-teleportation and had apparently not had any craftsmen amongst their number. She knew that they hadn¡¯t gotten all of the slaves out, she just hadn¡¯t imagined that Matthias had been amongst that group.

    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you alive, Matthias. We¡¯re in need of you now more than ever.¡±

    He looked at her.

    ¡°In need? Why?¡±

    She shook her head.

    ¡°A lot has changed since you left, come, you and yours are welcome in Nature¡¯s Reclaim. We¡¯ll see you looked after and we can talk once you¡¯ve slept. You all look exhausted.¡±

    Matthias turned to the other members of his group who all looked just as exhausted and dirty as he did.

    ¡°That sounds good.¡±

    She saw a tension leave his body. They had spent the past weeks hunted and on the run, she knew how that felt.

    Zalia gestured to the few guards nearby and pointed at the body.

    ¡°Burn that please, I¡¯d rather not have even a dead Astar here.¡±

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    They moved to do as she asked while she led Matthias away from the gates and towards her home. She had a feeling that he would be surprised to find Hildebrandt there and even more so to learn of the state that she was in.

    A lot had changed in the past four odd years, which was about the time he had been enslaved for. He probably didn¡¯t even know about the war, perhaps even the invasion depending on how early he had been taken.

    When they arrived, Zalia showed Matthias to Hildebrandt¡¯s room, where he rushed over to check on her. Zalia had told him the short story, enough that he wouldn¡¯t be surprised to find her there.

    While he did that, Zalia pulled out the heirloom items that had dropped from the dome with Hildebrandt. They were hers by right, to do with as she wished.

    Twin Daggers, Starfire and Void (Heirloom) - Emerald rank.

    Phasing Amulet (Heirloom) - Emerald rank.

    Warrior¡¯s Greatsword, That Which Cleaves (Heirloom) - Emerald rank.

    She wasn¡¯t particularly surprised to find that the daggers were technically one heirloom and personally didn¡¯t have much use for them. The Phasing Amulet might have been something she was interested in though.

    Matthias shook Hildebrandt¡¯s shoulders gently.

    ¡°She won¡¯t wake, we¡¯ve tried various types of healing she just¡­ won¡¯t wake. I think it was this dagger that stabbed her.¡±

    Zalia held the dagger Starfire out to him and he took it, inspecting the weapon.

    Then, she began to tell him of everything he had missed.

    She started with the invasion, describing the horrors she witnessed and what they had to do to clean out the demons. Then came the few years of peace, the small discoveries she made about the Astar during and after the invasion that led to the realisation that the Astar were stealing people, something he knew intimately of. Finally, she got to the more recent events which she went into with more detail. What she had done to free the slaves, himself included, how the council of Endaria had reacted and their current official state at war with the Astar.

    He took it all in stride, still holding the dagger carefully so as to not scratch himself with it.

    ¡°So much lost time¡­¡±

    Zalia waited, unsure what to say.

    ¡°Is there nothing you can do for Hildebrandt?¡±

    Zalia shook her head slowly.

    ¡°No, not that we know of. For now it¡¯s up to her to fight it off, though Aylie and I will continue to do what we can.¡±

    Then she realised that she hadn¡¯t really gone over why Hidey was imprisoned or what the purpose of the fight with the Emerald Astar had been. That was fine, Hidey could explain what had happened to him now.

    ¡°Hidey is here too.¡±

    She saw a faint smile on his face at the nickname and it occurred to her that this was a very different man to the one she had met previously. That man had been stern and intrinsically disappointed in everything and everyone around him. This Matthias seemed¡­ normal.

    ¡°Can I see him?¡± Matthias asked.

    ¡°Sure, yeah.¡±

    They left Hildebrandt there and Zalia quickly checked in on Heston on the way out of the house. He was fast asleep, loud snores muffled by the vine-leaf coated walls.

    It didn¡¯t take long to reach the place that the Ancient of Wisdom had given to the soldiers temporarily; a house large enough for them all to sleep comfortably for the time being. She went inside to find most of them asleep or nearing sleep, with Faian nowhere to be found.

    Zalia gently prodded one of the awake soldiers and got directions to Faian. She was out the back of the house in a small fenced garden, holding Hidey¡¯s cube.

    The conversation Faian and Hidey were having fell to silence as Zalia and Matthias pushed out into the backyard.

    Matthias stormed forward and grabbed the cube from Faian.

    ¡°How could you,¡¯ he hissed at it.

    Zalia raised a hand.

    ¡°He wasn¡¯t actu-¡±

    ¡°We trusted you, we relied on you. And you betrayed us.¡±

    Matthias dropped the cube to the ground, then stomped away.

    Zalia stood there as he pushed past her, dumbfounded. He had seemed like he wanted to see Hidey because he missed him, not because he wanted to yell at him.

    ¡°So he made it back then, I see,¡± Faian commented.

    Zalia barely registered the words. She had mentioned that Hidey was being controlled to Matthias, though she hadn¡¯t said by whom. Couldn¡¯t he see that it wasn¡¯t Hidey¡¯s fault?

    ¡°Can you let him out yet?¡±

    Faian smiled, leaning down to pick the cube Hidey was stuck in back up.

    ¡°I was actually just about to do just that.¡±

    Zalia felt a spike of excitement. Hidey would be free at last!

    She knew it hadn''t been easy on the shade, spending years trapped in the tiny cube. In a way it was similar to what Matthias had been through, yet quite the opposite. Where Matthias had his mind dulled and trapped while his body remained free, Hidey had his body trapped while his mind remained free. Two similar yet somehow so different experiences.

    Faian held the cube up near to get mouth and whispered something into it. A sharp crack resounded from the cube and smoke began to leak from it. The smoke slowly took form, growing in size until Hidey stood before them, whole once more.

    Zalia moved forward and dragged him into a hug.

    ¡°Welcome back.¡±

    He let out a long sigh of relief, hugging her back before stretching luxuriously. His hands pulled open and closed over and over, almost of their own accord.

    ¡°It feels so good to be free once more, not just of body but of mind.¡±

    And Zalia realised she had been wrong in her thoughts. Hidey had indeed been mentally imprisoned as well, in a different way, yet at the hands of the Astar as well.

    Hidey looked over her shoulder towards where Matthias had stormed off.

    ¡°I should speak to him.¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°Eventually, but first you should see Hildebrandt. She went through and is still going through a lot to get you out of that cube. It wouldn''t have been possible without her.¡±

    ¡°You''re right, of course. Will you show me the way?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    She did, however, meet Faian¡¯s eyes, receiving a nod of approval. There was a warning there though, a silent message to be careful still. They were ninety-nine percent sure Hidey was free, yet it would be best to remain wary for now.

    Still, it was hard to feel down as she watched Hidey take a single step, smiling all the while.

 Book 4: 39 - Hidden Injury

    Zalia sat in the corner of Hildebrandt¡¯s healing room while Hidey floated by her side. She kept an eye on him out of the corner of her eye as she spoke with Boreal.

    The Ancient of War was there too, pretending that Boreal was the only reason for his presence. Despite the casual appearance, Zalia could tell there was some tension in his body. This was the first real possible internal threat they¡¯d had in Nature¡¯s Reclaim and it was the Ancient of War¡¯s responsibility to ensure nothing bad happened. Zalia didn¡¯t expect the ancient to deal with it himself, however, as Hidey was Gold rank. She was pretty sure he was, at least, though not certain of it considering she still couldn¡¯t discern his true rank using her abilities. Even if she could, she wouldn¡¯t be able to trust what she saw anyway. Who knew if it was possible to show a lower rank than was reality?

    ¡°We¡¯re going to have to go meet that Astar who wants to talk with us soon,¡± Zalia thought to Boreal.

    ¡°They¡¯re not very tasty,¡± Boreal explained.

    Zalia rolled her eyes, a faint smile pulling at her expression.

    ¡°I would rather hope to never find that out for myself, so I¡¯ll believe you.¡±

    Boreal huffed out a breath, obviously disappointed with Zalia¡¯s priorities.

    ¡°Always talking, never eating. I guess I can hold back. Only because they¡¯re not tasty, though.¡±

    ¡°Will the Ancient of War be alright to look after the young ones? I don¡¯t think they should come on this particular mission.¡±

    Boreal bumped her shoulder into the large cat standing next to her; the Ancient of War and her partner. She purred at some unheard mental response.

    ¡°Yes, though he says Aylie is not so little anymore.¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°I¡¯d like Aylie to come with us, she is able to see things that the rest of us can¡¯t. Besides, I think she might be able to escape most dangers by entering the Astral anyway.¡±

    Zalia saw the ancient tense and she looked over to Hidey standing over the small table holding the three heirlooms Hildebrandt had won off the Astar. He was staring at the daggers, particularly focused on the one called Starfire.

    ¡°Something wrong?¡±

    Hidey looked up at her.

    ¡°No, just¡­¡± His form fuzzed a bit, like he was shivering, ¡°I¡¯ve some bad memories of these daggers.¡±

    The fear and pain in his voice made Zalia shiver too.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry to ask you to dredge up those memories further, but is there anything you know of that we can do to help Hildebrandt?¡±

    Hidey thought for a moment before shaking his head.

    ¡°She fights a battle in her soul, her own strength against that of the starfire. Normally, she wouldn¡¯t struggle so much against even an Emerald rank heirloom like this but I believe she must have used an ability linked to her mace. Both Matthias and I have warned her many times against using it and I know of only one other time that she has. If she survives a week from the time of the battle, I have no doubts that she will pull through quickly. It¡¯s surviving that week that I am worried about.¡±

    Zalia frowned, looking down at Hildebrandt. She had once shared the descriptions of her abilities with Zalia, barring that of her heirloom items. How, exactly, they made Hildebrandt so vulnerable, Zalia couldn¡¯t imagine. Hildebrandt¡¯s defensive capabilities were such that killing her normally would take someone tough enough to withstand Backlash while putting out enough damage to kill her at the same time. Evidently, not even two Emerald rank Astar were capable of that.

    ¡°How do we help her during this week then?¡±

    Hidey shrugged.

    ¡°I am no healer, Zalia. You would know better than I.¡±

    Zalia stared at Hildebrandt, unhappy. She had been hoping Hidey could help in this. Fortunately, there was one more source of information that she might be able to get some answers out of. When she had left Cormaine, the dying collective had given her the sum of their vast and ancient memory. While most of it was undoubtedly important memories of the past, a good few bits were memories of a divined future. The real future strayed further from the memories each time she used them to learn something, as the act of changing yet to occur history made what was past it more uncertain.

    Mentally telling Boreal and the Ancient of War to keep an eye on Hidey, Zalia went up to Aylie¡¯s room and went through the portal there that led to the top of the Ancient of Life. Constructed amongst the boughs of the tree was a place of spiritual connection, a comfortable platform that Zalia had created for Aylie to learn the extent of her abilities.

    Preparing herself for the mental pain and soul strain that came with accessing the collective¡¯s memories, Zalia reached into the Ethereal Vault Gauntlet and opened the door between memory and mind.

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    As always, flashes of memory from the collective and from her own mind pushed to the front of her consciousness. An image of Cormaine as it had been came first, deep, cool and calm intertwined rivers flowing around islands covered in beautiful wildlife and the homes of the Bathar. It was followed by an image from Zalia¡¯s own childhood, a room filled with stone pews and a lectern at its end, behind which stood a large cross. A stab of pain pulsed through her body before the image moved on to yet more scenes of Cormaine and Endaria as they had been.

    The memories came to the present, Hildebrandt laying on the bed overlooked by Hidey and the Ancient of War but with Zalia and Boreal nowhere to be seen. Aylie kneeling in a place filled only with clouds and a huge star before her that pulsed with a blue light, veins extending from the star into the far distance. An expression of pain filled her face as she struggled against an unseen foe.

    The present passed by and though Zalia tried to stop the memories there, sure she had just seen a possible solution to their problem, more followed. She saw herself standing in a huge underground space filled with the jagged, alien architecture of the Astar, a city that spanned the horizon. Then she was in Cormaine, surrounded once more by the dark spirits that filled the sky there, yet no longer in the seemingly endless caves that she had been in before.

    She finally cut off the memories, doubling over with a gasp, hands to her head, as a migraine pulsed pain through her mind.

    Congratulations! Ethereal Vault Gauntlet has ranked up from Bronze to Silver due to your regular accessing of a complex memory.

    Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Bonded Silver rank.

    Tin - You may tear open space to access an ethereal vault. The ethereal vault is a limited extradimensional space that you may enter and store objects within.

    Iron - you gain the power to store and retrieve information within the ethereal vault. By concentrating on a specific topic, memory, or piece of knowledge while wearing the gauntlet, you can mentally "record" it into the gauntlet''s vault. This information is then stored in an abstract, ethereal form, like a shimmering light. When needed, you can access the gauntlet to "read" the stored information, allowing you to quickly recall facts, details, or instructions you have previously recorded.

    Bronze - your control over the ethereal vault extradimensional space becomes more refined. You gain the ability to manipulate the spatial dimensions within the vault, allowing you to efficiently organise and stack stored items without regard to their physical sizes. This ability enables you to store a larger quantity of objects within the same limited space.

    Silver - The deep connection between your Druid Groves and the Ethereal Vault Gauntlet allows you to form permanent portals to your vault attached to each Grove. These portals are different in that only those with permission may enter and they will remain even if another portal is created elsewhere, allowing easy access to your Grove¡¯s at any time. Additionally, your vault is now a permanent space, allowing you to close it with people and objects still within the vault but outside its storage spaces.

    It took her a minute to recover from the physical pain as Healing Presence worked to counter the mental strain. She knew that the feeling of fatigue in her soul would dissipate soon too, though it would take more time.

    The memories of the past didn¡¯t disturb her so much as the ones of her possible future did. To know that she would go to the Astar city and Cormaine once more did not bring her comfort. She hadn¡¯t seen any of her friends or family in either image, which was disconcerting.

    She had gotten what she wanted, however. The image of Aylie kneeling before the blue sun was the answer.

    Aylie had seen that the struggle Hildebrandt was going through was within her soul, not her body. While the soul did not exist in the astral, normally at least, it was more accessible from there. It was also a place that Aylie could go.

    It would be easier to help Hildebrandt from there, to help her fight the strange power off. Zalia would just have to avoid the situation the image had shown her, Aylie by herself, kneeling and in pain.

    Before attempting to deal with that however, her attention was dragged to the vault gauntlet¡¯s rank up. With the Silver rank of Mobility, she had gained the ability to mark a place that she could teleport to at will, with a long cooldown. This was a bit different.

    Limited only to her two Groves, it was a bit more restrictive in its uses but the ability to go home from anywhere without any cooldown simply by opening her vault portal helped her feel just a bit safer doing what she would have to do. She wished she¡¯d had the ability when going to the Astar town for the first time as rescuing the slaves there would have been so much easier.

    After reading through that particular notification a few times, she read through the short list of level ups for skills that she hadn¡¯t checked in a very long time. Knowing that she wasn¡¯t close to any skill rank ups, she hadn¡¯t been too pressed to keep an eye on them.

    Congratulations! Kill Shot has reached Silver 6.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s Mark has reached Silver 6.

    Congratulations! Fight or Flight has reached Silver 6.

    Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have gained two levels reaching Silver 10.

    Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Silver 6.

    Congratulations! Natural Matter Alteration has reached Silver 9.

    Congratulations! Druid¡¯s Grove has reached Silver 11.

    Congratulations! Herbal Magic has reached Silver 12.

    Congratulations! Nature¡¯s Wrath has gained two levels reaching Silver 8.

    Congratulations! Protection of the Wild¡¯s has gained three levels reaching Silver 8.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Silver 12.

    Congratulations! Druid Class has gained three levels reaching Silver 8.

    Congratulations! Mobility has reached Silver 11.

    With all of that out of the way, Zalia opened up her vault to have a look.

    The inside was relatively unchanged, though the walls that were decorated with imagery of her bonds with Ember, Boreal and her two other heirlooms now included imagery of the three ancients as well. The only other change in the space was two semi-transparent portals that were next to each other at the end of the space.

    She could see the front of her house as seen from the portal hub in Nature¡¯s Reclaim. While the only portal that had previously been there was one that led to the Grove in the desert, the slightly sideways view from this portal told her that a second had joined it there. The other portal in the vault showed the desert Grove, the view being of the portal hub of that Grove also.

    Zalia opened the portal leading to Nature¡¯s Reclaim and stepped through. She turned around and closed the portal again, seeing that it was present there yet unable to look through it to the vault while it was closed. Good.

    Feeling more confident with meeting the rebel Astar who wanted to talk with her now that she had a way of getting not only herself but her family out of there as well, Zalia went to find Aylie and Ember.

 Book 4: 40 - With Certainty

    Ember and Aylie were sitting together upstairs talking about their experiences as souls separated from their bodies at the hands of the Astar when Zalia found them. She waited a while as they spoke before eventually interrupting them.

    ¡°Hey, could you two come downstairs in¡­ ten minutes once I¡¯ve brought Faian over?¡±

    Receiving two nods in return, Zalia also sent a mental message to Boreal asking the same.

    She walked off to find Faian as well, knowing that the Ancient of War was still watching Hidey. They needed to talk about what would happen next, in regards to her meeting with the rebel Astar, what Hidey should or could be allowed to see and do and whether or not Aylie could enter the Astral to try and help heal Hildebrandt. The more she thought about it, the less she liked the idea of letting Aylie in there with some very dangerous Emerald rank magic.

    Additionally, while they were relatively sure that Hidey was freed from the Astar¡¯s influence, there wasn¡¯t really any way to be certain. They would just have to trust him and hope that it didn¡¯t backfire. That was Zalia¡¯s feeling anyway, though she knew she too often trusted much too easily.

    Faian was easy to find; she was looking after her soldiers, ensuring they were fed and organising for supplies to be gathered for the trip back to the capital. Zalia knew they wouldn¡¯t be staying long.

    Though a tiny bit annoyed at being disturbed from her organising, Faian agreed to come with Zalia and they both went back to her house where Hidey, Boreal, the Ancient of War, Aylie, Ember and Heston were waiting. Matthias was still out somewhere in the city but Zalia knew he could care for himself and would come back if he needed anything. She wasn¡¯t worried about him causing any trouble.

    With everyone in a bigger room that had constructed itself during the time it took Zalia to walk from the soldier¡¯s housing back to her home for the purpose of the meeting, she started it off.

    ¡°Alright, I think the first thing we should discuss is how much, exactly, we can trust Hidey with.¡±

    Hidey stared at her and she raised her hands defensively.

    ¡°Look, it¡¯s nothing personal but you know that we aren¡¯t entirely sure of your freedom from the Astar¡¯s influence.¡±

    Hidey didn¡¯t argue, though Ember looked like she might before Faian chipped in.

    ¡°Until the council has come to a final decision on this, we should not explain too much to the Hidden. As such, if this meeting will be a sensitive conversation as I believe it will be, I would prefer if Heston and whoever you choose, Zalia, would accompany him out of the house until we are finished.¡±

    Ember looked as if she was going to argue again but Hidey agreed.

    ¡°I shall go along, perhaps I can find Matthias and speak to him.¡±

    Zalia gestured to the Ancient of War, who was only there to keep an eye on Hidey anyway, and he and Heston followed Hidey out of the room. She felt bad, of course, but was more than happy to leave the decision of how and when to trust Hidey to the council.

    ¡°Alright, the thing I mainly wanted to talk about was meeting the Astar rebel. I¡¯ve got an easy way for me and anyone that comes with us to escape and Nateysta will be there with us without bounds on what he is allowed to do. All I really need is permission to do it from you, Faian.¡±

    Well, she didn¡¯t need permission and would probably go and meet this Astar even without Faian¡¯s allowance but since she lived in Endarian lands and had been given a chunk of said lands as her own, it was best to get along with the countries ruling council.

    Faian met Zalia¡¯s eyes and held them for a while, evidently considering what could go wrong with Zalia¡¯s plan.

    ¡°Alright, fine. I feel that it is a little rushed but trust that you know what you¡¯re doing.¡±

    ¡°I do. From what Nateysta has told me, this Astar has willingly chosen to meet under his power. If it is a trick to gain information or even harm me, it will go very poorly for them.¡±

    Zalia waited for anyone else to speak up but she knew that Ember, Aylie and Boreal were in agreement with her.

    ¡°Last thing then, I might have learned of a way to help Hildebrandt.¡±

    ¡°What? How?¡±

    Ember, ever the healer.

    ¡°I looked into the memories of prophecy gifted to me by the collective as they died and saw Aylie alone in a blank place, kneeling before a blue sun with fiery veins extending into the distance. I do not wish the image itself to come to pass but it told me what we have to do.¡±

    Everyone looked confused as to what it meant, except for Aylie of course.

    Zalia had only told Ember about Aylie¡¯s new ability to step into the Astral, with her permission of course, and wasn¡¯t about to tell everyone unless Aylie agreed. Seeing that Aylie understood, Zalia gestured to her to explain.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Ember realised what the memory meant as Aylie started speaking.

    ¡°It means we have to enter the Astral to help Hildebrandt fight off the fire that continues to burn within her soul.¡±

    Ember was already shaking her head.

    ¡°No, not happening. Those are prophecies, Zalia, if we let Aylie go in there then the image you saw will come to pass.¡±

    ¡°And what if it comes to pass by us not going in with her? What if she ends up trying it by herself?¡±

    This was, in Zalia¡¯s mind, what was wrong with prophecy and visions of the future. There were too many different ways of interpreting them.

    ¡°How do you know this will help?¡± Faian asked, obviously sceptical, ¡°and how do you plan on getting into the Astral in the first place?¡±

    It was obvious to Zalia that Aylie didn¡¯t want to tell Faian about her ability.

    ¡°We have a way, maybe. The only reason I¡¯ve brought it up now is to ask you to look into whether you have any healers amongst the population of the capital who are able to help with something like this. I wouldn¡¯t want to go in there without others to help.¡±

    Faian shrugged.

    ¡°I¡¯ll ask around but I doubt many would want to go once I explain what it is they¡¯ll be doing. Fight off an Emerald rank curse by going into the Astral? Oh, and someone has had a prophecy that only one person even makes it so far as the centre of this thing? Don¡¯t forget that the vision might mean anyone that goes in with Aylie won¡¯t make it.¡±

    ¡°Just have a look, we might not even go ahead with it depending. Hidey said that Hildebrandt should be fine if she makes it a week. If it¡¯s looking like she will, then, it won¡¯t be a problem. We¡¯re going to have to have a talk about whether it¡¯s a risk worth taking either way as well.¡±

    She met Ember¡¯s eyes at that, a promise that she wouldn¡¯t do anything without talking about it properly first. Ember was bound to give her a stern word or two for bringing it up without doing that beforehand but she wanted to let Faian know what was going on. It was, afterall, important to Endaria¡¯s continued existence that Hildebrandt make a full recovery as quickly as possible.

    ¡°I will make a return to the capital soon. Assuming you meet with this Astar over the next few days, you should come to the capital as soon as possible afterwards to transport any healers I might find here. If you decide not to go forward with this plan to enter the Astral in order to help Hildebrandt I would like to know as soon as possible.¡±

    With that, Faian stood up and left.

    Ember¡¯s eyes tracked Faian out of the room, then turned to Zalia.

    ¡°I know, I know,¡± Zalia sighed, ¡°should¡¯ve talked to you about it first.¡±

    Ember nodded.

    ¡°Yes, but we can talk about that later. You know, the first time we talked about meeting the rebel Astar you said you¡¯d want to go alone but I couldn¡¯t help but notice you say ¡®me and anyone that comes with us¡¯ just earlier.¡±

    Zalia pursed her lips.

    ¡°I think you, Boreal and Aylie should come with. Not only does Aylie have an easy method of escaping if she needs now, but she is able to see things that we can''t, which might be important. Plus, Ro will be there and with full use of his abilities so the chances of this being some kind of trick is very low. The more I think about it the more certain I am that you should all come along, if you want.¡±

    Ember nodded in agreement.

    ¡°You know I¡¯ll always come with you.¡±

    Zalia heard the hidden meaning in the words. An offer made many years ago of escaping into the wilds, somewhere they could live free from all the politics and nonsense that happened within Endaria. It was a tempting notion to her still, though as usual the feeling of responsibility deep within her won out.

    ¡°Great, we¡¯ll get ready to leave for the meeting tomorrow maybe then? I¡¯ll have to ask Ro where it is first though.¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow is good, with the soldiers leaving in the morning I shouldn¡¯t have much to do.¡±

    With that, Ember left to go about the rest of her day. Boreal stayed with Zalia, obviously without anything to do.

    It was strangely quiet in the house at that moment, with the guests gone. After a short pause to think, Zalia realised that it wasn¡¯t the lack of guests that was causing the peace, but the lack of five particular kittens.

    ¡°Where are your children?¡±

    ¡°Completing their test.¡±

    The two of them left the house, idly making their way towards the temple dedicated to Ro at Zalia¡¯s lead.

    ¡°Test?¡¯

    ¡°Mmm, they are to bring to me a kill greater than their combined weight of Bronze rank.¡±

    Zalia cocked an eyebrow.

    ¡°Oddly specific, why?¡±

    ¡°They will reach Bronze rank soon,¡± Boreal sent proudly, ¡°and I wish for them to work together just a bit better as a team.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t think it¡¯s a little dangerous for them?¡±

    Boreal huffed a dismissive breath.

    ¡°Not at all, we took down Bronze rank animals plenty of times did we not?¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°Yes, but I distinctly remember them being dangerous fights each time.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t.¡±

    Zalia rolled her eyes.

    Catching the expression, Boreal bumped her shoulder into Zalia, a movement that would have knocked her off her feet had she been less dextrous.

    ¡°I¡¯m serious, even if any of us were injured, we were often healed up before anything bad could happen. Besides, I remember you telling me about those beasts you cleared from near Juniper¡¯s farm when you were such a low rank. If you can manage that, they can manage one Bronze between them.¡±

    Zalia held her hands up in defeat.

    ¡°Alright, Mother Boreal, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re right. I¡¯m going to go and talk with Ro, want to join me?¡±

    Boreal said nothing, but continued to follow anyway. Both that action and the bond let Zalia know that she was in.

    When they arrived at Ro¡¯s temple, it was to a scene of slight chaos as they saw Boreal¡¯s five kittens dragging a number of bodies through the streets, more than just the one that Boreal had expected.

 Book 4: 41 - Meetings

    Zalia watched Frost, who was using a bed of ice to assist her in dragging her kill, drop it at Boreal¡¯s feet. The other young cats all dropped their own prizes in the pile shortly after, each staring up at Boreal in turn. By the looks of it, they had chosen to bring back a Bronze rank creature of a weight greater than their combined weight each.

    While some of the townspeople around looked surprised, slightly amused or amazed, others were looking a little disturbed. Zalia decided to take matters into her own hands and opened her vault, moving quickly to store the bodies inside.

    She could feel the pure pride radiating from Boreal through their bond and could see the equally strong emotion within the five young cats¡¯ auras. Zalia shook her head in a mixed feeling of amusement and dismay. How was she going to deal with the five of them?

    As kittens, they had been a collective menace. As young cats, they were the same except with a much higher capacity for destruction. That capacity would only grow as they did and thought it might be helpful during times of war, it might become a problem if they didn¡¯t settle down as Boreal had. She could only hope.

    Zalia only noticed then that Frost and Breeze had ranked up to Bronze, with the other three just behind. They would similarly reach Bronze in the coming days and the timing couldn¡¯t have been better. She had hoped that Aylie would reach Silver before things with the Astar kicked off fully but with her rank already accelerated far past what someone her age should be, things had slowed down in that department.

    Leaving Boreal to praise her children, Zalia waved away the crowd and stepped into the temple of Nateysta. She could have tried to commune with him outside of the temple but enjoyed the feeling of peace and safety that came with entering its boundaries.

    ¡°Nateysta, I wish to speak with you.¡±

    She pushed the thoughts out from her mind towards the stone and wood of the temple, strongly focused on the altar in particular.

    A small vine grew from the side of the altar, creeping along the floor towards her. It thickened quickly before sprouting a fruit like an orange that increased in size dramatically over the course of a minute. The peel of the fruit shed to reveal Nateysta, Ro, in his usual plant crow form.

    ¡°Zalia.¡±

    ¡°Why do you always arrive so dramatically?¡±

    She kept the words as a thought as to not disturb the others at prayer around her, though Ro had done that pretty thoroughly by himself. The worship of Nateysta had become a fully fledged religion in Nature¡¯s Reclaim, which was only half Zalia¡¯s fault.

    ¡°A god must awe his followers from time to time.¡±

    It was hard to argue with that and who was Zalia to refute? She didn¡¯t have any experience as a god after all.

    ¡°If you say so Ro. Look, I think we¡¯re ready to meet the exiled Astar. Do you think you could make it happen? Soon, if possible.¡±

    Ro leaned down, the tip of his petrified wooden beak turning to the side so that one of his deep black, beady eyes could stare right into Zalia¡¯s.

    Despite the years of experience Zalia had interacting with many different Ascendants, some friendly, some hostile, a creeping shiver went down her back. Staring into the ancient eye of Nateysta gave her a feeling of a power stretching forever across the horizon, powerful and unknowable.

    ¡°I can do this, but know that once this meeting happens there will be no rest until the end of this conflict.¡±

    ¡°I had a feeling. We¡¯re ready but there is one thing I need to be sure of first. You can protect the others if they come with us, right?¡±

    Ro replied with a simple nod before standing back upright.

    ¡°Good. The Astar has been waiting patiently for your answer. Bring everyone who will be attending to the front of your house and I will transport everyone to a meeting place of my choice.¡±

    Before Zalia could get in a goodbye, Ro¡¯s avatar had disintegrated, the pile of dust blown out the door by a cool wind.

    Knowing that Ro could probably still hear her in the temple, she muttered a goodbye anyway before leaving.

    Outside the temple, Boreal and the young ones were still clumped together though the crowd of other people and animals had dispersed. Zalia hadn¡¯t inspected the bodies she had stored just yet but hoped that Boreal had the sense to send the young cats on this trial somewhere outside of the Grove¡¯s influence.

    ¡°Boreal, come on.¡±

    Zalia walked back toward the house and Boreal popped out of the cat puddle to follow, her children trotting after in a mess of fur.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    They made their way back to the house and found Aylie and Lumin making preparations for the meeting. She took after Zalia a bit in that way, always wanting to be prepared for whatever situations they might encounter. Though, thinking about it, Aylie could have developed the trait more as a result of the events of the past few years rather than taking after Zalia.

    ¡°Hey, where¡¯s Ember?¡± Zalia asked, not feeling her within the bounds of the house.

    Aylie looked up from her little pile of supplies ranging from dried and preserved foods to useful tools including, Zalia saw, an anti-teleportation bracelet that she had given to Aylie.

    ¡°Oh, she went out to find the Ancient of War and let him know that he would be in charge while we¡¯re gone.¡±

    Zalia nodded to herself, ticking that off her mental list and adding ¡®thank Ember¡¯ to it.

    With that being dealt with, she only had a few things left to handle. Lumin and Aylie would be fine without a doubt and Boreal had wandered off to do her own preparations which likely consisted of finding the young cats something to do while the rest of them were gone. Zalia just had to think about what she needed now.

    A plan for dealing with the Astar monarch had been slowly forming in her mind ever since hearing about the rebellious Astar. Ro had told her that the Astar monarch had the aspect of the Astar themselves as their godly realm, which she hoped would work to their favour.

    In her vault, Zalia had an artifact created by a high ranked inventor called Et. She had gotten the artifact which was called a ¡®constructed heirloom¡¯ by freeing Scour, the god of the desert from it. The heirloom could be used to trap a god by drawing it in within a place of concentrated power related to its aspect. For Ro, that would be one of his temples and she hoped that the rebel Astar would know of a place that would function as the same thing for the Astar monarch so she could draw them in and trap them with it.

    That was the basis of her plan, and though many if¡¯s and how¡¯s still remained to be ironed out, she hoped it would be a good enough base to build on.

    Finding herself still leaning in the doorway of Aylie¡¯s room staring at nothing with Aylie watching her curiously, she pushed off the doorframe.

    ¡°Well, it seems we¡¯re really doing this thing.¡±

    Aylie nodded.

    ¡°Yeah, is there anything you wanted me to do while we¡¯re talking with this Astar?¡±

    ¡°Actually yes. I want you to try and read the Astar like you can read others. The ability might not work the same on Astar if at all. Oh, also, if you think they¡¯re able to sense your poking whatsoever, stop. I don¡¯t want to endanger the meeting if possible.¡±

    ¡°Easy enough.¡±

    Zalia turned to leave.

    ¡°Oh and Aylie, if it does come to a fight take yourself to the astral straight away. I don¡¯t want you getting hurt.¡±

    She saw a small spark of defiance in Aylie¡¯s expression before it faded away to agreement. Unsure whether she should be concerned about that, Zalia left to her own room. There she opened the portal to her vault and hopped in, comforted as always by the calming, serene aura within.

    While Nature¡¯s Reclaim had the same healing power covering it that the vault had, it had grown somewhat¡­ distant ever since the town had been occupied by others. It felt more neutral, belonging less to her than to the town, where the one in the vault was still very much in tune with her.

    She hadn¡¯t cleaned out the shelves of the vault in¡­ well, since she had gotten the thing. There hadn¡¯t been any need since the shelves were mostly empty still, despite the five new bodies now stored in them. Strangely, there was still the body of an Astar in there too. Thankfully everything on the shelves were kept frozen in time which would make disposing of all the bodies much easier.

    The Astar body was the first to go, burnt to ash that she mixed with water and buried in the herb garden at the back of the vault. She left the bodies of the animals slain by Boreal¡¯s children in case they wanted them back. There were quite a few pieces of junk from her time in Cormaine including a sword, maps, memories and the ritual that Juniper used to bring them there. She left all of that to one corner of the vault shelves.

    The God Trap and Et¡¯s journal on the machine were both at the front of the vault, the trap having repaired itself after Zalia destroyed it to free Scour. Near the front she also kept fresh food and water for the rest of her family should they need it along with a supply of Ember and Aylie¡¯s favourite snack, a chocolate covered candy made by a baker near the eastern gate of the town. Though, as far as Zalia could tell, they didn¡¯t have cocoa in Endaria, so the ¡®chocolate¡¯ was slightly different to what she was used to from her own world.

    Happy with how much food, water and herbs she had stored in the vault, she left and made her way to the living room.

    With preparations for their meeting with the Astar mostly already taken care of, Zalia looked to the second to last thing on her mental list. She had been thinking of making a gift for Ember but had been having a hard time figuring out what it should be.

    She spent some time using her abilities to form different shapes out of wood, a delicate ring, a circlet designed with the imagery of flames in mind to match her armour and various other pieces of jewellery. Nothing felt quite right.

    All of these things she was able to make with a simple thought, no effort required to perform the creation. While the thought was there, it didn¡¯t feel like enough.

    Her thoughts were interrupted by Ember poking her head in the doorway.

    ¡°We¡¯re all ready.¡±

    Zalia jumped, storing the circlet in her hands before Ember saw it. More time had passed than she realised.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do this.¡±

    She got up and followed Ember out the front of the house, Boreal and Aylie already there. Boreal was wearing her heirloom armour and frozen circlet proudly, ready as she always was for battle, her children waiting in the doorway to the house. Aylie had a backpack filled with supplies and her staff held in hand, the anti-teleportation bracelet firmly on her wrist.

    Ember was wearing her own armour, though the trail of fire it usually left was turned off at that moment, thankfully.

    Zalia gave Ember a kiss and a murmured thank you, ticking that last item off her mental list.

    With a thought sent out to the world, Nateysta arrived.

    ¡°Ready?¡±

    Zalia nodded and with a rush of power tinged with the aura of nature, they were taken away.

 Book 4: 42 - The Astar Rebellion

    Zalia had only been transported by Nateysta¡¯s power once before, the day she had returned from Cormaine to Endaria. As the land around them whipped by, so fast she couldn¡¯t discern any details, memories of Delphi came back to the forefront of her mind.

    It had been a long time since she had thought about them and the collective, though their combined knowledge and memories of the past, present and future were stored away safely in her vault.

    She reached out a hand to touch the side of the bubble of power surrounding her, feeling a perfect smooth shell. Outside the transparent bubble, the only visible forms in the blur were the rest of her family in their own bubbles, similarly looking around in awe.

    Even her sight of them vanished as they plummeted down to the ground, then through it. The earth opened up to swallow them before closing up behind. She could feel them slowly decelerate before bursting out into a cavern deep, deep underground and landing.

    The massive cavern was lit by numerous green, glowing crystals that grew from the stone of the floor, walls and ceiling, which was supported by thick pillars of stone. There were small, many-legged, soft-shelled creatures wandering about the place, the biggest of them barely reaching Zalia¡¯s knees. The strange crabs were tending to a type of vine that grew over everything, creating a soft underfoot foliage and drooping masses from above that, combined with the pillars and glowing crystals, created a space filled with cast shadows.

    Aylie and Ember both pulled closer to Zalia, while Boreal dashed away to investigate the nearest crab creature. She sniffed at the thing as it stared up at her with curiosity and raised one paw before Nateysta appeared, growing from the bud of a vine.

    ¡°Do not touch them, Boreal. This is not a place created with predators such as you and you will respect it.¡±

    Boreal did something that Zalia could rarely get her to do and listened, stepping carefully back towards Zalia while a slowly growing group of crabs followed her, their footsteps sounding with soft tick, tick, tick¡¯s across the floor.

    Nateysta turned and walked away, heading toward the far end of the cave down a gentle slope.

    ¡°What is this place?¡± Zalia asked, a little awed.

    The slope led to a big pool of water, perfectly still and lit from within by the same green crystals as the rest of the cavern. Their path wound around the side of it to a small clearing upon which sat a giant throne of wood covered in bark like the trunk of a tree. Growing over it were hundreds of different plants, some of which Zalia recognised but most unknown to her.

    ¡°It is a place of pure, unadulterated nature, one without predators. It is a place of me and of peace.¡±

    Nateysta stepped over to the throne, growing in size to fit to its size before perching on it. The plants all over it grew up the trunks that were his legs even as they grew to meld into the throne, making them seem as one. The way he stood there without even a twitch of movement gave the appearance of a statue that Zalia struggled to see past, even though she knew better.

    There was a splitting sound from further back in the cave where they had come from as two more bubbles of Nateysta¡¯s energy dropped through the ceiling to deposit an Astar each. Zalia watched them carefully as they observed their surroundings and, strangely, walked down the same path to the throne. Zalia was so used to the Astar floating or even teleporting everywhere that the sight of them actually using their legs was a little disconcerting.

    Zalia and her family stepped to one side of the clearing as the two Astar took the other, each of them looking at each other warily.

    ? - Diamond rank

    ? - Diamond rank

    A shudder went down Zalia¡¯s body at seeing both Astar were Diamond rank, though Nateysta could deal with both with ease. Neither group spoke for a long time, with Nateysta the first to break the silence.

    ¡°I will make this clear, if it wasn¡¯t already, to all of you. There will be no violence, nor anger here. Any to break the sanctity of this place will be expelled.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dream of it, Ro.¡±

    The Astar both gave Zalia an odd look at the nickname but each bowed deeply to Nateysta in acknowledgement of his words.

    Each of the Astar were much different to Zalia¡¯s experience of the rest of their kind. Where the Astar were usually uniform in their apparel, wearing clothes in dull colours of greys and blues that matched their skin and runes, with long hair that reached past their feet, these ones were very different.

    They both wore clothes that included colours of blue, green and brown, matching a more earthy appearance than their otherworldly kin. The runes inscribed in their skin were also varying in their colour, rather than a uniform light blue. They wore bracelets, earrings and necklaces, each piece crafted with deep, rich brown wood and gold.

    The most disconcerting part of their appearance was the twinkle of emotion in their eyes, the expression on their faces. Though, while it put off the idea of what an Astar was in her mind, it was also strangely comforting to know that these two were so different to their kin. All in all, they looked more like spirits of nature than alien creatures, even their auras blending into the environment rather than the usual hard bubble Astar maintained.

    Zalia could see them inspecting her much in the same way she was inspecting them, feeling the gentle but polite touch of aura against her own even as she did the same to them.

    A reverberating voice, much like Nateystas, deep and gravelly, resounded through the air.

    ¡°To begin, I extend an apology from my people to yours for the actions of our more¡­ violent kin.¡±

    Then, shocking Zalia even more, the two Astar put their hands together as if in prayer and kneeled, bowing their heads. She looked over at Nateysta, who remained stone still, before gauging her family¡¯s reactions.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    With the others looking just as shocked as she felt, Zalia moved toward the Astar. They raised fervently anxious looks towards her as she approached and it occurred to Zalia that they might be just as, if not more, in need of an alliance.

    Feeling a hint of goodwill towards the Astar at the show of humility, she held out a hand to help both Astar up, though neither needed it.

    ¡°There is no need to apologise for the actions of your kin if you had no hand in deciding their course. You are of their blood but it is they who must answer for what they have done.¡±

    Despite having heard one of them speak, Zalia hadn¡¯t been able to discern which of the two it was. She listened closer as they spoke again, yet couldn¡¯t discern from which of their auras the words came.

    ¡°And they will.¡±

    The Astar each took one of her hands and stood. Zalia took a step back so as not to be towered over by the tall Astar.

    ¡°You may call me Zalia, how can we address both of you?¡±

    Watching Zalia put her hand to her chest as she introduced herself, both Astar copied the action.

    ¡°I am Het¡¯jel.¡±

    Zalia looked at them both, waiting for a second name before realising she wouldn¡¯t get one. It was a stark reminder that despite being at war with the Astar, they knew next to nothing about them.

    ¡°You are both Het¡¯jel?¡±

    She undoubtedly massacred the pronunciation of the name, unable to put the meaning behind the word that the Astar did using their odd aura speech.

    ¡°We two are one.¡±

    Zalia looked back at Ember, who shrugged.

    ¡°Alright then. Let¡¯s begin then, shall we? I have many questions and am hoping you have answers for them.¡±

    A feeling of affirmation came through the auras of Het¡¯jel and Nateysta¡¯s head tilted ever so slightly. Chairs grew from the ground, two for the Astar and three for Zalia, Ember and Aylie. A small padded pedestal grew for Boreal so that she had somewhere to sit too.

    As Zalia took her seat, a small table grew from the space between them, separating the two sides with Nateysta at the head of the table.

    ¡°I guess the first question I have for you is, what are you looking to get from us?¡±

    ¡°I shall need to provide context to answer this question.¡±

    Het¡¯jel waited and Zalia nodded for them to go ahead.

    ¡°As I¡¯m sure the venerable Nateysta has informed you, I am part of a rebellious faction of the Astar. Each Astar amongst our number has different reasons for being part of this rebellion, but there is one thing that ties us together. That thing is our common dislike for the course that the Monarch takes for our people. They lead the Astar down a path of weakness and of hate. Many of our number grow complacent and lazy, lacking the motivation to strive for strength and their own mixture of complacency and sense of superiority is what causes them to strike out against your people. They see your people fight and grow stronger by the day, just as we do, and it is this strength we see in you that has led us to reach out.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°You say that the Astar have grown complacent, yet there are many powerful members amongst them. We had to fight two of them at Emerald rank just days earlier.¡±

    The two as one, Het¡¯jel, both shook their heads.

    ¡°Things are not as they appear. The loss of Ven¡¯kal has had a large impact on the strength of the Astar. In truth, Ven¡¯kal was one of two of Emerald amongst the Astar number. We know of only one of Mythical and one of Diamond. There is also the Monarch of course.¡±

    ¡°When you say one, do you mean the two bodies as one, just as you are?¡±

    Het¡¯jel cocked their heads.

    ¡°You do not know of the duality then?¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°The duality?¡±

    ¡°Each Astar is born with two bodies. We are two minds and two bodies thinking and acting as one. It is this very nature of our people that has caused the Monarch to go astray. One of two became Ascendant while the other remains Mythical. A disconnect has formed between the two, causing them to be disconnected not only in body but in mind. I warned them not to follow this course, yet they would not listen. Now I must fight to have them removed, less their condition ruin the Astar people forever.¡±

    Zalia sat up straight to reply, yet it was Ember who got there first.

    ¡°Wait, you knew the Monarch before they ascended?¡±

    There was a sad expression in the eyes of Het¡¯jel as they replied.

    ¡°Things were not always as they are now. The Monarch thought that allowing only one of two to become Ascendent would give them the power to ignore the rules that encompass the others of that rank, and it did. They did not foresee the problems of the mind that would come with it, they cannot see them even now. Only I and a few others who can see from outside their minds have seen the changes.¡±

    Everyone turned to Nateysta as he spoke.

    ¡°I understand now. An Ascendant locked to the physical plane not by an avatar but by the other half of their soul. That would indeed warp their minds.¡±

    Het¡¯jel nodded their heads.

    ¡°Yes, venerable one.¡±

    Then they turned back to Zalia.

    ¡°Now, to answer your question. We look to you and yours to assist us in removing the Monarch. Not only would this solve our issue and allow the Astar people to thrive again, but I believe it will fix yours as well. With the Monarch gone, the Astar will no longer follow their decrees out of fear. There will be civil war as those who have profited from the Monarch¡¯s ways fight those who have suffered from it, but that is not an issue that your people need worry about. If anything, it will give you reprieve from Astar focus and allow your people to recover and grow stronger.¡±

    Zalia sat back heavily in her seat, breathing out deeply.

    ¡°I must admit, I¡¯m tempted by the offer. It won¡¯t be up to me to make the final decision on this but I have a feeling the council will be tempted too. How do you plan on actually removing the Monarch? Do your people have the strength to fight against all the high ranked Astar?¡±

    Het¡¯jel shook their heads.

    ¡°No, we do not. The rebellion will launch an all out attack on an edge city and the Monarch will send all the high ranked Astar to deal with us. It is likely that many of our number will be wiped out during this fight, but it will be worth it if we succeed. With no defenders, I and your strongest will go to fight the Monarch and remove them from power. It is a gamble, but one that our people have considered for a long time. The only reason we have decided it is a good course of action now is we believe you have the strength to assist us in removing the Monarch.¡±

    Zalia stared at the Astar, mind turning. Could she really trust Het¡¯jel? Nateysta seemed to think so, yet she wasn¡¯t sure how well he knew how to read people.

    ¡°What makes you think we have the strength?¡±

    ¡°You managed to kill Ven¡¯kal, did you not? You must have some amongst you who are powerful enough to stand up to the Monarch having achieved that feat.¡±

    Zalia tapped her leg a little nervously as she glanced at Aylie.

    ¡°Well, you could say that.¡±

 Book 4: 43 - To See The Sun

    ¡°One Emerald rank? That is all it took to kill Ven¡¯kal?¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s pretty strong and a defence specialist. It¡¯s almost impossible to kill her as far as I can tell.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps this will be enough. If they can keep the Monarch¡¯s attention while we deal the damage, victory is possible. It will be a risk still, yet much of the ante will be paid by us, not you.¡±

    Zalia turned to Ember who was able to hear the thoughts she sent down their bond.

    ¡°Should I tell them about the God-trap?¡±

    Ember shrugged indecisively.

    ¡°They seem trustworthy but they¡¯re still Astar. I¡¯m not sure how far we can trust them at this point.¡±

    Undecided, Zalia held onto the information for now.

    ¡°What about the second half of the Monarch, will they be able to intervene?¡±

    ¡°Yes, though not as directly as they might wish to. While able to act more than one such as Nateysta, they will not be able to hurt us directly. The battlefield will be changed to disadvantage us greatly, however. We should expect the place of our combat to be infused with the Ascendant power of the Monarch quite thoroughly. I doubt Nateysta will be able to do more than keep other possible weaker defenders away. Gold rankers and the like.¡±

    Zalia perked up. If they would be fighting in a place directly linked to the Ascendant half of the Monarch, all they would have to do is wait for them to manifest an avatar directly before using the God-trap. With the Ascendant half taken care of, the fight would go much easier for Hildebrandt and Het¡¯jel.

    ¡°Okay, I think we can manage. This might actually be possible.¡±

    Ember leaned forward, resting her arms on the table.

    ¡°I know you said that once the Monarch is removed from power, much of the problem facing Endaria would be dealt with but I think the council would like to know exactly what your plans are if we do succeed.¡±

    Both of Het¡¯jel¡¯s heads turned to face Ember as she spoke.

    ¡°I will take the throne, of course. There will be those who rebel and a war will be fought amongst our own but we will prevail. If your council would go so far as to formally support us, I believe that many will fear fighting the alliance that managed to take down the Monarch. To use the method of control that the Monarch uses will be unsavoury, but a widespread change of culture will take time and patience. I might be a tyrant to my people but I will use the power to ensure that I will be the last.¡±

    Zalia turned to Ember and Aylie, then back.

    ¡°We are not one of mind as you are, Het¡¯jel. Would it be alright if we take a moment to deliberate?¡±

    Het¡¯jel nodded their heads and Zalia, Boreal, Aylie and Ember all got up. She walked with them back up the path around the lake for a distance before finally speaking.

    ¡°Thoughts?¡±

    Aylie was the first to pipe up.

    ¡°There is something fundamentally different between these Astar and the ones that captured us in the town. That might be a good thing?¡±

    Zalia nodded agreement.

    ¡°I noticed that too, their auras right?¡±

    Aylie shook her head, looking thoughtful.

    ¡°Yes, but no. That is different but there is something about the way their souls interact with their bodies that is different. With the Astar we¡¯ve interacted with so far, it¡¯s almost as if their souls are at a disconnect with their physical bodies, despite being the same thing. Het¡¯jel is different; they feel more connected.¡±

    Zalia pondered for a moment as they continued up the gentle slope, making sure not to step on any of the hoard of intrigued crab things walking around.

    ¡°Might have something to do with how the Astar are made to cut off any and all emotion. In the few minutes we¡¯ve talked to Het¡¯jel I¡¯ve seen sadness, anxiety, concern. You won¡¯t find that on the expression of any normal Astar, though it might be a trick to draw us in.¡±

    It was Ember¡¯s turn to shake her head.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. They feel genuine to me.¡±

    Zalia turned to her giant feline companion.

    ¡°Boreal? Any thoughts?... and no we won¡¯t be taste testing them.¡±

    Boreal had looked excited for just a moment, but sullenly drooped her head as Zalia took tasting off the menu.

    ¡°If they can kill Monarch, yes.¡±

    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s one for it and I¡¯m leaning that direction too. Aylie? Ember?¡±

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Aylie nodded decisively, while Ember¡¯s agreement was a little more subdued.

    ¡°We take it to the council and let them decide. This is all assuming Hildebrandt survives of course but it does appear promising.¡±

    Zalia waited a few moments but no one changed their mind, so started back to Het¡¯jel and Nateysta.

    ¡°Decided then.¡±

    They took their places at the table and Het¡¯jel looked at them keenly.

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll suggest forming an alliance to the council. Some of them might want to meet with you under similar circumstances to this, if you¡¯d be willing.¡±

    ¡°Of course. Nateysta knows where to find us when you are ready.¡±

    With that, the table and chairs dissolved even as the spheres of Nateysta¡¯s power encompassed them. They were all taken from the cave at speed, the Astar zipping away in a different direction once they reached the surface.

    The meeting hadn¡¯t taken long and neither had the journey there. Their return to Nature¡¯s Reclaim took a similarly short time and they were back home before they knew it. It had been a long day, not because a lot of time had passed but because a lot had happened all at once. Matthias had returned, Hidey had been freed and they had met with the Astar rebellion. Despite all that, it was still early in the day and there was much to be done.

    Nateysta had disappeared the moment they landed safely and Ember soon took his example, letting Zalia know that she would check on Hildebrandt while Zalia told Faian of their meeting. Boreal went off to find her children, obviously excited to talk to them about their hunt earlier that day and Aylie followed along with Zalia.

    They went to the housing that had been given to Faian and her soldiers, finding them all but ready to leave for the capital. She went over their conversation with Het¡¯jel in detail, finishing the conversation with a strong recommendation that they agree to the alliance and form a proper plan with the Astar rebellion. Faian kept her eyes on Zalia with an intense gaze, obviously trying to catch every word and emotion that she showed.

    Once she was done talking, Faian agreed with her assessment but stated that she wanted to meet with Het¡¯jel, just as Zalia had expected. All of this, however, relied on Hildebrandt¡¯s recovery.

    Zalia had very specifically not told Het¡¯jel about her injuries. If it turned out that they were working for the Monarch, she didn¡¯t want to tell them that Endaria¡¯s only proper defence was currently bed-ridden. Feeling no strong emotions either way from the bond with Ember, Zalia figured that there had been no change in Hildebrandt¡¯s state.

    She left the group of soldiers to their tasks and went back home. Just as she expected, Hildebrandt was in the same comatose state with no visible difference. Aylie¡¯s gasp of surprise told a different story however.

    ¡°That¡¯s really bad,¡± she said, walking up and staring seemingly through Hildebrandt.

    ¡°What?¡± Zalia asked.

    ¡°The power,¡± Aylie said, gesturing, ¡±It grew when we were gone. Not by an insignificant amount either.¡±

    Ember cursed, staring at Hildebrandt as well.

    ¡°I can¡¯t see that at all. Triage only allows me to see physical wounds while Emotional Soothing shows mental ones. The soul is completely out of my area of expertise.¡±

    Zalia put an arm around her gently.

    ¡°I¡¯m frustrated too. It feels like we should be able to help.¡±

    Ember held her back as they watched Hildebrandt¡¯s uneven breathing. The same thing was roiling around both of their minds; whether it was worth the risk to enter the Astral by Aylie¡¯s power and attempt to deal with the magic affliction directly. It was a big risk should things go bad and the memories of prophecy left by the collective were quite unhelpful.

    ¡°I have to go in there,¡± Aylie murmured.

    ¡°Aylie.¡±

    Aylie turned to Ember.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare. Not without talking about it properly first.¡±

    ¡°I agree. While I do think we should go in and help, I think we really need to be prepared first.¡±

    Aylie¡¯s shoulders sagged.

    ¡°Fine, but you both know that if it gets too bad we¡¯ll do it anyway.¡±

    She left, Zalia and Ember stepping out of her way.

    ¡°She¡¯s right,¡± Ember murmured.

    Zalia pulled her into a proper hug.

    ¡°Yeah, I know. Hildebrandt is Endaria¡¯s main hope, we can¡¯t let her die without trying.¡±

    Ember let out a deep sigh.

    ¡°Alright, we better prepare for the worst then, shouldn¡¯t we?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we should. In fact, it might be better to try take this thing on before it grows any stronger.¡±

    Ember pulled back and looked at Hildebrandt for a long time.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Zalia watched over Hildebrandt that night, even though she had no way of discerning the state of her soul. Hidey, Faian and her soldiers left for the capital the next morning with Matthias in tow, having found him the night before. Zalia waved them off before returning back to the comatose Hildebrandt to keep watch. Aylie said that the power had grown again overnight and was firm in her belief that it would grow strong enough to kill Hildebrandt before the seven days of massively reduced defence that she suffered would end.

    The next few days were spent in anxious preparation as the power only grew worse. Aylie and Zalia argued often to enter the Astral and deal with the power but Ember refused until the third day.

    Zalia had spent much of the interceding time creating an ointment that was a mixture of Soulroot and Dodge-vine. The intended effect of the mixture was to provide extra defence for the soul, something that would help if they did end up going in. While initially intended for that use, she found that applying some to Hildebrandt every few hours helped to slow the growth of the affliction. It wasn¡¯t enough, however.

    On the morning of the fourth day, Aylie was insistent that they had to act now. Zalia had adaptive protection runes on her armour and had even changed the mobility increasing ones to be a soul protective specific one to double down on it. Making any kind of impact on the power at their lower rank might be hard, but it had to be done.

    It was decided that Zalia and Aylie would go in, while Ember cared for Hildebrandt in the physical world. With their overlapping auras of Healing Presence along with all the defensive abilities Zalia had, they hoped to survive. It was Aylie¡¯s powers over the Astral and soul that they were relying on to combat the power directly.

    Both Ember and Boreal embraced them in firm hugs before stepping back. Zalia stared into Ember¡¯s eyes as Aylie got closer to Zalia. She reached a hand out and grabbed onto something ethereal and invisible to Zalia¡¯s eyes. With a tug, Aylie pulled aside the curtain of reality and draped it over Zalia and herself.

    Their vision distorted and twisted, the experience much like that of the dreamscape Aylie could make when it moved. Everything settled once more to a cloudy world with vague shapes hidden in the mist. Before them a blue sun burnt, tendrils of power stretching into the distance with a few holding firmly onto the shape of a person. Hildebrandt was suspended by the sun, struggling against the bonds that held her yet making no impact on them.

    With protections in place, Zalia and Aylie walked towards the distant sun.

 Book 4: 44 - To Kill A Sun You Need A Star

    The surface of the once calm, blue sun became violent and reactive as Zalia and Aylie walked closer. Zalia prepared herself to react in an instant if the power decided to strike out at Aylie, who she had told to leave the Astral should she need to use Protection of the Wilds. If it came down to her using that ability, they¡¯d both need to get out as soon as possible.

    Hanging below the sun, Hildebrandt watched them approach with warning in her eyes. Zalia tried to reach out with her telepathy but found that the power didn¡¯t work. Odd.

    They took a few steps closer and one of the tendrils of power floating off into the unseeable distance whipped down to strike them. A wave went through it like a loose rope that had been flicked by a hand and a central section of the tendril came down with a crash next to them. They managed to jump out of the way of the tendril just in time, the thing thicker than Aylie was tall.

    ¡°Hildebrandt!¡± Zalia yelled.

    Hildebrandt didn¡¯t respond, but her struggling grew stronger.

    Looking over at Aylie, Zalia could tell she was still resolute and the duo continued forwards.

    There was no heat coming from the sun but there was an oppressive aura of some kind. It was a weight on their souls that grew heavier the closer they got.

    Now knowing that she needed to watch out for the tendrils, Zalia could see the beginnings of another attack coming from a different one. It wobbled ever so slightly and when the wave of movement returned to the sun, it increased tenfold, the section of tendril flying down towards them.

    Zalia tried to teleport at that instant, yet found that Mobility didn¡¯t work either. Late to react, Zalia was scraped by the tendril, a burning pain sent down her back. It coursed through her but the defence of her armour and the ointment in addition to her natural resilience allowed her to struggle back to her feet. The pain was considerable but nothing she hadn¡¯t dealt with before.

    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Aylie asked with worry.

    Zalia nodded, but found that Healing Presence wasn¡¯t working. Hers wasn¡¯t, yet Aylie¡¯s was.

    ¡°I thought you said abilities worked in the Astral?¡±

    ¡°They do!¡± Aylie exclaimed.

    The burn all down her back was slowly healing up from Aylie¡¯s power but nowhere as quick as Zalia¡¯s own power would have worked.

    ¡°Something is wrong, my abilities won¡¯t work, any of them.¡±

    Aylie frowned and opened her starlight portal. Moonlight shone down from somewhere above, the radiant light illuminating an oval shape in front of them. A similar beam of light was cutting straight through the sun in front of them to create the other side of the portal next to Hildebrandt.

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get closer. Those tendrils will have a harder time hitting us there.¡±

    Zalia looked at the portal sceptically, but stepped through.

    The weight pressing down on their souls grew substantially stronger as they arrived near Hildebrandt, the look of warning still in her eyes.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to get you out Hildebrandt¡±

    Zalia tried summoning her weapons and found that at the least, they still worked. Her sword appeared in hand while her bow floated in the space next to her. They hadn¡¯t had a set plan to help Hildebrandt out of her situation but seeing her strung up by the blue sun¡¯s power made their course forward obvious.

    She stepped up and swung at one of the significantly smaller tendrils even as Aylie spoke.

    ¡°Zalia, wait¡±

    Her sword passed straight through harmlessly and she looked back at Aylie in confusion.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think you can help here. Only my power works. I think the reason that your vision shows me kneeling before the sun alone is because I¡¯m the only one that can fight this thing. You should leave.¡±

    Zalia walked over under the still growing weight.

    ¡°What!? You can¡¯t be serious Aylie. I won¡¯t leave you here alone. I might not be able to fight, but I can still stand by you.¡±

    Aylie looked at her with a sad smile.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry mum, I¡¯ll save her.¡±

    With that, Aylie pulled the fabric of the world over Zalia, sending her back.

    The nauseating feeling of movement mixed with blurred colours came back to Zalia as she was sent away. Her vision swam until the real world came into focus.

    ¡°No! Aylie¡­¡±

    Ember turned in alarm at her sudden appearance.

    ¡°Where is Aylie? Zalia, where. Is. Aylie?¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Zalia dropped her weapons, which faded to a quickly dissipating mist.

    ¡°She sent me back¡­¡±

    Ember stood sharply.

    ¡°What? Why?¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°My powers didn¡¯t work in the Astral but hers did. I think she sent me back so I wouldn¡¯t get hurt.¡±

    The burn she had received in the Astral wasn¡¯t present here in the physical world, yet she could feel the pain on her soul instead. It wasn¡¯t dissimilar to the discomfort of overusing passive abilities or mana.

    ¡°Your vision was right¡­¡± Ember whispered.

    Zalia moved to hug her close.

    ¡°She¡¯ll make it out.¡±

    ________________________________

    Aylie stared at the space Zalia had just been in, immediately second guessing herself. Steeling her mind against the doubt, she turned to face the blue sun. It almost felt sentient to Aylie¡¯s senses, like a spider with prey in its web staring down at another possible catch. Here, though, Aylie was not prey.

    She used the healing surge of her Healing Presence, multiplying its strength tenfold and giving it the ability to affect the soul. With newfound strength, she pushed back the weight of the sun and tried to encompass Hildebrandt with it. The sun pounced, hundreds of smaller tendrils of power shooting from its surface above to slam into the incorporeal presence of her aura. A struggle between them began, one not of physical strength or finesse, but one of the soul.

    The tendrils of power from the blue sun pushing against her aura made the usually invisible bubble into a visible boundary. She struggled, eyes closed and teeth gritted against the sheer force of the power fighting against her. It may have been a semi-mindless chunk of power given purpose in comparison to her very real and very resolute will, but it was Emerald rank.

    She staggered forward, one step, then another. Each foot in front of the last brought her that much closer to Hildebrandt. The barrier that was her aura was crushing inward, forced within a metre of herself in any direction. Sparks of blue and yellow power melted away as the blue sun sacrificed parts of its strength to try and crush her underneath it.

    It felt like an eternity before she was able to take another step forward and even longer for the next. All thought passed from her mind as the strain of maintaining her aura brought her to one knee. She struggled up and took another step, lifting her head and opening an eye to find Hildebrandt in front of her.

    The tendrils of power that had been suspending the powerful form of the Emerald rank Hildebrandt had been pushed back by Aylie¡¯s advance. The form of Hildebrandt¡¯s soul now lay on the ethereal mist that made up the floor in front of Aylie. She fell to one knee again, managing to scrape forward and within reach of the woman. Her other leg buckled and Aylie found herself kneeling, head bowed, before Hildebrandt.

    She reached out and pulled the fabric of the Astral over the woman, sending her back to the physical realm.

    Even as she did, the strength of her aura finally failed. The minute of tenfold strength had passed and the power of her aura fell with it.

    The tendrils from the blue sun flicked angrily, the purpose of the power having been stolen from it. They snaked slowly towards Aylie and she struggled to lift an arm to take herself from the Astral. A tendril latched onto her arm, dragging it up and away from its purpose. Her other arm soon followed and Aylie found herself being oh so slowly lifted from the ground.

    _________________________________

    Zalia and Ember waited with bated breath as a war waged within the Astral. The usually stagnant form of Hildebrandt was thrashing in defiance of the power that sought to destroy her. Knowing that the Astral was a space of thought, Zalia pulled out the poultice of Soulroot and dabbed some onto her forehead. Its purpose was to assist someone in entering a more meditative state where they could see into the Astral ever so slightly. She handed it to Ember who did the same.

    All of a sudden, Hildebrandt woke with a shocked gasp of breath. Her eyes were wild with the adrenaline of prey hunted by a predator. Ember rushed forward to check on the woman but Hildebrandt¡¯s eyes locked onto Zalia.

    ¡°We have to help her.¡±

    Zalia nodded, taking the Soulroot poultice from Ember and dabbing some onto Hildebrandt¡¯s forehead as well.

    ¡°This will allow us to enter a meditative state and see slightly into the Astral. I understand now why my abilities didn¡¯t work there, it¡¯s not a place of power but a place of the mind. If we lend our mind¡¯s to Aylie, she might be able to fight against the blue sun.¡±

    They all sat in silence as they descended into the meditative state. Slowly, their vision was overlaid with the misty land with the giant blue sun. It had Aylie in its grasp, pulling her up to replace Hildebrandt. Zalia pushed all of her mind towards lending Aylie power, believing in her, trusting her.

    _______________________________

    Aylie¡¯s head drooped as she lifted up, certain that this was the future that Zalia had foreseen, the fate that had awaited her. It had needed to be done, though, for Endaria. Aylie might never have grown strong enough to avenge her parents slaughtered by the demon invasion, the invasion that had been orchestrated by the Astar, but she knew Zalia would do that for her. She knew that Hildebrandt would do that for her.

    A trickle of power from somewhere else made its way into Aylie¡¯s soul. She knew that power, she had felt it from the day that she had been saved from the demons by Zalia. Her head lifted to stare into the sun in defiance.

    It sent more tendrils to raise her as she pulled against its influence but another tendril of power came to her. She knew the feeling of this power too, the kind, calm, sternness of the other woman who had adopted her. With the support of Zalia and Ember behind her, Aylie¡¯s feet found the floor once more. She shook off a tendril, finding two more in their place, yet continued the struggle.

    Her aura managed to push back all the tendrils entirely, forcing them mere inches from her skin. Teeth gritted with concentration, pure will holding the blue sun at bay, Aylie continued the fight.

    Another source of power came to her, this one unfamiliar. It was incredible, stronger than that of Ember, Zalia and herself put together many times over. She pushed the tendrils back with ease, summoning the staff gifted to her by Zalia.

    Holding it in two hands, she raised the staff up to the sky and, with eyes closed, began to channel the power granted to her into the staff. With a flash of light, her eyes opened, glowing white and blue as the stars above. A twinkle in the heavens heralded the doom of the blue sun as a star equal in size descended at speed, trailing a blazing, white fire.

    Aylie slammed the butt of her staff into the misty ethereal floor beneath her and the called star impacted the blue sun, the collision of the two massive celestial objects sending an explosive ring of blue and white fire spiralling away. The tendrils of the blue sun vanished with the blast, blown away by the sheer force of the two objects.

    The surface of the blue sun cracked, then gave way as Aylie¡¯s white star slammed straight through into its core. The blue sun exploded from within, the remnants of its power sprayed across the Astral as Aylie¡¯s star took its place.

    She took one hand off the staff and smiled a victorious grin as she pulled the fabric of the Astral over herself, transporting back to the physical world.

 Book 4: 45 - Storm of the North

    Zalia let out a deep breath as Aylie reappeared, looking unharmed and grinning like a maniac.

    ¡°Aylie! That was amazing!¡±

    All of them had seen what Aylie had done, calling the star from the sky to obliterate a power that should have been so much stronger than her.

    ¡°And stupidly risky,¡± Ember added, relief and anger battling on her face.

    Aylie stood her ground, making eye contact with Ember.

    ¡°I¡¯m a higher rank than either of you were when you first started adventuring with the Morning¡¯s Shade. I¡¯ve also had much more training from the both of you in that time and you both did risky things. Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve forgotten that you both fought a Gold ranked elemental.¡±

    Zalia definitely couldn¡¯t argue the point, but Ember tried anyway.

    ¡°And we were also both much older, with higher ranked back up and teams around us.¡±

    Relief finally won out on Ember¡¯s face as Aylie had the sense to look just a tad sheepish.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re safe though.¡±

    Ember hugged her tightly as Zalia turned to Hildebrandt.

    ¡°How are you doing?¡±

    Hildebrandt was shivering, as if cold despite the fact that she shouldn¡¯t be able to be.

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯ll be alright.¡±

    Zalia helped her sit up against the wall, a thick blanket of soft leaves growing up and over to help warm her.

    ¡°I won¡¯t scold you as I¡¯m not your mother, but it was a risky thing you did to kill those Astar.¡±

    Hildebrandt shrugged with a rustle of leaves.

    ¡°It had to be done. I wasn¡¯t going to beat them otherwise.¡±

    Zalia nodded. She knew better than most that sometimes sacrifices had to be made. Despite that, she never wanted it to be others that made those sacrifices.

    ¡°Well, as it is, you killed them and we were able to free Hidey. You¡¯ve also got three new heirlooms.¡±

    She looked over to where the heirlooms were resting on a side table and Hidlebrandt followed her gaze. frowning.

    ¡°I don¡¯t really need any more than I have.¡±

    Zalia gave her a pat on the shoulder.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that now. Unfortunately, I¡¯m going to have to get you focussed on something else.¡±

    Zalia began talking, leading Hildebrandt through the events over the days she had been in the coma. Matthias¡¯ return brought joy to her face, while the meeting with the Astar rebel Het¡¯jel brought concern and suspicion. Boreal walked in to see what all the fuss was about as Zalia spoke, sitting far from where Ember and Aylie were still talking and staring at Hildebrandt.

    When she got to describing the plan, Hildebrandt¡¯s expression grew more concerned.

    ¡°That¡¯s a big risk for someone who just basically told me off for my previous one. I¡¯m not sure I can fight something like that.¡±

    Zalia held up a hand.

    ¡°In my defence, I brought it back to Faian for approval and she and the council will talk it over before anything is decided. She¡¯ll also be meeting with Het¡¯jel to get a feeling for them. Also, since you won¡¯t be the one doing damage to the Monarch, you won¡¯t have to use Mutual Destruction again. The danger to you personally will probably be less than what you¡¯ve just been through.¡±

    That got Hildebrandt looking thoughtful.

    ¡°True enough, though the abilities of a Mythic ranked enemy who has an Ascendant ally should not be underestimated.¡±

    Zalia didn¡¯t argue the point, turning as Boreal spoke.

    ¡°There is one more we can bring to the fight.¡±

    Zalia raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Oh, you have some mysterious ally that I don¡¯t know about?¡±

    Boreal looked down and licked her paw in an innocent manner.

    ¡°Maybe.¡±

    Zalia looked back up at Hildebrandt, giving her a long-suffering expression and exhaling deeply.

    ¡°Alright then, who is it?¡±

    Boreal stopped and looked back up.

    ¡°The one who gave me my crown.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°You know you never told us where you got that, right?¡±

    Boreal was silent for a while before finally replying.

    ¡°I¡¯ll take you to meet them, only you. I made a promise not to reveal them to you until the time was right.¡±

    Zalia put a hand on her hip, looking Boreal up and down.

    ¡°You¡¯re keeping secrets from me? Where did you go for those couple months?¡±

    Despite being unable to form human expressions, Zalia swore she could see smugness on Boreal¡¯s face. Maybe it was just exuded by her aura.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Boreal started to walk out the door.

    ¡°Wait just a damn minute, go where?¡±

    ¡°To the north!¡±

    Zalia rolled her eyes.

    ¡°Boreal we can¡¯t just walk out and go to the north without saying anything to anyone!¡±

    That finally got Ember and Aylie¡¯s attention.

    ¡°What? Why are we going to the north?¡±

    Zalia turned an exasperated look to them.

    ¡°Boreal apparently has some mysterious friend who can help us fight the Monarch and only I¡¯m allowed to go meet them.¡±

    Ember gave Boreal a look identical to the one Zalia had just given moments earlier.

    ¡°Boreal, are you keeping secrets from us?¡±

    Zalia pointed at Boreal a she tried to inch her way out of the door.

    ¡°You stay there!¡± she turned back to Ember, ¡°That¡¯s what I said! If Boreal has a secret Emerald or Diamond rank friend hidden in her paws I swear.¡±

    Everyone in the room was focussed on Boreal now, her ears pointing backwards as if in an attempt to make herself more streamlined for a dash to safety.

    It was Aylie who spoke up first.

    ¡°You are keeping something from us, I can see it in your thoughts. Why didn¡¯t you tell me about this, you share all your secrets with me¡±

    Like swivels on a queue, Ember and Zalia¡¯s heads both turned to Aylie.

    ¡°All her secrets?¡± Zalia asked.

    Aylie paled.

    ¡°Yeahhhhh.¡±

    She extricated herself from Ember and looked like she was about to explain, then disappeared.

    Zalia looked at Ember.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go with Boreal up north to find this powerful friend of hers. In all seriousness, if they¡¯re real and willing to help, I wouldn¡¯t say no.¡±

    Ember nodded.

    ¡°Good, we have a bit of time before Hildebrandt is in a state to be fighting again so we¡¯ve got the time. Aylie and I are gonna have a nice long chat while you¡¯re gone.¡±

    Hildebrandt, who had been silently watching the entire ordeal, spoke up.

    ¡°You¡¯re all crazy.¡±

    Ember turned to her.

    ¡°You have no idea. It¡¯s Boreal¡¯s fault, she was the one that turned insanity into normalcy for all of us.¡±

    Zalia nodded her agreement as she left the room.

    ¡°Yep, allllll Boreal.¡±

    She put a hand on Boreal¡¯s back as she said so, the feline still frozen in the doorway.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go meet your friend, shall we?¡±

    A journey to the north of Endaria from their relatively central home of Nature¡¯s Reclaim used to take quite some time to complete. That had been back in the days of low ranked travel, however. Now at Silver rank with plenty of abilities that assisted in mobility, such as the Mobility and Flight passives as well as Zalia¡¯s many rituals to enhance speed, the journey wouldn¡¯t take long at all. It would be even further cut short by her ability to step back through the vault created by her gauntlet and back to either of her Druid Grove¡¯s instantly.

    They decided against bringing Boreal¡¯s children as they would slow travel down considerably, with both Boreal and Zalia being able to go almost indefinitely without sleep due to Zalia¡¯s Survivalist passive, the ability shared with Boreal through their bond.

    Excited at the sudden and unknown nature of their journey, Zalia applied the ritual of flight to Boreal as they left the house and took to the sky. It reminded her of her early days in Endaria, going wherever at a whim, without responsibility or any purpose other than survival.

    Hours turned to days as the distant rolling hills and forests of Endaria flashed by beneath them. Zalia didn¡¯t manage to get any more information out of Boreal other than the promise that her friend was indeed real and very capable of helping in their fight against the Monarch.

    She had no idea where or how Boreal had found a high ranked ally and befriended them enough within the short span of a couple months to the point that they¡¯d fight a Mythic ranked enemy but she was absolutely going to get the story out of her when they got back to Nature¡¯s Reclaim. Neither she nor Ember had pushed Boreal to tell them about her months away but it was apparently about time they did.

    The grass and green trees of Endaria turned to the snow laden mountains of the north before long. Directed by Boreal, they flew past the mountain that contained Glemp and his people. Further and further they went, flying at speed for more than a day past the mountain. Zalia began to wonder just how far north Boreal had gone to find whatever ally this was, and what this ally was, before a mountain came into sight between two others. Boreal pointed it out and they made their way towards it.

    It was large, taller even than Glemp¡¯s mountain home. From their low vantage point, Zalia could tell that it ended not in a point but was either flat or caved in on top.

    She started to fly up towards it but Boreal interrupted her.

    ¡°We land and walk from here.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°What, why?¡±

    Boreal didn¡¯t answer to Zalia¡¯s frustration, flying down to land.

    She followed, her curiosity growing by the moment.

    They landed amidst the thick powder of snow covering the ground, neither of them bothered by it or the cold it put off. Pushing through with ease, they made their way up the base of the mountain as it grew steeper and steeper. They needed to clamber up amongst boulders and even climb rock faces at points, but Boreal insisted that they made the journey on foot. Up and up they went until they finally reached the top, the air thin to the point that were they not both capable of surviving with very little air, it might have been a problem.

    Atop the mountain was a deep caldera inside which the snow had fell and then melted. The water made by that snow was rising up into the sky as steam, though the small amount of steam quickly dissipated into the air.

    The cause of the melting snow was a massive, scaled form. With each breath of the giant winged creature, sparks of lightning jumped to the ground around it, stone shattering and chips flying at its impact. The lightning wasn¡¯t what was causing the snow to melt, however. That was caused by the sheer heat coming off of the creature.

    Seemingly without a second thought, Boreal stepped over the ledge and would have walked right down towards the creature had Zalia not grabbed her by the tail and dragged her back.

    ¡°Boreal!¡± she hissed.

    Boreal spun as Zalia pulled her back over the ledge, taking her tail out of reach.

    ¡°What?¡±

    Zalia poked her head over the edge, then ducked back as the massive creature let out another deep, rumbling breath.

    ¡°What the fuck is that!?¡±

    Her voice was still a whisper, though she switched to telepathy to ensure she didn¡¯t wake the beast.

    ¡°My ally! This is Rozestrazix, Storm of the North.¡±

    Zalia blinked at Boreal, shocked. She didn¡¯t know what she had been expecting but it hadn¡¯t been what looked to be an entire damn dragon.

    They both heard the cracking of stone and Zalia felt a bolt of fear run through her, the feeling deep and primal in a way she hadn¡¯t experienced in a long time.

    ¡°Reveal yourselves,¡± a deep, thunderous voice commanded.

    Boreal hopped over the ledge without further consideration, while Zalia stood, trembling.

    ¡°Ahh, young Boreal, it is good to see you again.¡±

    Zalia stared at Boreal, then the dragon, as it lowered its head to allow Boreal to bump her head against it.

    ¡°What the-¡±

 Book 4: 46 - Boreal Always Has Been Cheeky

    Zalia stared in shock and awe as Boreal companionably butted heads with a dragon in a manner that was much too friendly. How exactly Boreal had made friends with that without Zalia finding out, she wouldn¡¯t ever know. The dragon before her was massive, blue and white scales glittering in the sunlight even as jolts of lightning sparked across their surface.

    ¡°So¡­ you¡¯re Rozestrazix then?¡±

    The name felt alien on her tongue, though it flowed easily enough.

    ¡°Yes. You are Zalia, Hunter of the North, Druid of the Old Ones, Protector of Nature and Mother of Beasts. Boreal has told me much of you.¡±

    Zalia took a hesitant step over the ridge she had been hiding behind and into the dragon¡¯s nest, looking accusatorily at Boreal. She had really jumped her with one hell of a surprise.

    ¡°She has, has she? Interesting. How exactly do you two know each other? She has forgone informing me of your existence until very, very recently.¡±

    Boreal, in full out Boreal form, was ignoring both Zalia and Rozestrazix, choosing to explore the sights and smells of the massive nest around them. Zalia almost didn¡¯t blame her as it was quite impressive, though the dragon towering what looked like thirty metres above her was significantly more so.

    ¡°I would ask you forgive her this, as it was I that asked her not to reveal my existence to you or any other that she knew.¡±

    Zalia nodded hesitantly.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll bite. Why, exactly, did you ask that of her?¡±

    Rozestrazix settled down, the ground trembling beneath their giant form as they curled their tail in a manner that reminded Zalia of a cat.

    ¡°Please do not bite. The reason I brought Boreal to me in the first place was for business irrelevant to other beings upon which time was immaterial.¡±

    Zalia, still shaking from first contact with the massive, Mythic ranked being, attempted to appear calm by forming a chair for her to sit on, matching the dragon¡¯s demeanour. She was also a little off balance by the dragon¡¯s request for her to not bite. That was apparently not a commonly used phrase in its day to day conversation.

    ¡°Are either of you going to tell me about that business, now that I know of your existence?¡±

    Rozestrazix¡¯s tail flicked as they considered, the action sending a blast of wind through the nest.

    ¡°Perhaps I shall, however it is more important that we discuss the reason I have brought Boreal, and you by extension, here this time around.¡±

    Zalia fought off the urge to summon her armour out of instinct. Boreal had brought her here because there was a chance that the dragon would join their fight against the Monarch.

    ¡°Boreal did tell me that there was perhaps one other that would join our fight. Did you call us here to tell us that you plan to?¡±

    ¡°That is correct.¡±

    Zalia tapped at her legs, choosing her words carefully despite the fact that Rozestrazix was completely calm by all measures of the word.

    ¡°Excuse my bluntness but¡­ why? It¡¯s not your kingdom, your fight or your people. Why would you help us?¡±

    The dragon huffed out a light breath, the gentle gesture for its giant form more like a force of nature for Zalia.

    ¡°It is none of these things for you either, is it? All of those things are irrelevant, however. I am not so unaffected by the actions of the Monarch as you assume.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    Rozestrazix lifted a giant claw, gesturing to the wide landscape laid out before them.

    ¡°I am the guardian of this place and by extension, your kingdom. I keep these lands safe from the things that would enter it and destroy every living thing here without remorse. I keep the natural order of life safe, much as you do. The actions of the Monarch brought beings from out of this world into it, many of which attempted to enter these lands. To this day I am still rooting out those monstrosities from beneath the ground. The Monarch of the Astar has gone too far; they have broken the natural order to bring themself power at any cost. Due to the strangeness of their existence, the forces that should have already dealt with them cannot, so those of us with the power to must step up.¡±

    Zalia found herself nodding, the surprisingly logical and thought out reasoning of the dragon more refreshing to her than water from a stream.

    ¡°Alright, I have nothing to argue with there. The council will be more likely to enter into this agreement with the Astar knowing that someone of your strength will be there I feel, though learning of your existence might scare them.¡±

    Rozestrazix blinked slowly, shaking their head gently.

    ¡°You will not tell them of my existence. The manner in which I shall be joining this fight will not be direct, but much like how the Ascendants of this world act. I shall manifest my power, my strength and my will through you, Zalia. My main reason for being might be to guard these lands but both you and Boreal will be given my might for the coming fight, so that you might succeed. Be warned, Zalia, that this power will not be nearly enough for you to fight the Monarch directly. Instead, it may keep you alive where you might die otherwise.¡±

    More than a little confused, Zalia watched Boreal tumble over the edge of the nest, only to pop back over trailing a drift of snow.

    ¡°Why do you not want to be revealed to the people of Endaria? Why bring me here if you only plan to channel your power through us, why not just use Boreal instead?¡±

    Rozestrazix laughed, the sound vibrating the very world around them.

    ¡°You ask many questions, yet by virtue of your asking you answer them already. Do you not think you wouldn¡¯t notice if Boreal became incredibly powerful for the fight to come? You would have discovered my existence after the fight either way. As to why I wish to keep myself secret? Have you not seen what your people do to things they fear with your own eyes? Look how they engage the Astar, look how they reacted to the invasion that ravaged the kingdom. These people charge blade first towards the things they fear. No, I will remain hidden from them.¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Zalia stared at Boreal as she ran around the nest, pouncing on piles of snow and chasing after the flakes that were thrown into the air as a result.

    ¡°So¡­ why put yourself in Boreal¡¯s path? Why reveal yourself to her?¡±

    There was a twinkle in the dragon¡¯s eye as they responded.

    ¡°The question you should ask is why I put Boreal in your path.¡±

    Zalia stared, unsure.

    ¡°What do you mean? How could you have done that? Were you the one to kill Boreal¡¯s real mother?¡±

    The dragon shook their head.

    ¡°No, I simply helped Boreal live long enough that you would find her.¡±

    Rozestrazix stood, shaking the ground with the force of their steps.

    ¡°I am not long for the mortal realm, Zalia. I shall ascend, soon, and leave these lands without protection.¡±

    They turned, staring at the playful Boreal who turned in turn to face the dragon.

    ¡°Who better to take my place than one who knows deeper than any other the reality of this cold land? One born from it, one who knows the savagery of its nature. I found that you, too, lived in the manner of these lands and hoped that you would be a good guide for Boreal so that one day, she might take my place as the guardian. She is only one of many I have my eye on, yet is the most promising by far.¡±

    Rozestrazix took to the sky with beats of their wings so loud that even the rumbling voice of the dragon barely sounded above it.

    ¡°Leave now, you will find my strength flowing in your veins when you need it most.¡±

    With that final word, Rozestrazix dove down towards the lands beneath, wings beating as a storm formed above and around them.

    Feeling like she had been put through an aeroplane turbine, Zalia turned to look at Boreal, her fur having received a similar treatment to Zalia¡¯s hair.

    ¡°You, have been keeping a damned Mythic dragon from me!?¡±

    Boreal walked up to her, then brushed against her leg as she walked past.

    ¡°You¡¯re not the only one who can make big strong friends.¡±

    As Boreal hopped over the ridge back toward their path downwards, Zalia stood stock still, staring into the far distance.

    She felt like someone had tased her.

    Ember was not going to believe her when she got home. If she could even tell Ember about the dragon.

    ¡°Wait, Boreal.¡±

    Zalia chased after her, catching up in short order.

    ¡°We can tell Ember and Aylie about this, right?¡±

    Boreal stopped for a second, staring upwards, before replying.

    ¡°Yes, but no one else.¡±

    Zalia narrowed her eyes at Boreal.

    ¡°Do you have some kind of way to communicate with Rozestrazix?¡±

    Boreal avoided eye contact.

    ¡°You do!¡±

    She knew that Boreal was cheeky, she always had been. This, though, was on a whole different level.

    Feeling Ember¡¯s curiosity through their bond at the wild and chaotic emotions Zalia had accidentally broadcast down it, she called up the entrance to her vault.

    ¡°Come on Boreal, we better get back. The quick way.¡±

    They stepped out of the snow and into the calm, nourishing aura of her vault. With the relaxation she had built up over their long flight across Endaria dashed in one short conversation, the calm was very welcome indeed.

    She was able to open up the portal that led back to Nature¡¯s Reclaim, making the journey that had taken them days in a few short steps.

    Ember was waiting for them both on the front lawn by one of the Ancient of Life¡¯s giant trunks.

    ¡°So? Who is this mysterious ally that Boreal is bringing?¡±

    Zalia held up a hand for patience.

    ¡°You are not going to believe this. Let¡¯s get Aylie and sit down for a chat, Boreal has a lot to explain.¡±

    Ember raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°How bad could it be?¡±

    Half an hour later, they were sat in the comfortable, warm living room as Boreal finished up her explanations.

    Aylie stared dubiously at her, while Ember was watching Zalia with wide eyes, obviously believing the tall tales more having felt Zalia¡¯s emotions.

    It took Aylie looking to Zalia for a confirming nod before her dubious disbelief turned to shocked disbelief.

    ¡°You¡¯re friends with a dragon?¡± Aylie asked.

    Boreal dipped her head.

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Yep, Boreal has been friends with a damn Mythic ranked dragon for who knows how long. Apparently they told her not to reveal its existence which only barely gives her an excuse.¡±

    Ember pointed to the crown floating above Boreal¡¯s head, one of her heirloom items.

    ¡°You got that crown from a dragon!?¡±

    Boreal had the audacity to look smug.

    Zalia shook her head, still in disbelief at what she had just experienced.

    ¡°I mean, they were huge! I could barely believe my eyes. Apparently, they¡¯re going to lend Boreal and I their power for the fight so we can measure up to the Monarch.¡±

    Ember looked between them.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s actually a relief. I mean, I knew you would insist on joining that fight either way so some extra distance between you and death is a good thing.¡±

    Zalia frowned.

    ¡°What? I wasn¡¯t going to fight the Monarch. Neither was Boreal.¡±

    Ember gave her a flat look.

    ¡°You say that now but come time to kill that damned monster and you would be on your feet and out the door, ready to slay evil at a moment¡¯s notice. You can¡¯t help it!¡±

    Zalia shook her head but didn¡¯t argue. There was plenty of evidence that Ember could use to prove her point and not much that Zalia could use to defend herself. In fact, Zalia even lost that argument to herself in her own head.

    ¡°Right. Has there been any word from the Council?¡±

    Ember nodded.

    ¡°Yeah, it looks like we¡¯re doing this thing. They met Het¡¯jel and were apparently convinced because Nateysta delivered the news yesterday. Give the rebellion a little bit of time to set up the baiting attack on a relatively distant town and this thing is a go.¡±

    Zalia took a deep breath, centering herself. Now that it was on, she couldn¡¯t lie to herself that she definitely would have gone anyway. It looked like everything had come to this, a final fight against the Monarch. If they won, Endaria might finally have the time it needed to recover. If they lost, not only would Zalia and Boreal be dead but so too would Hildebrandt and most likely the majority of the Astar rebellion. There wouldn¡¯t be much in the Endarian kingdom or otherwise that would or could stand up to the Monarch then.

    Better that they won, then.

 Book 4: 47 - Rise Together or Die Trying

    While they waited for word from Het¡¯jel about the coming fight, Zalia spent as much time as she could with her family.

    They were all aware that, despite the power that would be lent them by Rozestrazix, there was a possibility that either Zalia or Boreal would die. Ember agreed that she and Aylie shouldn¡¯t join the fight but they would wait by the portal to Zalia¡¯s vault should she need to bring them in for some kind of emergency. Aylie had already proven that in some situations, she was much more capable than almost anyone else due to her power set.

    It was nice to relax and spend time with each other, though there was a haze of thoughts spinning around Zalia¡¯s head the whole time. A question that kept coming to the front of her mind time and again was about something Rozestrazix had said. They had told Zalia that they defended the northern lands from something, which protected Endaria by extension. She wondered what it was that lived out there beyond the dragon¡¯s lands that it had to remain in the north to defend against.

    She might have been in this world for many years now but she still barely knew what could be found beyond the borders of Endaria, even less so beyond the lands adjacent. In her own world, she knew what the entire planet looked like because of the power of technology, yet here it was a mystery, unknown to any. It made her wonder if this is what the people of earlier times felt, the reason that they so often left their lands to discover other countries and peoples.

    Time passed by quickly, the building tension in Zalia¡¯s body reaching a peak when Nateysta finally appeared three days past her return from the north.

    ¡°It¡¯s time, prepare yourselves.¡±

    He waited while Boreal, Zalia and Hildebrandt, who had recovered from her use of Mutual Destruction, gave a warm farewell to the others. Zalia spent minutes that felt like eternity yet were still too short speaking softly to Ember and Aylie before kneeling down to ruffle the fur of Boreal¡¯s five children, each of them clustering around her to form a puddle of cats.

    Eventually, Nateysta managed to draw the three away from the rest and they were swept up by his power. Now familiar with the mode of transportation, Zalia leaned back to try relax while they were dragged across the world. She cocked her head as two more sphere¡¯s joined them from the direction of the capital and though a normal person wouldn¡¯t have been able to see their occupants, Zalia was easily able to identify Larel in one and Matthias in the other. Larel gave Zalia a little wave and Zalia returned it, raising her arms either side of her in a questioning gesture. Larel mimicked punching things and Zalia laughed quietly to herself, while Matthias remained looking forward with a stoic expression.

    She wasn¡¯t sure how good an idea it was to bring someone so low as Gold rank to fight the Monarch but she wasn¡¯t about to make a fuss about it. Not only was she lower ranked than them but who was she to try refuse them the chance to fight for their home?

    It occurred to her then that almost all of Endaria¡¯s power in high ranked people were in that little group. Hidey would still be back in the capital with Faian who was herself quite close to Gold rank but other than that the closest they would have is Larel¡¯s partner, a Gold rank brewer. Zalia wasn¡¯t quite sure if he knew how to fight or not, though.

    The distance they travelled must have been much further than that of Nateysta¡¯s serene cave as they were flying through the sky for maybe half an hour before their trajectory curved towards the ground, sinking into it and continuing downwards. Zalia ruminated about how much of this world apparently lived underground before they burst out into a brightly lit cave filled with the greenery of a forest.

    They landed atop a cliff that gave them a sightline of the giant space, their view that of a forest extending into the distance, amongst which many Astar floated. Looking closer, Zalia could see buildings scattered throughout, the construction built in unity with nature rather than the normal Astar towns that reminded her more of the cities of her own world. The sources of light were giant spheres of warm white power that floated around, letting off small discharges of light as if they were miniature suns.

    Nateysta, in his medium form, larger than any of the group members but not as massive as the day he had fought the Thousand-eyed one, perched amongst the boughs of a nearby tree. Larel came over to embrace Zalia, then Hildebrandt, while Matthias stood to the side staring over the cavern.

    ¡°Larel! I didn¡¯t know you were coming.¡±

    Larel gave a brilliant smile.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have but that giant tree bird over there said I have a powerset uniquely capable of beating enemies much more powerful than me. He¡¯s not wrong, so I decided to come along for the ride.¡±

    Zalia caught Hildebrandt staring over at Matthias and she realised that they hadn¡¯t seen each other in a long time. She gave the woman a nudge and Hildebrandt walked over, the two of them speaking in low tones.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll admit I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here, though I don¡¯t know if it will be safe for you.¡±

    Larel snorted.

    ¡°You, a Silver ranker that is about to engage in a fight with a Mythic ranker, is telling me that I¡¯m not safe?¡±

    Zalia shrugged, ceding the point.

    ¡°I have secrets that will help me,¡± Zalia jerked her head in the direction of Boreal, ¡°and I don¡¯t think she can actually die anymore.¡±

    Larel raised an eyebrow at her.

    ¡°I¡¯d love to know how that works some other time. You going to tell us about these secrets you have?¡±

    Zalia pretended to think about it.

    ¡°I guess we¡¯ll find out. First though, I have a feeling our hosts are about to greet us.¡±

    She pointed toward where two Astar that she recognised were flying towards them.

    Het¡¯jel landed, transition from flight to walking so smooth it might as well have been second nature. They looked at Matthias who was still admiring the cavern despite his conversation with Hildebrandt.

    ¡°It is beautiful, is it not? I remember planting the first seed myself.¡±

    Matthias visibly flinched as he realised who had spoken. He had obviously not fully recovered from the trauma of his capture, not that Zalia had expected him to in such a short span of time.

    Zalia looked up at the nearest tree, guessing it to be thirty to forty years old.

    ¡°So you¡¯ve been here for a while then?¡±

    Matthias took a step back from Het¡¯jel but was ignored as they focussed on Zalia.

    ¡°The rebellion has had to move many times over the span of its existence, but this is one of the longest lasting homes we have had. It took us a long time to develop the correct magic to allow us to remain hidden from the rest of the Astar.¡±

    Zalia nodded her head in sympathy. The Astar did seem to have a knack for finding things.

    ¡°Well, how go preparations?¡±

    Nateysta shifted ever so slightly in the tree behind them.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°I have gathered a few forces of my own to assist in the fight and will bring them when the time comes.¡±

    Het¡¯jel looked up at Nateysta, the heads of their two bodies simultaneously bowing in reverence.

    ¡°And our people are finalising their plans for their attack. We¡¯ve chosen a strategically important town, one that supplies most of a type of crystal that is often used for magical constructs within the Astar nation. It isn¡¯t a place we can hold should the Monarch remain living but if we win against them then our ability to control what follows will be considerably improved. Additionally, we will take down the portal network in the town the moment reinforcements arrive from the Monarch. This should slow them from getting back to help them if they call.¡±

    Larel and Boreal both had similar body posture indicating disinterest, each of them more of the kill and ask questions later type of person. Matthias managed to stop staring at Het¡¯jel with suspicion at the mention of the crystals, some of the scholarly interest that Zalia remembered about him surfacing.

    ¡°These crystals will be important enough to warrant drawing away a significant force from wherever the Monarch is while not drawing the Monarch themselves?¡±

    One of the two bodies of Het¡¯jel turned to Matthias and Zalia could see him visibly steel himself to not turn away.

    ¡°I believe so. Unfortunately, the one consistent personality trait of the Monarch these days is a unshakeable faith in their own strength and everyone and everything else being beneath them. They won¡¯t deal with us themself, it¡¯s probably one of the reasons we haven''t been all hunted down and killed yet. The Monarch will tell their subordinates to deal with us and let all us beneath them fight each other to the death.¡±

    There was sadness in their expression and aura, the same sadness they had expressed when Zalia had met with them more personally. Zalia knew where that came from, as they had been friends with the Monarch before they had changed.

    Matthias clued into the sadness too, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

    ¡°Do you know the Monarch?¡±

    The second of Het¡¯jel¡¯s bodies turned to face him at the question.

    ¡°Yes, we were close once. I¡¯ve known them longer than any of you have been alive, longer than some Ascendants have existed.¡±

    Matthias stepped forward, looking a little aggressive. Zalia stood on edge, ready to intervene if she needed to.

    ¡°Tell me then, are you going to be able to fight them with everything you have? Can we rely on you to do what needs to be done?¡±

    Some of the sadness in Het¡¯jel¡¯s aura turned to anger and Zalia glanced over at Nateysta to see if he would do anything. He didn¡¯t so much as shift.

    ¡°Know this, human. I choose to fight and with luck, kill my friend. It is not through anger or vengeance but mercy that I kill them, mercy to the person they once were, mercy to those they hurt that they never would have if they were in their right mind. I¡¯ve looked for decades, centuries, for a way to help them, a way to free their mind from the split state from which they suffer. Short of forcing their second body to ascend, something that is simply not possible, I have found nothing. Do not lecture me on my priorities, on my dedication to this course of action. I have more invested in our success than you will ever have.¡±

    Matthias held the gaze of the body of Het¡¯jel before him, staring deep into their eyes before slowly nodding his acceptance.

    Larel sighed, loudly.

    ¡°Right, if you are done with whatever that was, can we discuss what exactly the plan actually is?¡±

    Everyone in the group of people turned to her.

    ¡°What? I really don¡¯t want to die, so I want to know how we plan on avoiding that happening.¡±

    Het¡¯jel walked forward, using a type of spacial magic to carve out a semicircle from the ground. A set of long steps leading from the outer edge and to the centre slowly lifted from the dirt. At the centre was a throne upon which a small figure sat.

    Large pillars rose from all around the circle¡¯s edge, each one a work of art in broken and jagged shapes that elicited a shiver down Zalia¡¯s spine. From the flat tops of those pillars, beams stretched across to meet above the throne even as a wall rose behind it.

    ¡°This is the throne room of the Monarch. It is a simple affair and you will not find much to work with when it comes to a fight. While it may seem small, these stairs stretch for a few hundred metres and the throne is large enough to fit the Monarch¡¯s bigger than normal form.¡±

    Hildebrandt frowned as she walked around the little model.

    ¡°How big, exactly? Defending against larger foes can make things difficult.¡±

    ¡°The same size as Nateysta currently is.¡± they replied, gesturing to where Nateysta perched in the tree, his form approximately eight metres tall.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s going to be annoying.¡±

    Zalia nodded her agreement, though she doubted she would end up fighting the Monarch. That would depend on how strong Rozestrazix¡¯s power made her and Boreal.

    ¡°Hildebrandt and I will engage the Monarch directly while those of you that are Gold rank and below will be around the perimeter of this battleground to stop anyone from interfering in our fight. The high ranked amongst the Astar numbers will be off to fight our attack on the border town and will be stuck there for some time but there will still be those of Gold and Silver rank who are looking to improve their standing in the eyes of the Monarch and they will undoubtedly come to protect them. It is your job to stop their interference. Even though the damage they can do to us will be minimal, any distraction can be potentially fatal.¡±

    Larel scratched at the back of her neck.

    ¡°So¡­ that¡¯s it, that¡¯s the plan?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, the Monarch has complete control over the structure and earth around this place. It is like a temple to them, completely within their power. It¡¯s impossible to tell what they will do with that but we must adjust to any changes as possible.¡±

    Larel had a smile growing ever so slightly on her face.

    ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is, kinda wing it and see what happens?¡±

    ¡°That isn¡¯t¡­ inaccurate.¡±

    Nateysta shifted with the sound of creaking wood.

    ¡°The forces I have gathered will help maintain this boundary also, in addition to the help they will provide for the attack on the outer town. Zalia, I have seen that you will be given a little bit of assistance as well, from not one but two other powerful beings. It is good that you have managed to find a way to live through this.¡±

    Zalia looked over at him with narrowed eyes.

    ¡°Ro, have you been spying on me?¡±

    He didn¡¯t reply.

    ¡°Also, where is Lumin? I know you¡¯ve got them doing all that Ascendant training stuff but will they be joining us for this fight?¡±

    ¡°They will, if I deem it necessary.¡±

    Hildebrandt was looking at Zalia with curiosity.

    ¡°You¡¯ve gotten some help from two powerful beings?¡±

    Zalia frowned, realising what Nateysta had actually said.

    ¡°Well, only one from what I remember. Hey, Ro, who is the other one?¡±

    He, once again, chose not to reply.

    ¡°Enough, each of us will be responsible for our own fates soon. Neither Hildebrandt or I will be able to take our focus from the Monarch long enough to help any of you should you need it, so do not expect it.¡±

    Everyone nodded. They had all known that, even without Het¡¯jel saying it. Killing the Monarch was the purpose of their mission and it came before everything else.

    Before they had left, Zalia and Hildebrandt had spoken with each other about what they would need to do. There were a few key advantages that they were keeping secret, one being the God-trap that Zalia had yet to tell Het¡¯jel about. She didn¡¯t know if the Ascendant side of the Monarch would choose to appear during the fight but if they did, Zalia was going to try to use the thing on them. Taking that power away from their enemy would greatly increase their chances of actually winning.

    The other plan they had in motion was in the case of defeat. Should it get to the point that there was no chance of victory, Zalia would open her vault and get them all out of there. With Hildebrandt to defend their retreat, it should be possible for them to live through this thing one way or the other.

    Het¡¯jel broke down the small model in front of them all and Zalia noticed that many of the rebel Astar in the distance were vanishing through portals.

    ¡°The time has come. Today we forge a new alliance between our people, one that will benefit us both. We will take the future of the Astar from the depths and show them the stars, even as we pull your drowning kingdom with us.¡±

    Hildebrandt hefted her heavy shield, keeping the mace in its loop for now while Larel cracked her neck and knuckles. Sand began to swirl around Matthias even as Het¡¯jel began to create a complex diagram in the air before them. A portal opened and the two bodies of their Astar ally ran through, quickly followed by the others.

    Zalia looked to Boreal as ice crackled along her close friend¡¯s back, then summoned her own weapons and armour, the ritual runes inscribed on their surfaces granting their power. With trepidation and hope surging through her body, they stepped through.

 Book 4: 48 - An End Comes To All Things

    Zalia was swept away by the familiar swirling colours of long distance teleportation, the visual mess resolving itself into the massive throne room of the Monarch. Larel was already on the way to the far side of the space where she would defend from any enemy that came towards the room. Matthias stayed on this side, gesturing for Zalia and Boreal to take the middle.

    The throne room of the Monarch sat high above an expansive city filled with Astar, floating about as pinpricks below. The skyscrapers and industrial structures of the city below were strangely at odds with the alien jagged architecture of the Astar, the view of a cityscape familiar to Zalia yet the individual detail so very different.

    She turned back to face the throne room as Hildebrandt and Het¡¯jel approached the top of the stairs where the throne sat, its imposing form outstripped by that of the Monarch. The eight metre tall form of their enemy stood from the throne as the two approached, their voice emitting from their aura much as Het¡¯jel¡¯s did.

    ¡°Het¡¯jel, have you finally come to give your allegiance to me once more? You should not have brought this filth if you did.¡±

    Unlike Het¡¯jel, the Monarch¡¯s voice came from everywhere, the entire hundreds of metres long room vibrating with their very essence. Zalia understood what it meant for this place to belong to them, not only physically but the very soul of it.

    ¡°I have not, old friend. This is your last chance to give up on your ideas of ruling halfway between Ascension and mortality. Ascend your second body or have it die.¡±

    Zalia¡¯s heart felt like it was in her throat as the powerful beings confronted each other, the power that was exuded by their existence building ever stronger as conflict came closer.

    Rage twisted across the Monarch¡¯s face, before it was immediately schooled into neutrality again.

    ¡°I. Will. Have. Your. SOUL.¡±

    The words were screamed at such volume that Zalia¡¯s eardrums popped, healing back quickly.

    As if choreographed, Hilderbandt, Het¡¯jel¡¯s two bodies and the Monarch engaged in combat as nothing more than a blur to Zalia¡¯s eyes. The massive indestructible dome that was one of Hildebrandt¡¯s powers went up and Zalia took her eyes away from that fight, her attention focussing away and towards the city laid out before them. A few Astar were already flying up towards them from the city below, though they looked to be of Silver rank and below.

    The anticipation of a fight built within Zalia¡¯s body and she could see the heavily muscled form of Boreal tensing up beside her.

    From above, green orbs of Nateysta¡¯s power appeared as animals both familiar and alien were brought down into the Astar city. Those capable of flight were deposited directly in the air, many of them immediately diving down to attack the Astar on the way up.

    Others, creatures lithe and bulky, fast and tough, scaled and covered with fur, were deposited along the pillars lining the throne room of the Monarch. There were all kinds ranging from Bronze to Silver to Gold.

    An Astar appeared nearby and it was attacked by two animals, one a heavily muscled thing like a bear and the other sleek fox-like creature. The bear was immediately torn in half by the Astar¡¯s spacial powers but the fox jumped up and clamped onto the Astar¡¯s spine, a crunch resounding as it did.

    Zalia had to look away, her bow shooting blindingly fast arrows down toward the Astar as her sword flashed at the one that had appeared before her. The Bronze ranked Astar, realising their mistake too late, died instantly by her hand.

    It was quickly followed up by another, this one Silver rank and wielding proper weapons. Zalia danced around them, keeping her eye on Boreal as her friend fought a vicious battle against two Bronze and a Silver Astar.

    A surge of power flooded through her body, the blessing of Rozestrazix making her feel stronger and faster. The Astar before her was suddenly sluggish and weak and it took her only a few seconds to dismember them, dodging their once quick dagger now easier than breathing.

    Another Silver rank Astar appeared before her and Zalia dodged the sword with a burst of speed upwards. She used the momentum to impale another Astar and threw their body at the Silver ranker. A third Astar tried to capitalise on the distraction of the other two to attack her from behind but found themself being mauled by Zalia¡¯s shadow come to life; one of Boreal¡¯s abilities.

    With Hunter¡¯s Mark on both the Silver rank Astar and the one that had tried to ambush her, Zalia spun and stabbed the quite mauled Astar straight through where she thought its heart might be. She used Kill Shot to do so and the damage far over what the Astar could take was redirected to the Silver rank one, who had their entire torso blown up by the power.

    Using a control over the wind that she hadn¡¯t ever experienced before, even when using Nature¡¯s Wrath, her bow was enhanced and her speed increased. The arrows that had sometimes been dodged now punched through heads and torsos as they saw fit, while Zalia spun between dozens of low ranked Astar, taking them apart one after the other.

    ¡°What in the world did you just do Zalia!¡± Larel called from her right.

    Zalia only paused long enough to give a wink that had her laughing, battle mania obvious in Larel¡¯s expression as she blew up a group of three with a single punch to the leader.

    The fight went smoothly from there, each Astar that challenged her quickly cut down without much fuss. She descended into a trance, moving with lethal efficiency, enjoying the obscene power that flowed through her body.

    Nearby, Boreal was experiencing the same power except instead of a control over the wind, lightning arced across her body. The dozens of bodies of the Astar she had been fighting laid nearby, some scorched and others torn apart.

    Zalia gave her a feral grin, then felt a fundamental change in the ground they were standing on. It felt like the smooth marble floor beneath them had awoken from a deep slumber and with a grinding sound, moved.

    ______________________________________________________________

    Hildebrandt grunted as a force like she¡¯d never felt before crashed into her shield. If it hadn¡¯t been for her power to resist knockback, she would have been sent flying into the wall with enough force to break bones.

    Het¡¯jel was moving quickly, dodging away from the bullet-fast fists of the Monarch with one of their bodies as the other sent spells from afar. A lance of reality warping power struck the Monarch in the chest but they shrugged off the impact and tried to grab once more at the closer body of Het¡¯jel, missing by a hair¡¯s breadth.

    Hildebrandt broke Stand Your Ground to dash closer, planting her feet and reactivating the ability just as the Monarch punched her. The impact sent a blast of air out but her shield absorbed most of the impact. Backlash struck back at the Monarch at the same moment Hildebrandt¡¯s mace impacted, both forces striking at their wrist to little effect.

    Het¡¯jel¡¯s closer body created an ethereal chain and it snaked out to wrap around the Monarch¡¯s other arm before latching the other end to the floor. It pulled taut, dragging the massive form of the Monarch of balance and pulling their arm to the side.

    The other body of Het¡¯jel and Hildebrandt simultaneously took advantage of the off-kilter Monarch, Hildebrandt striking with her mace twice before hitting them with Explosive Force as Het¡¯jel cast a lengthier ability that slowly pushed a lance of the same reality warping power down into the Monarch¡¯s head. It inched ever down into flesh as the ground around them screamed the Monarch¡¯s rage.

    Another chain wrapped around the Monarch¡¯s other arm and dragged them to their knees with a loud thud.

    ¡°Give up! Your body WILL be leaving this mortal plane, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.¡±

    An ethereal collar locked around the Monarch¡¯s neck and a chain appeared to drag their head down to hit the floor. The spike of force drilling into their forehead was smashed straight through their skull by the impact. Het¡¯jel summoned another of the lances that began to push through the Monarch¡¯s spine.

    Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°You are weak.¡±

    The ground around them shook as the Monarch spoke. Their head began to lift from the ground, breaking the chain. The Monarch snapped upwards, shattering the chain on their left arm and exploding with an immense force. Het¡¯jel¡¯s closer body was thrown away as the flying one weathered the blast better from a distance. Hildebrandt, who had just shaken some of the fear from the start of the fight, sheltered behind her shield.

    A punch unlike anything else the Monarch had used so far sent Hildebrandt flying, the force so strong that it broke Stand Your Ground. She hit her dome with so much momentum that it sent a crack through the supposedly indestructible surface.

    _______________________________________________________

    Zalia was momentarily shocked as the walls around her began to close in in an attempt to crush her. She flew upwards as the ground shook and barely cleared the walls as they slammed closed behind her.

    An explosion rocked the battlefield originating from the dome and Zalia looked over to see that Hildebrandt¡¯s dome had cracked. She stared in disbelief for a moment before her attention was drawn away as one of the beams arching overhead grew a spike that lanced down towards her. She dodged the attack and found herself in the way of a sword strike from a Gold rank Astar.

    This wasn¡¯t the first time a Gold rank Astar with a sword tried to surprise attack her mid air but this time, she was the stronger one.

    She dodged easily, flipping in midair to kick the sword out of their hand in an acrobatic move. Her own sword followed in an upwards slash as she finished the flip, cutting a shallow line down their torso as her bow shot them in the leg. The air answered her call and swept the Astar¡¯s sword off the edge of the throne room and straight through the head of a Bronze ranker floating up there.

    Without missing a beat, the Astar got in close to grapple her, pulling her down towards the high walls that were growing upward still. She dropped her sword, twisting her head to the side to allow her bow to shoot the wrist of the hand holding her arm. That move freed her left arm to punch the Astar straight in the gut with as much force as she could muster. They let out a wheezing gasp at the impact and Zalia followed it up by using both her hands to pull their head down into her knee, hearing the crack of bone for her efforts.

    Bloody but impassive, the Astar pulled back slightly only to be jumped on from behind by a feral Boreal coated with ice and arcing lightning.

    The lightning made the Astar¡¯s back arc, revealing their neck for Boreal to bite into. She shook the Astar like a limp doll before ice grew up and over their body, freezing it only for it to shatter into a million pieces moments later.

    Zalia took the moment of reprieve to check on Matthias, barely able to see him through his swirling storm of sand. He had managed to avoid the marble walls by lifting up on a rising tide, then swirled it into a frenzy with which he was savaging dozens of Astar with a death by a thousand cuts method. Larel on the other hand was punching through walls with explosive force, Neither Astar nor wall able to get in her way as the low ranked sycophants were cleared away. Many of the low ranked ground animals had unfortunately succumbed to the power but it looked as if they had won this initial flurry of combat.

    Boreal and Zalia¡¯s attention was drawn away from their allies as another powerful being appeared on the battlefield. They stared up as a Diamond rank Astar came down towards them. They hadn¡¯t won their fight just yet, then. Unfortunately, even if they had won their battle, that wouldn¡¯t have won the war, and another crack had just formed in Hildebrandt¡¯s dome.

    ___________________________

    Hildebrandt dropped heavily to the floor after hitting the side of her dome again. The Monarch was using her body like a wrecking ball against her own power, slamming her time and again into its surface until it was cracked all over.

    She stood up and activated Stand Your Ground once more. Het¡¯jel tried to chain down an arm but was unsuccessful as the Monarch marched toward Hildebrandt. Steeling herself for another strike, Hioldebrandt shook off her fear. The only reason she hadn¡¯t yet had her body completely destroyed was that the Monarch kept hitting her shield, which healed her for as much damage as it blocked. Not that she necessarily needed her body to continue fighting.

    Realising it was time, she activated another ability of the shield, making her immune to magical effects for a time. The Monarch punched her with another of its powerful attacks but failed to break Stand Your Ground.

    Hildebrandt stared up at the face of the Monarch, a hole straight through their forehead, as a sneer crossed their face. the Monarch wrapped a massive hand around Hildebrandt and picked her up.

    ¡°Filth.¡±

    She was thrown at speed, the dome cracking once more as she struck it. It was webbed with fine cracks and Hildebrandt feared that it would break soon. When that happened, they would have a hard time stopping the Monarch from harming their allies.

    ______________________________________

    Larel appeared next to Zalia only moments after Matthias did. They stared up at the descending Diamond ranker with dread.

    ¡°There weren¡¯t supposed to be any in the city.¡±

    Larel cracked the knuckles of one hand.

    ¡°Ifs, whys, whens don¡¯t matter now. We do what we have to.¡±

    Matthias nodded agreement.

    ¡°What are you doing to suddenly be so powerful, is it Nateysta? Can you give us that power too?¡±

    Zalia shook her head, not clarifying any further. He looked at her but didn¡¯t push.

    ¡°I guess we do our best then.¡±

    With the power given to them, Zalia and Boreal were operating on a level, stat wise at least, akin to Emerald rank. The two of them might have a chance against the Diamond ranker if their abilities were functioning at that rank too. As it was, most of the strength someone like Hildebrandt had as an actual Emerald ranker came from her abilities, not her stats.

    Zalia spun her sword around, flying up to meet the Astar in battle.

    ¡°You two keep the others at bay, Boreal and I will deal with this.¡±

    With her anti-death measure still available and Boreal having her own as well, they were still within the measure of relative safety. If those measures were used, she would need to call up Larel and Matthias to fight with her.

    As she rose into the sky to meet the Astar, wings beating and wind swirling around her, sword held to the side, she began to feel the influence of a new power. A deep red glow rose up from within her eyes as words from a long time ago echoed through her mind, sent there not by anyone present in the fight.

    ¡°You may take refuge in the heat and stone but the heat and stone will not rise to fight at your bidding, Druid. Not yet, at least.¡±

    It was the words spoken to her by the Spirit of Heat and Stone, the Ascendant that was the creator of Glemp and his people who she had asked to help them in their war against the demon invasion.

    Fire licked its way down her sword and with a battle cry, she burst upward with a sudden increase of speed. Boreal followed her, jumping off quickly created platforms of ice, lightning crackling through the air with her every movement.

    The diamond rank Astar crashed down into her, twin glaive flashing. She deflected the first blade, leaning back to dodge the other side as it came up. She pushed forward to stab the Astar in the chest only to have her sword caught between arm and torso. With a skilled twist, her weapon was ripped from her grasp even as the twin glaives came around to slash her across the chest.

    She flapped backward, giving Boreal room to jump up and latch her powerful jaws on the glaive wielding arm. Her sword, still aflame, reappeared in her hand as her bow shot powerful, air magic infused arrows towards the Astar. They dodged nimbly, grabbing Boreal by the back of the head and tearing her off their arm.

    Zalia used the moment of time to cast Nature¡¯s Wrath and compressed a bubble of air and fire down around the Astar, crushing it with the power. A perfectly spherical shield appeared to block her attack and the five air elementals she had summoned with the ability came to increase the pressure.

    The shield exploded under the combined weight of power but the Astar was not in it. They had vanished, reappearing behind Zalia to strike. The current power of her mental stats along with her new affinity with the air allowed Zalia to see the strike coming and she bent completely backwards, dodging the blade meant for her neck.

    She turned that backwards flip into a kick that sent the Astar flying through the sky, chased by three arrows, each striking their target. Boreal followed up her attack with a Pounce from behind that froze the Astar in a cage of ice, sending them tumbling down to the ground below. Zalia dove with them as the Astar landed, shattering the ice from their body with the impact. She came down moments later, her sword point first impaling the Astar, going straight through their torso and into the ground below as her bow shot more arrows into the still form.

    Zalia was thrown back by a punch to her chest that had her vision swimming and the Astar ripped her flaming sword out of its chest and threw it to the side. The sword reappeared in her hand once more but she didn¡¯t use it as she directed earth and plants to appear from the ground and entangle the Astar. Each restraining plant or clump of earth was thrown off easily enough but the sheer number of them gave enough time for Zalia to summon a ball of lava above the Astar, slamming it down onto them with a ground shuddering impact.

    Given a brief reprieve from combat, Zalia saw as Hildebrandt¡¯s dome cracked once more, then shattered. The sound was loud, like glass shattering then trickling to the floor.

    A powerful aura washed over them all as the forms of the Monarch, Hildebrandt and Het¡¯jel were once again revealed. The Monarch was growing further in size, the strength of their presence increasing many times over and Zalia realised that this is what she had been waiting for. The Ascendant power of the Monarch was showing itself in a move to finish the fight.

    ¡°Matthias, Larel, take over!¡±

    They reacted instantly, engaging the Astar with Boreal as Zalia dropped down to the ground.

    Preoccupied with Boreal¡¯s ice encasing them, the Diamond rank Astar wasn¡¯t able to stop Zalia as she hit the ground and pulled out the God-trap. She placed it on the ground and with a thought, activated the item. It rose from the ground, the concentric rings spinning faster and faster, but nothing happened.

    Zalia stared at it, confused as to how it was meant to work. The diary they had taken from the same place they had found this item said nothing about how to make the item work, other than to activate it.

    In a flash of blue and white light, Lumin appeared next to her, barking excitedly. The presence of the starlight wolf had a strange effect on the world around them and the Monarch suddenly stumbled, then growled.

    ¡°What is that?¡±

    The voice reverberated through the stone but it sounded weak, confused.

    A powerful light was drawn out of the Monarch¡¯s chest and Het¡¯jel didn¡¯t pause, using ethereal chains to tie down the Monarch once more. The massive form of the Monarch began to shrink in size as the bright light continued to stream from it. The light shaped itself momentarily into the appearance of another Astar, face wracked with pain, anger and fear, before it was sucked into the spinning God-trap.

    The battlefield froze for a moment, everyone¡¯s eyes locked onto where the Ascendant power of the Monarch had been stolen from them. The pause of silence broke as the Monarch screamed, a pained and broken sound.

    Het¡¯jel silenced them.

    The chains holding the form of the Monarch still dragged them to the floor, more powerful ethereal chains arcing over the body to restrain it even further. A complex circle of runes began to appear in the sky at the beckon of Het¡¯jel¡¯s second body and once complete, blasted a blinding beam of reality warping power downwards.

    The spell continued, more and more of the power annihilating the body of the Monarch until the stone of the throne room echoed their last, faint words.

    "I will make you pay for this..."

 Book 4: 49 - Oathsworn

    The silence of the throne room was broken by Larel¡¯s yell and Zalia turned to see that the Diamond rank Astar had fled. She looked to Het¡¯jel to see if they would follow but they didn¡¯t give chase.

    Before her sat the God-trap, the essence of the Monarch¡¯s Ascended side trapped within.

    ¡°What do we do with this?¡±

    She looked at Het¡¯jel again.

    ¡°I do not know what that is, I have never seen anything of its like.¡±

    One of their bodies came over to inspect the spinning concentric circles, carefully inspecting it.

    ¡°This will not hold them forever, though it will do so for a very, very long time.¡±

    Knowing what higher ranked beings usually considered to be a long time, Zalia figured that meant almost forever in the time scale of a mortal like herself.

    ¡°We are going to have to find somewhere to hide it then. Its important that the Monarch isn¡¯t freed by any of their forces while you wrestle for control.¡±

    A flash of light and a wash of aura signalled the appearance of Nateysta behind them, in his largest form.

    ¡°That will not be necessary.¡±

    Another huge figure appeared, a swirling mass of fire and earth mixing to create a core of lava. It was followed by yet another, this one a cloud with strikes of lightning crackling through it. A fourth appeared, a swirling tide of water growing to form an elemental larger than Zalia had seen before. Lastly was another Ascendant that she recognised. It was Scour, The Desert Storm, his appearance just as his title would suggest. Each of them was an Ascendant of extreme power, their overlapping auras feeling like the weight of the world pressing down. Lumin left Zalia¡¯s side to go stand beside them, the wolf¡¯s form diminutive in comparison.

    ¡°We will deal with this ourselves, now that you have locked them away. Entering into the space of another Ascendant is always a dangerous prospect, even in larger numbers. Now, however, the Monarch cannot retaliate.¡±

    Nateysta raised his wings, casting shadow across the throne room as a small tendril of the Monarch¡¯s power left the God-trap to reside in a sphere of his power. The other Ascendants of nature followed suit, raising arms or directing tendrils of power towards the God-trap, syphoning away little bits of the Monarch until the trap was empty.

    ¡°Each of us shall guard a piece of them to ensure that they will never rise again.¡±

    The awed onlookers had to look away as flashes of multicoloured light signalled the departure of the Ascendant council. Only Nateysta remained, in his smaller form now.

    Zalia took the God-trap and stored it away in her vault once more, hoping that she would never have the need to use the item ever again. She looked around at her allies and let out a breath of relief that she had been holding, very literally, since stepping through the portal to the throne room.

    Boreal came up to rub against her leg, the loud purrs reverberating through the air. Zalia laughed, so relieved that they had succeeded against the Monarch that she couldn¡¯t contain her joy. Even the power of Rozestrazix and the spirit of Heat and Stone leaving her body didn¡¯t cut into the pure happiness flowing through her.

    Larel came up and gave her a back crushing hug.

    ¡°You know, I didn¡¯t think that the socially awkward, little low ranked archer tagging along to help clear a mine of minor elementals would end up here amongst gods and Ascendants, swinging so hard above her weight class too!¡±

    Zalia smiled, extricating herself from the crushing grip.

    ¡°You¡¯re telling me. If you had explained any of this to the me from five or six years ago, I wouldn¡¯t have believed a word. In fact, I¡¯d have thought you were a little insane.¡±

    Het¡¯jel, Hildebrandt and Matthias all came over to join the small group.

    ¡°This was quite an unusual fight, unique even in the experiences of my long life. Most surprising was the power that I felt coming from you Zalia. What did you do? While I have you here, where did you find an item capable of trapping an Ascendant?¡±

    All eyes turned to her and Zalia gave her best sly smile.

    ¡°A girl needs to keep some secrets to herself.¡±

    Both the eyes of Het¡¯jel narrowed from starry orbs into suspicious, starry orbs.

    ¡°Are you secretly an Ascendant yourself?¡±

    ¡°What? No, no. Nothing like that. As for the God-trap, that is a little something I found in a temple in the desert with that sand storm Ascendant we just saw trapped inside it.¡±

    Matthias stared at her with wide eyes.

    ¡°You are the one that freed Scour?¡±

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    She looked up at the sky where Scour had just been, then back down to Matthias.

    ¡°Um, yeah?¡±

    Matthias, in a move that shocked everyone present, went to one knee in front of her.

    ¡°What is happening?¡± she whispered.

    ¡°I cannot express my gratitude deeply enough. I have spent a good part of my life searching for Scour, a tradition passed down through generations of my family. It is from the teachings of that Ascendant from times past that the powers I wield come from. Thank you.¡±

    Zalia got a hold of Matthias by the shoulders and lifted him to his feet.

    ¡°Ooookay, none of that. I stumbled across Scour in a long forgotten temple, that¡¯s all. Please, it¡¯s fine,¡± she tried smiling in a friendly manner, ¡°besides, helping the old Ascendants of Endaria has kind of become a habit for me.¡±

    ¡°To the benefit of us all,¡± Het¡¯jel added.

    Zalia turned to them.

    ¡°Right, what do we do now?¡±

    ¡°Now, you go home. You have all done well in helping us and I hope that peace can be found between our two peoples. I will not ask that you do more in stabilising my rule as the new leader of the Astar people but I will let it be known that any and all help will be gladly received.¡±

    Zalia turned from Het¡¯jel to Nateysta.

    ¡°And how about from your side? Is there anything else you feel we should do?¡±

    ¡°I must speak with you before you depart, but the others may go.¡±

    Zalia nodded, then opened her vault. She then opened the entrance inside that led to Nature¡¯s Reclaim and Ember and Aylie came sprinting through, looking ready for battle.

    ¡°Woah, woah. We¡¯re all good. We won and now we¡¯re coming home.¡±

    Ember stopped mid charge, staring at her.

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    Zalia gave both her and Aylie hard hugs, before gesturing for them to go back.

    ¡°Wait for me, I¡¯ll be through in just a moment, okay?¡±

    Ember nodded, then pulled Aylie back to Nature¡¯s Reclaim with her.

    Zalia wondered over to Nateysta, walking with him to the edge of the throne room to look out over the Astar city that she thought was their capital.

    ¡°This could have gone a lot worse than it did.¡±

    ¡°I do not think so. I and the others have been planning for such an outcome, though they have done so for much longer than I.¡±

    Zalia considered his words for a long time before speaking again.

    ¡°The starlight wolf once told me that the Ascendant spirits of nature would not intervene, that they would not act beyond their nature. What changed?¡±

    There was a twinkle of humour in Ro¡¯s eyes as he replied.

    ¡°Tell me Zalia, would you have fought as hard as you did this whole time, or done the things you did, if you had known that the Ascendants of Endaria were working so hard towards this outcome?¡±

    ¡°Probably not, I might have even left Endaria for good somewhere along the way if I had known that the Ascendants were actually working toward fixing the root of the problems facing the kingdom.¡±

    ¡°And none would have blamed you to do so. It is not the duty of an Ascendant to interfere in the mortal world in a manner so direct as what the Monarch was doing. Even those who are of the Mythic rank are expected to act in a higher manner than the normal person. Beings of our power have such destructive capability that if we were to engage in fights within the mortal realm as others do, the world would nearly be destroyed by the strength brought to bear. You saw a little of this when I fought directly with the Thousand-eyed one above the capital, yet that was on a smaller scale than most.¡±

    Zalia nodded, understanding a little.

    ¡°And that was why they all came here to help deal with the Monarch?¡±

    Ro nodded.

    ¡°All of us are hesitant to interact directly with any mortal being and the Monarch had managed to abuse that by the dual nature of their existence. Half in our world, half in yours. None of the others would have interfered directly in the battle against the mortal side, yet when the Monarch manifested their Ascendant side to fight, they all began to move to join the fight, even if it cost some of us centuries of recovery to do so.¡±

    Zalia frowned, leaning against the pillar next to her as she watched chaos unfolding beneath her. There were animals brought by Nateysta still fighting below while it appeared that the rebellion had also begun to assault the city. There would be much blood in the future of the Astar people.

    ¡°But I used the God-trap.¡±

    ¡°Yes, there was no need for them to interfere directly. They like to keep it that way, intervening with the mortal realm in small ways such as blessings or sending their worshippers, elementals or beasts to perform duties for them. It is like this that we stop what happened to my own world from happening here. You have gathered much goodwill amongst there number with your actions. Much of the work you have done towards this goal has reduced how much they have needed to act.¡±

    Zalia nodded understanding.

    ¡°That all makes some sense now, at least. Are you still planning on going to reclaim your world?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The Thousand-eyed ones and their ilk have no qualms about interfering directly in the mortal realm. In fact, none of them are even from a world like you would understand it. We will need many Ascendants to remove their grasp on Cormaine.¡±

    The happiness from defeating the Monarch had been slowly seeping from Zalia¡¯s body but the rest of it left as she realised where Ro was taking the conversation.

    ¡°I promised to help you retake your world, when the time came. The Endarian people owe you as much as well.¡±

    Ro didn¡¯t reply for a while, staring out at the city with her.

    ¡°Yes, I will call on you all to help me retake my own world. The Ascendants here also owe me for my help in stopping the Monarch and they have each given me promises of assistance when the time comes. Do not worry though, Zalia. The time will come that I call on you, but I wish for you and your people to regain strength and grow beyond your current capabilities before that time comes. Go, be with your family. Rest but do not idle. You must be ready when the time comes.¡±

    With that, Ro vanished.

    The omen echoing in her mind, Zalia returned through the vault portal to her home, finding the love and peace of her family waiting. Despite their relaxing presence and the beautiful sights of the home and family Zalia had made, Ro¡¯s words did not leave her mind. She had a feeling that they wouldn¡¯t until the day he came to find her.

 Book 5: 1 - Boreal And The Five

    Zalia relaxed happily in a rocking chair, swaying back and forth as she sipped at the cup of tea in her hand. She was high up in the air on a balcony that grew from the thick trunk of the Ancient of Life, one of the three ancients that looked after the town called Nature¡¯s Reclaim.

    Life in Endaria had been good since the removal of the Monarch as the leader of the Astar people. It had nearly been a year since then and the new leader of the Astar, Het¡¯jel, had firmly rested control of their people during that time.

    The council of Endaria had helped of course, allowing their high ranked people to join in on various missions in service of stabilising the situation there. It was for the good of their own people that the council agreed to help Het¡¯jel, since having an ally in power was much better than the alternative, a power that would beat them down through any means just for the sake of remaining more powerful.

    The nation of Endaria had healed wonderfully in that time, finally left alone and given time to recover after the invasion that had culled their population. No longer were the capital, Ostoss and Nature¡¯s Reclaim some of the only populated cities, with the wrecks and ruins of other towns and villages across the nation being settled once more.

    Zalia herself hadn¡¯t been idle either, taking part in a significant number of the missions that had made up the effort to stabilise the Astar nation. She might have idled, spending more time wandering the reaches beyond either Endaria or the Astar nation if it hadn¡¯t been for the last words she had heard from her dear friend Nateysta.

    An Ascendant from another world overrun with demons, Nateysta, who Zalia called Ro, had long ago extracted her promise to help him retake it. The last time she had seen him, he had warned her that she needed to grow stronger as the day that he called her to fulfil her promise was neither far, nor inevitable.

    And so Zalia, her partner Ember, her daughter Aylie and her fluffy, feline, friend Boreal had all kept themselves busy in an attempt to increase their rank as quickly as possible. Well, almost as quickly as possible. They had needed to recover after the constant tension and fighting that had led up to the final fight with the Monarch.

    It was because of this constant participation that both Zalia and Boreal had almost ascended to Gold rank with Ember not far behind and Aylie similarly close to Silver rank.

    In fact, a couple of her abilities had already reached past Silver and attained their Gold rank upgrades.

    Profile - Zalia Taori

    Health - Excellent

    Mana - Full

    Stamina - Full

    Class one - Hunter - Silver 16

    Linked attributes - Strength, Dexterity

    Active skills

    Kill Shot - Silver 18

    Hunter''s Mark - Silver 18

    Fight or Flight - Silver 16

    Passive skills

    Hunter''s Sight - Silver 19

    Survivalist - Gold 1

    Class two - Herbalist - Silver 15

    Linked attributes - Vitality, Resilience

    Active skills

    Flora Identification - Silver 15

    Natural Matter Alteration - Silver 19

    Druid¡¯s Grove - Gold 1

    Passive skills

    Harvester - Silver 17

    Herbal Magic - Gold 1

    Unity class - Druid - Silver 18

    Linked attributes - Wisdom, Intellect

    Active skills

    Nature¡¯s Wrath - Silver 18

    Protection of the Wilds - Silver 18

    Passive skills

    Healing Presence - Silver 19

    General Passives

    Heat Resistance - Gold 1

    Cold Resistance - Gold 1

    Aura Observation - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Enhanced Vision - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Poison resistance - Iron 7

    Mobility - Gold 1

    Stealth - Gold 1

    Trapper - Gold 1

    Teaching - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Flight - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Physical Resistance - Gold 1

    Mental Resistance - Gold 1

    Weapon proficiencies

    Bow - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Sword - Silver 1 (MAX)

    Throwing Knives - Tin 17

    Bonded Items

    Druidic Armaments, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Silver rank.

    Druidic Armour, Blessed by Nature (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Silver rank.

    Ethereal Vault Gauntlet (Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Silver rank.

    Blessings

    Blessing of Scour, The Desert Storm.

    Blessing of The Starlight Wolf.

    Blessing of Nateysta.

    Her most commonly used abilities such as passives like Survivalist and Herbal Magic had increased faster than others, their almost constant use causing the increased gain. Druid¡¯s Grove had similarly done so because despite being an active ability, it had a constant effect in the maintenance of her Druid Groves such as Nature¡¯s Reclaim.

    The reason Zalia was up on the balcony far above her Grove was for this very reason, in fact. The ability had just reached Gold so she was relaxing, feeling out the new bounds of the power and its abilities, though she could read exactly what it did.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Active 3 - Druid Grove - spell - targeted - realm

    Tin - You may place herbs in stasis. Additionally, you are able to establish a small Druid Grove.

    Iron - Herbs in stasis may now be put into a spatial storage. Plants and friendly creatures within your Druid Grove are constantly affected by the base effect of Healing presence separate to your aura.

    Bronze - The spatial storage effect of this ability is now linked with ¡®Ethereal Vault Gauntlet¡¯, creating one larger space. This space is considered part of your Druid Grove.

    Silver - Druid Groves are now only possible to remove with an extensive on-site ritual. You may have two Druid Groves. Your Groves are now managed by three ancients. These are the ancients of War, Life and Wisdom.

    Gold - You may now establish five Druid Groves. Each Grove has the ability to enter a state of readiness, increasing defences but reducing the effects of all other Groves in response.

    Ancient of War: The Ancient of War is represented by a feline. This Ancient¡¯s purpose is to look after the defence of the Grove.

    Ancient of Life: The Ancient of Life is represented by a tree. This Ancient¡¯s purpose is to look after all living things within the Grove.

    Ancient of Wisdom: The Ancient of Wisdom is represented by a crow. This Ancient¡¯s purpose is to consider the future of the Grove.

    Your Druid Groves are now linked together with a portal located in each Grove¡¯s Ancient Hall, allowing free travel between them.

    Druid Grove Added Effects

    Healing Presence.

    Grove Portals.

    The Three Ancients.

    State of Readiness.

    Druid Grove Base Effects

    The protective energy of your Druid Grove extends to ward off harmful magical influences and creatures, providing an added layer of defence to those within its bounds.

    Your Druid Grove changes with the seasons, adapting its flora and effects accordingly. In spring, it might emphasise growth, while in winter, it offers protection from the cold.

    Your Druid Grove becomes a haven not only for plants but also for animals. Creatures within the grove may form a bond with you, aiding you in various ways.

    Mana - low / n/a

    Cd - n/a / n/a

    Nature¡¯s Reclaim was the oldest and most important of Zalia¡¯s Groves. It had been a place of safety for the people of Endaria following the demon invasion that had ravaged most of the country from the dangers that remained once the main threat had been eliminated. It was also where the three ancients that managed the Grove¡¯s had first established themselves, with lesser aspects of the three being active in the Grove that existed far to the south.

    It was the new Gold rank function of the ability that had Zalia thinking of Ro and her promise to him again. With the ability to set up a Grove, she would be able to create a zone of safety upon entering Cormaine once more, and with the other two new Grove¡¯s set up in or near Endaria, allow for the Grove to be a powerful ward against the aura in Cormaine that would try to kill anyone who went there.

    It was a long time ago that Zalia had barely survived the hellscape, having entered as an Iron ranker and left as Bronze. Healing Presence, her aura, was antithetical to the one that existed in Cormaine, thus being the reason she had survived while most Iron and even Bronze rankers would die in that place before long. Even Silver rankers would struggle, though their ability to survive all kinds of damage meant they could probably live through it as long as nothing else was attacking them.

    The other main threat in Cormaine were the shades that floated about, the disembodied souls of the dead that would attempt to hunt down any life they found to consume it. The Grove would help with that too, though she was sure Nateysta had other plans for helping in that regard.

    In all, it would be a powerful ability that would help with the reclamation of Nateysta¡¯s world. She briefly wondered if he had known how it would advance and had been waiting for it to do just that. Shrugging, she hopped out of the chair, storing her tea cup in her vault, before jumping off the balcony.

    The entire construction melted behind her, the refined and expert demonstration of Natural Matter Alteration now a simple matter of an idle thought for her. She slammed into the ground out the front of her home without bothering to slow down, the fifty or so metres no trouble for her body at this rank.

    Ember walked out just as she dropped down, looking at the now dented path in front of their door. She looked down, then up to Zalia, raising an eyebrow.

    ¡°Really? You better fix that.¡±

    Zalia shrugged, taking a step forward and giving Ember a kiss.

    ¡°Fix what?¡±

    Ember looked down but Zalia had already repaired the dent with the same ability, dirt and wood melting and moving at her command. She rolled her eyes but linked her arm through Zalia¡¯s and walked out into the city.

    ¡°You know, there haven''t been any missions for Het¡¯jel recently. I wonder if there will even be any now that things are settled there.¡±

    Zalia shook her head.

    ¡°I doubt it. I¡¯ve been thinking about how we can keep progressing our ranks now but nothing much comes to mind.¡±

    Ember snorted.

    ¡°Well, I doubt we¡¯ll do it from our arm chairs, however comfortable they are.¡±

    Zalia laughed, nodding at a badger, who nodded in turn, as they walked past.

    ¡°We could go north and find out what¡¯s out there.¡±

    Ember nodded warily, and rightfully so. The Mythical ranked dragon Rozestrazix had once told Zalia that they protected Endaria from some unknown danger that lived past their lands and Zalia had been curious ever since. She was tempted to go have a look, especially since Boreal was the one expected to take over Rozestrazix¡¯s job once the dragon ascended.

    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it some more. We still have time, don¡¯t we?¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I want to get to Gold rank before Ro comes back though.¡±

    Ember bumped her shoulder.

    ¡°We¡¯re close, it won¡¯t be long now.¡±

    Zalia looked at Ember and saw the mischievous look in her eyes.

    ¡°What?¡±

    Ember smiled.

    ¡°Not that you have to worry, now that you don¡¯t age and all.¡±

    Zalia rolled her eyes. This again.

    ¡°Just because I don¡¯t age doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t need to be properly prepared for what¡¯s coming.¡±

    Ember¡¯s smile turned to a grin.

    ¡°But you¡¯re going to live forever!¡±

    The revelation as Survivalist had reached Gold rank had made Zalia conflicted.

    Tin - The body of a hunter shall not fail easily. Gain the heat resistance and cold resistance passive skills. They level alongside this ability. You are able to survive with less nutrition.

    Iron - Gain the stealth and trapper passive skills. These also level alongside this ability. You require less sleep.

    Bronze - Gain the Physical resistance and Mental resistance passive skills. They level alongside this ability. You are able to survive with less air.

    Silver - Your ageing slows. You do not require nutrition. You do not require sleep. You do not need to breathe.

    Gold - You do not age. Wounds attained by your physical body have a severely reduced impact on your ability to move and act as normal.

    It was quite similar to an ability Hildebrandt had, with both abilities stopping ageing and making physical wounds matter about as much as a stubbed toe no matter their severity. Living forever, assuming she didn¡¯t die, felt strange to Zalia.

    For the people that were native to this world, it wasn¡¯t so strange. They had grown up with knowledge of magic and powers, the idea that anyone could become powerful enough to live for a very long time, even forever if they reached a high enough rank. It was quite normal for people of Gold or Emerald rank to attain similar abilities. For Zalia though, she had spent much of her life as a normal person without knowledge of magic. The idea that she couldn¡¯t die of natural causes was¡­ strange. As she had ascended through the ranks, she had even begun to look younger and younger, no longer looking the almost forty years old that she was.

    ¡°Well, if I don¡¯t die by fighting some god or another before then,¡± Zalia pointed out.

    Ember shrugged.

    ¡°We¡¯ve killed gods before, you¡¯ll be fine honey.¡±

    They continued their walk, something they tried to do every day for two reasons. The first was that it was good for the people of Nature¡¯s Reclaim to see them as they were, two normal people going about their lives. There had been a short time after Zalia had helped kill the Monarch, once the news spread, that the people in the city had started to worship her as a god. It reminded her of the time she had returned from Cormaine to a massive statue of herself, only much worse.

    It hadn¡¯t taken them long to put a stop to that, though she still saw some too reverent looks every now and then.

    The other reason they did it was simply because it was nice. It was good to spend time with each other away from everything else, walking in a relaxed manner arm in arm.

    Zalia moved them away from their normal route towards one of the gates of the large city and Ember looked at her quizzically.

    ¡°Boreal and her children are about to return,¡± she said in answer to the look.

    Ember perked up.

    ¡°Oh! She¡¯s finally back from the north?¡±

    Zalia nodded, just as excited as Ember was to see her friend for the first time in a few months. Boreal had taken her five children to the cold northern lands outside of Endaria¡¯s borders to see the place that she had been born, the place that they were themselves native to. She had done it partly for that reason and partly so that she might continue ranking up.

    They walked arm in arm to the northern gate of Nature¡¯s Reclaim where six, giant, fur covered feline¡¯s were just walking through, the one at the front wearing a crown made of ice.

 Book 5: 2 - New Horizons

    Zalia walked over to Boreal as the few people near the gates of the city made room for the six giant cats. She gave Boreal a hug, sinking her face into the clean, soft fur of her friend.

    Boreal (Bonded Ally) - Gold rank.

    ¡°Oh, Boreal! You finally reached Gold!¡±

    Boreal purred, the deep vibration pulsing through Zalia¡¯s chest.

    ¡°Of course, I don¡¯t advance slowly like some of us.¡±

    Zalia pulled away, giving Boreal a long-suffering look.

    ¡°Well, unlike you, I have to advance two classes and a unity class instead of just one set of abilities, so excuse me for taking a little bit longer.¡±

    Boreal bumped her shoulder into Zalia, nearly sending her stumbling with her weight, before padding past to greet Ember as well. Boreal¡¯s five children, Frost, Rush, Breeze, Prance and Pounce, now almost as big as Boreal was, all came forward to say hello to Zalia and she found herself drowning in a puddle of cat. Each of them were on the cusp of reaching Silver rank through what Zalia knew to be Boreal¡¯s close guidance.

    ¡°You¡¯ve all grown quite a bit,¡± Zalia managed to get out between mouthfuls of fur.

    Pounce was the only one of the five to be waiting patiently, sitting aside as the others bumped into Zalia. She meowed quietly in greeting, then walked off towards the house.

    Zalia eventually extricated herself from the cats by depositing them on Ember and walked with Boreal towards the house as well.

    ¡°So, what have you been up to?¡±

    Boreal, who was now amongst some of the most powerful people in Endaria, moved lithely with the dexterity of a Gold ranker, each effortless step perfect in their efficiency.

    ¡°Violence, mostly.¡±

    Zalia rolled her eyes, though she hadn¡¯t really expected otherwise.

    ¡°So, are you going to share your new abilities with me?¡±

    She already knew what Boreal¡¯s passive Feline Eyes did, as it was the passive that was shared with Zalia through their ally bond.

    Passive 2 - Feline Eyes - passive - body enhancement

    Tin - the sharpness of your vision is dramatically increased.

    Iron - when activated, you may see heat in addition to your normal vision.

    Bronze - you are now able to see vibrations in the air and ground around you to a much more significant degree.

    Silver - Your gaze inflicts terror on those it is focused on. You can see invisible creatures.

    Gold - When focusing, you are able to see in the astral. The terror effects of the Silver rank effect of this ability are extended to any type of perception you have, instead of just your normal gaze.

    It had been an integral part of Zalia¡¯s own ability to perceive all manner of enemies, especially the Astar. The new Gold rank effect wasn¡¯t super useful to Zalia as she already had a method of seeing into the astral and inflicting terror wasn¡¯t really her thing, but Boreal¡¯s.

    Boreal complied with Zalia¡¯s request, sending a mental description of one of her more recently upgraded abilities.

    Blending Shadows becomes Assault Through The Shadow

    Active 2 - Assault Through The Shadow - spell - channelled - body enhancement

    Tin - You are able to blend into shadows, using their darkness to hide yourself. Enemies are more afraid of you when aware of your presence but unable to see you.

    Iron - When blended in a shadow you can move directly into a nearby shadow as you move. When doing this you may have a brief illusion of yourself appear in an enemies peripheral sight.

    Bronze - While blending into a shadow, you can now manipulate the shadows around you. This enables you to stretch or extend shadows as well as creating shadowy movements that mimic your shape.

    Silver - You may extend this ability to hide nearby allies. The shadowy movements that mimic your shape are more defined and can inflict wounds with strength similar to your own.

    Gold - Shadows made to mimic your shape are now able to leave the patch of shadow they were created from for a small length of time, able to inflict wounds equal to your own strength.

    It was a strong ability that wasn¡¯t dissimilar, Zalia recalled, to an ability shared by Hidey, their shade friend. He had once captured them all by the use of vast darkness from which limbs would appear and attack them. As they had been very low rank at the time in comparison to Hidey¡¯s Gold rank, the fight couldn¡¯t even really be called as such.

    They arrived back at the house as Zalia read through the next few upgrades that Boreal had received. She sent a telepathic question to Boreal.

    ¡°Hey, did you tell your children about Rozestrazix?¡±

    ¡°They met, briefly.¡±

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Zalia switched back to normal speech, no longer needing to keep Rozestrazix secret from the younger cats.

    ¡°Oh, excellent. Have you thought any more about if you are going to take up the job?¡±

    Boreal dipped her head, ears flattening on the back of her head.

    ¡°Unsure still. I don¡¯t want to leave you.¡±

    Zalia smiled, a warm feeling in her chest.

    ¡°Well, I might have a solution for that.¡±

    She shared the upgrade of Druid¡¯s Grove with Boreal, noting the part where she had three extra Groves to create.

    ¡°I was thinking that I could place one in the north, somewhere between Glemp and Zen¡¯s home and Rozestrazix¡¯s mountain. You and the little ones would be able to visit the north anytime you wanted, even stay at the northern grove should you want to. The rest of us will be just one step away through the portal.¡±

    Boreal looked to consider it. Zalia was going to set one up near Zen and Glemp either way, wanting to reduce how long it would take to go visit them.

    She checked through another of Boreal¡¯s abilities while she waited for Boreal¡¯s reply.

    Active 1 - Cryokinetic Pounce - spell - body enhancement

    Tin - When charged, pouncing on something will cause it to be coated with a layer of ice and snow.

    Iron - When charged, your pounce will have greatly increased strength and weight behind it.

    Bronze - When charged, your pounce will now grant you a body tight magical icy shield that will protect you from one attack, no matter its strength. This can only trigger once every so often.

    Silver - The icy shell can now resist two attacks and negates momentum. When landing, the layer of ice and snow created is significantly larger, as well as applying Frostbite

    Gold - The shadowy forms of yourself created by Assault Through The Shadow are now able to use Cryokinetic Pounce, gaining all effects of the ability. The icy shell created by this ability can negate three attacks and eliminate all afflictions that would have been inflicted by them.

    Just as Zalia¡¯s abilities had been doing ever since she had gained magic, Boreal¡¯s abilities were slowly developing to intermingle their effects. Nateysta had described the process as the slow advancement to Ascendent rank, with all your powers slowly combining until you had what was essentially one, big, chunk of power rather than multiple separate, but synergistic, abilities.

    ¡°That sounds like a good idea,¡± Boreal finally said.

    Zalia nodded her agreement, mentally ticking off one of the available Groves. She would save one for the eventual push into Cormaine as well, leaving only one.

    A few places came to mind, somewhere near the Astar nation or perhaps even farther north if Ember agreed to go check out whatever it was that Rozestrazix defended against. Near to the capital was also an alright place, though Nature¡¯s Reclaim was already relatively close.

    Where it ended up could wait for later however, she would need to make a trip north first.

    Ember finally found her way into the house followed by four of Boreal¡¯s children. Prance had already come in and found herself a comfortable spot. Watching the many cats, Zalia wondered if Boreal had any siblings out there somewhere.

    ¡°I really want to see you in action, Boreal.¡±

    She was admiring the remaining abilities, their power in line with what she had come to expect from Gold rank. The first time she had seen someone of the same level fight had been Larel as she methodically tore apart a massive stone, metal and lava elemental. That fight was still embedded in Zalia¡¯s memory, the feeling of sheer power coming from both the elemental and Larel beyond anything Zalia had seen up to that point. She was at the same point that Larel had been that day, the peak of Silver with a few abilities already ranked up beyond to Gold.

    ¡°When we go back north I can fight something for you?¡± Boreal suggested.

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Deal.¡±

    Aylie entered the front hall and plopped herself onto Boreal¡¯s side, nearly making her stumble much in the way Boreal had done to Zalia. The lanky girl hadn¡¯t stopped growing in the year since their fight with the Astar had ended and she was now significantly taller than anyone else in the house. Despite how often they fought against others and even the combat training that Zalia often went through with her, Aylie was yet to put on muscle of any kind.

    Despite that though, the young Druid¡¯s strength was not to be overlooked. She was very capable of killing you from the soul outwards.

    They eventually got everyone shuffled into a room as Zalia altered the house around them to fit the whole family into one space. It had been a while since they¡¯d had everyone together, minus Lumin of course. They hadn¡¯t seen Lumin for quite some time, Nateysta looking after their advancement as an Ascendant with severely reduced power.

    Zalia remembered the first incarnation of the starlight wolf and their followers who had sacrificed their power and memories to bring Nateysta from Cormaine and into Endaria, simultaneously saving him and bringing him into the fight against the Monarch.

    As they all gathered around, Aylie and Ember at a little table eating breakfast together, Zalia and Boreal lounged on a series of beanbag-esque piles of soft leaves and the five younger cats either playing or curled up with each other, Zalia brought up going north once more.

    ¡°Ember and I have been talking about possibly going north past where we have gone before, as there is some kind of threat that the dragon Rozestrazix has been keeping at bay. Not only could it be a good chance at increasing our ranks faster, but I personally want to know what¡¯s out there that we have to be worried about. We aren¡¯t decided on anything yet but I¡¯d like to know if any of you have thoughts about it.¡±

    Boreal¡¯s kids, in a distinctly uncharacteristic manner, stopped playing around to listen as Boreal spoke.

    ¡°Good. I agree.¡±

    Not surprised by Boreal¡¯s quick agreement, she turned to Aylie.

    ¡°Do we know what kind of threat it is? You haven¡¯t told me much about Rozestrazix but I know enough to understand they¡¯re powerful. Would we stand a chance against whatever it is that¡¯s out there?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t, which is why I¡¯m yet to agree,¡± Ember said, looking at Zalia.

    ¡°We won¡¯t ever find out if we don¡¯t go have a look. I¡¯m going to go north to set up a Grove there which should help mitigate any issues with travel at least. Maybe while I¡¯m up there I can go have a look?¡±

    Ember sighed.

    ¡°Oh alright but please be careful, and¡­ take Boreal with you please?¡±

    The second part of the sentence was directed more at Boreal than Zalia, who looked more than willing to go along.

    Zalia smiled, happy that she¡¯d been able to convince Ember even just a little bit with Boreal¡¯s help. Even though part of her mind was still reeling at the fact that she wouldn¡¯t age any longer, Zalia was beyond excited to finally reach Gold rank. There was a feeling of control over her future that increased each time she ranked up and Gold was what she considered to be the point at which she would truly be strong. It was the point where almost everything, in Endaria at least, would be below her rank.

    Still grinning to herself, Zalia snuggled deeper into Boreal¡¯s fur as she made plans for the upcoming journey. She would finally get a chance to explore further outside of Endaria.

 Book 5: 3 - Aurora Grove

    Zalia floated in the sky above the snowy northern lands that bordered Endaria. She had chosen a spot that was about halfway between the mountain city of Those Born of Heat and Stone and the mountain peak that held Rozestrazix¡¯s nest. For Zalia, that meant a half day journey to reach either location.

    It had taken Zalia significantly less time to fly over this time than in the past, mostly due to her higher ranked Mobility passive.

    Mobility - Passive

    Tin - Your speed is increased. Your stamina is less affected by movement.

    Iron - You may step on air one time before stepping on a solid surface once more.

    Bronze - You are able to step on air three times before resetting this ability. Additionally, you may perform a short range teleport with a long cooldown. Finally, when travelling long distances, you are able to maintain a fast pace while maintaining your stamina indefinitely.

    Silver - You can set a point in space over the course of an hour. You may teleport to this point from anywhere with a seven day cooldown.

    Gold - You may now set three points in space instead of just one. These points each have their own seven day cooldown. Additionally, the speed at which you can travel over long distances while maintaining your stamina indefinitely is significantly increased.

    As such it hadn¡¯t taken long at all for her to reach somewhere she liked. The spot she had chosen was a deep gorge between mountain peaks that was sheltered from the weather. A creek, currently frozen over, ran down the middle of the space, surrounded by the smaller hardy plants and trees that could survive in such a cold place that didn¡¯t receive much sunlight.

    Boreal was hanging in the air next to her, held aloft by the wings created by Zalia¡¯s ritual.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± she called over the wind running off the nearby mountains.

    ¡°Nice.¡±

    Zalia smiled at Boreal¡¯s simple answer. Boreal and her children would live here, far away from Nature¡¯s Reclaim yet within a single step¡¯s reach. It was the natural habitat of Boreal, though a few of her children were more like their father in that they were plains cats, more sleek with thinner fur, adapted to be faster and more agile but not quite as hardy. Not that the cold mattered once you gained a few levels in Cold Resistance of which Zalia¡¯s had reached Gold with Survivalist, amongst other passives.

    Cold resistance - passive

    Tin - You take reduced damage from low temperatures and cold related magics.

    Iron - You may manipulate ice and snow to a minor degree.

    Bronze - You are able to channel cold from the environment to minorly heal yourself or allies

    Silver - Your ability to manipulate ice and snow is increased. Additionally, you may alter your form to take on a frozen visage.

    Gold - You may enter a form of stasis using your control over ice. Your perspective of time in stasis is sped up significantly, years passing quickly.

    Zalia had no purpose for the Gold rank effect of Cold Resistance, though some of the other effects also scaled with rank.

    They dropped from the sky so that Zalia could take a closer look at the space. It was somewhat steep, though that was perfectly fine. She didn¡¯t really want any of the people of Endaria to move to this Grove from Nature¡¯s Reclaim, though she wouldn¡¯t stop them from doing so. The Grove itself would be safe enough but leaving it would bring untold dangers for most of the people of Endaria. Zalia herself had almost died more than a few times back when she had been Tin and Iron rank and that had been much, much closer to the border of Endaria then she was now.

    Zalia began the ritual for establishing a Grove. She allowed her mind to drop into a meditative state and began to walk around the border of where she wanted the Grove to be. The deep snow felt like air as she passed through, the near Gold strength of her body more than capable of pushing it aside. She closed her eyes and dulled her senses, allowing nature to guide her on the path, walking slowly and deliberately.

    Her path took her up one side of the gorge and then back down to cross the little creek, only to go up the other side. Once she had come full circle back to the creek once more, Zalia began a winding path through the new area for her Grove towards the centre. Each step elicited a response from the nature around her, plants growing stronger and healthier, trees deepening their roots and stretching further up towards the sky. The frozen over creek began to gurgle as the ice and snow of the Grove melted away.

    Grass in beautiful hues of green, white and blue grew from the dirt now laid bare while the roots of the trees spread out above ground to form paths and three, intertwined bridges over the creek. Patches of the ground shifted and stone rose up forming small, comfortable houses dotting the whole space. The trees once stunted now grew tall, forming a canopy that spread overhead with far reaching boughs and thin, dark leaves.

    A light mist of snowflakes began to fall all throughout the space, coating everything in a thin layer of snow that still allowed the beautiful dark browns and greens of the trees and the light white, green and blue hues of the grass to show. With the light fall of snow came lights like an aurora, the twinkling snow glittering like stars amidst its beauty.

    Zalia finally arrived in the centre of the Grove and from that point grew another tree. This one was unlike the pine and fir trees of the north, but more like the massive ancient of life that existed in Nature¡¯s Reclaim. It rose up until it reached the canopy above, then spread its branches over the entire Grove, its wider and lighter coloured leaves filling in the space between those of the others, finally bringing the light mist of snowflakes to a stop.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    With the creation of the Grove complete, Zalia opened her eyes and admired it with all of her senses back at their fullest. The vision of heat given to her by Boreal allowed her to see that the Grove was significantly warmer than the surroundings, though still cold. Her comforting aura was spread throughout the space twice fold, once from herself and once from the Grove.

    The central tree would be the new extension of the ancient of life in this Grove, while two animals from the surrounding lands would eventually become the extensions of the ancient¡¯s of wisdom and war.

    Creating a Grove had always been a deep and meaningful experience to Zalia but this one had been the most so far. The north had been the first place she had arrived in this world and she had, to a degree, made it her own. Now though, a part of it was truly hers, just as she truly belonged to it.

    Boreal was making her way through the Grove inspecting everything with her own senses, looking quite pleased.

    ¡°Nice.¡±

    Zalia laughed, joy twinkling in her eyes.

    ¡°Thanks, I thought so too. Shall we get the others?¡±

    Boreal came over to the ancient of life and together they walked through one of the three portals there. The other two led to the Grove in the desert and Zalia¡¯s vault respectively, whilst the one they stepped through led to Nature¡¯s Reclaim.

    Like stepping from one room to the other, the entire atmosphere around them changed to the warmer and more humid climate. Ember, Aylie and Boreal¡¯s five children were waiting.

    Without a word from Zalia, the five cats rushed past and into the portal, their excitement and curiosity to explore the new Grove too strong to resist. Zalia stepped out of the way to not get trampled, before turning to Ember.

    ¡°Well, want to come for a walk with me?¡±

    Ember smiled brilliantly.

    ¡°Of course!¡±

    They stepped through together and Zalia took Ember¡¯s arm. She showed her through the new Grove and together they inspected the inside of the houses and the borders.

    ¡°So, what do you think?¡±

    Ember looked around again, taking in the space in its entirety.

    ¡°It¡¯s breathtaking. I almost want to move here.¡±

    Zalia laughed, though Ember didn¡¯t look like she was entirely joking.

    Ember gave her a light kiss.

    ¡°You¡¯re the best girlfriend.¡±

    Zalia smiled, happier than she might have ever been.

    ¡°I know.¡±

    It was Ember¡¯s turn to laugh and together they walked back towards the ancient of life.

    ¡°You know, you can come here anytime you want now.¡±

    Ember nodded.

    ¡°I know.¡±

    They met back up with Aylie, who had gone off to explore on her own. None of the cats had returned and Zalia could sense them frolicking around the Grove, spotting them sprinting past every now and then. She even saw Breeze jumping through the canopy above a few times.

    ¡°From here I can go see what it is that threatens Endaria. Perhaps Boreal and I can go see Rozestrazix and ask if they will show us the danger. They¡¯ll need to tell Boreal one day anyway, if she is to take up their position.¡±

    Ember nodded reluctantly.

    ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s get a sense of what''s out there. I would feel a lot better if the Mythical rank dragon was with you, I must admit.¡±

    Zalia shrugged her indifference.

    ¡°There isn¡¯t a lot that can pin me down anymore. Not only can I resist actual death, but the vault can let me escape from almost any situation.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the ¡®almost¡¯ that gets to me, Zalia,¡± Ember pointed out.

    Zalia did understand, and agreed, to a point. She didn¡¯t love it when Boreal, Aylie and Ember were in danger either, and knew that they felt the same way every time she went off to do something stupidly dangerous. Reaching Gold rank though, that would waylay many of those problems.

    The ability she was most excited for to reach Gold rank was Healing Presence. It was on the edge at Silver nineteen and was the ability that gave Zalia her once a day anti-death measure. In her opinion, it was the ability most likely to give her a way of evading death completely. Not that there was any surefire way. Even Ascendant beings could be so thoroughly torn apart and scattered to the wind that it would take centuries for them to reform. That was assuming that whatever did that to them didn¡¯t keep a hold of the pieces of your power like the nature gods of Endaria had done to the Monarch.

    Then there were always the beings greater than Ascendants. Zalia had met one once, a small fluffy round creature that the starlight wolf had called Balance. That thing had taken everything from the starlight wolf without needing to exert itself in any way. Who knew what something like that could do to you.

    Shaking aside thoughts of greater beings, Zalia re-focused on what was in front of her. Whatever danger was out there beyond the lands she was in now wouldn¡¯t provide as much of a threat as something like the Monarch, at least not individually, otherwise Rozestrazix wouldn¡¯t be able to hold it at bay by themself.

    ¡°Do you want to come see what¡¯s out there with us?¡± Zalia asked.

    Ember looked thoughtful, but shook her head.

    ¡°No, I¡¯d only slow you down. You¡¯ll be able to get out there and back within a pretty short time, maybe even within the day.¡±

    Recognising the truth in the words, Zalia called out to Boreal through their bond.

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll be quick then. Anything you want me to pick up while I¡¯m gone? Maybe some heirloom I find laying around or another friend that happens to be a god?¡±

    With mirth in her eyes, Ember pretended to look thoughtful.

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯d love a baby dragon to ride around if you can find one.¡±

    Zalia laughed, wiping a tear from her eye.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡±

    Boreal found her still laughing and padded up, sitting calmly next to her.

    ¡°Are we going?¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Oh yeah, we sure are!¡±

    Wings formed on Boreal¡¯s back as Zalia cast the now second nature ritual to create them.

    ¡°Oh and Boreal, Ember says she wants a baby dragon.¡±

    Boreal looked at her as they lifted up into the sky and away from the Grove.

    ¡°A what!?¡±

 Book 5: 4 - The Swarm

    Zalia and Boreal stood atop the mountain that Rozestrazix called home. The shallow crater was a bit less intimidating now that it didn¡¯t hold a massive dragon with lightning arcing off its body.

    ¡°Must have missed them, think we should wait?¡±

    Boreal padded up to her, having finished her inspection of the area.

    ¡°Wait? Why?¡±

    Zalia poked her.

    ¡°Because they might be able to tell us about what the threat it rather than the alternative of us stumbling over it on our own.¡±

    Boreal sat and cocked her head.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see the problem.¡±

    Zalia once again considered the irony of how often Ember told Boreal to look after her. If they had gone with Boreal¡¯s plans since they had first met, there was a high chance that both of them would be dead by now.

    ¡°Because we don¡¯t want to walk blindly into some kind of threat we have to fight?¡±

    Boreal blinked.

    Zalia sighed. Look who she was talking to, of course Boreal had no problem with it.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go then.¡±

    They flew up and out of the dragon nest, then dove down the side of the mountain. Zalia grinned as the air whipped past her face, her control over the wind enough to keep from being blasted by it. Boreal, apparently more aerodynamic than Zalia, zoomed past her before entering into a large loop, ending it right next to her.

    Zalia grinned at Boreal, then rocked sideways to bump into her, sending both of them tumbling through the air. Recovering first, Zalia continued on as Boreal fell even further. Shadows grew up from the ground and Boreal vanished into them. A chunk of shadow grew from between the ridges of Zalia¡¯s armour, resolving itself into the shape of Boreal, who proceeded to land on Zalia¡¯s back.

    Grunting with effort, Zalia managed to keep them both aloft as Boreal perched uncomfortably.

    ¡°Do you mind?¡± Zalia asked.

    Irresponsive, Boreal began to clean her paw.

    Rolling her eyes, Zalia spun into a roll, throwing the weighty cat off her back. This time, Boreal righted herself into flight with precise movements.

    With a little bit of Boreal¡¯s, and her own, nervous energy out of the way, Zalia settled in for the long haul, entering the strange state of mind that she was able to achieve. It came over her almost like sleep, her brain entering a semi-unconscious state where she was still present but less aware of the passing of time.

    The mountainous reaches of the north slowly gave way to flatter land before them, until Zalia was looking at a massive body of ice that stretched far over the horizon. It looked quite thin in parts and she spotted an area with a strange, jagged, zig-zagging pattern through the ice. She dropped lower and was able to see what appeared to be the result of a lightning strike.

    Sure that she knew what had caused it, Zalia dropped down to land on the ice, strengthening the surface with her control over the cold. It was hard to tell, but Zalia thought that whatever had been the target of the lightning had been turned to dust by the strike. It wasn¡¯t surprising considering that it had been Rozestrazix that had attacked whatever it had been.

    Shrugging, Zalia moved on. She used the wind to propel herself into the sky and ever onwards.

    They passed over the massive stretch of ice for a few more hours before reaching land once more. It looked similar to the more southern regions of the snowy lands protected by Rozestrazix with smaller trees but much thicker snow. Zalia hovered over it for a time, looking down and waiting for whatever threat was meant to be here to reveal itself.

    She spotted a bunny, an Ironfur one if she wasn¡¯t mistaken. A little uncertain, she dropped down near to it but kept herself hidden from its sight. It was only Iron rank, so she didn¡¯t need to even hide behind something to remain hidden from it, simply relying on the Stealth passive.

    Stealth - passive

    Tin - Normal vision and sight based skills and abilities have a harder time seeing you.

    Iron - Other senses are also inhibited and you blend with your surroundings.

    Bronze - When still, you become invisible to the eye, only becoming visible again when you move. Certain perception types can see through this.

    Silver - You may now remain invisible when moving. This invisibility is more resistant to alternative types of perception.

    Gold - You are able to hide yourself so completely that even the physical world cannot sense you. You may slip through the world for short distances without being stopped by physical objects.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    The bunny was sat still, unrealistically so. From her perspective it was as if the bunny was frozen to the core, no twitch of muscle or movement of the eyes giving away that the animal was real and not a statue. Her senses other than sight informed her that it indeed was real, from her Aura Observation to the sense of heat, it appeared to be completely normal. There was something in its aura that made her hesitant however, a type of¡­ corruption.

    She didn¡¯t see what that corruption was until she walked around the bunny to the other side.

    There was something growing from its face, a mess of pulsating flesh that made her recoil. Her body reacted violently to the aberrant bunny and without quite realising what she was doing, she compressed the air and earth around the animal, crushing it to a pulp and burying it in the ground.

    Shaken, she moved away and back to where Boreal was waiting.

    ¡°I guess we know what Rozestrazix is trying to protect the rest of the north from. If this is some kind of¡­ infection or disease that exists here, it could get completely out of control if it spread across Endaria.¡±

    A vibration rumbled through the ground and Zalia took to the air, Boreal close behind.

    From the point that Zalia had buried the bunny, a massive, fleshy worm broke the surface. It reared its ugly head into the air, jagged tooth-filled mouth gnashing, before sinking back below the surface. As if on its own, dirt and snow moved to cover the hole left by the worm until there was no trace of its appearance at all.

    ¡°Ooookay, a little worse than I thought.¡±

    ¡°Think its tasty?¡± Boreal asked.

    Zalia turned to her, aghast.

    ¡°Please, for all that is right, do not try to eat one of those things. If you catch whatever flesh warping disease this is Boreal, I swear.¡±

    Boreal turned away, obviously grumpy that Zalia kept stopping her from tasting different beings. Zalia didn¡¯t think she was unfair to her though, she just didn¡¯t let Boreal eat allies or weird, warped things. Or disembodied souls. Or undead.

    She sighed.

    ¡°Look, I want to see if we can¡¯t get that thing to come back up and kill it. It was Silver rank so we shouldn¡¯t have too much trouble.¡±

    Boreal nodded, excitement thrumming down their bond. Rolling her eyes, Zalia dropped back down and disturbed the ground with her abilities. As she did that, she also used the Trapper passive, as did Boreal.

    Trapper - passive

    Tin - Your traps are magically hidden from sight.

    Iron - Your traps are magically enhanced.

    Bronze - You are able to magically fabricate basic traps you have been able to make before in an instant without materials. You are limited in how often this ability may be used.

    Silver - The strength of all traps are significantly increased. Additionally, you may create up to ten traps that remain permanently. These will also rearm themselves soon after being triggered.

    Gold - You are able to instantly trap an area without preparation or materials.

    In an instant, various traps of darts, spikes, tripwires and icy clones of Boreal covered the immediate area. Boreal also began to warp the shadows around them, a blue glow coming from vague Boreal shaped shadows as they all prepared to use Cryokinetic Pounce.

    Rather than preparing an attack, sure that Boreal and the traps would do enough damage to kill the thing, Zalia prepared to use her power to drag the worm from the ground.

    A rumbling signalled that Zalia¡¯s disturbance of the ground was working and she stepped far enough back to not get eaten. The worm burst from the ground and Zalia constricted it with the dirt and stone around it, while several shadows and icy statues of Boreal leapt from the surroundings. They impacted with an explosion of wind and ice, freezing the worm instantly.

    It died about as quickly as Zalia expected, standing no chance against a prepared Gold ranker. The only reason Zalia had ever been able to fight Gold rank beings when she was lower in Silver was due to her six linked attributes, where most beings had three or four.

    Stopping Boreal from biting into the worm by pushing her head away with both hands, Zalia walked around the worm inspecting it. She didn¡¯t think that the worm was infected with whatever flesh warping disease the bunny had been.

    ¡°I think this thing is what did that to the Ironfur rabbit. I wonder how many of these there are¡­¡±

    As she was looking at the worm, a rumbling noise began to build again. This felt different from the worm though, more like the approach of something above ground. An Ironfur rabbit dashed into the little clearing they were in and tripped across one of Zalia¡¯s traps, getting wrapped by the magic and killed in quick order.

    Zalia stared at it as the rumbling approach grew ever stronger until another Ironfur rabbit exploded out of the forest. Two more followed, each of them falling to her traps, yet more still kept coming, each of them covered with warped flesh in patches.

    A tall, limber wolf with two tentacles growing from its back, something Zalia recognised and had killed before, appeared. She summoned her sword and bow, killing it in quick order as well. The rumbling grew ever stronger and she found herself in combat with dozens of creatures.

    She spun between two Ironfur rabbit¡¯s, cleanly cutting them in half with a single slash. A shadow glowing blue flew past her face to hit a six legged bear, freezing it in place. Zalia applied Hunter¡¯s Mark to it and nine other of the warped animals, then hit the bear with a strong sword strike empowered by Kill Shot. The overkill from her hit jumped from animal to animal, killing each of them in quick succession, their bodies falling like dominoes.

    Using the moment of peace granted by her and Boreal¡¯s efforts, Zalia launched into the air and, waiting for Boreal to join her, activated Nature¡¯s Wrath. Five stone elementals rose from the ground and the stampede of Ironfur rabbit¡¯s, wolves, bears and even the odd deer, continued to rush them. Eye¡¯s glowing a deep green, Zalia took control of the earth as vines pulled every animal into a pile. Dirt and stone roiled, crushing everything below with careless abandon until the stampede stopped and the bodies of the dead were buried.

    Zalia stared at the conspicuously clean clearing, free from snow, blood, bodies or even a single plant. She had wiped it clean of everything, burying the remains deep below the earth.

    ¡°What the¡­¡±

    She hadn¡¯t been worried about the warped animals as much as she had been the worms she theorised infected them, but if they had some sort of control over the infected, then that could be a very real issue. There would be countless animals scattered throughout the land here and fighting them all at once was not an option. The experience reminded her of Cormaine, clearing out countless undead drawn to her by any sound or sighting.

    The comparison brought back the unwelcome thought that she might be back in that place sooner than she wanted.

 Book 5: 5 - Still In-dis Story

    Leyra Indis stretched and, with a groan, got out of bed. It was late morning already, but with the relaxed lifestyle she lived now it didn¡¯t really matter. She hopped down from the second story perch that held her bed and landed lithely on the floor below, then proceeded to flop into a chair as Hedion handed her a cup of tea.

    ¡°Thanks honey.¡±

    She sipped at the boiling water, her Silver rank body completely unharmed by the temperature. The tea had a strange coldness to it that was both at odds with and mixed perfectly with the heat.

    ¡°Mmmm, that¡¯s good. Is this a new blend?¡±

    Hedion nodded, showing her the stem of a plant.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m trying out some of this rare plant that you found. Cold and time aspects in a plant of all things! How is it?¡±

    Leyra took another appreciative sip.

    ¡°Strange, but nice.¡±

    It had been more than a year since she had met Hedion in the raging storm and almost six months now that they had been together. He had finished gathering the materials for his contracts around that time and gone back to Endaria much to her disappointment. It was on his permanent return that they had finally got together, the looming thought of his return to Endaria without her no longer an issue.

    Leyra felt like a different person now then she had been. She felt much more stable, healthy and at peace than she ever had been when fighting to try to save a kingdom that, in the end, didn¡¯t really need her. It had been a hard realisation for her but after finally accepting it, she felt a freedom that hadn¡¯t ever blessed her life before.

    Now she lived in a nice house that she and Hedion had built together, drank tea in the mornings and idled away the days in peace. She thanked the strange scaled beast in the storm everyday for pushing her to take shelter with Hedion, her life had been so much better ever since.

    There had been times that she had considered going to see Zen or the others back in Endaria but, each time the urge found her, she thought about her life then compared to now and it disappeared again. She did wonder how everyone was doing sometimes, whether they still disliked or even hated her for what she had done. There were days that she hated herself for what she had done too.

    Those days were rare though and Hedion always got her through them.

    They had moved much further north than the simple cave that she had first met Hedion in, which was another reason she avoided going down south again. The journey simply wasn¡¯t worth it.

    ¡°I saw something strange last night,¡± Hedion said.

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    She looked over at him preparing some kind of plant as she continued to sip at the tea.

    ¡°Yeah, I felt a powerful magic and then an aurora formed between two of the mountains. Thought it might be worth checking out, want to come along?¡±

    Leyra shrugged.

    ¡°Why not? It isn¡¯t like I have anything else to do today.¡±

    She finished the dregs of her tea and got up, stretching luxuriously. Neither of them had any need to wear thick or warm clothes since they were both in the lower Silver rank margin. Even if they didn¡¯t have Cold Resistance, they were high enough rank to ignore most environmental effects that weren¡¯t magical.

    Leyra wore a simple dress that was loose enough not to hinder her movement, having slowly taken to Hedion¡¯s style of living, looking like someone headed to the beach during summer rather than someone who was trudging through the snow.

    They walked together casually, their pace a slow stroll. Leyra had come to enjoy the feeling of snow passing around her legs, the strength of her rank making it no more cumbersome than walking through the air.

    ¡°How far do you think it was?¡±

    Hedion was eating some dried meat from one of the bears he and Leyra had taken down recently. He finished chewing before he responded.

    ¡°Hmm, not long. We could get there pretty quickly if you wanted to.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t particularly matter, I was just wondering.¡±

    Hedion chewed on some more dried meat, running his hand down a nearby tree as he walked past.

    ¡°I was thinking of expanding the house a bit more, make a living room and a couch. Might use some bear pelts, they¡¯ll definitely be better than those metal pelt rabbits.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you think the soft fur will be better than the hard metal pelts? Where did you come up with that?¡±

    Hedion snorted a laugh.

    ¡°No need to be so sarcastic honey.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s always need for sarcasm. It¡¯s a good idea though, which side do you want to expand out?¡±

    ¡°Northern wall would be best.¡±

    Leyra nodded her agreement and they continued to walk on.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    It wasn¡¯t long before she saw the aurora that Hedion was talking about, a bright and beautiful thing hanging in the air in a gorge between two mountain peaks. There was something familiar about it that Leyra couldn¡¯t quite place.

    ¡°Wow, that is beautiful¡­ maybe we can move over there and rebuild.¡±

    ¡°Hm, if it¡¯s a nice place I don¡¯t see why not.¡±

    As they got closer to the aurora, some details began to gain clarity. It became obvious that it wasn¡¯t just an aurora, having a few glowing lights amidst its other beautiful colours. There was an unnaturally tall set of trees underneath it too, which raised Leyra¡¯s suspicion. It couldn¡¯t be¡­ could it?

    It was another ten minutes of walking before she felt the aura that was emanating from the aurora and her suspicions were confirmed. She stopped in place, staring.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we should go there.¡±

    Hedion, who could feel the aura as well, frowned.

    ¡°What? Why not?¡±

    ¡°I know who made that and¡­ well, the last time we spoke it didn¡¯t end on good terms. Do you remember Zalia? I¡¯ve talked with you about her before.¡±

    Realisation dawned on Hedion¡¯s face.

    ¡°Ahhh, she wouldn¡¯t mind us visiting, would she? It¡¯s been a long time since you two spoke, maybe she¡¯s forgiven you.¡±

    Leyra could read the unspoken words in Hedion¡¯s expression. Maybe Zalia had forgiven her, like she had forgiven herself.

    She stood still for a moment, unsure as to what she should do. Eventually, she nodded.

    ¡°Alright, we can go have a look. Just be prepared, she might not let us anywhere near.¡±

    ¡°She wouldn¡¯t hurt us, would she?¡±

    Leyra shook her head.

    ¡°No, but I have a feeling she could if she wanted to.¡±

    Zalia always had been more powerful than was normal for her rank, significantly so. Leyra had been jealous of that power once, more than just Zalia¡¯s power if she was being honest with herself. Zalia was the type of person Leyra had wanted to be, the person who saved the kingdom, who went above and beyond for no other reason than the kingdom needed her to. Leyra¡¯s goal had been the same, the path she chose to take to get there had just been¡­ a little flawed.

    Settling her mind and strengthening her resolve, Leyra started walking towards the aurora. The feeling of the power was so familiar to her, hauntingly so, except it was now Gold rank. If that was the case, Zalia was either already Gold rank herself or getting close to. When she had met the ferocious hunter, Leyra had been Iron rank with Zalia being Tin rank yet already quite strong. She had soon caught up to, then overtaken, Leyra in rank and it looked like she wasn¡¯t slowing down her pace whatsoever.

    Hedion kept shooting discerning glances towards Leyra, ensuring that she wasn¡¯t panicking or stressing too much. Leyra loved him for that, though she was feeling alright. It was about time she went to see her old friends anyway.

    The looming forms of the trees that formed the Grove that Zalia had created soon shadowed Leyra as they arrived. The aura of the place was even stronger now, though it was calming and warm as it had always been. What wasn¡¯t calming was the six large cats that waited for her.

    None of them were Boreal, though a few of them looked quite similar.

    ¡°Um, hello?¡±

    The line of giant cats sat silently, staring at her.

    ¡°Are you sure this place belongs to your friend?¡± Hedion asked quietly, an edge of concern in his voice.

    Leyra nodded and took another step forward.

    ¡°Is Zalia here? I¡¯d love to see her again.¡±

    One of the cats blinked.

    ¡°Lady Indis? Is that you?¡±

    Leyra looked around for owner of the disembodied voice and soon found saw Ember stepping out from between the tall trunks of the trees.

    ¡°Ember? It¡¯s been a long time.¡±

    ¡°Off you go, little rascals.¡±

    Ember shooed the cats away and they scattered in a sudden burst of motion, vanishing into the thick growth of plants amongst the Grove.

    ¡°What are you doing here Indis?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Leyra,¡± she corrected.

    She registered the surprise on Ember¡¯s face at her insistence. Leyra didn¡¯t say anything and Ember turned to Hedion, looking him up and down with a critical air.

    ¡°And who are you?¡±

    ¡°Hedion, a pleasure to meet you Ember.¡±

    ¡°I hope to say the same. Ind- Leyra, what are you doing here?¡±

    Leyra gestured in the direction of her home.

    ¡°Hedion and I live out here, a short distance in that direction. We saw the Aurora and wanted to come check it out. Imagine my surprise finding one of Zalia¡¯s Groves out here.¡±

    ¡°You live out here? Just the two of you?¡±

    Leyra nodded.

    ¡°Well, you better come in then, Zalia will be here soon.¡±

    Swallowing her nervousness, Leyra followed Ember down a winding path into the Grove. There were plenty of disguised houses amongst the flora and she sometimes saw the glowing eyes of cats amongst the dark patches.

    ¡°What¡¯s with all the cats? Did Zalia adopt more of them?¡±

    Ember, who had been walking ahead, dropped back to walk in line.

    ¡°Oh, five of them are Boreal¡¯s children and the sixth is the father of said children. They¡¯re a bunch of scamps really, you remember how Boreal was. Imagine five of her, it can be a lot to deal with sometimes.¡±

    Leyra nodded appreciatively. Zalia had dealt with Boreal¡¯s shenanigans for the most part but Leyra had needed to deal with more than enough herself.

    ¡°How did you two meet?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°Funny story. It was when I first came out north, there was a powerful storm with some kind of scaled beast inside it. I was hunkering down during the storm and Hedion found and helped me to shelter.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you know Rozestrazix?¡±

    Leyra looked at Ember curiously.

    ¡°Who?¡±

    ¡°Nevermind. And are you two¡­ together?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Ember didn¡¯t comment further as they arrived at a tree of a different kind to the others in the Grove. Leyra saw the portals that were carved into it, with the image of Nature¡¯s Reclaim through one of them.

    ¡°Are those¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah, those are real. When was the last time you were back in Endaria?¡±

    ¡°A long time.¡±

    As they spoke, a third portal opened in the tree bark, revealing Zalia in full armour with her sword in hand and bow floating next to her. Boreal was next to her, coated in armour with an icy crown and an even colder gaze, neither of which were as cold as Zalia¡¯s tone.

    ¡°Hello Indis.¡±

 Announcement Post!

    Hello everyone, I''m here today with some excellent news!

    Hunting and Herbalism Book 1 has officially released on Audible, Kindle and to order print!

    It''s been a crazy journey and I still remember excitedly chatting to my friend in the car about my first 20 followers (I see y''all and I couldn''t have done it without you) and today, I not only get to have the book published in audio and ebook format, but I also have been able to hold it in my hands! That was a truly weird and wonderful experience, I gotta say.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    I don''t think it''s quite settled in yet that this is something I''ve accomplished and I know for a fact that it wouldn''t have happened without all of the readers here who have supported me via my patreon, reviews, rating, commenting or even simply reading. Thank you all, I appreciate all of you more than I can say.

    If you wanted to check it out (or have kindle unlimited ;) ) then you can find it in the post chapter note! Thank you all again, and have a good day!

 Book 5: 6 - A New Leyra

    The atmosphere was tense as Zalia stared at Lady Indis. She had changed a lot since the last time Zalia had seen her. No longer did she have the wild eyed, messy haired appearance of a kingdom noble whose life purpose had been destroyed. That had been even different to the time before, when Indis had still been collected, the ever poised member of Endaria¡¯s council.

    Zalia still felt bad for the way she had treated Indis the last time she had seen her. It had been during a tense time of both of their lives and Zalia had ignored the horrid state that Indis was in because she had needed something from her. In her defence, Zalia had been dealing with the possible end of Endaria as a kingdom at the time. Still, she felt bad, which was the only reason she hadn¡¯t kicked Indis out of her Grove already.

    ¡°What are you doing here Indis?¡±

    ¡°Call me Leyra.¡±

    Zalia started. Now that was strange. She used all of her powerful senses to probe at the person before her, thinking that she was perhaps one of the demons that disguised as others. Her senses found nothing unusual at all.

    ¡°Okay, Leyra, I ask again. What are you doing here?¡±

    Leyra gestured to the man next to her, who Zalia was ignoring for the moment.

    ¡°Hedion and I live nearby and we saw the aurora. You can imagine my surprise when we came to check it out and found your Grove. Then I¡­¡± Indis took a deep breath, ¡°Then I had the thought that this could be my chance to make things right with you, to apologise for the things that I did.¡±

    Zalia had never been able to read Leyra properly behind the stoic mask she often had up but that mask wasn¡¯t there anymore. Her face was full of emotion and as honest as Zalia had ever seen. The hope, wariness and pain warring across her expression reflected what she saw in the woman¡¯s aura too.

    ¡°Is she lying to me?¡± Zalia asked, the thought sent to Aylie.

    Aylie could see more than most, as she had the ability to see into the realm of thought known as the Astral.

    ¡°No, she¡¯s telling the truth.¡±

    Ember looked at the similar expressions of the two women in front of her.

    ¡°Leyra, Hedion, why don¡¯t you both come sit down and we can talk in a more comfortable place?¡±

    Zalia sent Ember a pulse of grateful emotion down their bond and began to alter the area around them. A space to lounge cut itself out of the ground, lined with beautifully contrasted hardwoods and chairs coated with soft leaves. A small flickering fire lit in a low but wide stone brazier in the centre.

    Leyra looked on in wonder before taking a seat. Zalia sat down opposite Leyra, with Ember and Aylie keeping close to Zalia.

    ¡°So¡­ How are things in Endaria?¡± Leyra asked.

    ¡°Much better now that we have defeated the Astar Monarch. The kingdom is finally recovering.¡±

    ¡°You were part of that, then?¡±

    Zalia nodded.

    ¡°Wow, well¡­ good job. It takes a lot of courage to fight against a being that must have been quite strong.¡±

    ¡°Lerya-¡±

    She cut Zalia off.

    ¡°Look, I know I fucked up. Many times. I was in a bad place, mentally, physically, all around, really. My family had recently fallen to nothing, the¡­¡± she looked at Hedion before continuing, ¡°The man I loved since I was a child had turned into something else, something horrible. I was lost, I was.. I was broken inside. None of that is an excuse for how I treated any of you, though. Like you were all¡­ things I could use to the ends I deemed were best. I¡¯m sorry, Zalia. Truly.¡±

    Zalia stared at Leyra for a long time, thinking. She did appear truly sorry, the unhidden tears that were trying to escape her eyes evident. There was truth behind them, rather than the usual manipulative lies. It appeared that spending more than a year separated from anyone had done Leyra good, and had given her time to heal.

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know that I¡¯m ready to forgive you, Leyra, but over the course of my time in Endaria, I haven¡¯t been perfect either. I¡¯ve made more than a few mistakes too, so¡­ maybe I can try?¡±

    Forgiveness on Zalia¡¯s part wasn¡¯t going to happen overnight, no matter how long it had been since she last saw Leyra. There was perhaps a chance, however, and this was as good start as they would get.

    Zalia bumped her shoulder into Ember, a wordless appreciation of the emotion healing energy that she was sending through her.

    ¡°Where have you been all this time? You said that you live in the north now but¡­ why?¡±

    Leyra was taking a few centering breaths and Zalia noticed the supportive hand that Hedion had placed on her lower back. Were they together?

    ¡°After I was removed from the council, I felt so lost and confused. I remembered the times that our team spent in the north and decided to come here, separate myself from the kingdom and just work through my own shit. Well¡­ it was perhaps more anger and hurt that drove me away from Endaria but, yeah, I think a part of me knew it was for the best in the end.¡±

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Leyra paused and Hedion idly rubbed at her back, looking concerned. Who was this strange figure that had captured Leyra¡¯s heart?

    ¡°I stumbled around like a tense, reactive nerve made of lightning, lashing out at anything that came near. A powerful storm with some¡­ some kind of creature in it brought me low and that is when Hedion found me. This was shortly after¡­ our last talk.¡±

    Zalia dropped her eyes. She had really screwed up the last time they had talked.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I couldn¡¯t see past our, well, our past. The way you had treated me less of a person and more of a tool, I think for some reason I thought that it would be okay to do the same back to you, which was shit and hypocritical of me.¡±

    Leyra shrugged.

    ¡°It was a hard time for us all and it was difficult to look past what needed to be done to see the effect it would have on those we asked things from. I don¡¯t blame you for how you acted, in fact it was even a little comforting knowing that it wasn¡¯t just me that was messing up constantly.¡±

    Zalia let out a sigh and looked up through the canopy of the trees to the aurora above. Ember, who had been staring into the crackling fire between them, spoke up.

    ¡°You two are so similar.¡±

    Both of them turned to her, mildly offended, but she held her ground and met their eyes in turn.

    ¡°I¡¯m serious. Your upbringings might have been different but the two of you can be the same sometimes. I think it¡¯s why you annoy the shit out of each other so much.¡±

    Zalia smiled, not arguing, while Leyra actually laughed. Laughter, from Leyra Indis. The world had certainly changed over the last five years.

    ¡°If you¡¯re living this far north, there is something you should be aware of. The reason we came up here was to investigate a threat that exists further north, its some kind of infection or parasite that turns creatures violent and crazed, perhaps even mind controlled. There are these massive worms that live underground that appear to be the source of it, an ability they have maybe? It¡¯s hard to tell.¡±

    Both Leyra and Hedion had gone tense, worry in their expressions.

    ¡°What? How close are these things?¡± Hedion asked.

    Zalia held up her hand in a placating gesture.

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry, there is a guardian who has been defending the north from them for quite some time. Its just a warning, in case you see any animals with abnormal growths on them. Kill them immediately and run.¡±

    ¡°What kind of guardian? How long have these things been near to us?¡±

    Zalia pointed at Leyra.

    ¡°The beast in the storm, they defend against the infected. You really don¡¯t need to worry, I¡¯m only warning you in case the worst happens.¡±

    ¡°Do you think we can make an impact on them?¡± Ember asked.

    ¡°No, not really. I believe we can make Roz- the guardian¡¯s job easier by thinning them out, but there isn¡¯t a chance we could solve this by ourselves. That would take a concerted effort by an army. Who knows how many of those beasts are living beneath the earth.¡±

    Leyra nudged Hedion.

    ¡°Hedion here used to collect rare ingredients for some people in Endaria who used them for all kinds of experiments. Maybe we could talk to those people and figure out a way of dealing with the creatures easier?¡±

    Hedion looked thoughtful.

    ¡°Do you think it¡¯s possible? Who are these people you know and what rank are they¡­ actually, I might know someone who can help with that as well.¡±

    The person Zalia had in mind was Glemp, her little alchemist friend that lived beneath a mountain. They must have reached Silver rank by now, as they had been close the last time she had seen them. Though, it had taken them near fifty years to reach high Bronze, as they didn¡¯t really leave the mountain to fight things, instead spending time meticulously experimenting.

    ¡°Perhaps we can get my people and yours together and they can work on the problem?¡±

    A flash of light from the sky heralded the arrival of Lumin, the reincarnation of the Ascendant known to Zalia as the starlight wolf. They appeared in a blinding storm of light and fur, immediately jumping on Aylie who had been deep in thought for the entire conversation.

    Hedion and Leyra had both leapt to their feet in alarm, though Zalia was used to their friend appearing whenever they wanted.

    ¡°Lumin!¡± Aylie got out between the licks and excessive fluff delivered by Lumin.

    Just as Lumin had jumped Aylie, the six felines that had been running around and busying themselves with play fights about the Grove came running one by one. Soon, Lumin was taken away in the puddle of cats as they frolicked through the Grove.

    ¡°Sorry about that,¡± Zalia said, noticing that Leyra and Hedion were still looking shellshocked.

    It took a moment for Hedion to look away from the source of the chaos.

    ¡°Who or what is a Lumin?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s one of our Ascendant friend. They¡¯ve reached Silver rank in power too, which is new.¡±

    Lumin eventually managed to extricate themself from the cats and trudged over to sit near Aylie, who had just finished fixing up her hair after Lumin had destroyed any semblance of neatness.

    ¡°Lumin, what are you doing here?¡±

    Aylie looked at Lumin for a bit, then turned to the rest of them.

    ¡°They say that they wish to join us in our return north, that there is¡­ something there that they need to find.¡±

    ¡°What is something?¡±

    Another pause.

    ¡°Lumin won¡¯t say.¡±

    Zalia shrugged.

    ¡°Alright, won¡¯t hurt to have you along. We¡¯re going to have to get one of those worms back for the others to run some tests on then, I suppose?¡±

    ¡°It¡­ it would be best to have an intact source specimen, yes.¡±

    Ember sighed.

    ¡°How dangerous are these things? Should we really be taking a bunch of us to fight them?¡±

    Zalia shook her hand side to side in a so-so gesture.

    ¡°Boreal and I had no trouble, really. Nothing even got close to injuring us, let alone injuring us enough to do serious harm. The only thing I¡¯d worry about is whatever this infection they can spread is. I¡¯ve got an idea to test that, though¡­¡±

    Ember glared at Zalia, and she grinned. Ember was not going to like her idea.

 Book 5: 7 - Probably a Bad Idea

    Zalia stood with the rest of their little excursion group looking at the dead remains of the giant aberrant worm.

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty foul, right?¡± she asked.

    Leyra and Hedion were standing a bit back, watching Zalia and Boreal as they approached the corpse. Next to them were Ember and Aylie, though Boreal¡¯s children hadn¡¯t been allowed to come with them this time.

    ¡°It is an interesting beast, to be sure,¡± Hedion agreed.

    Zalia huffed, looking down at her bare arm.

    ¡°Hey Ember, come stand next to me.¡±

    She was about to try touching some of the strange warped flesh on the beast with her bare hand, to see if it would spread directly to her. The only reason Ember had even considered letting her do this was due to the Gold rank effects of mental and physical resistance.

    Physical resistance - passive

    Tin - You receive reduced damage and effects from physical attacks and physical related magics

    Iron - You may manipulate earth and stone to a minor degree

    Bronze - You become harder to move by force

    Silver - Your ability to manipulate earth and stone is increased. You may alter your form to take on a stoney visage.

    Gold - Your body is significantly harder to alter by any means.

    Mental resistance - passive

    Tin - You receive reduced damage and effects from mental attacks and mind related magics

    Iron - You may perform minor telekinetic feats

    Bronze - You may mentally communicate with creatures capable of understanding language

    Silver - The power of your telekinesis is increased. You are able to create invisible surfaces only you can touch with this ability.

    Gold - Your resistance to magical interference with your mind and thoughts on the Astral plane is significantly increased.

    It was mainly Physical Resistance that mattered, though the creatures that had been infected had their minds controlled, which obviously wouldn¡¯t be great.

    Ember arrived next to Zalia, snow crunching beneath her boots. Zalia summoned her sword and handed it to her.

    ¡°If my arm starts¡­ warping, cut it off would you?¡±

    Ember just sighed.

    Grinning, Zalia stepped up to the thing and tapped a warped piece of flesh with her finger, drawing it back instantly. Nothing happened.

    ¡°Okayyy, seems alright.¡±

    She tapped it a little longer, like she was cautiously testing the temperature of a pan. A few more taps and she had her hand placed firmly on it. Still, nothing happened.

    ¡°Well then, all good!¡±

    As the words left her mouth, the warped flesh broke like a blister and a liquid poured down her hand. Rippling pain spread up her arm at the same time as something tried to force its way into her mind. She resisted the mental attack easily and the pain in her arm stopped as Ember took it off with a single clean cut. Her arm slowly regrew and Zalia waited with gritted teeth.

    ¡°I guess I was wrong,¡± she muttered.

    Ember was standing with a self-satisfied look.

    ¡°Knew it. You¡¯re lucky you have someone to cut your arm off whenever you need.¡±

    Zalia stared at her, blue glowing blade slung over her shoulder and fiery plate armour slowly melting the snow around them, and unsummoned the sword.

    ¡°No more armour ignoring sword for you, thanks. I like my arms where they are, most of the time!¡±

    Ember chuckled and looked toward the worm.

    ¡°So, this is the threat that our... friend is defending against?¡±

    Zalia nodded as Hedion and Leyra approached.

    ¡°So how are we going to get that back through your portal?¡± Leyra asked.

    Zalia frowned up at the massive form.

    ¡°Well we could cut a bit off I guess? I¡¯m not so certain we should bring it back, the more I think about it. It seems pretty contagious.¡±

    Hedion raised a hand.

    ¡°Ah! But I have a power that can put whatever we cut off of it into a type of stasis, so that it might be preserved. That will also stop it from spreading to anything so long as the magic holds. Once it is in the hands of your people and mine, it won¡¯t be a threat any longer. The people I know have plenty of ways to deal with such an affliction, I¡¯m sure.¡±

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Zalia tapped at her leg, thinking.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t even look tasty,¡± Boreal added.

    Nodding sagely, as if Boreal¡¯s contribution mattered whatsoever, Zalia turned back to Hedion.

    ¡°Well alright, we can get something done with this. First though, you¡¯ll have to make sure your people are okay coming up near the Grove to study it. My friend won¡¯t really be cool with leaving the north.¡±

    Hedion looked thoughtful, but nodded.

    ¡°Sure, I should be able to make that work.¡±

    Zalia¡¯s sword appeared in her hand as she turned back to the worm. Was this really a good idea?

    She summoned her armour and started to cast a ritual. Getting any of the odd opaque liquid on herself would cause the warping, so she would just have to avoid that. The ritual she cast used Water Lily, Dodge-vine and Bitterbalm with the intended effect of protecting her from being afflicted. The purifying effect of the Water Lily, in addition to the protection from curses that Dodge-vine and Bitterbalm provided should be enough to prevent her from needing to remove a limb again.

    Congratulations! Herbal Magic has reached Silver 20.

    Congratulations! Herbal magic has reached Gold 1.

    Her expression lit up at the notification. Another step towards Gold rank.

    She put away thought of the new effect for the moment and focused on her task.

    ¡°Alright, step back everyone.¡±

    Ember moved away, though Boreal didn¡¯t bother, and Zalia began making cuts into the creature. She cut into the worm like it was a cake, making two intersecting slices downwards and one more along the bottom. It wasn¡¯t blood that flowed out, but the same semi-clear fluid that had warped her flesh previously. She wrinkled her nose as a horrid smell rose from it, but continued her work.

    The ritual she had cast worked as intended, stopping any of the liquid from touching her as she cautiously grabbed the piece of creature and tore it off. She let it go and it hit the ground with a thud, even Boreal taking a few steps back as they looked at it.

    ¡°Well¡­ there we go.¡±

    Everyone stared at it, eyes looking one by one back to Zalia.

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll carry it. The rest of you should go ahead then.¡±

    At that moment, an Ironfur rabbit with a half warped body came flying from the nearby trees towards them with feral aggression. It barely lasted a second as Boreal reacted immediately, intercepting and tearing it apart. It occurred to Zalia then that it was strange that Boreal hadn¡¯t been affected by the warping power but put the thought aside as a rumbling started beneath their feet.

    ¡°Run!¡±

    She grabbed the chunk of creature and waited for the others to push through her vault portal before jumping in herself. A massive worm, almost twice the size of the previous one, that she identified as Emerald rank, burst from the ground, swallowing the entire section of land they had just been standing on. As it did, she closed the portal.

    ¡°I guess we aren¡¯t going back there for a bit,¡± Ember said dryly.

    ¡°I think I would rather go back there never,¡± Leyra murmured.

    Zalia stored the piece of worm in one of her storage spaces and took a moment to look at the new ability description for Herbal Magic.

    Passive 2 - Herbal Magic - passive - varied

    Tin - Minor herbal based rituals are a keystone of magical herbalists. You gain an instinctual understanding of herbal rituals of your rank or lower. Herbal magic you use of your rank and lower has slightly increased potency.

    Iron - you may emulate the effects of herbs you have used in rituals of a rank lower than this ability.

    Bronze - When applying a Herbal ritual effect to a target marked by Hunter¡¯s mark, all other marked targets are also affected. In addition, you are able to combine certain herbs to gain a new base effect.

    Silver - Your living rituals become almost indistinguishable from natural magic. The scale of your ritual magic expands, allowing you to now perform significantly larger and longer rituals.

    Gold - The strength and scale of your ritual magic further increases. You are also able to establish a Herbal Nexus in one of your Grove¡¯s which allows you to maintain rituals without cost in addition to giving you the ability to create rituals significantly quicker without the requirements of space for physical plants to maintain them.

    As she read, her eyebrows rose further and further until she was reading the Gold rank effect multiple times through, to ensure she hadn¡¯t misunderstood. The effect would be incredibly powerful for when they entered Cormaine. If she was able to quickly apply all of the ritual effects she had the first time she had been there, it would give them a foothold into Cormaine that would be hard to break. Protection from the aura there, a form of disguise or invisibility from the senses of the shades that clouded the air.

    Part of her was looking forward to going to Cormaine just to see how much she had changed since she had been there. It had been a struggle to survive, death around every corner, the very air hard to breathe. This time, she doubted the aura would even reach her through Healing Presence and its incredible range. Even the shades probably wouldn''t be an issue, more likely to be scared of her than to approach. The undead city wouldn¡¯t provide any challenge, as Healing Presence would soon reach Gold rank and be so strong as to put to rest any undead long before it could approach. Perhaps even the Gold rank king wouldn¡¯t do much.

    Zalia left the vault with the others following before she closed it. Returning to the far north lands wouldn¡¯t be a good idea until Glemp, and whoever Hedion¡¯s people were, managed to figure out how to counteract the worm blood effectively.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to go tell Glemp about our plans, will the rest of you be okay here?¡±

    ¡°Leyra and I are going to return to Endaria and see if we can contact my people. I assume this portal here is the one that leads to your place there?¡±

    Zalia nodded and without further conversation, they left. She found herself hoping that returning to the kingdom wouldn¡¯t bring back too many bad memories for Leyra. There had really been a change in the woman and returning to the way things had been would not be a good thing.

    ¡°Aylie and I are going to train a bit and hang out with Lumin while you do that,¡± Ember told her.

    With that, Zalia turned to Boreal.

    ¡°Just you and me again, hey?¡±

    Boreal¡¯s children were nowhere to be seen, but neither of them were worried. They could take care of themselves now.

    Bobbing her head in an imitation of a nod, Boreal jumped up and down until Zalia cast the ritual of flight on her. They took off into the sky towards the mountain that Glemp called home.

    Zalia¡¯s doubts about what they were doing came to the front of her mind as they flew. She wasn¡¯t sure bringing a piece of the creature further south was a good idea. In addition to her doubts, there was also the chance that Rozestrazix would discover what they were doing and stop them. If that happened, there wasn¡¯t really anything any of them could do to stop the dragon. Maybe she could find a way to get Glemp and Hedion¡¯s people further north to study the worms at their source without getting attacked. It would be a much better alternative, if they could do it safely. At the end of the day, it was more important to stop the spread of the warping power than it was to potentially take back the far northern lands and eliminate it completely.

    She continued to consider her options as the mountain home containing two of her dearest friends, Zen and Glemp, came into view.

 Book 5: 8 - Experimentation

    Zalia landed amidst the snowy obsidian fortress built out front of the Heat and Stone denizen¡¯s mountain. Snow blasted away from her at the impact and a number of humans in jagged obsidian armour with shields and spears approached her. At the same time, some of Glemp¡¯s people lining the walls began to melt the obsidian around them for use with their lava magic.

    Boreal landed beside her, making no impact in the snow whatsoever as she prowled around Zalia with teeth bared. Zalia wasn¡¯t scared of either group of people, knowing that with the rank of Heat Resistance the lava would not hurt her and the ranks of the humans with spears giving her no pause.

    Not that any of them had any reason to attack her anyway.

    Zalia stood up and stored her armour, only for a blast of lava to hit her square in the face. It cooled quickly, becoming solid before sliding off her face to hit the snow with a quiet hissing sound.

    Heat Resistance - Passive

    Tin - You take reduced damage from high temperatures and heat related magics.

    Iron - You may manipulate fire and heat to a minor degree.

    Bronze - You are able to channel heat from the environment to minorly boost yourself or allies

    Silver - Your ability to manipulate fire and heat is increased. Additionally, you may alter your form to take on a fiery visage.

    Gold - Your body is capable of maintaining a heat level so great that it can cause nearby objects to combust.

    ¡°Seriously?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re Zen¡¯s friend, right?¡±

    One of the humans had spoken and Zalia turned to them.

    ¡°Yeah, and a friend of Glemp. We good here?¡±

    The man shrugged.

    ¡°Try to use the door next time.¡±

    Zalia huffed and ignored the man, summoning her armour once more to step straight through the giant stone doors that barred the way into the mountain. She smiled as she heard their exclamations of surprise. It wasn¡¯t often she found a use for the ability her armour had to allow her through physical objects anymore, since most walls blocking her could just as easily be destroyed.

    Boreal, queenly as ever, appeared from the shadows and strutted down the hall with head held high.

    The familiar warmth of the mountain grew and they came out of the tunnel to the interior, a mess of winding tunnels, stairs and paths most of which were open to the inner tunnel leading straight up to the sky above. She would probably come in that way next time.

    Rather than take the paths as she normally did, Zalia dropped off the side and flew down a few levels to the floor that held Glemp¡¯s home. With all of her abilities and practice with stealth, she and Boreal both snuck into their home, where Glemp was working on something that looked delicate. Zalia waited for Glemp to put down the fragile vial, then jumped at them.

    ¡°Ah!¡±

    ¡°Gah!!!¡±

    The yell of surprise escaped Glemp as their eyes lit up with a fiery red glow, before realising who it was that had jumped them.

    ¡°Zalia of the Snow. Yes, you are devious, yes.¡±

    Glemp leaned back against the bench, hand to chest.

    ¡°Good to see you friend,¡± Zalia replied warmly.

    ¡°Yes, yes indeed. I see that you are close to Gold. How far you have come, yes, since the day of our meeting.¡±

    Zalia walked around the benches, inspecting Glemp¡¯s latest experiments. She still didn¡¯t understand what most of it was, but that was okay.

    ¡°Yeah, I have come a long way. And you thought I was going to die pretty quickly, hey?¡±

    Glemp nodded the affirmative.

    ¡°Still, yes, I find surprise in your life.¡±

    Glemp had learnt the language of the Endarian people quite well since Zen and his few people had started to live here. While they still used yes way too often, the words were much easier to understand.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve come with something you might be interested in, old friend.¡±

    Glemp looked up from their experiment with caution in their eyes.

    ¡°Yes? Is that so?¡±

    Zalia tapped at her leg, then began to explain.

    ¡°Much further north of here there is a bridge made of ice that spans between your lands and another. There is something spreading there, some type of flesh warping and mind controlling disease spread by a worm. I thought you might be interested in studying it and we would love a way to stop it or even a way to make someone immune to it, if possible.¡±

    Glemp stared at her, the ember behind their eyes burning with the passion she knew them to have for their work. An interest was sparking there, and she knew she almost had them.

    ¡°I have a piece of the worm securely stored away, since this disease spreads through touching the fluid that comes from it, its blood perhaps. Would you like to have a look?¡±

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I will look.¡±

    Zalia grinned.

    ¡°Alright! I¡¯m not going to take it out of the storage it is in though, it¡¯s just too dangerous for now. I¡¯m actually considering whether it is a good idea for me to bring it out while here at all.¡±

    She opened her vault and they stepped in.

    ¡°If not here, no, how will I study this thing?¡±

    Zalia leaned against a shelf in her vault and pointed to the storage space holding the chunk of worm.

    ¡°By coming with me somewhere far, far away from other people.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps. Why are you interested in this?¡±

    Zalia thought about it, then shrugged.

    ¡°Someone who helped me has spent their life protecting these lands from the disease by killing anything that has it that dare come across. All of their time is spent doing that and another friend of mine might end up taking over the job.¡±

    She looked over at Boreal, who was sniffing around Glemp¡¯s workshop.

    ¡°I¡¯d rather they didn¡¯t have to. Beside that is the fact that it is a constant danger to you and the rest of Endaria. I¡¯d rather it not be.¡±

    Glemp shook their head.

    ¡°Always jumping straight into things, no thoughts, no considerations. Just run straight forward, head down.¡±

    Grinning, Zalia lay a hand on their shoulder.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why I¡¯ve got you. What do you think?¡±

    ¡°Hard to say, this thing interferes. I will have to see outside, yes.¡±

    Zalia shook her head, mind made up.

    ¡°Not here. Do you think you could come with me to my Grove?¡±

    ¡°No, no. I cannot go far from this mountain, we are sustained by the spirit. Without it, we will freeze.¡±

    Zalia raised an eyebrow, cocked her head and tried something. She used Heat Resistance to move the heat around the room and pushed some of it into Glemp. They stood up straighter.

    ¡°What is that? How can you do that?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been able to do that for yeeaaars now, you can¡¯t?¡±

    Glemp shook their head.

    ¡°No, no, of course not. It is the spirit¡¯s gift of life that allows us to exist and it is the spirit¡¯s continued grace that sustains us. It is strange, yes, that you are able to do as they do.¡±

    Zalia found it strange as well, though not for the same reasons as Glemp. If they were sustained by the spirit, did that mean that they could potentially live forever as long as they didn¡¯t leave the mountain for too long?

    ¡°Well, do you think it will be enough for me to sustain you while you study it at my Grove?¡±

    Glemp nodded their head quickly a few times.

    ¡°Yes, yes. I will come.¡±

    Zalia opened the portal from her vault to the Aurora Grove and led Glemp through, Boreal close behind.

    The second she stepped through the portal, Lumin flashed past with Aylie close on their tail. Zalia had to stop suddenly to avoid running into them.

    ¡°Hey, watch it you two!¡±

    As their forms vanished into the plants of the Grove, Zalia moved aside for Glemp to join her.

    ¡°Welcome to my Grove. What do you think?¡±

    She started to push heat into Glemp¡¯s core so that they wouldn¡¯t die.

    ¡°Interesting. Your magic, yes?¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Very interesting. Ah, and of course I know of Ember, blessed by the spirit.¡±

    Glemp gave a tiny bow, showing respect as Ember approached them.

    ¡°Hey Glemp, nice to see you. I¡¯m surprised Zalia managed to talk you into actually doing this.¡±

    Glemp stared up at Ember and then gave their best approximation of a shrug.

    Lumin and Aylie rushed past again and Zalia stopped them, grabbing Lumin by the scruff and Aylie by the arm. They were followed by a pile of large cats that crashed into them, only Zalia left standing amongst their fallen forms.

    ¡°Alright, play time over. I¡¯m going to get that cursed flesh out of the vault so you all have to behave, alright?¡±

    Boreal began pulling her children away from each other by the scruff, depositing them on the floor again. She managed to unearth Glemp, who was looking slightly frazzled but okay.

    ¡°Sorry about that, what are you going to need?¡±

    Glemp looked up at her, then around at all the animals.

    ¡°You have more of them, yes. Many more¡­¡±

    Zalia laughed, nudging Glemp.

    ¡°Come on, focus.¡±

    Shaking their head, Glemp looked up at her.

    ¡°Right, yes, of course. I will need a room and some of my equipment.¡±

    With that Glemp walked back through the portal to get some of their things. Zalia opened up a nearby hut and oriented the room much like Glemp¡¯s own workshop was, creating several workbenches that were low for her but the correct height for the diminutive Glemp.

    They eventually started to bring delicate glass equipment through, placing it orderly along the benches, along with various vials of liquids that Zalia couldn¡¯t identify. Once everything was set up, she went back to the vault for the creature¡¯s flesh. She took it out of the storage with all of her protective magic in place, then cut off a smaller bit for Glemp. Placing the rest of the flesh back, she took the piece in a deep stone bowl to Glemp, placing it safely on the bench.

    ¡°Let me be clear about this. Do not touch this with your skin under any circumstances. If you do, cut it off immediately. I¡¯ll be here to do just that, though both I and the Grove are capable of regrowing your limbs. Understand?¡±

    Glemp stared at her.

    ¡°Zalia, dear friend, yes, which of us is the more careful one?¡±

    ¡°You, of course. I¡¯m just letting you know that I¡¯m gonna cut your arm off if you touch it.¡±

    Zalia met their eyes, completely serious.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    She stepped back and summoned her sword, then gestured for Glemp to start.

    Glemp got to work, pulling on a pair of gloves made from hide that were lined with some type of obsidian. They experimentally poked at the flesh, finding that they were able to touch it without being warped. With a method of handling it achieved, they began to cut little pieces off, mixing both flesh and the liquid coming from it with various liquids and watching their reaction.

    Zalia stopped paying attention after an hour of mind numbing experimentation, her thoughts fading away while she waited, using Heat Resistance to manipulate the heat around them and maintain Glemp¡¯s inner core.

    Her blank thoughts were broken by the sound of wind picking up outside. A strike of lightning created thunder that rocked through the world, undamped even by the thick foliage of the Grove. Zalia gestured for Glemp to stop and left the hut, looking to the sky above, where a storm was brewing.

    This wasn¡¯t a normal storm, though. It was one that heralded a much more powerful being.

    ¡°Ah, shit.¡±

 Book 5: 9 - Warning

    Thunder cracked and trees swayed in the wind. The canopy of the Grove was ripped apart as Rozestrazix landed heavily in the middle of the clearing, shaking the ground so strongly that the occupants of the Grove struggled to stay standing.

    ¡°ZALIA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?¡±

    Their voice boomed, louder than the thunder. Zalia winced as her ears were assaulted, though Healing Presence healed them quickly enough to have little effect.

    Zalia stared up and took a deep, centering breath. This could end badly.

    ¡°Rozestrazix, hello. Are you talking about the piece of diseased flesh I brought back here?¡±

    A deep rumbling came from the dragon¡¯s chest as lightning crackled across their maw.

    ¡°Yes. Zalia. I am talking. About. That.¡±

    Their words were clipped and angry. This could definitely end badly.

    Zalia was still maintaining Glemp¡¯s core heat and had noticed that the little one had left the hut and was staring up in wonder at Rozestrazix. Boreal was standing without fear or worry, of course, while her children were a little bit more worried. Ember was holding Aylie behind her, not that it would do much.

    ¡°Your senses are powerful to have seen it here. I brought it so that my friend, Glemp, might find a way to counteract the disease, create a defence against it or perhaps even cure it completely. If it is possible to develop a way to remove this from creatures over a large area, then it might also be possible to cleanse the entire north of it.¡±

    A bolt of lightning arced off of Rozestrazix¡¯s shoulder, hitting a tree and shattering it.

    ¡°Do you understand how quickly this curse can spread? To bring it here is stupidity.¡±

    ¡°I know, and we¡¯ve taken precautions against that. Both Boreal and I are here to stop it should it spread any further. Did you not want Boreal to take over your duty in this one day? You could consider this a test of her abilities to do just that.¡±

    There was silence except for the humming of lightning as it arced across and around Rozestrazix.

    ¡°You are listening but you do not understand. Should this curse spread from the enclosed north, there will be no going back. I cannot protect the rest of the world from this, only hold it back. To put everything else at risk is a dangerous game, no matter the gains that might be wrought from it. If you are to do this, you must not allow any others to come to this place. You must take the children of Boreal away, as well as your own kin. Only you, Boreal and those you bring to study or defend against it must be here. You must destroy everything you experiment with, do you hear me?¡±

    The torrent of words shook the trees around them as the snow melted from Rozestrazix¡¯s presence.

    ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll do as you say and I will ensure that no other animals can enter the Grove, either.¡±

    ¡°Fine. This will act as a test for you both, but understand this, Zalia. If I should sense this curse spreading to either of you, I will return and I will reduce all of you and this place to dust. Nothing will remain. And, close the portal that leads to your kingdom, do not be a fool about this. Treat this matter as life or death, for that is exactly what it is.¡±

    With the flap of strong wings, Rozestrazix rose up into the sky, vanishing into the storm above.

    Zalia let out her held breath, suddenly feeling exhausted. It wasn¡¯t often that she got scared anymore, but the ire of a dragon was not something she was used to.

    With a thought the portals leading both to Nature¡¯s Reclaim and the far southern desert were sealed, becoming translucent images of the other side rather than portals one could step through. Rozestrazix had raised a good point there.

    Despite the adrenaline and tiny bit of shame flooding her body, Zalia felt somewhat relieved. While she wouldn¡¯t be less slack in trying to prevent the disease, curse or whatever it was from spreading, she at least knew that her actions wouldn¡¯t lead to the destruction of the north and possibly Endaria because Rozestrazix would stop it long before that happened.

    She looked over at Boreal, who was cleaning her paws, then to Ember, who was glaring at her.

    ¡°Well, that was something.¡±

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°You could have warned us!¡± Ember exclaimed.

    ¡°I had no idea that Rozestrazix could sense it so accurately like that. I guess now we know.¡±

    ¡°That was cool,¡± Aylie murmured.

    Ember turned to glare at Aylie instead.

    ¡°Cool? It could have chosen to kill all of us instead of talking.¡±

    Aylie shrugged.

    ¡°But it didn¡¯t, no point worrying over what might have happened but didn¡¯t.¡±

    Zalia looked at Glemp as the two continued to argue, having noticed that her friend was still staring up at the sky. She followed their gaze towards where the canopy of the Grove was already repairing itself.

    ¡°Quite a sight, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, you have allies that¡­ yes, are powerful.¡±

    She nodded her agreement, then thought about the problem at hand. There was simply no way she was going to stand here for hours, days, weeks on end while Glemp worked on solving the curse problem. Instead, she would make a living ritual for it.

    Flame-root would, of course, be a part of it, and the other herb she thought would suit it was Frozen Heart. The two together would hopefully reproduce the effect she was going for.

    It took some time for her to plant the herbs, the Flame-root especially, while Glemp watched on. She had to alter the environment in the Grove around the hut that Glemp would be working in to suit both the Frozen Heart and the Flame-root at the same time, which was considerably harder than she had realised it would be. She should have known, though, since one of them lived at the bottom of a volcano and the other in the snow.

    She had to try three different configurations but she got it eventually, activating the ritual. Glemp eyes widened as the heat in their core was replenished by it instead of her.

    ¡°Ha! Got it. How does that feel, Glemp?¡±

    Glemp nodded a few times appreciatively.

    ¡°Good, good. Yes, this shall work.¡±

    She would leave the vault open to Glemp¡¯s home, of course, since it wouldn¡¯t allow anyone to travel to either Nature¡¯s Reclaim or the southern desert Grove but would allow Glemp to quickly return home should the ritual fail for whatever reason. As she stood watching the ritual happily, Ember walked up beside her.

    ¡°Can we talk?¡±

    Zalia turned, happiness turning to concern.

    ¡°Of course, what is it?¡±

    Ember nodded her head towards the path and started walking. Zalia followed.

    ¡°I¡­¡±

    ¡°Ember, what is it?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about things and our future. How our paths are going in such different ways, with you going to Cormaine soon to help Ro. I don¡¯t want to go there, to that place, and the people of Endaria need me still.¡±

    Zalia¡¯s mind raced, trying to figure out what Ember was saying.

    ¡°So, what then? Are you asking me not to go to Cormaine?¡±

    Ember shook her head.

    ¡°No, no. You made a promise to Ro and you should follow through with that. Besides, if it weren¡¯t Cormaine then you would be going somewhere else, discovering something new and most likely dangerous in some other part of this world.¡±

    She gestured to the Grove around them, further north than they had ever been before and then back towards where Glemp was studying the warping flesh.

    ¡°That¡¯s who you are and the thing you find joy in. I¡¯m not asking you to give that up. At the same time, it isn¡¯t who I am.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying that you want to go our separate ways?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no Zalia, no.¡±

    Ember stopped and pulled Zalia into a passionate hug.

    ¡°Not that. I¡¯m saying that for some time I¡¯ve been trying to stop you from doing the things you want to do because they¡¯re dangerous and more often than not I¡¯m left home alone worrying. That isn¡¯t healthy for either of us.¡±

    She pulled back.

    ¡°I¡¯m saying that I want to support you in your passions and I want you to support me in mine. As our ranks continue to increase, distances mean less and less and there is always the bond between us. I want to leave Nature¡¯s Reclaim for a while and walk through Endaria helping people rebuild their lives. With my emotional healing and the strength that comes with my rank, there is a lot I can do to help. More than that, I¡¯m going to stop pushing you to stop exploring dangerous places and I want to stop feeling so left behind even though I don¡¯t want to go to these places. I should know by now that it¡¯s going to take more than some wild animals and inhospitable environments to take you down and it¡¯s about time I sought to fulfil my own passion.¡±

    Zalia hesitated, but could see the wisdom in Ember¡¯s words. It made sense and it did sound healthier. She had always had a lingering feeling of guilt when going on her explorative journeys. It was usually drowned out by the feelings of freedom and joy that she experienced, but it was there.

    ¡°Yeah, I think that sounds good. When are you going to go?¡±

    Ember stared up at the healing canopy of the Grove and out to the aurora above.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to go right now.¡±

    Their walk continued in silence for a few minutes before they arrived back at the Aurora Grove. Ember hugged, then kissed Zalia, as they stopped at the portal to Nature¡¯s Reclaim.

    ¡°This is going to be good for us. Besides, we have the bond between us. You can always find me if you want.¡±

    She gave Zalia a bright smile as she stepped backwards through the portal. Zalia watched her walk away, looking back more than a few times as she went.

 Book 5: 10 - Free

    Zalia sat, back against the Ancient of Life, staring up to the sky above as the canopy of the Grove slowly healed. The emotions inside of her were in turmoil, spinning around themselves in a tangled web. Nothing had changed, yet she felt different.

    Ember had gone to do what she felt was right for her and had given Zalia the freedom to do what she loved. It was good, it felt great even. Yet there was a part of her that felt strange, conflicted.

    ¡°What do I do Boreal?¡±

    Her friend was there, snuggled up against her, their bond a reflection of the one leading off to Endaria where Ember was starting her journey out of Nature¡¯s Reclaim. Zalia could feel her still, her emotions and the echo of her thoughts that came down the bond. Her feelings were much as Zalia¡¯s, confused but hopeful. This was a new direction for their relationship, one that moved away from the groove they had found themselves in. It wasn¡¯t a bad thing, but it was different.

    Boreal was purring a deep and rhythmic sound, helping to calm Zalia. It was nice, spreading a warmth through her body

    Aylie walked up from somewhere else in the Grove with Lumin by her side, looking worried as she spotted Zalia.

    ¡°What happened, are you alright?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll be fine. Ember has gone back to Nature¡¯s Reclaim and is going to spend some time helping people rebuild their lives there.

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    Zalia shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage, trying to compose herself.

    ¡°I guess it¡¯s been coming for a while. She knows that I¡¯ll return to Cormaine and she doesn¡¯t want to go there. I don¡¯t think she could stand waiting at home for me to return, either, so she¡¯s gone to find a life for herself outside of us. It¡¯s good.¡±

    ¡°I still want to come to Cormaine with you when the time comes. I think.. I think I have to, for myself and for my family.¡±

    Zalia knew Aylie wasn¡¯t talking about her, Ember and Boreal, but her birth family. The ones who had been slaughtered by demons when they had invaded Endaria. Aylie arguably had more invested in taking back Cormaine than Zalia did.

    ¡°If you go now, you can still catch Ember before she gets too far out from Nature¡¯s Reclaim.¡±

    Aylie shook her head.

    ¡°I can speak to her in my dreams, the next time she sleeps. Don¡¯t worry about me.¡±

    Zalia couldn¡¯t help but worry, though. Ember was as much Aylie¡¯s family as Zalia was. She got to her feet, squared her shoulders and took a deep and centering breath.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine, I just need to focus my mind on something. I have to set up a Herbal Nexus in one of the Groves but I¡¯m not sure if I should wait and set it up in Cormaine as a way to reinforce our defences there faster or put it in Nature¡¯s Reclaim.¡±

    Aylie stared at her. Zalia knew that Aylie could see the turmoil that she was trying to keep inside, but didn¡¯t balk from changing the subject.

    ¡°Can you move it around, after you¡¯ve set it up?¡±

    Zalia focused her mind on the new effect of Herbal Magic.

    ¡°I¡­ think so. It feels like I can move it around but it will definitely take some time. All of the benefits it would be giving to the previous Grove will be lost as soon as I move it, though.¡±

    ¡°And is that easy to do?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it will just require some focus. That¡¯s what it feels like at least.¡±

    Aylie stood and held her hands out to help Zalia up.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s go do it then. Set it up in Nature¡¯s Reclaim and we can see how strong it is.¡±

    Zalia took her offered help to stand, and walked over to the portal. She opened it up, before realising that she should let Glemp know where she was going. The ritual might be able to sustain them, but it wouldn¡¯t be nice to just disappear.

    She went over to the building that they were working in, then popped her head through the door.

    ¡°I¡¯m just heading over to another of my Groves for a bit. I¡¯ll get Boreal to stay here with you.¡±

    Glemp, who was bent over a bench working with immaculate neatness and a steady hand, didn¡¯t say anything. She shrugged.

    ¡°Boreal, can you just watch out for Glemp while I¡¯m in Nature¡¯s Reclaim please?¡±

    Boreal got up from where she was still laying by the tree, then sat herself in the doorway. Zalia scratched Boreal¡¯s head a bit, before heading back and through the portal.

    The familiar sights of Nature¡¯s Reclaim greeted her as she stepped through, the trees, grass, overgrown buildings and the strange mixture of people and animals that lived together. Her house, her home.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Aylie followed her through, asking a question pointedly.

    ¡°So, how do you get this going?¡±

    Zalia looked away from the house, to the tree of life rising far above. She knew that the three ancients would be a large part of the ability when she activated it. The power of the new effects would be intrinsically linked to all three.

    ¡°I just do it.¡±

    Power surged out from Zalia and the Ancient of Life in front of her began to change. It grew taller, wispy mist in colours of green and blue swirling around it as the house nestled beneath its roots melted away. The multiple trunks that had previously spread around the house formed into one, central trunk of massive proportions.

    A crow, the Ancient of Wisdom in Nature¡¯s Reclaim, flew over to land atop one of the giant rippling roots of the Ancient of Life. It was growing in size to match that of Boreal, emitting waves across the astral that Zalia could just barely feel. Aylie felt them much stronger, so far as to be physically pushed back by them like a strong wind.

    The final ancient, that of war, padded up to sit in front of the thick trunk of the Ancient of Life. It was growing too, reaching twice the size of Boreal as its coat faded from the tawny colours of a plains cat to black and red; the colours of blood and death.

    Zalia felt the true strength of the Grove come alive as a door unlocked in her mind. Where the Grove and nature had been two separate ideas, now they were one. She could will the very earth and air around her to take on the properties that she wished them to. Should the Grove need to defend itself, the air could form into a barrier as strong as any her ritual magic was capable of making. The earth beneath could be changed to provide nutrition to the plants and nature of the Grove, or it could turn to the reverse, barren and lifeless.

    The flora around them, the fruit trees lining the streets, the grass padding sprouting from between cobbles and the vines that grew from branch to branch to provide shade to the people of the Grove, whispered of secrets and answers to the questions of life.

    She heard exclamations of surprise and awe as the magic of the Grove changed in an instant. It felt fresh and powerful, the new magic flowing through it a binding of two Gold rank abilities and three other beings.

    Her eyes were inevitably drawn to where her home had used to stand. It had been consumed by the ancient of life, the entire thing vanishing through the powerful use of magic. The house had been a comfortable place, one of many memories, yet she knew that it wouldn¡¯t be of use any longer. Neither she or Ember would be staying there for a long time. Zalia might even end up in Cormaine before staying here once more. She could always recreate it, but found no need for it now.

    Instead, she focused on creating something new, something fresh to her senses.

    Zalia liked nature, the wilds, living rough in the forest without the comforts of a constructed home. Instead of creating a house, she made a forest of normal sized trees around the Ancient of Life. There would be no huts here like the other Groves had, no paths or other features that could be found in a city. Instead, she coated the ground in thick grass, then other undergrowth plants. Some patches of ground cover vines appeared, then various bushes and saplings.

    Layers of magic folded over the circular patch of land that was her plot in the city. First protections from senses, hearing, sight and even smell. Then physical protections came next, barrier after barrier that defended against different types of magic, until she had a place of safety. Nothing short of an Emerald rank of higher being could enter or leave without her permission, nor could they see into the space. She mentally commanded the invisible ritual magic to allow a few people in and out automatically, including Boreal, Boreal¡¯s children, the ancients, Leyra, Hedion, Glemp, Zen, Hildebrandt, Ro, General Faian and Ember.

    With that done, she focused on the city¡¯s defences as a whole, and began to layer very similar rituals over everything. These were a little more comprehensive in who or what they allowed in, with rituals that could determine the intention of a being in control of whether it was allowed past the other defences or not.

    It struck Zalia that creating these effects manually would be nearly impossible. The sheer amount of plants that it would require to set up the effects as compactly as they were simply wouldn¡¯t be possible without the Gold rank effect of Herbal Magic, let alone accomplishing the same thing with a town still inside of it. She considered it a good omen for the success of their invasion into Cormaine when it happened. With Hildebrandt to create her dome over an island and then Zalia able to create the Grove inside of that, they should be able to safely establish a foothold in the place.

    Aylie hadn¡¯t been watching the changes made to Nature¡¯s Reclaim throughout the process so much as she had been watching Zalia herself.

    ¡°It feels different to before, very different.¡±

    Zalia knew she didn¡¯t just mean by normal senses, but to her magical ones too.

    ¡°Yeah, some of the protections are against your type of magic too. One of the barriers is against astral perception, something that I can apparently do with the right type of ritual. It¡¯s strange, there are more than a number of them that I haven¡¯t ever even considered or figured out how to perform, yet a stray thought managed to do so. It¡¯s so¡­ instinctual.¡±

    Aylie nodded agreement.

    ¡°I could see that. I can¡¯t read your thoughts as I can many others, but it was as if you weren¡¯t putting thoughts out into the astral but the power inside you was forming them instead.¡±

    That interested Zalia, though not enough to push thoughts of Ember to the back of her mind. Instead, she looked around at the comfortable but alien appearance of Nature¡¯s Reclaim. Maybe a few weeks or months spent fighting off the warped creatures of the far north were exactly what she needed. Some time to clear her mind, help deal with a problem and really sort her priorities would be good for her.

    She hadn¡¯t really had a plan for life in general ever since leaving her parents house behind and wandering out to the wilds of her own world. Most of her time and thought there had been focused on surviving and a lot of it since entering Endaria had been the same. There had been a few less busy years with Ember in which she had passed the days with a constant feeling of restlessness.

    As it finally settled into her mind that she might be living for hundreds if not thousands of years, the realisation that she might need to actually set herself some real goals set in. Surviving wasn¡¯t enough anymore.

    Yes, time in the far north would be good.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to go north, sort myself out while I help deal with the infected animals there. I understand if you don¡¯t want to come with me and it¡¯s not too late if you want to stay in Endaria to go catch Ember before she gets too far away.¡±

    She turned to Aylie, who met her eyes with an intensity.

    ¡°I think Ember wants to be alone for a while. You have a way of sweeping people up in the wake of your convictions that causes people to either get lost in them or become aggressively opposed to you, and Ember needs to find her own path more than you do, I think. I¡¯d like to stay with you, for now. I can always come back easily.¡±

    ¡°Alright then. I¡¯m sure there is more I can do with this power but I think it¡¯s best that I push everything over the edge to Gold rank now. I¡¯m close, so close. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    She stepped back through to the Aurora Grove, feeling at least a little purpose for the future. Yes, this change would come with some discomfort and confusion but it also came with freedom. She would make use of that freedom as she could.

 Book 5: 11 - Temple to the Stars

    Zalia stepped back through into the Aurora Grove, breathing the cold air of the north. With plans to go back and forth between the Grove and the far north a lot, she would need to figure out a way of getting there quickly. It had been a long time since she had thought about the teleportation rituals she had figured out by studying Astar teleportation magic because she hadn¡¯t had the power to fully make use of it then. Now, with the scope that her ritual magic was able to encompass having increased massively, she thought about its use again.

    The Grove was the most protected place she had here in the north, but it wouldn¡¯t quite do for what she wanted. Instead, she left the Grove, heading out from the shadow of the two mountains that formed the gorge it sat in. Aylie followed, a curious Lumin tagging along as well.

    The teleportation rituals needed a significant amount of power to activate them when they were long distance, which meant that the area required for all the plants involved in it was huge compared to some of the other smaller living rituals she had created.

    Luckily, they used the two herbs Bitterbalm and Frozen Time. Both of them grew in the north, which meant they were built for the climate, which would make things easier. Normally, she would need to create a miniature environment using other herbs that would mimic the natural magic that flowed through nature here, so that the plant could survive.

    She stopped in an open section of land, then began to alter the ground and plants around herself using Natural Matter Alteration. Trees, bushes, undergrowth and snow all shifted away from her, creating a clear circular space some twenty metres across. She summoned small bits of both Frozen Time and Bitterbalm into her hand and began to grow them with Healing Presence, until she had two full plants. They then split into hundreds of pieces of each plant, held aloft by her magic. These parts flew out from her hands to plant in a complex pattern of runes marked out in shape by the herbs, which grew up into their own whole plants. The process took about ten minutes, with a complicated living ritual the result. It was slow compared to how quickly she could create rituals within Nature¡¯s Reclaim now, yet made a sharp comparison to the hours it would have taken at Bronze. It would even be possible to create these teleportation rituals there instantly now; information she filed away for later.

    Her memory was good at this rank compared to when she had no magic at all, yet she still encapsulated the image of the teleportation circle identifier and stored it in her vault for later.

    ¡°What¡¯s that for?¡± Aylie asked, once it was done.

    Snow was drifting back in to coat the plants and dirt beneath them as Zalia dropped her control over nature in the immediate area.

    ¡°Teleportation circle. I¡¯m going to set one up out there once we arrive as well. Any time we want to go back and forth from the north, we will be able to. I¡¯m not going to keep this one open though, just in case.¡±

    ¡°I remember when you were learning all of this back home, before you even had a second Grove. That feels like a long time ago.¡±

    ¡°It was.¡±

    They sat silent, watching as Lumin explored the plants. Their glowing coat shone brightly, sending light scattering off of the snow.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go get Boreal and go, then. We can leave the Ancient of War to watch over Glemp for now.¡±

    Along the walk back, Zalia started to put things into order. They would go north to clear some more of the disease until she reached Gold and perhaps find out why Lumin had come to them again. She bet there was something there that the young god was looking for, though what it was exactly she didn¡¯t know.

    Once she reached Gold rank, she knew Ro would ask her to come with him to Cormaine. There were undoubtedly a number of other powerful people that he had been working to convince to join their assault as well.

    The Ancient of War, who was also Boreal¡¯s partner, was already waiting for them when they arrived back. It appeared that her connection to the Grove¡¯s had summoned him somehow. The Aurora Grove would eventually form its own connection with a nearby being that would serve as the Ancient of War there.

    Seeing that everyone was ready to go, Zalia informed Glemp of their departure and cast the ritual of flight on the group. Before she could cast it on Lumin however, the wolf form changed to that of a beam of starlight that soared into the sky, doing loops as it waited for them. Zalia grinned as she flew up to meet them and begin the journey northwards.

    Even the joy of flight couldn¡¯t maintain its hold on Zalia as her thoughts inevitably turned to Ember. She tried to keep the memories of their time spent together at bay for a bit, but eventually let them flow. There was no point bottling it up to burst later.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    The flight was long, though it passed like the wind as Zalia¡¯s mind churned. Her focus was dragged back to reality by Lumin coming to a stop in front of them and reforming into their wolf shape, head tilted to the side. Lumin looked back at her and yipped excitedly.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    Zalia turned to Aylie, who could understand Lumin¡¯s thoughts much better than she.

    ¡°They say we should follow them, that they sense something nearby.¡±

    Shrugging, Zalia gestured her agreement and Lumin took off again.

    Their path deviated from the straight northwards route that they had taken, the icy land bridge still beneath them as they went. The stretch of ice was the same as last time, bare and cold with the odd part here and there marked by the lightning of Rozestrazix.

    Zalia didn¡¯t question where they were headed. She assumed that it didn¡¯t matter much which part of the land across the ice they went to, as the worms and their mind controlled animals would likely inhabit all of it.

    Minutes turned to hours before they finally found themselves over real land once more. From their vantage in the sky, Zalia could see more than a few animals down below. She even had to kill a particularly aggressive bird, like a goose with one deformed wing, as it flew at them honking loudly.

    Another hour later, Lumin dove steeply towards the ground. The line of starlight dropped without much warning, towards¡­ a building.

    Curious about what it could be but still wary of the danger, Zalia followed quickly. She wasn¡¯t quick enough to waylay Lumin as she landed heavily beside them, straining all of her senses. The ground was stable and there was no sign of heat or movement so far, so she turned her attention to the building.

    It was a weather worn building made of pure white marble decorated with a deeper black marble that was flecked with spots of white. The front had a set of stairs leading up to a landing, two pillars on either side stretching upwards. One of them was snapped in half but the other stood as it had been built.

    There were remains of rotten wood that suggested a cover had once stretched from the top of the pillars over towards the domed building, yet none of it remained. The dome on top of what Zalia was beginning to realise was a temple was mostly shattered, the whole top open to the sky.

    Lumin padded towards the doorway, the entrance large enough to fit someone three times Zalia¡¯s height. Aylie and Boreal landed beside her, similarly examining their surroundings.

    Deciding that this was as good a place as any to set up the teleportation ritual, Zalia moved some distance from the building and began to perform the exact same actions as she had only a few hours ago. Herbs grew, only to split into pieces and grow once more. This time, however, she layered a second ritual over the top. She didn¡¯t want any of the diseased to even notice this ritual and so she gave it protection against perception. They shouldn¡¯t be able to use it, even if they found it and understood what it is, but it was always better to take extra precautions with these kinds of things.

    She found herself strangely settled, despite where they were. Normally, when she went out to dangerous places like this, there was something inside of her that told her to be careful, to be wary of the danger, to always be on the edge and cautious of everything around her.

    It took her a few minutes to realise that the reason she lacked that feeling now, was that it had never come from inside herself. Those emotions had been a resounding feeling that had come down the bond from Ember, which was now gone. Instead, she found herself more able to admire the beauty around her, despite what might burst out of it at any moment.

    Once the teleportation ritual was set up, she followed Lumin into the temple and looked around in awe. The floor, with rubble from the dome above strewn across its surface, was pure black marble that stretched out near to the walls. It was lined with more white marble that then took the final step to the walls, which were decorated with faded depictions of stars. Corrugated pillars and smooth curves of marble gave a relief between what Zalia began to recognise as constellations from the sky above. All of the beauty of the interior gave way to the final and most central decoration, a set of stars shaped like a wolf, in front of which stood Lumin, head tilted to the side.

    ¡°Is this temple yours?¡±

    Lumin stepped forwards and tapped a paw to the image and a dim light built up from within the stars, spreading out from the central constellation to the others nearby. Soon, the temple was lit with a beautiful, calm blue.

    ¡°I guess that answers that.¡±

    Zalia turned as she heard the click of claws against stone to see another wolf approaching them, ethereal and lit from within by stars much as Lumin was. Where Lumin was the same size as Boreal, standing shoulder to shoulder with Zalia, this wolf was smaller, only reaching up to her waist. It approached Lumin, then reached its nose forward to tap it to Lumins.

    There was a resounding ping, and starlight shone down from above them. The rubble on the floor evaporated and the light began to coalesce, reforming the dome above them in an ethereal blue replica of the original stone. Outside, the rotted wood and broken beams went through a similar transformation. Dead wood and broken stone faded away while the starlight solidified to repair the temple. An arching cover grew from the two front pillars and made its way to the front door of the temple, the roiling light settling into its final shape as it did.

    The physical changes to the temple weren¡¯t the only ones, either. Much like the very ground that the fight against the Monarch had taken place on had felt like it belonged to them, this temple felt like Lumin, like it was theirs alone.

    It was beautiful, the temple a symbol of Lumin''s rebirth. What was old and broken now cut back and repaired with a new light. Staring around at it all, Zalia couldn¡¯t help but be joyous.

 Book 5: 12 - Gold Presence

    Zalia sat in the corner of the temple as more and more of the smaller starlight wolves entered the temple. The light still shining down from above glittered against their ethereal coats as they found their own places across the temple floor.

    She had wondered why Lumin had wanted to join them for their excursion out here, but now understood fully. Perhaps it had been Ro who had pushed Lumin to join her or they had felt the need on their own. Either way, she was happy for them. Lumin¡¯s previous form, that of the starlight wolf, had given up much of their own power and sense of self in a sacrifice to bring Nateysta to Endaria, which subsequently helped them win against the demon invasion.

    From where she sat, Zalia could see out the front door as more wolves came in. Their flow slowly stopped, until a final wolf, a small puppy, came tapping through to sit right next to Zalia. She smiled at it, gave it a pat, then looked towards Lumin who was standing above all the others, head held high.

    It was an awe inspiring sight, and made her wonder if there were more temples around the world dedicated to the nature gods of old. Did the spirit of heat and stone that lived in Glemp¡¯s mountain have temples dedicated to it somewhere? What about the other nature gods she had seen help pull apart the ascendant energy of the Monarch? Who were they and where did their power come from?

    She summoned a piece of wood from her vault and used Natural Matter Alteration to begin creating a little carving of a wolf. Though focused on the task, her eyes were drawn out the door where the snow laden north awaited her. She would reach Gold rank soon, then hopefully ascend further to Emerald, Diamond, Mythical and perhaps one day, Ascendant. Would she have temples dedicated to her like this one? Followers and aspects?

    What would her guiding nature be, if that time came? Ro was nature and mystery, while Lumin had the guidance and the stars above. Would Zalia be the god of hunters and cats?

    She was drawn out of her thoughts as an ironfur rabbit bounded at speed towards the temple, face twisted with the flesh warping disease carried by all animals here. She felt, more than saw, the attention of Lumin, the wolves and the very temple beneath them focus onto the offending rabbit. Starlight beamed down from above as the rabbit reached the steps, evaporating it instantly.

    Well, that was interesting.

    She immediately thought about bringing Glemp to the temple, as it was both far enough north to put Rozestrazix¡¯s fears to rest and safe enough that nothing could harm them while they studied the warped flesh. Also, Lumin was probably capable of evaporating any of the offending disease should Glemp accidentally infect themself.

    That being said though, Glemp would have no easy way back to the mountain should her ritual fail to keep them sustained, where the Grove was a little safer. No, they could stay where they were. The constant healing of the Grove might end up being important to their survival as well.

    She looked over at Boreal, then flicked her head towards the door. Boreal understood immediately and bounded over, Aylie noticing and joining.

    ¡°Want to go out there and fight with us?¡± Zalia asked.

    Aylie looked back over her shoulder towards Lumin.

    ¡°Actually, there is something interesting going on here, beyond what you¡¯re seeing in this world. I want to study it.¡±

    Zalia raised an eyebrow.

    Aylie rolled her eyes and scoffed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be like that. It reminds me of your Groves, like Lumin is claiming the world here somehow, not only in the physical world but the astral world too. Go, I¡¯ll be safe.¡±

    ¡°Alright, see you soon.¡±

    Zalia took off into the sky, her armour appearing to cover her body. Boreal followed too, bounding over small platforms of ice that formed in the air beneath her before launching into flight as Zalia summoned wings to her back. Cats weren¡¯t meant to fly yet Boreal made it look graceful. As graceful as it could look with the wind blowing her fur all over the place, anyway.

    It was about time that Zalia caught up to Boreal and reached Gold rank.

    With the Flight passive, Zalia¡¯s eyesight sharpened as she flew, staring down at the ground beneath her. She could stay in the air and take down the corrupted animals one by one¡­ but why would she do that?

    To rank up quickly, one had to push themselves. Easy fights won before they even started wouldn¡¯t accomplish that.

    After flying as fast as she could for a few minutes, Zalia spotted one of the six legged bears down below. She dropped like a rock, arrows firing from her bow as she did. Each arrow flew before her, only to be left behind as her acceleration overtook their flight. She hit first, breaking the bear¡¯s back before a storm of arrows took its life.

    Boreal landed nearby, an explosion of cold wind and ice bursting outwards. The snow-laded trees were stripped of leaves and turned to icy sculptures, the undergrowth all but blown away, as Boreal¡¯s landing turned the landscape into the image of a blast frozen in time.

    Zalia followed her example and used Natural Matter Alteration, closing her eyes to focus on it. The trees and shrubbery around her shifted, the ground flattened and the snow cleared until there was a flat circular space upon which she could work. Boreal would do well with obstacles and shadows to work with but Zalia would reign out in the open space.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    The first animals flowed out of the nearby forest, streaming towards Zalia. She used Trapper and the area around her was filled with pit traps, spikes, bear traps and other contraptions all designed to kill. They were magically enhanced with various effects like poison and triggered explosions, some going off instantly as animals stepped into them.

    Her bow, floating beside her by its own power, began to shoot. Blazing lines of starlight lit up the area as the arrows formed trails, each leading from the bow to an animal as it dropped dead.

    Zalia hefted her sword and waited, marking ten of the closest animals with Hunter¡¯s Mark. The bow ignored them as they got closer and Zalia started to move. She sprinted at a wolf with ice powers, dodging the sharp shards that were flung in her direction. It slashed at her and she parried its claws, using the resulting instant of power and speed from her sword and proficiency both to strike it in half, activating Kill Shot as she did. A beam of light shot from the dead wolf, spearing through the other nine marked targets and killing them.

    She did not revel in the killing, but set to it with grim determination. Only once the corruption was cleansed from the north would life be able to flourish here once more.

    Time lost meaning as the slaughter continued, her sword leaving a bright echo of its movement in the air as she danced around the beasts throwing themselves at her. Nearby, amidst the frozen explosion of Boreal¡¯s landing, the shadows roiled as claws and teeth rose from them to bite down into an enemy. Most were created by Boreal¡¯s powers, yet some were the cat herself. She tore across the landscape and ripped apart any that approached. Most never even saw her but the ones that did were completely frozen with fear, dead before Boreal could reach them.

    While Zalia was approaching Gold rank and had some of the power that entailed, Boreal was truly there already. Some of the Silver rankers gave Zalia trouble but Boreal barely had to pause as they were torn apart.

    Zalia had trouble determining how long passed before a rumbling sound filled the air. The ground beneath them shook and she took off into the air. The worm was coming.

    Rock cracked and dirt shifted. With a burst of debris, the worm exploded from the ground and reared its head, trying to catch Zalia in its maw. She avoided it even as her bow shot it again and again, leaving bright glowing wounds that burned it from the inside out.

    Boreal appeared from its shadow, slashing across its side multiple times, leaving long gashes in the side of the massive beast. It rumbled and turned about, its maw sinking down towards where Boreal had been and digging back into the ground. Zalia dropped from the air to sink her sword into the side of the worm as it began to retreat back into the ground. She held the weapon steady as the movement of the beast tore a wound through its body from top to bottom, the entire thing glowing like the stars above.

    It was Gold rank, yet not nearly a match for Boreal or even Zalia. The power of this creature came from its ability to warp others, not its own personal power.

    Yet with the rituals engraved into her armour and the natural protections she had from her abilities, Zalia was unphased. Despite getting the ichor of the beast all through her fur, Boreal was similarly undisturbed.

    As Zalia noticed the worm trying to retreat back into the ground fully, she took control of the earth beneath them and began to pull it out. It struggled against her, its own control over the earth beginning to wrestle control out of her hands as it dug.

    Boreal wasn¡¯t standing idly as their fight continued however. She pounced on the visible section of the worm''s body, sending a shock of ice coursing through it. The ice spread further and further until the worm was frozen completely, unable to move as its body temperature dropped below freezing.

    Blade unfettered by the rock hard body of the worm, Zalia started cutting. She sliced away section after section of its long body until she had cut it completely in half, ending the battle.

    Flames appeared and roved across Zalia¡¯s body and blade, burning away the foul, corrupted blood of the worm before she settled onto a stone pedestal that rose from the ground. She let out a deep breath and closed her eyes.

    Congratulations! Kill Shot has reached Silver 19.

    Congratulations! Hunter¡¯s Mark has reached Silver 19.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Silver 20.

    Congratulations! Healing Presence has reached Gold 1.

    Passive 1 - Healing presence - passive - aura

    Tin - Your very presence grants life to all around you. You, nearby allies and any flora and fauna you so choose within your aura are affected by a heal over time effect. The heal over time effect heals for low health every second.

    Iron - Healing presence now heals the most grave injuries first and you may focus it onto a single target, increasing that targets healing while reducing the healing other targets receive

    Bronze - Healing Presence now attunes to the specific needs of each individual target within your aura. It adjusts its healing output based on the severity of injuries or ailments, offering targeted healing to each person or creature accordingly. You may still change this manually if wished. Additionally, once every twenty four hours, when you or an ally would die you are instead cocooned in a protective barrier as made by Protection of the Wilds and made invulnerable to most things for six seconds.

    Silver - Healing Presence expands its reach to the flora and fauna beyond your immediate surroundings. A second layer of aura with only the Tin rank effect of this ability now extends to a wider area, encompassing large swaths of ecosystems, granting them a gentle and sustained healing effect. All other effects of Healing presence are still limited to their previous range. This does not interrupt the natural cycle of life within an ecosystem.

    Gold - Your Healing Presence aura is now inhabited by one of nature¡¯s Healing Spirits.

    Healing Spirit - The Healing Spirit exists halfway between the physical and spiritual. Its touch is able to heal wounds to the soul and amplifies the effects of the aura it inhabits on a target. Because of its nature, it is also able to bring a being back from the dead as long as it died within the last few seconds.

    Zalia read over the new ability and raised an eyebrow. Finally, a type of healing that affected the soul. Aylie already had one from her own version of Healing Presence, though it was definitely more in line with her power set. Knowing the descriptions of Hildebrandt¡¯s powers though, Zalia understood that most powers began to affect the entire being of a person at Gold rank, rather than just the physical. It was another step on the path to ascendance.

    She could feel the spirit as it took its place in their reality, settling into her aura. It was barely visible, a slight shift in the air, a warping of vision that most below Silver rank wouldn¡¯t notice. She watched it warily as it approached her, a shape that could have been a head tilting. Zalia reached out a hand towards it and it did the same. Her hand touched its limb and she could feel the power of Healing Presence amplified within her. A warmth flowed through her unlike one she had felt before. It was like the reverse of the pain that came with overusing a passive, a feeling so deep in the core of her being that it wasn¡¯t in the body.

    Zalia stood and the spirit moved forward, its touch vanishing as it stepped into Zalia and was subsumed into her body. She shivered and released her sword from the physical world, allowing it to vanish to mist. It was just another step towards Gold rank.