Chapter 62: Chapter 62 – Leaving Behind the City

Glancing back at the city walls, I see no guards, soldiers, or knights standing in defence of the city. It is dying but not yet dead. People are rushing through the gates, like blood flowing from an open wound. How many more people are left?

At what point will the city street echo with the life now gone, the busy life that I remember from when I first came here?

What will be left, when the people that make these hollow walls a city are gone? It’ll be ash and ruins.

The people here, the ones in the castle, they forgot that we’re meant to be of the same pack. That even when people fight with each other, we’re still strongest together. They’ve abandoned their own people, for some reason that probably seems so smart in their own heads, but from out here, it’s obvious that they’re complete idiots.

I snap the stick that I’ve been threading with my magic, biting hard on my lip as I stare into the thickening forest ahead. I’m training to improve my own strength because that’s all that I can depend on, but I know, I’ve always known, that there is more strength in a group than on your own.

Why is everyone else so happy to split up? To fight each other, rather than fight together?

Why is the world so stupid?

We’re still close enough to the city and the road out to the east, that I can see the travellers pressing together to escape. They’re pulling, pushing, and dragging their things away with hand-pushed carts and makeshift sleds. They’re not going to get very far carrying as much as they are.

It’s total chaos. I don’t want to imagine what it’ll be like when people get further out and start to look for food and water.

There are so many people here with nothing but their clothes, and no food or water. Others hiding things in large bags, look at the rest with suspicion. Even leaving the city, these people aren’t one group. They don’t trust each other, and when they get hungry, they won’t be supporting each other. They’ll see each other as prey.

Nearly everyone has a weapon, though. Knives, rusted swords, a few spears even. How long before they get put to use?

The vampires broke them. It shattered the trust that people have in each other, destroying their pack, and splitting up their already imperfect family. If they were killing each other before now…

“Stay close,” Theo says. “There are already bandit groups coming together. Thugs from the street plying their trade on the roads. They’re not much to be worried over, but there are a few groups headed by knights.”

“Knights are fleeing the city?” Adeleya asks, walking by my side. Our current formation has me in the centre with her keeping guard over the researcher, while Lothar watches our backs. Theo leads with Nadia close by, watching the forest closely.

“They are,” Theo nods, “Not all of them. The royal guards haven’t moved, but some of the lesser knights are moving out with bands of thugs. There's a good chance that they won’t be considered ‘bandits’ by the lords and ladies, but we can be sure that they’re not going to be starving like the others.”

“What about Olive?” I ask, looking around. “And Lothar’s family?”

“They’re safe,” Theo shakes his head. “The Falchion company isn’t the biggest around, but even the knights wouldn’t cross us lightly. They’ll be fine until we meet back up with them.”

“Yeah, so long as those brats don’t start causing trouble,” Lothar says, shaking his head. “If they’re anything like I was, they’ll find some way to get hurt.”

The strange coin that he took from the crypt is now looped around his neck as a piece of jewellery, which he’s taken to pinching between his fingers every couple of minutes. Who did he lose down in that crypt? What story does he have that he doesn’t want to share?

My æther veins burn from the stress I’m forcing them through, and my healing channels are pushed nearly to the point of collapsing when I relax in my training. I swap to my necromancy, releasing the æther without guiding it and drilling my strengthening æther into a random stick. I’m still keeping watch on the things around me like I’m supposed to, and that makes it so much more difficult to guide the flow like I want to.

When the stress gets to me, and I feel like letting up on the training, my mind turns back to Rea. I don’t know what she’s going through at the moment, but I know that I’ll be back all that much sooner if I put the proper effort into training.

I feel… lonely thinking of that night we spent together, but the moment I can come back and share it with her, I know that it’ll all be worth it. Even if all I return to is ashes, then I’m still glad for it.

Still, I can’t relax. I can’t afford to.

“You shouldn’t push yourself too hard,” Adeleya says, resting her staff on her shoulder. “You’re burning through your æther, aren’t you?”

“I have to train,” I say, looking back up at her. With the time that’s passed, it’s easier now to look at her as a friend, and let go of all the feelings that I used to have for her.

“What will you do if we need to fight?” she raises a brow. “You’ll be exhausted.”

“I’ll push myself over the limit,” I shrug. “If we get in a real fight, it’ll be over in less than a minute.”

It would let me force lots of controlled æther through my body all at once, but it would also knock me out for at least a few hours. Like Vael said, I need to test it. I can’t know what’s best until I try everything and see for myself.

“That’s not good for you,” she says, rubbing my shoulder comfortingly. “I’ve been with you when you wake up from that. I know that you’re hurting after you do that to yourself, you wouldn’t want to do that every day, would you?”

“I can do it,” I say. “If it makes me stronger, then I can do it.”

If it means I never have to run into the forest and live alone in hiding, if it means that no more of my family has to die, then I’ll push myself as far as I can go.

“Just be careful, if we’re attacked…” she presses her lips tight and squeezes my shoulder.

“I can still fight,” I say. “I can still protect you all.”

“We’ll look out for each other,” she says, smiling. “We’re not some kids that need protecting. We’re all stronger together, Syr.”

“I know,” I say looking up to her. “But I can’t force you to train, can I?”

She snorts a laugh and rolls her eyes.

“Ready up!” Theo calls, and we raise our weapons. I’m back to using my proper longsword, as the forest here is thin enough that I can manage to use it, but I’m still ready to draw my shortswords at any time. If the forest keeps getting thicker I might need to change my plans.

“Who are you?” Theo asks, calling out to the woman ahead of us.

“I’m only looking for food!” Cries the young woman, maybe a few years older than me. “I… can you spare anything? I have a son, he’s sick.”

“We’re passing through,” Theo says, still holding a sword close to hand. “Keep a distance, if you would please.”

“But sir, please!” she begs. We pass her by in a rush.

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The chances of her being a vampire are still relatively low, but we don’t know enough about the humans that their group works with. Even with that aside, she could just be an ordinary bandit, even if she doesn’t look like it. We can’t spare the food anyway, from what Theo said.

She bites her lip, her eyes shimmering with tears as we pass her by. A young boy hides behind a tree a little behind her.

“Try under there,” I point at a fallen tree. “The bugs are better after you crush them and cook the paste. Add some of those spicy blue leaves if you find any, they make it a little easier to swallow. Oh, and don’t mind the crunchy bits of shell in your poop. I never died from it, and you probably won’t either.”

She blinks at me a few times before going over to the rotten tree, hesitantly getting ready to roll it over with her son’s help.

“You have recipes for bugs?” Adeleya asks.

“It’s not a recipe, I just do anything to make sure I don’t have to eat them plain,” I shrug.

Looking through the grasses at my feet, I find another stick to riddle with even more broken æther channels.

“I can show everyone which bugs to avoid if we run out of food.”

“I hope we don’t get so desperate,” Lothar grumbles glaring back into the trees behind us. “If we do, then I’ll trust you to cook for us.”

“Sure,” I nod happily. “I can heal you after eating some of the nastier bugs, too. The scorpions have some of the worst poisons, but I know how to cut them.”

Adeleya flinches again at that, frowning before looking away from me.

“So, what should we expect from this dig site?” Theo asks, glancing at the researcher we’re escorting with us.

“It’s an ancient elven site, it’s not a new dig but someone has uncovered new depths that were disguised by some enchantments that stopped working. We’re hoping to find something exciting, but our work is held up by a nest of monsters.”

“Is this dig site an æther well?” Nadia asks. “And there weren’t any bandits or anything guarding the site?”

“Almost all ancient ruins are found on æther wells,” he replies. “It is quite the heated debate as to whether the elves dug the wells beneath their cities, or built their cities atop the wells, but there isn’t enough evidence to prove either argument for a certainty. The few cities without wells are often the most interesting, as they seem to have been built more recently, in the waning years of their empire.”

“Wait, how do you know when they were built?” Nadia asks.

“Magic isn’t just for killing things, I hope you know. There are some more esoteric magics that allow us to properly study the past. Unfortunately, most of this is so ancient that we can only glean some small insights into the ruins, but it is more than nothing.”

“They stopped building on æther wells a little while before they all died?” I ask and the man chuckles, shaking his head at me.

“They didn’t die, not all of them at the very least,” the man says, looking right at me. “They were your ancestors, young elf. They survived. It’s just that they stopped thriving.

“Thousands of years ago, they left their cities. They abandoned everything and built new cities away from the æther wells, but eventually, they gave that up as well, living as your kind do now. The elves we’ve spoken with don’t know why, and if anyone knows anything then they’re refusing to say anything about it.

“This was all in the age of dragons, I would like to remind you. In fact, one theory is that the ancient empire was burned down by the last dragons in a terrible war, though we haven’t seen any evidence apart from the simple correlation. The ancient empire collapsed at approximately the same time as when dragons died out, but there are rather few ruins damaged by dragon’s fire. It’s all a great mystery.”

Dragons, monsters as large as mountains that breathe fire hotter than any forge. The stories I hear keep changing, from old saints and knights slaying the last surviving dragons to the gods themselves getting involved, but in every story, the dragons are terrible beings. They reduce cities to ash just flying past.

“What about the bandits?” Nadia asks the researcher. “Have you had any troubles with bandits?”

“We haven’t experienced too much hardship on this expedition,” he says. “Which is itself unusual, I suppose. We’ve had to work with knight-strength mercenaries in the past after getting targeted by assassins. Still, some people just disappear into the night.”

Vampires.

We all glance at each other, nodding slowly in understanding. Why are the vampires interested in this? Rea couldn’t give me an answer when we asked.

“So why do you keep working on this?” Lothar asks. “Why would you put your life at risk for this?”

“It’s a mystery that must be solved, young man,” the researcher says, shuffling over a tall tree root. “I’ll admit that our funding is… impressive, so some of my peers are only working with me for that, but just ask yourself. If an empire so much greater than anything we see today could be destroyed like this, can’t it happen all over again?

“We must know what happened if we want to avoid ending up just like them.”

“You think that an apocalypse is coming?” Lothar asks, chuckling at the man.

“I’m certain of it,” the man shakes his head with a friendly smile. “Are you describing the great undead army that swept over this continent? Or the sudden spread of the Greenfield monsters that nearly consumed all life in the southern lands a millennia ago? Or perhaps the starved wyvern that nearly annihilated the northern lands?

“There are countless apocalyptic events in our history, and there are doubtless plenty more to come. I’m convinced that no ordinary event could cripple an empire such as what we see in these ruins, and whatever it was, it’s connected to the æther wells. Until I can prove otherwise, I’m going to believe that it can happen again.”

“People are already dying,” I say, looking back towards the starving woman with her son. “Wouldn’t it be better to do something about that?”

“Perhaps,” he shakes his head. “I don’t think this is the end of the kingdom. Other, more desperate, people will come to the city hoping that the rumours of monsters in human skin are just lies. Things may look bleak now, but this isn’t even all that bad. A few hundred thousand will die, but that’s hardly worth a footnote in the history of this land.”

The dead will be forgotten.

Cildr, a village in the distant fringes of the kingdom, was burned down by bandits at the orders of some evil person in that royal castle. Not many people will remember its name. Even closer to Snowspring, it’s a small issue that most don’t care to bring up.

They were my family. More important to me than anything, but no one will remember them. This city is the same, soon forgotten by the people who survive.

“We’re here,” Theo says, looking through the trees into a small clearing. A wall has been erected around the ruins, but I can still clearly see the pale white stone pillars standing tall over the top of the wall. They glow bright, brighter than they should even in the warm sunlight.

“Welcome to the Shallow Halls,” the researcher says, smiling up as the gates are opened. “That’s what we’ve been calling the place, but I think we’ll need a new name after we’re done here.”

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