Verdan felt his heart sink as they covered the last few steps to the wall of the city, and the devastation beyond came into view. He’d already seen how bad it was when they’d initially arrived, but now, looking at it without the need to rush ahead, it wrenched at his heart.

  The fires had finished burning by this point, but smoke still trailed up from dozens of spots within the city, and the smell of burnt wood filled the air even now.

  It was far worse than when the Sects had attacked the city, at least that had mostly been curtailed to the city walls and the outer edges of the city proper. This time, the whole city had been ravaged. Thousands were dead, if not more, and Verdan knew for a fact that the majority of the city leadership was among them.

  “Where do we even start?” Silver asked, joining Verdan to stare at the ruins of their home.

  Commander Lukas Silver was a stocky, muscular man with a well-groomed beard and a deep, commanding voice. His brown hair was kept habitually short and despite having been on the road for just as long as Verdan, he looked far more put together. Then again, as Commander of the city guard, he did need to look the part.

  “We start with the people,” Verdan said, thinking of the countless wounded scattered throughout the city. “We start there, and save as many as we can. Then we start rebuilding.”

  Silver took a deep breath and seemed to steady himself before nodding. “I’ll have my people find a secure and stable building large enough to turn into housing for the wounded. If we can gather them together, we can save a lot of time for our doctors and healers.”

  “Agreed,” Verdan said, relieved that Silver was forming a plan. “Natalia should be somewhere in amongst it all, I’ll see if I can find her and get an accounting of our potion stocks. We won’t have much, but what we do have will be sent over.”

  “Thank you, Verdan,” Silver said, giving him an appreciative nod before turning to wave his people forward and into the city, detailing out orders and delegating tasks with easy proficiency.

  The alliance army that had been brought together to fight the Cyth was well and truly disbanded now, and the different groups that had come together split up as they moved into the city. They all had their own priorities now, and Verdan was no different.

  Gathering his people, he set off for the Crea estate, his home within the city. His guard came with him, those that had survived the battle anyway. Nikau, the commander of Verdan’s personal guards, had responded well to his healing and was looking more like himself despite several hours of walking.

  “Anything you need from me?” Nikau asked, moving up to join Verdan as they moved alongside the steady stream of weary fighters heading into the city.

  Nikau was a solidly built man with greying hair and pale eyes, old scars were traced out across his face and arms, as well as a few newer ones from their recent battles. Normally, he was bright, alert and ready for anything, but exhaustion had taken its toll.

  “Not right now, we’ll head back to the estate and take stock of the situation. Anything urgent can be taken care of today, the rest can wait for the morning.”

  Nikau nodded and dropped back to the others, passing on his instructions, such as they were. Verdan would have preferred to be a bit more specific, but they knew almost nothing about the state of things within the city.

  Hopefully, things hadn’t got much worse than when they’d passed through the day before, but Verdan wasn’t going to hold out much hope for that.

  Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, Verdan turned to see Kai, Gwen and the other Witches moving to join them. The Witches had based their Coven in a building opposite the estate, so it made sense, even if he wasn’t overjoyed by what came along with them.

  Among the Witches was Feli, a short woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, a bright smile and warm green eyes. Feli was a Green Witch, and was now the bearer of the seed of the Daith tree that had been within Miyaka forest. The seed had been formed from the remnants of a sacrificed heart, and along with it came her two Maevire protectors.

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  Verdan didn’t know their names, if they even had one, having only referred to the third of their group as the Eldest before the ancient Maevir had sacrificed himself for the survival of his charge.

  The Maevir were tall, hairless humanoids with glowing green veins tracing their pale, striated skin. Despite its soft appearance, the flesh of the Maevir was lined and rough, with a bark-like consistency that protected the Maevir as well as any armour.

  The two ageless creatures walked gracefully along in the wake of the Witches, each holding a quarterstaff formed of living wood and seemingly ready to defend Feli should any threat arise.

  Verdan felt a headache start to rise as he considered the problems the presence of two Maevir would bring. These were creatures of myth and legend, after all, no one expected to see them walking around the city.

  Shaking his head and trying to banish both the thought and the distant ache, Verdan focused on leading them through the city, watching for any sign of someone in need as they went.

  The worst of the situation should be in hand now the Cyth were either dead or driven back, but Verdan didn’t want to let anyone suffer on account of his assumptions.

  Thankfully, they saw no sign of anything more than the slow return of the city’s inhabitants, and Verdan sighed in relief as they reached the glass houses district. Battle damage scarred the buildings, and at least one of the timber storage yards was utterly ruined, but there were people at work already.

  A familiar burly figure was directing the work, and Verdan held up a hand in greeting as he changed direction to approach.

  “Verdan, I’m glad to see you’re safe!” Samuel called out with a broad smile that seemed only a little forced.

  Samuel had been a foreman of a logging camp and these days seemed to be the representative of the people living near Verdan’s home. Samuel was middle aged with hair long gone silver and a powerful build that was slowly fading as he aged. He was also a good, kind man and dependable to boot.

  Verdan had taken an immediate liking to Samuel when they first met, and apparently the feeling had been mutual.

  Waving in response, Verdan glanced around at the few dozen people working to repair the damage to the surrounding buildings. “I’m glad to see you made it out safely, and that things are calm enough that you can start repair work.”

  “It was a close thing at times, but I made it,” Samuel said, his smile fading for a moment as he reached up to touch a bandage around his neck. Clearing his throat, Samuel gestured to the workers with a wave of one hand. “We’ve been hard at it as soon as the Cyth were driven back. Once we’re done here, we’ll be helping the rest of the city as well. Locals like us know how to bounce back after things like this.”

  Samuel clearly intended the comment to be supportive and encouraging, but it struck Verdan as profoundly sad. Even in his short time here, the locals had suffered through three separate attacks on the city. No wonder they were so adept at rebuilding afterwards.

  “Is there anything you need from me?” Verdan asked, glancing around to see what he might be able to help with. “If not right now, then tomorrow once we’ve had time to settle back in.”

  “Well, I think Elliot needs a hand with his smithy,” Samuel said, grimacing slightly before stepping closer and dropping his voice. “He had a bad time of it, he was working right up to the end making daggers and the like for the lads. Saved a lot of lives with his work, no doubt about that. Some of the damn things managed to get past us, though, and they broke in and attacked him while he was working.”

  Verdan winced at the image. “Is he alright?”

  “Physically, yes. Mentally, not so much. He’s there now, if you have time for a word with him?”

  Verdan nodded before abruptly noticing the attention the two Maevir were starting to gather from the nearby cityfolk. Clearing his throat, he waved Nikau over and gave him instructions to take everyone back to the estate and start settling in.

  Nikau nodded and got to it, with the Witches tagging along behind the guards, taking the Maevir with them as they left. Only Kai remained behind, heading over to Verdan as he said a few parting words to Samuel.

  Kai was one of the first people that Verdan had met when he woke up from his self-imposed stasis, having spent thousands of years sleeping away the deadly curse that he’d been hexed with. Kai had been a drifter, going from fight to fight seeking absolution for the death of his little sister some years before.

  Since then, Kai had found purpose, friends and had grown dramatically in strength. His friend’s deep brown eyes were as thoughtful as ever, but they had a warmth to them now that they’d lacked when the two had first met.

  Verdan’s gaze flicked to the retreating form of Gwen for a moment, knowing that the raven-haired Storm Witch was as much to thank for Kai’s transformation as anything. Not that Gwen hadn’t gone through just as much of a change, going from a nervous wreck to a confident, if a touch brash, Storm Witch.

  “Verdan?” Kai arched a brow in his direction as he fell into step at his side, his spear resting easy against his shoulder.

  “Samuel asked me to check in on Elliot, apparently he got into a fight with some Cyth and the smithy is in a mess.”

  “Cursed Cyth,” Kai said with distaste. “I can only hope that the death of the Host keeps them at bay for a while. They spread pain and misery everywhere they walk.”

  The Cyth were the cursed spawn of the Annwae, the dark gods. The Cyth spread the taint of their masters and captured animals, monsters and people alike, tainting them with their foul magics and converting them into more of their kind.

  After what felt like an eternity spent fighting the bestial creatures, Verdan whispered a prayer that Kai was right. They all needed time to rest and recover from the endless battles they’d been through.

  They needed time to grieve their losses.