“Kids…” Charles’ voice startled Alaric. “Ava told me what happened. It’s understandable that she’s panicking. She’s been through a lot. All of us have.” He shrugged. “Now, we need to have a talk about the last spire, don’t you think?”

  Ava clicked her tongue. Her gaze was fixed on the ground, her chin tight with what was now clearly anger.

  “…sure, what’s on your mind?” Why is she so angry? He felt on edge.

  Charles folded his arms. “You still haven’t taken any other creatures under your command.”

  Ah, that again.

  “Lochlan nearly died. You’re aware of that, right?”

  “So did I, so yes.”

  “Ava told me the wolves didn’t accompany you inside the spire.” Charles scowled. “Why would you risk Lochlan’s life over two wolves? Your ability affords us the opportunity to not risk our own lives, why are you refusing to use it properly?”

  Alaric met his deathly stare. “The wolves couldn’t get past the webs. We hurried because we thought the inside of the spire would be safe – it had always been, so far.” He glanced at Ava, whose face was growing redder, and her knuckles whiter as she clenched her fists. “I’m sure Ava told you this already, why are you asking me again?”

  What the hell more do you want from me? As the thought flashed across his mind, he noticed his own fists were clenched, and his own brows furrowed. He forced himself to relax his fingers and facial muscles. Calm. He’s just afraid like the rest of us.

  “Because you’re the one making these decisions, not my sister.” Charles too a deep breath. “The next spire you’ll go to is a complete mystery. It could be teeming with monsters, or it could be like the northeastern one – where you just had to climb a couple of floors. I hope it’s the latter, but what’s your plan if it’s the former? How many people will risk their lives when they could have been perfectly safe behind a group of your creatures?” His voice was rising ever so slightly with each word that left his lips. “I demand you take as many as you can under your command – make sure today’s events never happen again. I do not want to see anyone else in this camp ever have to risk their lives again. Not when it’s perfectly preventable. I hope I was clear.” He spun around and walked off before Alaric could get a word out.

  What? He stared after Charles with parted lips. Who does he think-

  “Sorry.” Ava hissed through her gritted teeth. “I’m actually a bit angry at him right now. After everything that happened today… I’m a bit… pissed off.” She forcefully relaxed her hands. “Are you ok?”

  “…yeah.” Seeing her try to remain calm, his anger subsided. Annoyance remained at the back of his mind. I don’t want to talk to him right now. But he was going to have to have a chat with the man at some point. “I think you’re angrier than I am.”

  Ava glanced at him. “Oh, yeah. I am.” She forced a smile, though with the way her eyes were still dark and full of anger, it somehow made her seem even more wrathful. Murderous, almost. “But,” she took a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve been thinking about tomorrow. The fourth spire. I think we shouldn’t go tomorrow. Not to fight, at least.”

  They got up at the crack of dawn and set off before half the camp was awake. Sarah and Lochlan stayed behind, so did Elizabeth, Avery and Victoria. Ava’s plan wasn’t a bad one – though Charles probably wouldn’t approve, which was why they never mentioned it to him, aside from informing him of when they would set off.

  They were a small group this time. The two wolves, Alaric, Clara, Ava, Jason and Reuban.

  The terrain was mostly flat for about an hour, but then it started to shift. Grasslands gave way to clusters of vibrant plants, stems heavy from the weight of blooming flowers. Trees had sprouted pretty much everywhere. There was plenty of space to walk at first, but it slowly became less so. The trees grew closer together, the plants became more varied and started clustering.

  They spotted butterflies flying around the flowers, and quite a few small animals running around the trees and on the branches.

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  “Is it just me, or are the butterflies a bit… large?”

  Alaric watched one of them. It landed on a flower. The stem of the plant bent somewhat to accommodate its weight. “… Yeah. A bit.” He glanced at a bird perched on a branch. It had a long, flowy tail. That’s not a normal bird. It didn’t quite seem like a real bird. At least not one that belonged to Earth.

  “I think the world is continuing to change. This place was just grasslands. There was no forest between camp and old Fairford. We would have seen this from the top of the cliffs.” A silence lingered after Ava’s words.

  Will things ever be able to go back to how they were?

  The faint hope he had before slowly faded as he watched the colourful bird chirp, occasionally pausing to pluck a feather or scratch itself. It wasn’t just a question of whether things would return to how they were. It was also a question of what would happen to everything that was new, and everyone that had died during the fall.

  He shook his head. He couldn’t think about that, not right now. He needed to keep focusing on the task at hand – the fourth and final nesting spire.

  “It’s so damn far away.” Jason complained. Ava moaned in agreement while Clara nodded.

  “Let’s rest a little.” Alaric suggested. “It won’t do if we’re all exhausted by the time we get there.”

  His words seemed to convince everyone. They sat under the shadow of another large tree and spent some time resting. Birds chirped around them, their beautiful songs lingering. About half an hour later, they set off again with somewhat renewed vigour.

  The spire was now a lot closer. It was quite large, towering above pretty much everything else around it. It was certainly much taller than the other three spires they’d cleared.

  After about half an hour of only seeing the spire’s top half over the trees and bushes, they eventually reached the edge of the lush green, and life-filled forest.

  “Is that wheat?” Clara asked in surprise. Golden fields of wheat – or something that looked like it – stretched from where they were standing all the way to the spire.

  “Yeah, but it’s not planted by hand.” Jason crouched by the edge of the fields. “The soil is stony, and the plants aren’t on tilled soil. It’s just… natural?” he shrugged. “Can we call anything around us natural?”

  A distant shriek cut off his chuckle. Unnerved, they looked around. “What was that?” Ava whispered. Her bow appeared in her hand.

  “Whatever it is, it’s far away.” Reuban let out a quiet sigh. “Focus on the task at hand – do you see anything around the spire?”

  The sound echoed again, though it was even more distant this time. Alaric closed his eyes for a moment. It sounded like it was the screech of a large bird. He opened his eyes again, focusing on the spire and its surroundings.

  “No,” Ava nocked an arrow. “What if something’s waiting for us inside though?”

  “We need to take a risk at some point.” Jason glanced at Alaric. “I know you might not agree, but you and Lochlan came out of that spider’s nest alive. And this time, there are no webs blocking the rest of us.”

  For now. What if something else happened? What if someone died this time? Alaric bit his lip. It was difficult to decide. His chest tightened, his heart began to race. What if someone died because of him?

  “Alaric?” Jason insisted.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He admitted. “That screech is making me nervous. We don’t know what’s in the spire, we don’t know what happens after we destroy the mana core. What if something happens back at camp?”

  Clara folded her arms. “We don’t have to destroy it. We take it back with us, give Victoria another chance to try and cleanse it. If she can’t we destroy it there.”

  Reuban nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. And we can probably take a peek through the door, right? If it’s dangerous, we can retreat!”

  “I agree. Just coming here and looking at the spire hasn’t given us any useful information aside from ‘there are no enemies just outside of it’. We need better information even if we want to come back tomorrow.” She narrowed her eyes. “I know what my brother said is bothering you.”

  Jason raised his eyebrows. “What?” His gaze leapt between Ava and Alaric.

  “You think you’ll get one of us killed. That it’ll be your fault. That we only had to risk our lives because you didn’t conjure more creatures to command out of apparently thin air.” Ava’s voice rose ever so slightly. “Is that what you think? You wouldn’t have hesitated like this yesterday – you didn’t!”

  “Wait, what’s that all about?” Jason’s gaze darted to Reuban, who seemed just as confused as him. They looked at Ava, then Alaric. “What did Charles say?”

  “He wants Alaric to get enough creatures to command so none of us have to fight anymore.” Ava rolled her eyes. “As if that’ll stop us from coming along and helping him, right?”

  “We didn’t even come across anything remotely normal he could take!” Reuban protested.

  “Yeah, the bit about the worm thing was a joke…” Jason shook his head. “And Ava’s right. Even if you did have a bunch of other creatures, that’s not going to stop us from coming along. Is that why you’re hesitating? Do you think we’re going to blame your for getting ourselves hurt?”

  I think not all of us will see the end of this.

  He couldn’t say that. “No.” He sighed. “It doesn’t matter who anyone blames – Lochlan nearly died, I nearly died. Waiting for all of you to come would have made it safer.”

  Another, distant screech created a lull in the conversation. Ears perked, they listened. “It’s still far away.” Reuban finally said and turned his gaze to Alaric. “I understand your point, but everything ended up working. So tell us, what’s the plan?”

  I don’t want to make that decision. But he had to, because they trusted him. For some reason, they followed him. “We’ll check the spire – carefully.”

  I hope I don’t regret this.