Please find that core, Sarah. If she couldn’t guarantee there was one in Castle Dorwan, he was going to have to ride to the spire. He’d rather not.

  “A word, if you don’t mind.” Charles’ cold voice startled him. He had come to the foot of the boulder, and was looking up, covering his eyes from the sunlight.

  Alaric quickly climbed down and approached the other man. After everything he said today, he’d have expected Charles to avoid him like the plague.

  “We have a problem.” Charles said as soon as Alaric’s feet touched the grass. “A few problems, in fact. They’re more ‘my job’ kind of problems, but you should be informed nonetheless.” He folded his arms and continued. “With twelve new people, we are rapidly running out of clean water. We’re needing to boil more before we drink it, which is making our firewood run out faster. The same applies to food – we need to hunt more, but the number of our hunters remained the same.”

  He gestured vaguely in the direction of the orchard. “We don’t dare risk taking any more fruits than we are already taking. Something needs to be done. This morning we were discussing with Ava and Harriet about starting a small farm – for long term food supplies, but since we’re moving to the castle either way, that’s not an option anymore either.” He paused, looked at Alaric oddly, then motioned to turn around.

  “The castle will present even more problems.” Alaric’s words stopped him in his tracks.

  “How so?”

  “There is no river passing right next to it. Look,” he grabbed the Witch’s book from the top of the boulder, then opened the pages containing the map. “This is the nearest river,” he pointed to a river passing through the north of the castle. “It originates somewhere in these mountains, forms a small lake here,” he tapped northeast of the castle, “then there’s a waterfall, and it comes all the way here.”

  Charles scowled. “That’s… far. We don’t have anything that’ll let us carry that much water. We’ll have big problems. Can’t we make the mana core… thing – altar? – here?”

  Alaric shook his head. “It’s impossible to carry. You saw the Statue of the Chthonian, right? It’s the base of that statue.”

  Charles bit his lip. “… yeah, we can’t carry that. Replicate it?”

  “With what? What if magic was needed to make it functional? We can’t – especially not with just above forty eight hours remaining. Maybe if we had a second core, we could experiment… but we’ll be lucky if we get a single one.”

  “Agreed. This is troubling news…” Charles pointed at the map. “We were incredibly fortunate to have water right next to the church. We’ll have to make some adjustments.”

  He’s right. We need accessible water. “The witch lived in that castle for a long time. There might be water sources we haven’t found yet.” Perhaps she used magic? “We’ll have a better idea about that once we settle there.”

  Charles nodded. “At least we’ll have a proper roof over our heads.”

  Alaric couldn’t help but chuckle. “A roof that’ll need some repair, but yes. And real beds. Tables, chairs.” He could continue counting. There was so much they didn’t have here, that he didn’t even get the chance to miss because of all the fighting and the running from one side of the valley to the other he had to do.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Actual private rooms.” Charles mused.

  “Ha, yeah.” Alaric shook his head with a smirk. “It’ll be nice not to hear everyone’s snoring constantly.” His expression shifted soon after. “Farms are a good idea.” He reopened the subject. “But it’s quite… permanent, isn’t it? Long term, at least.”

  The world changed. This is how life is now. There is no going back… Just thinking about it hurt.

  Charles looked away. “Elizabeth asked whether I thought we were ever going to be able to go back.” He spoke in a low voice. “But go back where? We didn’t leave Fairford, or England. We stayed in the same place. It changed. And I don’t think we can change it back.” He narrowed his eyes. “Not if what you said about Sophia is true. If all that actually happened… then this is how it will be, right?”

  “A world of gods, demons and magic.” Alaric let out a sigh. “Yeah. I… think that’s how it is from now on. We’ll need many farms… we don’t know how winters are now.”

  Charles seemed surprised for a moment. “Yeah. That’s true. I’ll have a chat with Harriet about it.” His lips parted as if he was going to say more, but instead, he turned around and left.

  At least he’s not seething anymore…

  When death was a short countdown away, holding grudges would be weird after all. He looked at the countdown, let out a sigh, and continued reading the Witch’s book.

  About an hour before dusk, Sarah returned. She looked quite small on the gigantic stallion as they approached from the east. As soon as she arrived at the border of the Hallowed Ground, she got off the horse and rushed towards them.

  “I can’t say for sure,” were the first words that came out of her mouth. “It’s definitely not empty though. It’s full of undead. There were a bunch of walking skeletons, a few of them even had bows and arrows but I don’t think that’s a big threat.”

  “How so?” Ava asked, scowling. “We’ve got no defence against arrows, and they tend to be pretty deadly.”

  “I think they can’t see.” She said with a confused shrug. “I walked right up to the gate, and they didn’t even react. But when a damn crow suddenly cawed from the walls, they all started swinging pretty wilding… and only vaguely in my general direction. The arrows went pretty wide too.”

  “… blind skeletons?” Charles shook his head. “How many?”

  “I counted at least twenty. But I bet there are more. We’ll need to be crowded to clear that place.” She glanced at Alaric. “Your help would be great.”

  He said nothing.

  I can’t risk that. You don’t know whether there’s a mana core there or not. If there isn’t… we’ll all die.

  “How many capable fighters do we have?” Ava piped up.

  As they began to discuss that, Alaric took a few steps back and shot another glance at the map. If he was reading it correctly, then he might be able to make it back just before dusk. If nothing forced him to fight, or somehow slowed him down, of course.

  “It’s worth the risk.” He decided. His words caught the attention of the others.

  “What?” Charles asked.

  “I’ll set off with Cinder tomorrow, at first light. I’ll have Sol and Luna follow Victoria, so take her along to the castle. We’ll do both – if we’re very lucky, we’ll get two mana cores out of it.”

  Clara’s eyes widened. “It’s too dangerous!” She cried out. “Al, you can’t do that! You can’t-“

  “Clara,” he walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “If we don’t find a mana core, we’ll die. So I have to try. This way, there’s at least a chance. Put your emotions aside for a second and look at it like that.”

  Her eyes welled up. “But…” her voice faded away as she hugged him. “it’s unfair!”

  All of this is unfair. “Yeah… it is.” What else could he say? They were normal people, workers, students, children and elderly, thrust into a world of gods and demons. What else could they do but struggle? “I’ll bring back that mana core, then we’ll be safe in that castle. Alright?”

  I’ll try to come back.

  Once Clara calmed down, he sent her back to discuss tomorrow’s plan with the others, and went to where the two wolves were laying, basking in the last rays of sunlight. “You’ll follow Victoria tomorrow. Don’t come to me, alright? Even if you hear me from afar. Protect Victoria and Sarah. There will be fights, and your jobs are to get rid of those walking piles of bones. Do what Victoria says.”

  Sol’s ears perked up, while Luna whined softly. “Got it?” he asked them. A few seconds passed before both wolves reluctantly let out small howls. “Good boy,” he pet Sol, then scratched beneath Luna’s ears. “Good girl.”