No good deed goes unpunished.

Pre-Fall saying

Ellis Anasta was there in Milton’s house as the four were gathered. And he was glowering at them, unjustly in Johanna’s opinion.

“What else did you omit?” he growled.

“Nothing. I mean, we fought the Lepus yesterday. We didn’t see any of the others.”

“And you used flames to fight them?” the mayor asked, looking pointedly at Johanna.

“Well… yes? I know, I’m a sorceress now…”

“I’ve heard of the sorcerers, like that one in the capital. Always thought there was nothing natural about it. Mist walkers, earth shapers… and flame bringers now,” Ellis growled.

“Look, Ellis, we’ve saved the harvest and lost nobody…” Bram interjected.

“Assuming we don’t have another wave of those hell beasts. Who knows how many have bred up north,” Ellis countered and Bram winced.

Johanna stayed silent. She knew nothing any of them could say would affect the Mayor’s opinion. She just had to leave him to unwind, maybe realize that no one had died and that Anasta had gotten off lightly.

After ranting a bit more about beasts from the mana, the mayor finally left. Once Ellis had left in the waning light, Bram Milton looked back at Johanna and her friends.

“You didn’t tell me you could do that.”

“I didn’t. I mean… I couldn’t do that. I think.”

“Really?”

“Dad. I swear. I. Did. Not. Know.”

“And Laura couldn’t stop Lepuses in their tracks. At least not yesterday,” Peter came to her rescue.

“Would been helpful. At least you wouldn’t been gored,” Tom added.

“So… this is all new?”

“It feels like,” Johanna answered her father.

“But how? You’re not in those mana-infested ruins.”

Johanna stayed silent and looked at her friends. None of them seemed to have any idea either.

“I don’t know. It’s not as if people know exactly how magic works. It’s all invisible… well, at least normally.”

“You said you can see magic,” her father noted.

“And I didn’t see any trace of it. Not like the ruins, or back in Valetta. And none of the Lepus seemed to do magic anyway. They were ordinary Lepuses, as far as I can tell.”

Bram Milton’s fingers drummed on the chair’s arm. He finally sighed.

“You did good, Jo. All of you. Hopefully, there’s no other horde coming, like Ellis fears.”

“Anytime. It’s home after all.”

“I thought it not being your farm was the point of working away…” her father said, a small smile belying the seriousness of his words.

“Dad!”

“Yea. I’m proud… I mean, having a sorceress in the family is something.”

She smiled back, as Tom squeezed her hand.

“I still think I got the better deal,” Peter suddenly added.

Johanna turned to look at him, just in time to see Laura smacking his head.

“Want me to cancel that deal?”

“What? No!”

She and Tom burst out laughing, and the underlying tension slowly dissipated.

Johanna was still feeling stiff even after a full night, and fiddling with her breakfast when the noise from the front of the house began. Her brother, then her father stood and went to investigate, and she kept swirling the spoon until she heard shouts and loud voices coming from the door. She exchanged looks with Tom and rose, before quickly putting back her bowl on the table before her mother could make a remark.

When she reached the door, she stopped at the sight. There were probably thirty people massed in front of the house, looking quite agitated. And as soon as she was silhouetted in the doorframe, Turner Howell – one of their closest neighbors – pointed toward her, shouting “Here she is!”

She was startled at the finger being jabbed toward her.

“Goddam Bram, couldn’t you…”

“Told ya…”

“You should have kept your kid in check…”

Her father shouted back covering the various voices talking over each other.

“Stop it. You forgot how she helped yesterday already?”

“Yea, and she caused it!”

“She almost burned out my field!”

“You shouldn’t have sent her in those ruins…”

Bundt, the terrier, was bewildered. On the one hand, the dog knew everyone in Anasta, got pet by all those shouting people, and he could tell they were angry. On the other hand, they were shouting at his masters, and the woman they hosted last winter and played with him when the snow was thick and he couldn’t go out. His head was whipping back and forth, trying to make sense of the confusion and what was the threat.

Johanna spotted Mayor Anasta in the mob. Ellis frowned as soon as he noticed her gaze, before growling at her father.

“Bram, you shouldn’t have let her go into those mana places.”

“And why?”

“She got Changed for sure. And I’m sure all those Changed beasts followed her,” another farmer said.

“Yea. It’s been five years, and then that big colony shows up as soon as she arrives?”

“Bunk! Like large colonies have never happened before,” Bram Milton shouted back.

“Nobody from Anasta went to those ruins.”

“Not true. The Milton line has been there since the founding, and I know people did scavenge back…”

“Well, my line’s been there too. And no one went to the hellholes of the Ancients voluntarily!” said Shaun Ficher from the rear of the crowd.

“What the…” Johanna heard from behind, as Tom reached her.

“Hey, that’s the boy from Avon.”

“He knew! He even brought a hammer instead of a weapon!”

“Mana calls to mana.”

“Just because I may be a sorceress…” Johanna tried to reply, only to be shouted down.

“As if!”

“All those sorcerers take decades to gain power! Everyone knows!”

“I’m not waiting until you bring a manastorm, and the orchard has to be redone as my grandpa needed to!”

“So what?” Bram Milton replied back, angrily.

Johanna rolled her eyes tiredly and exhaled slowly. Then she put her hand on her father’s arm, stopping him from shouting further.

“Dad, don’t. We’ll leave.”

“You don’t have to, Jo.”

“I’m not going to fight all of Anasta. That… that can’t work out.”

She turned back to the mob, shouting.

“You get what you want. You don’t want us, you won’t see us. Now leave us alone!”

She sighed deeply. A handful of people started to leave but most kept watching her warily.

The scene only lacked pitchforks and torches to be more caricatural. Well, it was morning, so no torches. But it was so obviously a mob of angry peasants, gathered at the Milton household as if he was some wicked lord that needed overthrowing.

Moore was sure the farmers should have been grateful, since his team had obviously turned the battle, sparing the village from the worst of the attack of the giant Lepuses. And Vogel’s healing afterward should have been appreciated. Yet, they were angry at something, and he couldn’t figure out what or why.

Again, without sound, he didn’t get any details, just the general feeling. And the weirding out at seeing the unnamed old man they’d been talking to yesterday jumping from “level 6 human” to “level 7 human” overnight.

How does that even happen? I didn’t even see him fighting? Did he?

Some conclusion had been reached, and he saw Bram Milton closing the door on the mob, which let him not-breathe more easily. At least the ugly mob scene was avoided.

The double view from Donnall’s household was much better though. He was currently discussing something with his father, Vogel at his side, and it seemed very serious, but there wasn’t any mob camping at the door.

Then he realized that Milton was shoving clothes hurriedly in a bag, and Welter was headed to Donnall’s place, and he realized suddenly what was coming. When Bram Milton and his wife hugged their daughter fiercely, her father handing an additional large bag which she shouldered, his non-heart sank.

Wait… They’re being thrown out? After saving their village? WTF is wrong with these people?

The two farmers who were heading out to the fields, presumably for early harvesting, flinched when Johanna and her friends reached the gate, and she did her best to ignore them.

“Want to head to Avon? Or Virtu?” she finally asked.

“I know my dad. All he’ll say is ‘not my problem’ and ‘deal with it’,” Tom replied.

Laura shrugged.

“Not that I don’t want to rush to mom and tell her everything, but I don’t think it’s going to help.”

They started toward the road. A few other farmers were already at work in the fields, but they didn’t look at them, being too focused on the harvesters and the oxen pulling it. Everyone was busy… and probably still cursing them.

“Want me to carry?” Tom asked.

Johanna had to admit that both her travel bag and the one in which she’d stored all their savings were cumbersome. She stopped and dropped the money bag from her shoulder, sighing in relief.

As Tom hoisted the bag, she noticed a corner of paper showing on a pocket sewn to the side of the bag. She stopped him and pulled on the paper, unfolding it. It was hastily scribed.

Jo, I know you didn’t want charity, even from your father. I respect that, I expect nothing else from a daughter of mine. But you need a home now, not when you’re ready to pay for it.

I know you won’t accept money, but I can provide you with a backing guarantee. It offends everyone, but take a loan from Valetta. Get good terms, keep a nest of money.

And be yourself.

Your father.

There was another piece of paper, one more formal, very cleanly written in ink, signed, including an amount that was significant as an upper bound. Essentially, Johanna’s father was agreeing to be collateral to a loan, promising to repay if she defaulted. No, if they defaulted, since that was pretty much a common effort by all four of them, as it had been since the beginning when they’d made those plans with Tom, and then roped in Peter and his brand-new girlfriend at the time.

She felt the blur pooling at the edge of her eyes as they silently walked the road toward the border of the forest area, on the road toward Valetta.