Searching for humans that might or might not be out there had to be put on hold. Nothing had happened to the camp so far, so their priority wasn’t that high. In contrast, Alyssa felt an urgent need to figure out what was going on with the sky. Were the Astral Authority still on Tenebrael’s world? What about the demons? Had something happened to Tenebrael? The stupid angel wasn’t answering the phone still, but that could be for any number of reasons.

“Five hours ago?”

“I was up on the wall, keeping watch. Not much to keep watch for these days. Haven’t had a demon attack in weeks and—”

“Sorry to rush this along, but let’s try to keep on topic.”

The guard, an older man named Ature, was the first person who could remember seeing the actual change in the sky. At least the first person that Alyssa had spoken to. Illuna was a large city, so there had to be others. He had simply hailed down Alyssa on her way back into the city, knowing that she knew something about the sky being set on fire in the first place.

Unfortunately, her little interruption seemed to have jolted him out of his thoughts, making her wonder just how old this man really was. “You were saying?

“Saying?”

“About the sky and the fire…”

“Oh. Oh yes, it was just after I arrived for my shift. It’s nice of the city to give me back my old job as a guardsman. They said I was too old a few years ago, but now they want me back. Short on hands, I guess.”

“I guess,” Alyssa said, trying not to put too much strain on her words. “But the fire in the sky?”

“Oh yes. I was watching the clouds when I noticed the symbols in the sky up and vanish before my very eyes! One moment it was there, the next, gone. Those faint flames faded not long after, shrinking to nothing before disappearing completely.”

“That’s it? They just faded away. No bright flashes or anything?” If there had been bright flashes, more people would have noticed. Alyssa was surprised that nobody at the monster camp had seen the change, but not so surprised that she thought anything funny was going on. There certainly wasn’t any memory altering magic that made people forget or anything. It was just that the sky was always there, but always in the periphery. People were far more focused on the goings on around them than they were elsewhere.

Perhaps people in Teneville, who might look up to the sky to spot harpies, would have noticed better. Except they probably could barely see the flames at all. From calling up Jason and Chris back in Lyria, she knew that they couldn’t see the flames in the sky unless they were concentrating hard, even at night. They hadn’t noticed at all when it first happened. Not until Alyssa’s phone call when she asked them to look.

“There was a bit of a gold streak, but it wasn’t that bright. Far off. Like the sun leaked out a bit of its light.”

“The Astral Authority,” Alyssa mumbled, putting a hand to her chin.

“Is that good or bad?” Brakkt asked. He still wore his armor, but his helmet was off, held under his arm against his side. His voice still made the older guard hop in surprise.

“Not sure. Might be neither. If the Astral Authority were the ones to take down the ensign… it might mean that they finished off the demons. Or at least closed the pit, sealing it back up. Without the demons around, they would have had the time to destroy the ensign like they did to the spell above Lyria. But… they shouldn’t come after us. I’m not connected to Tenebrael to draw their attention. They’ve never been interested in anyone else as far as I’ve seen.”

“They won’t remember that you were the one connected with Tenebrael?”

“Possibly… But…” Alyssa shook her head. “I know for a fact that they don’t think like normal people. They might not make the connection. If they do, I imagine that I could hide simply by using an Empty Mirror spell. Without the connection acting as a beacon, they shouldn’t be able to find me. What I really wonder is what it means for Tenebrael. She said she needed a month. The demons warned me that they wouldn’t be able to hold off that long. I told Tenebrael, but she said it would be fine.”

“You told Tenebrael?” The old man’s eyes narrowed as he gave a scrutinizing stare.

Alyssa stared back for a long moment before slowly shaking her head. “It’s a figure of speech we use back home in, uh, Teneville.” Looking back toward Brakkt, she gave a slight jerk of her head toward the stairs back off the wall. He gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head. “Thanks for your help. If there is anything else you notice about the situation, you can find me or someone in my party at the guild’s tavern.”

Brakkt waited until they were down on the ground and well away from the wall before speaking again. Izsha and Ensou were waiting for them. Fela and Dasca were still down at the camp.

“Shall we just carry on as normal?” he asked.

“I don’t know… I mean, we should go help the monsters make sure that their camp is secure, but something might happen. Waiting until tomorrow at the very least might be for the best. Unless you’ve got some insight?”

“Hardly. I leave magical matters to Irulon for a reason. This is beyond even that.”

“Yeah… I wish Irulon could answer questions about angelic things. I’m stuck waiting for someone to die or for Tenebrael to bother showing up, which she usually only does when she wants something. Ugh. Maybe we should just go about our day as if everything were normal. It might be weeks before she shows up to tell me anything. Besides that, things are normal. Technically, things haven’t been normal until now.”

“We’ll wait. Or rather,” Brakkt turned, looking toward where Izsha and Ensou stood near the gate’s entrance. A slight gesture of his hand called them over. “If something did happen at Owlcroft, the eastern wall will be the best place to spot approaching trouble.”

“You aren’t going to venture out into the swamp and head toward Owlcroft, right?”

With a slow shake of his head, he put a foot into Ensou’s stirrup and slid into the saddle. “I’m not that crazy,” he said with a mild chuckle.

Alyssa grimaced, feeling as if that was a bit of a jab at her, but Brakkt wasn’t even looking in her direction anymore. “I’ll join you,” she said softly as she hopped onto Izsha’s saddle.

On the way across the city, Alyssa pulled out a few Message cards. Irulon should be informed, Fela as well. Sending a message to Volta wouldn’t be the worst idea either. The monster would know how to organize the city to properly respond to any potential threats. The situation might not be a big deal in the end, but for the time being, they should at least be aware that something might be afoot. It was just too impossible to know at the moment.

Much like Alyssa and Brakkt, not too many people seemed to have noticed the sky just yet. Or, if they had noticed it, they weren’t terribly concerned. When Alyssa had first returned from Owlcroft, people had been a little on edge, but not overly panicked. Tenebrael’s symbol had been the primary calming factor. When people saw that, they more often fell to their knees in reverence than worried over the possibility of it harming them.

At least Alyssa hadn’t heard of anyone in this world trying to sacrifice unwilling virgins to volcanoes or anything similar in an attempt to appease Tenebrael. The festival in Teneville, disgusting though it might be, was all willing sacrifice. And it wasn’t for appeasement anyway.

“People are awfully indifferent,” Alyssa said as they slowly rode through the town. “Back in my world, even a mild light in the sky would have probably caused mass panic unless someone could have explained it away through science. And the sky literally being on fire with a symbol hanging overhead would have been hard to explain.”

“The general public is not well educated in matters of magic. Smaller communities, those with no real arcanists to speak of—perhaps a firestarter and nothing more—might even be skeptical about magic’s existence at all. If the local leader, magistrate, noble, arcanist, or anyone else in a position of authority isn’t concerned about odd happenings, then the public won’t be either. Granted, there isn’t often such a large or long-lasting effect, but I would imagine that nobody would worry unless we started charging through the city, tolling alarms, and otherwise starting a commotion.”

“Probably helps that it has been fairly faint during the day. Once it hits nighttime, more people will notice.”

“Mhm. Even still, unless the city’s soldiers start organizing, most people will likely dismiss it as nothing to do with them. They’ve got hard enough lives as it is without adding magic to the mix.”

Hard lives. Alyssa had barely seen it, but… most people spent the majority of every day out in the fields, hunting, working manual labor, or otherwise toiling away. Whether it was Teneville or Lyria, the people who could avoid farm work were in the minority. A wealthy potioneer, literal nobility, guards, adventurers, criminals. All the people Alyssa interacted with didn’t have the same problems that almost everyone in this world had. Namely, the need for food.

“I wonder how Jason’s project with that elf blacksmith is coming along,” she said to herself. With that said, she sent a quick text message to Jason’s phone, both asking for an update on his farming equipment project as well asking for confirmation that he could no longer see any fire or ensign in the sky.

The reply came surprisingly quickly. Before she even reached the opposite side of the city. Normally, Jason responded promptly to any messages she sent, but this was almost instant. Alyssa scanned through the message the second her phone vibrated, expecting the quick response to mean something bad was happening back in Lyria. But it was a surprisingly concise message. A simple statement that he couldn’t tell the difference between the sky right now and when he last looked at it and that he would try again in the evening as he was a bit busy at the moment.

He didn’t say what he was busy with or offer an update on the farm equipment situation… making Alyssa wonder if the two were related.

But as long as there wasn’t an emergency in the city, she could wait until tonight. He might have more time then to give a proper response.

The other side of the city was mostly normal. There was a noticeable alertness to the guards that hadn’t been present over on the western wall. Whether that was because Volta sent a notice or just because this was the side that normally had to worry about demons wasn’t a question that Alyssa could answer. Either way, the guards seemed quite receptive to Brakkt wanting to sit with them on their watch.

The Black Prince, fully armored up, was a welcome addition to any defending force. Even if there was nothing to defend against at the moment.

Alyssa wasn’t dismissed either. Even aside from being with the Black Prince, she came riding up on a draken. A fairly prestigious action, at least among the guards. Besides that, a few of the guards recognized her. Though she couldn’t actually remember speaking with any of them.

Setting up a watch on the wall was… not the most interesting thing going on. It was mostly just staring at the swamp and occasionally perking up at any movement only to realize that nothing down there was moving aside from frogs and fireflies. Normal frogs at that, not even monster frogs.

After scanning the horizon a few times with her binoculars without spotting anything too worrying, Alyssa settled in for a full afternoon of observation. The guards were supposed to stay standing throughout their entire shift, but in practice, they had dragged some chairs up from somewhere. They weren’t slacking on their job. Even without having had a single infected assault the walls in the recent weeks, all the guards knew how important this particular posting was. But standing watch for hours on end was rough work.

However, they didn’t seem to be using the seats at the moment. Every so often, a guard would glance toward Brakkt and suddenly straighten his back. It was… actually mildly amusing to watch. Alyssa doubted that today was very indicative of their normal behavior. In fact, they might even be less attentive than normal.

Brakkt made up for them in droves. While they glanced back at his intimidating armor every so often, he stood perfectly still, one hand down at his side and the other resting on the hilt of his enchanted sword. The only thing that moved was his head, which slowly scanned from left to right.

Alyssa was a bit more relaxed than he was. If something went wrong, they would surely know about it. Whether that be because the Astral Authority glowed a bright golden light or because infected would be spotted by one of the many other guards on this wall, one of the ones far enough away to avoid the awestruck stares to a prince standing alongside them.

After a few hours, Kasita climbed up onto the wall in the armor of a palace guard. Easily recognizable as part of the royal party, the guards didn’t bar her entrance.

“Thought you might be hungry,” she said, holding out a few wrapped meat pies.

“These the ones the monsters made?”

“Iona? I don’t think he was there today.”

“Probably for the best… I don’t suppose you’ve checked in with those Yora guys, have you?”

“Not since yesterday. I believe they’re still waiting on orders from their home or superiors or whatever. With their intelligencer in the local dungeon, I don’t think they’re going to make any waves until they get told to do so.”

Nodding, Alyssa unwrapped the meat pie. Mutton. Lots of mutton in this world. Back on Earth, she was fairly certain that she had never had any sheep meat, but here, it was a staple more common than beef. She wasn’t an expert, but it seemed to her that using sheep for wool was a more productive use for them than killing them for meat.

“As soon as they do something, I’ll get back to spying.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to have some forewarning.”

“Perhaps, but sitting around waiting for something to happen while they just complain to each other about being sent on this mission for hours on end?”

“Is that really all they do?” Alyssa asked as she looked back to the swamp, just sitting around and waiting for something to happen…

“More or less. They try to avoid leaving their quarters as much as possible, and there really isn’t all that much to do inside them. It’s really dull.”

At least I’ve left my quarters, Alyssa thought to herself.

“I’m surprised they aren’t mingling more,” Brakkt said. He had removed his helmet in order to eat the pie that Kasita brought for him. An action that seemed to be causing more than a few extra glances toward him. “If they are interested in the monsters and bringing them back to Yora, I would expect them to do some research, both on the monsters themselves as well as the people and their reactions toward having the monsters around.”

“That would require them to care about the monsters. Or the people…”

“Mhm… I don’t believe Yora treats its people poorly.”

“Even still, they clearly don’t care about the monsters. I…”

Alyssa trailed off, looking upwards. The sun dipped behind the rings around the planet, occluding it completely. A wave of darkness rolled across the land. Sure enough, even with it being dark, there was no luminescence from the sky burning or even a faint image of Tenebrael’s tattoos hanging above the land. Just stars and the pale grey moon.

“What’s that over there?”

Turning her head toward Kasita, Alyssa followed the mimic’s outstretched arm to the swamp. At first, Alyssa didn’t see a single thing. Nothing unexpected, at least. Most of the area was a immediately surrounding the wall was a marshy swamp, with lots of water and lots of tall grass poking above the water level. Further out, a line of trees sprung up. At first they came from the water as well, but further out, Alyssa knew from personal experience that there was actual solid ground.

“What’s what?” Alyssa said, straining her eyes to see. She was about to activate a quick Night Vision spell in the hopes of spotting whatever Kasita managed to see. But the mimic pointed upwards.

“Higher. The canopy line in the distance.”

The trees that grew from the swamp were fairly flat on top, with lots of drooping branches on all sides, creating a rounded look to them rather than the conical shape that lots of trees ended up with. They were also all around the same height, giving a fairly clear view from the elevated city and even higher wall.

And it was over the top of that canopy that Alyssa noted a faint glow. Yellow-gold in color.

Alyssa narrowed her eyes, standing from the seat she had taken. She had her hand on her deck of cards, but hesitated because of the glow. If everything was bright, she wasn’t sure that she would have been able to see it.

In fact, that glow could have been coming all the way from Owlcroft. With the sky being on fire, it likely hadn’t been noticeable until now. There was no reason to worry just yet.

“There! Unknown individual spotted.”

Alyssa tensed as one of the guardsmen started shouting about a lone person. It took a minute to spot him, but a splashing through the otherwise still marshy water was hard to miss after a moment of looking. And it really was just one person, one humanoid rushing through the swamp toward the city, faintly outlined by moonlight. The water should have impeded him a whole lot more than it looked like it was doing. He was practically flying across the surface.

Around her, the wall guards were readying for combat. Most were grabbing bows and knocking arrows. They didn’t draw them back, but they were ready to do so at a moment’s notice.

Then Alyssa saw it. A flash of red in the person’s face as he threw a head back over his shoulder.

One of the other guards spotted it too. “Plague,” he shouted.

Immediately, a dozen of the soldiers all drew back their bowstrings. Without any further confirmation as to the nature of the individual, a dozen arrows lanced out from the wall.

Alyssa could hardly see where they landed. It wasn’t like they lit the tips on fire. But the likely-infected kept charging without slowing.

And the guardsmen drew back for another volley.

“Ready!”

“Loose!”

“Ready!”

“Loose!”

Someone struck true on the third volley. It wasn’t much, but the infected staggered in what had to have been a hit against its leg. Even still, it didn’t stop.

“Ready!”

A small light broke off from the distant golden glow, speeding forward far faster than any arrow. Before the guardsman could order the bows to be loosed, the infected slammed into the ground, silver spear jutting from his back.

“Stop!” Alyssa shouted as a silver filigreed doll emerged from the distant treeline. Unlike the infected, it was surrounded by its own faint glow, making it fully visible even without sunlight. “Don’t attack it. Don’t… Just hold.”

“Hold!” cried the same voice that had been ordering around the bowmen.

The Patience dashed forward, flying from the treeline, skimming the top of the water, until it reached the struggling infected. In the same motion that it grabbed its spear, it cleanly bisected the infected. Insides spilled out as the thing’s back split in two.

Much like the Patience in Lyria that had killed an infected, it readied its spear, but otherwise went still. This was the part where the true demon would show up to take the soul…

But nothing was happening. No pentagrams etched themselves into the swamp. No leatherbound demon showed up for the soul. Alyssa knew that the demon wasn’t exactly under the same time constraints that Iosefael and Tenebrael were under. Or maybe she just didn’t care. The one infected that Brakkt had found a few weeks ago had sat for a good hour before she showed up to take the soul.

A tremor interrupted Alyssa’s stare. Nothing major. Just a slight vibration under her feet. Not even something worth calling an earthquake.

The golden light over the distant canopy swelled.

Another infected tore from the treeline, only to be blasted apart by the beam of a Diligence. A Chastity, the bulwark of the Astral Authority, proved that its insectoid form could fight just as well as some of the others. The large beetle’s elytra were covered in thick blood, eerily gleaming in the golden light. It wasn’t even chasing someone, but somehow, an infected wound up caught between the two halves, crushed to death.

Without her soul sight, she couldn’t tell whether or not it still had its soul, not without walking up to it and dragging it out with a scythe, but given that the true demon hadn’t come for the others, it probably hadn’t collected that one either.

The infected were being driven away from Owlcroft. Possibly in all directions, but all directions didn’t matter much to Alyssa. What mattered was that they were being driven toward Illuna and the Astral Authority was chasing after them.

Alyssa’s eyes flicked up to the golden light on the horizon, biting her lip. If some of the Astral Authority were coming here…

Where was the Cardinal Virtue of Justice?