Early in the morning, Silas went over the constabulary with Ethan and Olivia and sorted out their admission. He left soon after, trusting Josh to take good care of them as he went with Mia to visit the shaerds. As he and she were the ones who had brought them here, it was only right that they checked up on them, and more importantly, Silas wanted to ask about the rune on Amara’s balcony.

While his progress with runes had yet to stall, it was nothing to write home about either. From what Skully had said about advanced runes, they appeared to have far more scope in what they could do, from modifying abilities to creating force fields as the one on Amara’s balcony had done. Silas had a few rune ideas in mind, but first he wanted to hear what Amara’s experiences were with runesmithing before he really put his head down.

The shaerd sector of Riverside was newly built and relatively small, although that wasn’t too surprising given there were only two hundred-odd of them. Constabulary officers patrolled the area but not as many as elsewhere since the shaerd soldiers policed the sector themselves, to an extent. On seeing Silas and Mia, the first group of soldiers respectfully greeted them and took them to Amara at once.

Although the princess’s new home was a significant downgrade from her fort, that was not to say it was shabby at all standing at two-storeys, made of bricks and painted purple. They spotted her from the street as she stood at rest on her balcony with her elbows on the railing, surveying the township with a vacant expression. Spotting them, her eyes regained focus, and she went back inside to receive them downstairs. Entering the living room, Silas wasn’t surprised by the stuffy heat which bore down on the room as he had expected it to be sweltering from his memory of Valrun’s Keep, the hearth crackling and spitting brilliant embers which dissipated into the air.

“How are things?” Mia asked Amara, taking a seat. Several soldiers stood stationed around the room like silent sentries.

The princess’s expression slightly warmed. “Our treatment has been satisfactory. We find Riverside a suitable base of operations, and we have made considerable grounds in furthering our discussion with your mayor.”

“Has there been any trouble?” Silas asked cautiously. He remembered that there had been tension when the Order troops had made base in Riverside, despite the fact they had just saved them then. There were more unreasonably racist humans than he would have liked to admit, and their spite tended to transcend when they saw strangers, human or not, receive generous treatment.

“Nothing we cannot handle,” Amara answered with no show of irritation or anger. “Clio has rounded up a handful or two and passed them on to your officers. They haven’t come back to cause trouble a second time, so we are pleased with the outcome.”

“Great.” He scratched his head and decided to go for it. “This might be a little out of the blue, but you know your balcony in the fort, how there was like a force field there. I was wondering how you had gone about creating that?”

The princess regarded him levelly. “We assume your goal is to re-create it? Alas, we admit we are limited in the help we can provide since we actually had that piece of work commissioned for us on Xiivet. It is set to recognise our soul and respond to our thoughts, but we are uncertain on its inner workings.”

“Wait, it was made on your planet? Before the Apocalypse?” Mia asked before Silas could. At Amara’s nod, Mia turned to him and raised her brow. “You told me it was a rune, remember? And I thought rune-building could only be learnt from the tutorial.”

“I mean, you had an inkling of your telekinetic powers on Earth, whereas all the other mages I’ve met were just normal people before the Apocalypse. It could be like that, I guess,” Silas answered.

Mia thought on it and clicked her tongue in acknowledgement. “Touche.”

“Anyway, back to topic,” he said, focusing on Amara once again. “Who actually made that rune then?”

“It was not a singular person, but rather a clan,” she answered. “Back on Xiivet, one could say there are only three dominant races, at least civilised ones: us, the drakkar, and the stingtails. However, out of them, only we shaerd need to live over firecores, which many other uncivilised races also need for survival. This makes us subject to regular raids and attacks, which is why we had commissioned a stingtail clan to secure our home.”

“I see,” Silas said, “So these stingtails are master runesmiths? Do you think they would share their experience if we found them?”

At this, the princess scoffed and many of her soldiers simpered with her. “We do not mean to deride you,” Amara said after a moment, “But that was an absurd question, no doubt sourcing from your ignorance. The stingtail clans all cultivate their personal styles of magic, and they hold those secrets above everything else in their lives. Not only that but each clan believes themselves to practise the superior magic, and thus the carnage they cause upon each other is dreadful, to say the least.”

Silas ignored the laughter and instead focused on her words. “But you said earlier that a clan set that rune up for you. So are they not concerned about leaving their magic around for others to find? That doesn’t make sense if they’re so protective over it, like you say.”

“That is because we shaerd lack the ability to practise the arcane, so we would not have shown any interest in their secrets even if they offered to divulge them.” A frown lined her face, and she corrected herself. “At least, before the Apocalypse we shaerd lacked the ability to cast magic. Aside from that, we paid handsomely for that commission. But who knows, perhaps a clan would hear you out and share their secrets now: it is not too much to assume that the Apocalypse has changed them too.”

After this, they spoke for a while longer before Silas and Mia left. He wasn’t thrilled about Amara’s answer as he had hoped to progress his rune-smithing, only to come upon a dead-end instead, but there was little he could do about that. Although, he could always travel to New Derby and meet with Skully again: now that the road was built, he could make the journey in a few hours too, so it wasn’t a bad idea. Since tomorrow was horde day, he decided to go the day after.

At home, he and Mia made lunch and dined in each other’s company. Bandit popped in for a visit as well, stealing scraps from their plates and scarfing it down. From what Silas had heard from the locals here, the owl had been wrecking chaos on nearby raptors and other predatorial creatures. When asked on it, Bandit admitted with pride that it was claiming the entire area as its territory. With that said and a few more bites stolen, it soared back into the skies and continued on with its purging.

After lunch, Silas drafted some ideas for advanced runes he wanted to create, asking Mia for her thoughts on them. What he wanted more than anything else was a mana barrier, which he had a gut feeling he could do with runes. Without one, he was near helpless against arcane attacks like Nicon’s mind-control and sorcerers’ fireballs since all he could do was dodge for his life. Of course, it would be easier to learn how to create one with just his mana like the other mages did, but Silas couldn’t get the hang of it, no matter how well Mia explained it - which, to be honest, wasn’t very well since it came to her naturally. From her point of view, all you had to do was release a wave of mana and lock it in place, but when he tried to imitate her, his mana simply suffused out into the air.

However, it wasn’t all gloom as she told him the Mages guild was having a meeting today. Since none of the other mages were naturals like Mia, their guidance was likely to be far more helpful. And although it was meant to be a meeting exclusive to guild members, it wasn’t like they would deny access to the strongest person in the village - someone who was a ranker on top of that.

With this in mind, Silas continued his rune practise until the time came to go. The Mages guild was near to the council building and almost as big. They were just shy of being late when they arrived, and so the hall was mostly-filled when they entered. Silas spotted many figures he knew: Natalie, Iris, Yuri the aged Cleric, Renard the portly Arcane Fletcher, Krisa the nymph envoy from Lyfort, and even Brigette. The Bladesinger looked far better than she had in Valrun’s Keep, her injuries healed and her skin and clothes clean. However, there were many more mages who he didn’t recognise, the strongest aura belonging to a dusky-skinned Latino with sunken eyes. Curiously enough, there was a child-sized thing beside him. Silas had to take double at the sight to make sure he was seeing right as the thing appeared like a red, bipedal jackal, shuffling and yapping beside its master.

Iris was delighted to see Silas, telepathically greeting him and beckoning him over, while Natalie acknowledged his presence with a curt nod. She was at the front on the podium, addressing the members in the hall. He detected a dangerous aura from the albino Cryomancer, similar to Dom’s, but he wasn’t at all surprised as he supposed she must have passed her own tribulations to have risen from number 5 in the village when he left to number 2 now. The rest of the hall took measure of the entrants as well, showing equal interest in Mia who had immediately become number 4 on her entry to the village at a respectable level 40.

However, their attention eventually faded away as the meeting started in its earnest. Natalie welcomed all the new members there and spent some time explaining the function of the guild as a place for them to convene, as well to spread ideas and stand with one another in case mages were ever targeted. Silas supposed it was a union, of sorts, and although he tried to keep focus for the whole meeting, it slowly but surely drifted away simply because the things they spoke of went over his head as someone who had little experience in the arcane apart from with runes. It didn’t help that Iris endlessly chattered beside him, reminding him of Bandit, who too had gone wild with its words once they had been able to speak to one another.

After the meeting, Silas went around asking for people’s experiences with mana barriers and learnt that not everyone could use them as they required one to maintain a wall of mana outside their body for an extended period. The further you pushed out the mana, the more focus and control you needed, which only made Silas fear the ratkin sorcerers more as they had formed giant barriers tens of metres wide in the sky. He also learnt that no one here could maintain their barriers indefinitely like Mia could, instead only being able to use them in short bursts.

This made him want to runify the barrier even more as he wanted protection at all times so that he was safe against sudden attacks. He had been ambushed so many times by now that it only made sense to build countermeasures against such scenarios, especially since he was wont to throw himself into dangerous situations again in the future. If he could automate the process, it would provide constant defence and have minimal impact on his focus, which could prove critical in combat.

Heading home, he immediately got to work designing the rune for a mana barrier, first starting with a fitting image to engrave. He eventually decided on a floating shield which seemed right to him and practised it several dozens of times until he could do it with his eyes closed. It wasn’t long after that Ethan and Olivia returned from their first day of training, absolutely knackered.

The night went on smoothly as Silas and Mia attempted at a hearty meal for everyone. She did most of the cooking while he amateurly followed her directions, and they ended the day with a mostly delicious dinner, one which Bandit once again popped in for. Silas was beyond content by the time he went to bed, wishing for another week, no, another month of peace like this. In his heart of hearts, however, he knew the System would throw a spanner in the works sooner or later, but a man could dream, at least.