“Look, it’s the city!” Aleida says, shaking Jessabelle’s shoulder excitedly. Jessabelle smiles back at her, the woman's excitement infectious. Over the course of the journey, they had become good friends, Aleida seeming excited to finally have another woman to talk to.

Turning, Jessabelle follows her gaze, joining Hamo and the twins in squinting out into the mid-afternoon sunlight. The trees that surrounded them for the last few days are gone. Stretching out either side is a field of roughly hewn tree stumps, creating a strip of open ground around a tall wooden wall. Off in the distance, a number of thin figures labour around one of the stumps, levering it out of the earth. A band of men performing such work would normally be accompanied by shouts or grunts of exertion, but this group is eerily silent, all whilst moving in jerky unison.

As the carriages roll closer, the figures reveal themselves as skeletons. Filthy, mud-encrusted skeletons, with leaves and twigs stuck between their bones and coating their skulls. With a groan, the stump comes free of the ground, tearing up the surrounding earth. Two of the group heave it onto their shoulders, the rest picking up crude shovels from the ground and filling in the hole left behind.

“Wow… they’re so cool!” Exclaims Vorlo. Jessabelle turns to him, taking in the excitement on his young face. Over the journey, the twins had slowly regained some of the life she remembered them to have in the village, back before they were taken. Vorlo especially was fascinated by Lord Reud’s minions, loving everything gruesome. He’d badgered him for stories the whole way, only falling quiet when Lord Reud or Jessabelle recounted the tale of the battle in Littlestream or during the first night in Srinaber. They must have told it over a dozen times.

Lord Reud smiles at the boy. “They are, aren’t they. Fantastically diligent workers.”

Vorlo looks confused. “Dili..gent? What’s that?”

“Diligent means they work hard.” Lord Reud responds, ruffling the boy’s hair. “We really need to get you back into some schooling when we arrive.”

Hamo perks up at that, looking over at Lord Reud and Vorlo. “Do you mean we can learn to use our magic?”

“Of course you-” Lord Reud starts.

Leo interrupts him. “No, why would you ever want to learn about your curse! It’s evil!”

“Leo! Stop it!” Aleida admonishes him, looking horrified.

Leo grunts and turns away from them, hunching down into the corner of the carriage again. Jessabelle looks over at him in concern. In stark contrast to the rest of the group, he hadn’t improved over the journey. The more Hamo, Marla, and Vorlo showed interest in magic, the darker Leo’s mood seemed to become.

Jessabelle sympathized a little with his concerns. For her entire life, the Seekers had been claiming that magic was evil, a curse that only they could lift. However, it was always accepted that this was merely an excuse to capture children. If it truly was such a curse, why were nobles allowed to practise magic whilst those of more common birth were kidnapped, never to be seen again? Hopefully, Leo would get over his prejudices. In Srinaber, Lord Reud’s magic was everywhere.

Finally, the carriages jerk to a halt, just at the edge of the shadow cast by the city walls. Lord Reud flashes Jessabelle a smile, then pushes past her, opening the carriage door and stepping out.

“Welcome to Srinaber.” Lord Reud says, gesturing over at the city stretching to either side. Turning away from the carriage he strides off towards the gates.

Holding her cloak tight around her, Jessabelle clambers out of the cart behind Aleida and the twins. It feels good to finally move her legs around properly again, there had been little opportunity for it over the past week, especially given how cramped the carriage was on the return trip.

Aleida walks over to her, shivering slightly. None of the group except Jessabelle were dressed for the mid-autumn weather, though Lord Reud never showed any sign of being affected by any chill. When they were all huddled together in the carriage they’d kept each other warm, but now that they are outside it seems everyone is starting to feel the chill wind.

“Where is everyone?” Aleida asks Jessabelle. “Shouldn’t there be people all around?”

Jessabelle shrugs. “Not really, Srinaber isn’t like Avonford. There isn’t really much need to work outside the walls, the skeletons do all that. Don’t worry, we will be inside soon.”

Almost as if responding to her words, the gates grind open. From within dashes a woman clad in armour. She runs with the easy gait of someone at the height of fitness, eating up the ground as she dashes towards the group. Lord Reud turns towards her, his face lighting up a bright smile.

“Lilia! I’m-” The rest of his sentence is lost as Lilia slams into him, gathering him up in a tight embrace and spinning around. His feet leave the floor as he is hoisted into the air by the woman. Jessabelle barely stifles a laugh at the sight of the composed, imposing man being swung around like a child by this newcomer.

Aleida gasps in shock “Who is that?” She asks, leaning over to Jessabelle.

“That’s Lady Lilia, Lord Reud’s wife. You’ll like her, she’s a no-nonsense kind of woman.”

Jessabelle looks back to where Lord Reud and his wife stand, deep in one another's arms. An unpleasant feeling of jealousy swells up within her, before being crushed by a force of will. She’d become used to Lord Reud’s attention over the journey, and a little seed of something that she should not feel had sprouted. Sighing inwardly, she shakes her head. She’d have to crush that feeling before it became something dangerous. If only a worthy man would tumble into her life!

Turning to Aleida, she smiles at the woman. Raising her voice so that the children can hear too, she calls to them. “Come on, I’ll show you around the city.” She goes to walk off but stops when she hears Aleida’s voice.

“Leo, come on. You can’t just stay in the carriage.”

Jessabelle frowns back at him, taking in the young man’s gloomy face and obvious reluctance in his steps. Something was really going to need to be done about him, and soon.

***

The city had really improved in the few weeks since Jessabelle had left. Gone were the ramshackle buildings of jaunty wood. In their place stand buildings that can almost be mistaken for ones you’d find in any city around Rudase. The old stonework had generally been kept for the ground floor of the buildings, but with a wooden second storey constructed on top. Personalized touches adorn the sides of the buildings facing the street, from painted signs to small plants growing from planters attached to the windows.

The children huddle close to her as a group of skeletons clatters down the road, carrying a number of long planks between them.

“A-are they everywhere?” Hamo asks in a shaky voice, his eyes fixed on the backs of the undead.

Jessabelle nods. “They are Lord Reud’s servants, and they help all around the city. Don’t worry, they are completely harmless.”

“It’s unholy.” Leo spits.

“Leo!” Aleida says, sounding horrified.

Jessabelle holds up a hand. “It’s okay, if you don’t like them, you don’t need to interact with them.”

“Well, I think they are cool.” Vorlo says, crossing his arms and glowering at Leo. Turning to his sister, he nudges her. “They’re cool aren’t they?”

Marla nods, before hiding her face behind her hair shyly. She’d barely spoken over the journey, just nodding along with her twin brothers words.

“You’re too young to know what is unholy and what is not.” Leo says, waving his hand dismissively.

“Shut up Leo, you don’t know nothing.” Hamo says.

A flash of anger darkens Leo’s face. “You’d better be careful what you say, boy. The way you’ve been playing with your cursed affinity, you’ll become a demon if you aren’t careful!”

“Will you give it a rest with that!” Hamo says, his voice rising. “You keep going on about cursed this and demon that. I bet you’d be happier if we were still back with the Seekers!”

“Well at least there our curses were in control!” Leo growl back, his face red.

“Enough!” Aleida shouts, stepping up between them, much to Jessabelle’s relief. “What is with you two! We’ve just arrived in a new place, to start a new life, and all you want to do is fight!”

“He was-” Leo starts.

Aleida spins, jabbing her finger into Leo’s chest. “Stop. It.” Anger colours her face, for the first time since Jessabelle met the woman. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

A shout comes from further up the road, drawing the group’s attention. A woman is running towards them, her brown hair streaming out behind her revealing her gaunt yellow skin. Her eyes are wide, frantic, bordering on mad. Jessabelle tenses, squinting at her. The woman was familiar, but she just couldn’t quite put a name to the face. Then it hits her, of course!

“My babies! You’ve come back to me!” The woman shouts, her voice cracking.

“M-mummy?” Vorlo says, his voice quiet.

The woman, Cecily, stops just before them, dropping to her knees and throwing her arms wide. “It’s me. Come here!”

“Mummy!” Vorlo shouts. Pulling Marla’s arm, the twins run over to Cecily and throw themselves into her arms. Cecily pulls them in close, squeezing them fiercely, desperately.

For a while, they just stand there in silence. Finally, Cecily looks up at Jessabelle. “Thank you, thank you so much for bringing my babies back to me. I don’t know how I can ever repay you for this gift.”

“Don’t thank me, it was Lord Reud’s doing. He is the one who deserves your gratitude.” Jessabelle says.

Cecily nods, then turns back to holding her twins.

A soft tug on her sleeve draws Jessabelle’s attention. She turns to find Hamo standing beside her, looking down timidly, gently kicking at the ground.

“I was wondering… My parents… Are they here too?” He asks.

“I…” Jessabelle says with a sinking feeling. She hadn’t realized that the boy didn’t know about his parent’s deaths. “I’m really sorry. They aren’t with us any more.”

“Oh, where are they then?” Hamo asks, looking up at her face in excitement. Slowly, the hope on his face dies as he takes in her expression. “Oh…” He says, the emotion draining from his voice. “I see.” He turns away from Jessabelle and walks over to Aleida, before burying his face in her shirt. Aleida wraps her arms around him, stroking his hair.

Jessabelle looks from the twins who had just regained their parent to the boy that had lost his, a new determination within her. When they had first left Avonford, she had expected them all to find their own way in the city. Over the course of the journey, however, she had grown fond on the rag-tag little group. She didn’t actually want to see them go.

No, she wanted to do more. She wanted to give them a home.