As the children continued to play with the golems, more and more adults soon arrived. Seeing these golems move around in unison, the villagers quickly caused a commotion, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Living so far out nearly in the middle of nowhere, many of these people had never seen magic besides of what little a few had seen from Chief Roland. Just as the intrigue and excitement was reaching its apex, all of the golems suddenly halted their movements, coming to a complete standstill. Lowen as well froze for a moment before his knees buckled below him and he fell straight on his ass. Like an ocean wave continuously crashing upon the sandy shore, his mind was hammered again and again with a whirl of dizziness. His head ached painfully as he gasped hard to catch his breath.

*Huff Phew Huff Phew*

(Ugh, I feel like I'm gonna be sick. Just from trying to control multiple golems at once I receive such a heavy tax, this fucking sucks.)

Lowen's mind couldn't handle such exhausting work. the amount of mental prowess one must have for such a simple task was truly atrocious. Nia saw all of this and had already run over to Lowen's side with a concerned face.

"Lowen!! what happened to you? Are you hurt somewhere?"

Lowen seeing the caring nature in Nia's eyes, gently shook his head no.

"I'm fine, just a little tired is all. Can you help me back inside, for now, I think I just need some rest."

Nia nodded and gave a meaningful look to Ben. Ben said a quick goodbye to his playmates and ran over to help carry Lowen. Even though Nia didn't need any help carrying a 6-year-old boy, Ben still insisted, arguing that Lowen was his Big bro and that no matter what he would always help his big bro. Nia couldn't really argue and simply carried Lowen inside. Outside Nia and Ben's home, the 10 small golems stood perfectly still, with the special inscription inscribed on each and every one of those 10 golem rock cores, the golems would remain animated until either there was no more earth energy around, their rock cores were damaged or when the creator/Lowen died. Looking at these golems remaining perfectly still, after just witnessing them moving all about crept many of the villagers out but seeing as the person responsible was no longer around, eventually, they became bored and everyone dispersed, going back to whatever they were doing before.

As the sun set and night began to settle in, a bright silver moon had replaced an orange flaming sun. The stars shined down like sparkling diamonds and the village grew quiet and still. Laying on some old dried weathered hay, Lowen's nose began to twitch slightly as he picked up a delicious smelling aroma coming from a few feet away. As the crackling fire continued to warm his small body, slowly, Lowen began to groggily open his eyes. Looking around, he could see Nia and Ben nervously sitting quietly in a corner, in their hands was a small bowl of steaming soup but they seemed too nervous to eat it.

"So you're finally awake, little one."

Hearing this voice, Lowen couldn't recognize it. It didn't come from Nia but it was clearly female. Looking to where the voice came from, Lowen saw the back of someone stirring a pot of piping hot soup. The voice was female but clearly aged. Lowen could see the back of this person's hands and they had a few wrinkles here and there, on top of this person's head was a long cascade of peppered hair. Although this lady was older, she couldn't be too old as her peppered hair was more black than it was grey. Turning around, Lowen could finally see who it was but once he saw, he was clearly confused.

(Who is this person.)

Lowen struggled to sit up and this lady quickly turned around to help him. Noticing her eyes they were quite beautiful, they were a sapphire blue but Lowen couldn't help but notice how sad they seemed. As the older lady helped Lowen sit up, she handed him a bowl of soup.

"You need to eat, you had quite the dizzy spell."

Lowen received the bowl, looking in, it seemed to be just a few vegetables made in some sort of stock making a watery soup. It smelled delicious but looked very unsatisfactory.

"Who are you? Why are you here? Nia who is this lady?"

But Nia just continued to look at her soup not saying a word. The blue-eyed lady looked at Nia's nervousness and released a calming smile.

"My name is Luna, you were unwell so the chief asked me to cook some herbal soup for you."

Lowen noticed Nia's odd behavior as she continued to look away. He couldn't understand why but it seemed like Nia was completely avoiding looking at this lady's face. Lowen looked this older lady up and down, she seemed to be in her late 40's or early 50's, no matter how much he looked at her, he couldn't spot anything wrong.

(Why is Nia avoiding this lady's gaze? Am I missing something?)

Lowen looked at this woman suspiciously.

"The chief already knows?"

"Yes, someone watching you in the crowd saw you collapse and reported it to him. After that, Chief Roland asked me to cook you some herbal soup."

"Why you?"

Luna gave a gentle smile.

"Of course because I'm the best cook in the village."

Lowen looked at her doubtfully, although the soup did smell appetizing, it simply looked too plain.

"What don't believe me, my food may look simple but once you try it, you'll be addicted."

Luna saw that Lowen still wasn't buying it and looked at the soup with caution as though it were poisonous, so she took a small bowl and filled it with soup before tilting it to her mouth and draining it.

"AHHH!!."

Luna immediately started fanning her mouth dramatically.

"Hot, too hot."

Lowen started to chuckle lightly before he gave the soup a small sip, opening his eyes wide in surprise, the words delicious somehow slipped past his lips.

"Delicious, this, this is the tastiest soup I've ever had."

Lowen immediately dumped the remaining soup down into his gut, licking the savory juice from his lips, he pushed the bowl forward.

"Is it ok if I have some more?"

Luna was surprised at how fast Lowen ate his soup, with a small nod she took the bowl from Lowen, refilled it and passed it back. Ben seeing this quickly imitated Lowen and gave his soup a sip, noticing how rich and tasty it was, he too drained his bowl in a few big gulps. Running up next to Lowen, he looked at Luna with eyes full of glee and excitedly yelled.

"Me too me too."

Once more Luna filled a bowl and passed it along. With this incredibly flavorful soup, Ben and Lowen's faces were plastered with smiles and a nice little conversation followed. The atmosphere soon became very lively as Lowen and Ben joked back and forth. Everything was going exceptionally well, except for one corner of the room. Just a few feet away, Nia was still avoiding Luna, with her head down she simply stared into her bowl not daring to look up. Lowen wanted to say something but it was clearly something between the two, he wondered if he should get in their business. Thinking along those lines though, it was already a bit too late. He had already intervened in Nia and Ben's life plenty, so there was no reason to hold back now. Lowen looked at Luna calmly in her sapphire blue eyes, his curiosity was getting the better of him lately, so, in the end, he just asked.

"Luna, why does Nia seem to be terrified of you, did you do something to her?"

Hearing this, Nia instantly jumped up as though she were struck by lightning. The bowl of hot soup she had in her hands, by this time had already slipped through her fingers and hit the ground, shattering the bowl and spilling herbal soup everywhere, Nia quickly shouted.

"Lowen it's not like that, she, she did nothing wrong, it's all my..."

Nia couldn't even finish her sentence, staring at Lowen her lower lip began to quiver. Lowen's curiosity raised by another level, his eyes went back and forth between Nia and Luna waiting for whatever was gonna comes next, while Ben was just sitting there in confusion. Everything was seemingly going fine just a few seconds ago, now his big sis was yelling about something he didn't understand. Luna looked at Lowen and gently shook her head.

"Little one you misunderstand, she's not terrified of me. Instead, she's terrified of the guilt she feels when she looks at me."

A look of puzzlement washed over Lowen.

"Guilt, what guilt, what did she do?"

Nia's hands began to tremble, she didn't know whether she should stop Luna from saying any more. Should she herself tell Lowen about what happened, would he look at her differently if he knew? Would he also leave? Nia's thoughts began to swirl into despair, the edge of her eyes began to water and she was on the verge of tears. Lowen slowly held Nia's hand and looked at her with a warm smile. He whispered to her softly, a few words only she could hear.

"No matter what, Nia... I won't abandon you."

These few words were enough to melt even the most ancient of glaciers, let alone Nia's heart. A stream of tears slowly fell from Nia's face, with this she made up her mind and nodded for Luna to continue.

Luna herself seemed saddened, thinking of the past, her sapphire blue eyes dulled just a bit as she spoke.

"Her father, because of him, my husband, my son and many more are dead."

Lowen had heard once before how Nia's father, as well as she, were a traitor and it seemed like this was the reason why. Lowen continued to listen but just as she was going to continue, Roland walked in. Starring at Luna, he gave her a meaningful look indicating he had heard everything, causing Luna to jump with fright, she quickly gave a bow as she apologized repeatedly.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry, it wasn't my place, please forgive me."

Roland looked at her and with an angry tone, he spoke one word through gritted teeth.

"Leave."

With that one word, Luna was already racing out the so-called fur flap of a door and disappeared into the night. Lowen was baffled, he couldn't understand why Roland had been so upset.

"Why are you angry? Is she not allowed to tell me what happened? Are you afraid if I know the truth?"

Roland puffed up his chest with a bit of anger.

"Bah, you think that's why I'm upset. Hmph, you may be smart, boy, but that's just a hairs length away from being a smart ass. For her to tell you, hmph, it's simply not her place."

Lowen was annoyed at Roland already, the man seems to always have an attitude of superiority making Lowen feel disgusted.

(Can this man and I ever get along? Hmm, not likely.)

"Not her place, why does any of that matter? Whether she tells me or you do, what difference does it make?"

This time it was Roland's turn to be annoyed, he looked at Lowen in his eyes and just straight up said the truth.

"Lowen, have you looked around, I mean truly looked around. Not at this village but at the people that live within it. Think, what is the most dangerous thing in the world?"

Lowen thought for a second but before he could answer, Roland had already continued to speak.

"It's information, with the right information you can conquer the world but to the opposite of that, with the wrong information, you'll easily find yourself 6 feet under."

Lowen already knew that and crossed his arms as though he were saying get to the point. Roland rolled his eyes at this.

"It's not only whether your information is good or not, but it's also who has it. Some can put it to good use while others devastate themselves and those around them. A year ago, when my village had that accident, there was a preceding incident that happened before that caused everything. Nia's father had captured those goblins and went to seek me about selling them at a slave market but I was still trying to heal myself, therefore, I was in closed-door cultivation for 3 days and 3 nights. So instead he spoke with the elders. Had he waited for me to come out, I would have immediately recognized that one of the goblins was a goblin mage and I would have immediately ended that vile creatures life but because they didn't wait, they didn't know the danger they were in and that tragedy, later on, befell my village."

Lowen now understood why Roland was upset. Information, having it, not having it, giving it to those you can trust and those you can't. Lowen was an outsider, no one could truly confirm his identity and Roland to this day was still suspicious of him. So for one of his villagers to just blab about something, whether it be important or not pissed Roland off. At the end of the day, Roland still couldn't completely trust Lowen and Lowen couldn't be mad at that. Lowen nodded in understanding and then asked.

"So will you tell me the whole story or should I ask some villagers behind your back?"

Roland fumed for a moment but saw that Lowen was just trying to get under his skin. Roland wondered if he could ever get along with this child before he decided to just tell the story.

"It was just over a year and 3 months ago....."