“Mom’s busy right now. Who’s this?” Birk gestured to Isaac.

“He’s a newcomer,” she looked at him, “he’s a… friend.”

“Gee, Aster, thanks for the glowing commendation.”

Aster shot him a harsh glance. “Don’t be silly.”

“Did you get a new key, Aster?” Birk said

Aster looked suspicious. “What do you mean?”

Birk gestured to the gate, “the golem you came with.”

Aster relaxed. “Oh, that’s not mine, it’s his pet.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder at Isaac.

Birk’s eyes widened. “Wow,” he looked at Isaac with admiration, “you’re a newcomer and you’ve got such a large golem already?”

Isaac shuffled his feet. “Ehm, sure.”

Aster’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think it’s a golem actually, it’s something else.”

Birk didn’t falter. “So a familiar then?”

“A familiar?” Aster sounded confused.

“Yes,” said Birk as though it was the most self-evident thing ever, “though familiars are never that large.”

Aster waved her hand through the air. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, “can I speak with your mother? Will she be busy for long?”

Birk turned and watched the crowd with the two women at the forefront, still arguing. “Yeah. It’s Agnes, she wants us to leave.”

The woman with all the critters, Agnes, turned in circles then as if on queue and fragments of her voice drifted towards them as she addressed the crowd.

“You’re not safe here… your safety… while you still can!” Agnes’s voice was shrill and had a panicky twinge to it. Isaac had heard that voice many times before, from his colleagues, whenever they were headed for a breakdown.

“Why does she want you to leave? I thought Tejahl guaranteed your protection. Has she withdrawn it? Is she bullying you?” Aster suddenly seemed very angry.

“No, no, Agnes is acting on her own I think.” The kid lowered his voice. “She says Chaaron’s group fought with Crassus.”

Aster calmed down a little at that but she still sounded a bit angry when she spoke next. “So what? They chased him off, didn't they? That’s no excuse to turn around and bully their own allies.”

“No, that’s the thing, they lost. They all died.”

A chill went up Isaac’s spine. Aster’s voice choked.

“Only Ronan, Agnes and Chaaron survived. And Agnes says Ronan won’t say where the rest of his group is. Agnes thinks they’re dead as well.”

Images of Crassus’s hand tearing through a bandit poured through Isaac’s mind. Images of Aster poking the four armed guy into a pulp with her iron-tipped feathers. He knew they were dead. He’d been there. He should say something. Clear up the confusion for this poor kid, who would now, if Isaac understood the implications correctly, soon be homeless because of something he had been a part of. He couldn’t make himself say it however, and the kid continued before he had the chance to.

“And even worse than that. Agnes says Chaaron has left.”

Aster jolted out of her paralysed state. “What?”

“Yeah, she says Chaaron won’t even come out of her poison clouds anymore.”

“Fuck!” Aster turned, palm to her forehead. “Where is Chaaron now?” she asked Birk.

“Last Agnes saw her she was heading for Kin Tao’s territory.”

Isaac saw now where he’d seen the critters before. They were spiders, wooden spiders. The very same that had crawled over him and Aster when he’d been trying to save the unconscious girl as the fighting had broken out. Then the drifting poison clouds must have belonged to this Chaaron. And the wooden spiders belonged to Agnes. But that would mean she’d been at the church, and yet here she was, having arrived before them even though they were the first to leave. Had they really been traveling that slowly?

“Birk, listen to me, you need to listen to Agnes. You need to leave. Convince your mother. If Chaaron joins up with Kin Tao, he really will be the one who holds all the power, not just in name.”

Birk smiled. “There’s rumors of another lieutenant joining up with Kin Tao as well. He’s even supposed to have a gold key, though I don’t know if I believe that.”

“Exactly,” Aster sounded desperate now, “that’s why you need to leave!”

Birk laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about it, Aster. My brother will kick their asses if they ever try to come here.” He turned and looked with supreme confidence at a large man with skin made of rock towering over the rest of the crowd.

Aster on the other hand didn’t look so convinced. She seemed about to say more but she was interrupted as Agnes suddenly bustled past them, almost running into Aster, who had to jump aside.

The wooden spiders frothed around her feet like waves on the beach, knocking each other up in the air. They locked together and by the time she had reached the gate they had formed a crab-like creature made up of linked spiders. The superorganism accelerated and soon all that could be seen was the dust cloud kicked up by eight whirring limbs. Well, that explained how she’d arrived before them.

“And you, what do you want?” A voice snapped at them. It was the old woman, whom Isaac presumed was Inga. The leader of Heimgaard and also Birk’s mother. “Now?” Inga continued, “don’t take up all my time, out with it!”

Isaac grew conscious of each and every eye in the courtyard locking on them. It suddenly occurred to Isaac that they might be interrupting something. Inga stood squinting at Aster with a staff in one hand. A wooden cat perched on her shoulder, its bark like fur rippling with every movement.

Birk’s older brother stood next to Inga, his arms crossed over his massive chest. His rocky skin flexed, even his eyebrows were made of rock. Further to the left of him three girls stood. They all had the appearances of peasant girls straight out of a medieval play. But there was a hardness to their faces and the way they carried themselves. The tallest of the girls had a belt of rocks revolving around her like tiny planets that dispelled any notion of vulnerability.

The hostile atmosphere in the air was unmistakable. Isaac regretted making Dwayne wait outside.

“Please listen to Agnes, Inga. You need to take your group and leave Heimgaard.”

Inga peered closer and her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, so it is you Aster, how wonderful to see you.”

“Please, Inga, if not for yourself then for everyone here. Think of your family.”

Inga scoffed. “Bah! This is our home, no warlord can drive us away from here.” Approving murmurs echoed through the crowd. “If you are so concerned for our well-being, Aster, then ally with us. Combine your power with ours.” The crowd grew dead silent at the offer. Some hope began overshadowing the hostility in the stares aimed their way.

“You know I can’t do that, Inga.” The whispers resumed their previous volume and many turned away to talk amongst themselves, their interest in Aster and Isaac apparently having run its course.

“Mh, so you say, Aster.”

“Come on now, Inga, don’t be so stubborn. Take your people and join me, we can travel to Ed’s camp and join up with the people there, we’d be stronger in greater numbers.” Isaac’s ears perked up. There was that ‘Ed’ name again, he should remember to ask Aster about that once they were alone.

“The answer is ‘NO’, Aster.” The tired old woman sounded more like a general than a grandma.