Elmidath woke up. I had to carry her for a few hours first, but the important thing was that she did. The first thing she did was demand, in a faltering voice, an explanation of what had happened. I set her down and told her everything I knew. The whole time I kept expecting her to yell at me for what I’d done, but she didn’t take issue with any of it. Instead she just took it all in and nodded. “What about Tagath?”

Ah, right. I’d forgotten all about the old man in the chaos. “I think I left him behind.”

“That might be for the best. I’m sure he’s smart enough to take care of himself and he’s probably safer with the villagers than with us.”

Probably, though I wasn’t sure how safe anyone was right now. “I hope so.”

“On the bright side, at least you got rid of the ogres. Just like you wanted.”

“That’s true. That’s one thing we won’t have to worry about anymore.”

Somehow it didn’t feel like much of a triumph. Their unintentional rescue had quite literally been lifesaving, but they were still close to pure evil. Even if they’d meant to save us, it did nothing to absolve them of all the rest. So I should be glad to be rid of them, at least in theory. The reality wasn’t quite so simple, as is so often the case. Stupid reality, why couldn’t it just behave the way I wanted it for once?

“It does put us in an even more difficult position in regards to protecting Yuriel though. Disruptive as they were, we could still have used them for the coming struggle.”

“Assuming they would actually have helped us. We should probably just consider ourselves lucky that, by some miracle, they did more good than harm.”

“You’re probably right, they were a tad unpredictable.”

We walked in silence for a while before a thought occurred to me. “What are we going to do if Yueryurn has already turned as well?”

Elmidath shrugged. “Try to survive; the usual.”

“That’s not very encouraging.”

“Good, it wasn’t intended to be. If that really does happen and we get out alive, then I guess we can either try to protect Yuriel on our own or abandon everything and flee. I’m pretty sure I know which one you’d pick.”

“Yep. I’ve never had much sense after all.”

“If you had, you probably would’ve taken Biustarn’s deal.”

“Well, I’m not so sure about that. Sure, he was right about it being the more certain and possibly advantageous path, but I’d still have to live with myself afterwards. I’m not sure I could do that given what would be required of me.”

Casting her gaze skyward, Elmidath laughed. “Why couldn’t I have summoned someone more cold-hearted?”

“Is caring about people really that bad? I thought it was meant to be a virtue.”

“Maybe it is, but it’s going to get you killed someday.”

“Well, we all die eventually, and it’s better to die for what you believe in, right?”

“I’m not so sure about that. Knowing you died for beliefs isn’t much comfort when you’re, y’know, dead.”

“Fine, then I give you permission to be proud on my behalf after I die for one foolish cause or another.”

She laughed again, with more feeling this time. “I respectfully decline. You’re not allowed to die until I’m done with you, got it?”

“Deal.”

That was a request I was happy to comply with, so long as it kept me alive. I’d only just completed the thought when it occurred to me how odd a sentiment that was, given that I’d been prepared to end my life to escape much the same fate. What had changed since then? Had I simply lost my mind? Our circumstances hadn’t really changed, in fact, they’d mostly just gotten worse.

Thinking it over, I didn’t come up with all that much. Compared to how I was before, I felt like I had more of a purpose now and perhaps more of an understanding with Elmidath. Was that really enough to explain such a transformation? I wasn’t convinced, but then again, maybe it was better that I not think too deeply about this.

Even if I chose to be unhappy about all this, it’s not like it would do anything to improve my circumstances. It would just make me more miserable about the whole thing.

We wasted little time on the journey to Yueryurn, moving at a brisk pace. I expected Elmidath or at least Miusin to complain but, perhaps sensing the urgency, neither of them uttered a word of complaint. They simply moved in silence, doing their best to keep up. While I had to slow down for them at times, I could hardly begrudge them for it. Were it not for my enhanced body, they would have left me in the dust a long time ago.

We reached the edge of Biustarn and looked out across the cracked plain. I had no idea how they could tell this part of the world apart from most of what we’d seen, it was all the same parched wasteland to me, but they were confident we were there. There was a small party of Yueryurn’s soldiers walking in close order nearby, which I took to be a good sign. At least they hadn’t disappeared as Biustarn’s men had.

“I suppose we may as well meet up with them. They can tell Yueryurn we’re coming and give him time to prepare.”

Elmidath frowned. “We might be better off showing up unannounced, on the off chance that he has turned.”

“Silly as it might sound, at this point I’d rather walk into an ambush than waste any more time. There’s no point in bringing aid to Yuriel if it’ll all be destroyed before we even get there.”

Elmidath looked like she was about to argue further when Miusin interjected. “Why don’t we just talk with the soldiers first? We’ll probably be able to tell if there’s something wrong. If we find out he has betrayed us, then I imagine you two can deal with them. There’s only a few of them.”

Without Shotensho’s magic, it would fall mostly to Elmidath to handle them but I imagined she could do it. “Fine, we’ll see what we can find out and then figure the rest out from there.”

Neither of them disagreed and we went to hail the patrol. It was clear, even at a distance, that they were surprised to see us, but they soon relaxed and I could see no signs of hostility. Still, just to be safe, I took the lead while the other two maintained a safe distance.

One of the soldiers came out to meet me, presumably the patrol’s leader. Whatever their role, he was tall with a surly look on his face and deep yellow skin. All in all, he bore an unpleasant resemblance to Vorisen, who’d vanished back at the village. Hopefully this one was less unpleasant to deal with.

I exchanged greetings with him and briefly explained why we came. That all went smoothly, but that was, of course, the easy part. Now came the attempt at ferreting sensitive information out of him.

“By the way, have you noticed anything strange as of late?”

“Strange? You mean other than the impending doom rising from beneath the ground?”

“Yes, other than that. For example, has Lord Yueryurn been acting at all oddly?”

I knew it probably wasn’t the best idea to ask so directly, but I doubted I was going to get anywhere trying to be discrete either. Discretion was simply not among my many skills and there was no sense pretending I was any good at it.

To the soldier’s credit, he did give it some thought before replying. “He seemed more or less the same the last time I saw him. Though he was a little more concerned than usual. Which, I’m sure you can agree, is hardly surprising given the circumstances.”

He was being a little defensive, but that was probably to be expected, Lord Yueryurn appeared to command considerable respect among his men. “Okay, what about everyone else? Is there anyone you can recall acting out of the ordinary?”

“Now that you mention it, Lady Yueryurn went out on a trip recently with a large retinue. She left pretty abruptly and I didn’t hear anything about where she was going. Is that the sort of thing you’re looking for?”

I nodded. “Is that everything?”

“I believe so.”

“Then thank you, and please let me know if you notice anything else.”

“I can’t make any promises given my work, but I’ll try if I see you again.”

“Sounds good.”

While not perfect, it was probably about the best I could ask for. Now that my poor attempt at information gathering had come to an end, I let the soldiers hurry back to their lord. While what I’d heard about Lady Yueryurn was interesting, I wasn’t sure what to make of it nor were the others when I relayed it to them.

Obviously there was the potential of her being a traitor and her departure being part of some plot, but there was no proof of it. Not to mention little we could do about it, even if we knew she’d betrayed us. With no clear course of action open to us, we opted to follow the soldiers back.