“Gods!” exclaimed Valena, interrupting an argument between the siblings. “I almost wish you’d left me back there.”

While they grumbled, Orwin chuckled. “You see, I have to hear this bickering all the time. It’s a wonder they haven’t driven me insane yet.”

The group had rode through the night, though they had slowed from their breakneck speed when they got far away from Green Knoll and the camped army, so as not to kill the poor horses. Both the riders and the horses were tired, but they would only stop after they got closer to the woods, where they could camp out of sight. Maia swore she could see dust rising a ways back on the road, which meant pursuit. If the girl said she saw something, then Orwin damn well believed her, even if he couldn’t see it. The archer’s eyesight was astounding, and had saved their asses many times in the past.

They had talked little, but Valena was proving herself to be a no-nonsense woman, and she took no shit from Mons or his sister. Their little posse used to have a mage, but they had eventually decided to part ways with the man after his drinking started impacting his ability. Orwin had almost died when one of the man’s spell has misfired, hitting him instead of their enemy. Only luck and a providential arrow from Maia (as usual) had saved him that day, and their relationship had soured after that. He was starting to wonder about her. Their former companion had been a battle-mage, trained in the Army, but he didn’t know Valena’s area of expertise, or if it would match them. He decided to rectify that before their pursuers had a chance to reach them. It’s always necessary to know your soldier’s abilities, he reckoned.

“Say, Valena, I should’ve asked before, but we were kind of busy, running for our lives. What kind of ‘witch’ or mage are you?”

She looked a bit uncomfortable at the question, and the siblings started paying attention to the conversation.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell us, but it might be important. Can you fight?”

“Yes, I can, but that’s not my specialty… You see, I’m a necromancer…” she told them hesitantly.

“Ah.” He replied eloquently.

“I’m sorry. If it bothers you…”

Then, Mons barged into the conversation, as he often did, breaking the tension. “Don’t you worry, Val! You can have Maia’s body when she dies! Maybe she’ll be useful in the afterlife!”

Naturally, that earned him a punch, a painful one - pulling a string left Maia with some wicked arm strength. “You’ll die earlier, meatshield.”

Orwin couldn’t help but to smile, as did Valena. “It’s ok, Valena. I’m sorry for my reaction. I’ve had some bad experiences with necromancers, that’s all. But you seem to be a stand-up girl.” Her smile grew larger at him, and he turned his head to conceal his blushing.

And then, she turned cheerfully to Mons, not forgetting his earlier presumption, “If you cal me Val again, I’ll bind your soul to a puppy, and give it to a bunch of five-years-old.”

Mons sputtered, “She can’t do that, can she?!”

The rest of them laughed - and Valena didn’t care to answer him the truth.

After a while, she said, “But where are we going again? And why? I just followed you all in the chaos back there.”

“Ah, that’s a long story,” said Orwin, starting to tell her their tale.

***

Garner’s Party

Lowa joined him a couple of hours after launch, when she finally woke up. Garner walked besides her cart while she had her late dinner, some hard biscuits and a goblet of wine, and he updated her on the missives from their embattled practitioners across the Realm.

“So, we can expect these people to meet us at the Spire. Not many, but reliable.”

“Mmm-hm.”

“As we feared, even mages not directly associated with us were attacked. The good news is that those who reached the Army’s stations were protected, while the Cities’ militias either protected them or joined the mobs.”

After gulping a mouthful of wine, Lowa asked, “So we can expect reluctant assistance from the Army? Maybe Chief’s plan to visit the Outpost is really a good idea.”

“Yeah, if we can rope them into it.”

“What about the Wizards in the North?” She inquired, not knowing well the complicated relations in the Wizardly Order.

“Well… You know the ones up North are powerful and old, most are barely cognizant of the situation, or don’t care much. But the Order is pressuring the King to act, without much success. Maybe a few Wizards will try to aid us, but they would have to pass through Lothar, who stirred the Purge in the first place. Too dangerous. We’re on our own, mostly,” He said, grimacing.

Fortunately, both of them had seen this situation coming, warned by friends and contacts in Lothar and other important cities. The Lotharian dinasty was the most powerful family in the south, but their clout didn’t expand much North. Wizards who occupied themselves with grand projects, like the cure for aging or the philosopher’s stone, could meet their ends because of plain and mundane politics. And the worst affected would be young wizards like Garner, who hadn’t had time to strengthen their Towers, their bases of power. The only way out, as they could see it, was to gather wizards and mages alike in the Spire, a great defensive position.

Another option, of course, would be to depart the Realm, passing the limits of the Spires into Elfey lands. By his research, Garner knew that the Elfey weren’t all the monsters that the old tales described, but it was true that there were some deranged Warlocks, and their banishment wasn’t without merit. The Elfey didn’t care much for other people, and would rarely censure one of their own in a conflict with foreigners. The Realm, when it was young, had been an easy target for the worse individuals, as it magic couldn’t match the strange ways of the Elfey. Ironically, the Wizardly Order was formed to learn and protect the Realm from that threat, and their banishing the Elfey freed the nobles to focus on other things - like hating those very same ‘stuck-up’ and ‘worthless’ wizards.

The young ones approached when they noticed Lowa was up, exchanging greetings.

“So, Master? Will it only be this boring road until we get there?” asked Tealdin.

“Yeah, when can I go back to studying wards, Master?” added Leanor.

“Well, I do hope it’s mostly boring. Interesting things on the road can be pretty dangerous. But I think you two should practice fast casting while we’re on the road. You can start with something simple.”

“Because it’s important to improve your focus, Leanor. If we’re attacked, you won’t have time to carefully prepare a spell. Sometimes, casting a fast spell, even if it’s not perfect, will make a difference.” Lowa said, anticipating the question that she saw almost bursting out of Leanor’s lips.

“I’ve got a good speed with my fireball already, Master,” said Tealdin.

“Good, if a little cliche. Chief trained you with a sword a bit, didn’t he? Ask Romer to get you one.”

“Hey, I can ward fast too, Master! Don’t underestimate me,” Leanor added, her eyes glinting with competitiveness.

“Okay, okay. I’ll test you two on that boasts when we get to the Spire,” Garner placated them, and set a little challenge too.

Lowa chuckled as the teenagers moved away, their heads full with the task. “Did your Master teach you that?”

“No, I had to badger the hell out of him to learn anything. I’m just acting like I wished he had, rather, like I think he should have.”

“Well, at least the old codger keeps you updated on the news from the Capital.”

“It’s a shame it’s almost always bad news.”

The group kept on walking as the afternoon passed, and the woods started appearing a little more sinister, seeming as if choking the roadway. They started hearing the sounds of night critters, coming out of their holes, the forest seeming more alive than ever. The rangers returned, reporting that they had seen signs of some heavy and big-clawed creature ahead, and nothing very interesting behind them, no apparent signs of pursuit. From here on out, the scouts would proceed closer to the group. Far away from civilization, some nasty creatures and predators could thrive, ones that would make mincemeat out of a man walking alone. The magic pooled closer to the artificial border created by the Spire, and there could be some very weird mutations.

These mutated animals, popularly known as magical beasts, could provide some really rare and powerful magical ingredients, important to alchemy in potion and poison making, an to ritual as magical fuel. It was not by happenstance that Garner employed two professional hunters of the highest level, though they came with their quirks - one was a mute, the other cranky as hell. Stashed in the carts were some useful potions and products made with the ingredients both men provided.

It was quiet for a long while, only walking and the occasional meaningless conversation between Garner’s party. People climbed the carts when they were in need of a little rest to keep going, and everything was going fine, until one of the hunters materialized out of the woods, running. “Prepare yourselves! Wolves!”

“Why the hell are wolves attacking a group as large as ours when there’s even still daylight?” wondered Gardner, as Chief bellowed instructions for the servants to gather the horses and climb the carts, and for his men to prepare themselves. Lowa palmed some vials out of her coat, while Leanor efficiently warded spears and shields the servants were retrieving from the carts to protect themselves with. With no time to take the yoke off the cart horses, the avowed warriors set themselves ahead of the animals, being trailed by both hunters, Garner and Tealdin, the young man carrying a sword on his hip, and a frown of anticipation on his brow.

They started hearing the baying of wolves, and it wasn’t long before they erupted out of the woods into the road. The hunters promptly released arrows they were pulling, downing one animal and injuring another. Tealdin made a fairly good effort with his fireball, burning a lump of wolves who scattered yipping at the fires. The warriors readied their shields and weapons - spears, sword and two-handed axe - but Garner felt something was off, and held his magic, as did Lowa hold her vials.

The wolves didn’t even look at the horses or the people, and kept on running to the other side of the woods, simply adjusting slightly their direction to avoid them. Then, the reason of the beast’s panic showed itself: a humongous boar, almost as big as the horses, that was having its predator day with its wickedly large tusks. The enraged beast, bite-marks at its flanks, didn’t even hesitate to gore the wolf that one of the hunters had injured, throwing the canine’s shredded body violently at Chief’s warrior, knocking two of them down.

“Magical beast!” warned Chief, sizing the creature up. The tusks looked damned sharp, and warded or no, he didn’t rate his shield a good chance of withstanding it more than one hit.

“Hold your fire until the right time.” Garner warned the hunters before starting to chant, gathering energy.

As the creature made to advance on them, Lowa let loose her vials, who broke on contact with the ground just ahead of the boar. A noxious smell rose into the air, and the beast took some steps back, trying to clear the awful substance out of its nostrils. “Barrier, Leanor!” she cried.

The blonde apprentice released the spell she’d been readying, raising shield of energy before the warriors just in time to block a dozen jagged lances of air the creature threw from its tusks. The shock of the spell made her wince and her knees almost buckled up on the cart, blood seeping from her nose. The creature was enraged its lethal attack was blocked and started charging towards the warriors. Tealdin didn’t need to be told to power up the barrier, though he was already sure the beast would break through it, causing him some painful and debilitating magical feedback.

But Garner was ready before the boar hit, crying “Clear the way!”, and releasing the spell as soon as his avowed got out of the way. A mighty lightning bolt hit the creature head-on, sizzling its skin as it cried in pain, before falling down completely paralyzed. Even so, the magical beast was huge, and must have been sponging magic for a long time, and both veterans knew it wasn’t enough.

“Charge!”, “Attack”, cried Lowa and Garner to the warriors.

The archers aimed for its eyes, firing as one. Tealdin drew his sword and joined them as they hurried to finish the beast before it could recover, struggling to pierce its thick hide. Swords and spears plunged in its body repeatedly, but it was one of Chief’s might axe blow to its head that killed it, smashing its cranium and completely splashing everyone remotely nearby with gore.

“A hell of a magical beast.” declared Chief, satisfied. “Haven’t had a good scrap like this one in a long time.”

As everyone started wounding down from the fight, Garner approached Tealdin, and patted his shoulder, as the boy shook the adrenaline off. “You weren’t lying about the fireball, good fighting.” Descending from the cart, Lowa praised Leanor as well, “Good job, girl, your barrier was great. You saved the warriors from some nasty wounds.”

As everyone gathered around the fallen beast’s corpse, Romer said, “Well, it seems we won’t be needing for meat again in this journey. We will butcher the creature later, Master, but would you like to quiz the young ones on its magical parts before it?” Tealdin and Leanor groaned in dismay, shooting betrayed glances at the majordomo, who did not care at all.

“I’ll let them skip it this time, Romer, but good thinking.”

The kids breathed a sigh of relief at the close call. Romer was pure evil.

The servants quickly made a roughshod sled to pull the creature, and set the riding horses to pull it. The group carried on with no further surprises until it got late and one of the hunters returned, reporting he had found a good spot for setting up camp. Some servants repeated their efficient process of making camp, while others helped the hunters to butcher the creature, setting aside the parts Lowa considered valuable. Soon, everyone was eating a perfectly roasted and spiced boar. Romer’s cooking was incredible, as usual, and they could barely detect the gamey flavor of the meat. The second hunter arrived at the end of the meal, and was annoyed to have to rewarm his food. He reported to the group that he believed there were other people on the road, possibly following them.

“Hmmm. We’ll see what we do about it tomorrow. Let’s sleep now, we’ll rise early again. Good night to you all.”

The night-guard’s shift was determined after some arguing, and the camp settled down for the night in the clearing.