The group walked back to the clearing, happy with their findings. Their cheeriness was cut short as they caught sight of the clearing again, the reality of all those people dying to protect what the group now possessed setting in.

Ephin moved to subtly block off Iarkspur’s line of sight on the graves however she continued walking until she was in the center of the clearing, taking her time to look over some of the nearby graves. She then plucked out a seed from her pouch and dug a small hole to bury it.

The others watched as a large tree sprouted in the center of the clearing, growing until it rivaled the height of the trees making the clearing. Iarkspur took out a knife and carved a large A into the bark.

Nodding to herself, she placed a hand on the tree and returned to the others.

“Are you going to be going back to them?” Beth asked, indicating back in the direction of the coven of hags that called themselves her mothers.

“That’s what they want. I still do want to go back and talk things through but, for now, we have a job to do and I will return on my own terms,” Iarkspur said.

“Well said,” Jadon said.

“They aren’t hags though,” Iarkspur continued.

“Tell that to my legs.”

“I don’t know what happened in that shed, but that doesn’t mean they’re evil or monsters, okay?”

“Believe what you want to believe.”

The walk to the edge of the woods and across the soagdar hunting hills took the better part of a week. With Jadon incapable of walking, or defending himself, they had to take the longer route around the southern hills to avoid the worst of the soagdars.

The group rested in Roll Land View, a small hamlet that relied upon their farmland. It contained one tavern, that contained one room to stay in. This led to yet another night of cramped sleeping arrangements as most of the group fit themselves as the best they could across the floor, with Jadon taking the bed this time.

Iarkspur was the first awake and stepped over the others to make her way to the door and downstairs to get some food for breakfast. As she descended the stairs, she could hear voices coming from below. As the only overnight patrons, she didn’t know who would be taking up the bar space that early.

She dipped her head around the corner, looking into the main room almost upside down from her angle on the stairs. There were three soldiers. Wearing primarily green colors, tinged with gold, the soldiers were also well-armed with swords, and well-armored. Two were standing back slightly as the middle spoke with the tavern keeper. She didn’t hear anything of what they were saying as she had already tiptoed her way back upstairs to warn the others.

“Wake up everyone,” Iarkspur hissed as she stood over the group, standing in the spot she had been sleeping.

“Go back to sleep,” Beth mumbled waving her hand in the air aimlessly.

“No,” Iarkspur said, lightly kicking Beth to nudge her awake even more. “The guards have found us. They’re downstairs right now.”

That woke them up.

Beth grabbed Iarkspur’s ankle from the leg she had kicked with and dragged herself up to standing too, before roughly shaking Guy and Ephin awake. Jadon was already alert at the mention of guards and Iarkspur wondered just how long he had been awake.

“Well, we can’t just leave out the front door,” Beth said as the group prepared to leave the room.

“There’s no chance we can all get out of that small window,” Guy said.

“Go down and talk to them,” Ephin said, “maybe you can convince them to walk away for long enough to let us sneak out.”

“No,” Jadon snapped, “we stick together. All of us.”

Jadon and Guy eyed each other before Guy nodded and threw his hands up.

“Beth,” Guy said, “could you check if the coast is clear, or if we’re going to need to make a new exit?”

Beth nodded and snuck out of the room and down the stairs. There were no voices anymore, but she didn’t want to take any chances and happened to peek around in the same spot that Iarkspur had done so.

There were no soldiers in sight, so she straightened back up and continued down the stairs, walking and yawning as if just waking up.

“Hello there,” the tavern keeper said from behind the bar. He was a large, muscled up man with a thick black beard. Beth assumed he helped out on some of the farms in his time off. “Early riser then?”

“I’m afraid so,” Beth said, sitting down at the table nearest the bar. “My friends are just getting their things together. Hopefully we can get something to fill our bellies before heading out?”

“Of course, of course,” the tavern keeper laughed. “I wouldn’t be very good at my job, or at keeping this size, if I didn’t have a hearty breakfast prepared every morning.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Beth said, watching the man work away in the open room behind the bar, “I could have sworn I heard voices down here a moment ago. Who was it?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I was just surprised anyone was up even earlier than myself. Curiosity and all that.”

“Members of the latest influx,” the tavern keeper said, the laughter in his voice replaced by a subtle anger. “They were simply checking in to make sure we wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Latest influx? From where?”

“What do you mean where? From the Luwraeg Capital up north.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Where have you been for the past week?”

“We’ve been a little, stranded. Only just making it back, although that might put dampener on the mood. Thanks for the information, I’ll just head up to see how much longer they’ll be.”

“Can’t have it getting cold,” the tavern keeper said, the chuckle returning slowly to his tone.

“My thoughts exactly,” Beth called from halfway up the staircase.

“Why the heck would there be soldiers from the north coming here? Let alone enough for this to be the latest influx?” Guy asked after Beth had recounted the information.

“Look, it’s better we discuss this when we aren’t in someone else’s home,” Jadon said, “good news is that those soldiers aren’t the ones specifically looking out for us. Which means breakfast.”

“I agree,” Ephin said, “Eat, then leave, then plan.”

“If it comes to it, we just don’t take the main road. We follow its direction and just head directly south. We’re going there anyway,” Iarkspur said.

“I agree with that too, now come on, I’m hungry,” Ephin urged, opening the door and waving everyone through to hurry them up.

The breakfast was well made and would have been appreciated more, had the group not been in such a rush to get going and see what was going on outside that they finished it in no time at all.

“Wait,” Beth said as they all walked out into the main square of the hamlet, “I have an idea, but I just need some supplied and time from the smithy. Come back and fetch me when you’re ready to leave. Let me know what the scouting of the soldiers yields.”

Before waiting for an answer, Beth ran across the square to hammer on the door of the smithy. The others watched as a sleepy-eyed old man looked down at her, listened to what she had to say, and let her in.

Guy and Ephin continued far enough down the road from Roll Land View to see the main road and the thin line of troops that were travelling down it. If they continued walking, they wouldn’t hit the main road for at least half a day to a full day, but from their vantage point, they could see the road stretch off up north, the line of soldiers continuing along with it, as far as they could see. To their left, the south, they could make out High Morr in the distance and the large number of troops collecting around the coast of the lagoon, building what must be boats to cross the water. The green of the soldiers was evident, which confirmed what the tavern keeper was saying.

“Why is High Morr being put under siege though?” Ephin asked.

“It has always been a target. It’s just an extremely risky move considering…” Guy trailed off.

“Considering what?”

“I’m not authorized to speak further on this matter. I’m sorry.”

“Surely, If they’re collecting an army to invade, then whatever that considering thing is, it doesn’t hold much sway anymore.”

“Apparently so.”

“Then tell me what it is,” Ephin said, looking at Guy, who was avoiding his eye contact.

“No. We should be getting back, now we know how serious this is.”

Guy turned around and began walking back, not waiting for Ephin to join him. Ephin jogged up and continued to try and pry for more information the entire walk back, to no avail.

Jadon and Iarkspur were still sitting, waiting, at the main square when Ephin and Guy returned. Beth had not made an appearance yet.

“What’s the news then?” Jadon asked as Guy and Ephin slumped down next to them.

“It’s true,” Guy said, “there are a lot and far more on the way.”

“So, we need to hurry up with what we’re doing and either get into High Morr before it is attacked, or steer away altogether,” Jadon said.

“We can’t steer away,” Ephin countered, “we need to find that Davistone person.”

“Not if we get this old ritual relic before he does. Then he’ll have to come to us,” Jadon said.

“Hey!”

Beth called from the other side of the square, pushing some sort of contraption. It was a mess of wood and metal, but also had a definite seat in the center.

“Jadon,” Beth said, “this is for you.”

“For me?”

“Yeah. I thought it might help Guy out if you could move by yourself.” Beth patted the seat, “hop on and try it out.”

Beth and Guy helped to get Jadon in the chair and he tied himself in by a rope around the waist. Beth walked around, showing him the different features of his wheelchair.

“So, these armrests can be split and swung down to provide skis, for when we are travelling across the snow soon. There are poles to help you push yourself along on the snow, and you can simply push the wheels when on solid land.” Beth returned around to the front of the chair and looked at Jadon. “How is it?” She asked excitedly.

Jadon gave one of the wheels a tentative push and turned slightly. He pushed both together. Then he pulled on the wheels to go backwards. He spun to look at Beth.

“I love it.”

The journey south was slow, travelling over the countryside to avoid running into the amassing soldiers. Jadon got the hang of his chair relatively quickly, although for the first couple days, he needed more frequent breaks due to the extra upper body exertion he was putting into moving. Guy was happy that he wasn’t carrying Jadon any more.

As the uneven, chopped up ice forms that split Lower Luwraeg and Vernox apart grew closer, Jadon took Beth aside slightly for a more private talk as the group pushed on.

“Thank you,” Jadon said, “this is brilliant.”

“I’m glad you like it, I thought Guy might need a rest from carrying you at some point.”

“And?”

“And it was an idea in my head and I can barely last a day without attempting to make whatever ideas linger up there.”

“Good to hear.”

“Why is that?” Beth looked down at Jadon quizzically.

“I think I have an idea you might like.”

The ice forms rose in front of the group like someone had thrown a tantrum in the lagoon to their right and frozen the water mid-splash, only on a scale that the droplets would dwarf a normal person. The ice stuck out at random, sharp edges. There was a mesh of caves that dotted the base of the ice, running all along from the lagoon to their right, all the way to the coast to their left.

“Pick one and hope we get to the other side?” Guy said to the rest.

Hesitant nods answered him and they pushed forward into the closest cave, a biting cold wind rushing out from the cave to meet them as walked in.

“I hope you all packed something warm,” Jadon said, his breath freezing as he quietly chuckled to himself.

“I wonder which way would even get us through the fastest?” Ephin asked.

“I’m not worried about that right now. Safest is best in here,” Beth warned.

As if on cue, the warmth from their breaths caused a small crack in the wall next to Ephin. The crack splintered off down the cave. A deep echoing crunching sound came back and the ceiling began to collapse.