As the sun climbed past its zenith and almost all of them reconvened for lunch, they exchanged reports about what they’d all found so far.

First went Viv, telling them how the stores of food had risen far enough to grant them another day’s grace of life. All total, they had three more days’ worth of rations. Rory tried to take heart in that fact—more time for them to find a replenishable option of food—but it still gnawed at him. Plus, he wasn’t exactly enjoying their current menu.

Leo and Leanne had been ecstatic to discover all the salvaged electronics. The EMP had messed up most of those, but they were both tinkering to figure out a way to get them working again. Rory was glad he hadn’t used his Weaving on them all. At least it gave them both something to do.

“You can’t run those for long, though,” Bo said. “Not without more power.”

Leo’s eyes flicked to Rory. “Can you use your Sigil to get the electricity running again?”

“I…” Rory hadn’t realized that was an option, but there was no reason why it couldn’t be, so long as he figured out how. “I’m not sure. But I’ll definitely look into it as soon as I can.”

Sue mentioned how she had been collecting the water in bottles before they ran out. Drinking and sanitation were important, and it was good to take precautions for that.

Ned reported that he had scoured several of the surrounding rooftops to gather up what Mana he could find. There hadn’t been a lot. Most existed in the form of small flakes, and in some cases, pure grainy powder. That meant the winds must have blown most off the rooftops. They’d already gathered most of what was naturally available.

It hit him then, how limited Mana could get. Even after all their travelling, they hadn’t found a secure and inexhaustible source for it. No wonder the Homeworlders and the Otherworlders were ready to go to war for it.

Trish and Allen had been helping Dez train the new folks to use their Sigils. Apparently, they were all coming along well. Good to know, considering it had been hardly a day for a bunch of them.

“I’ve been getting a tour of your defensive measures,” April said. “There are a few spots where you can tighten things up.”

Dez straightened, sitting up straight. “Such as where?”

“Like your vantage points. Why not set it up so you can use some of the guns we brought on the monsters? Firing away at them from a distance without worrying about getting hit. Perfect use for the things.”

“If you hadn’t noticed, guns don’t work well on the monsters. Trust me, we’ve tried”

“Just plain old guns?”

“What?”

April leaned forward, her voice taking on a hushed quality like she was sharing a secret. “What about guns with your Sigils? Have you tried those?”

“We don’t have guns with…”

Dez fell silent as his head involuntarily turned to Rory. He nodded. That was a fair point from April. If regular guns didn’t work, maybe Warded guns would. A Sigil’s boost might just be the edge plain old bullets needed to tear through monsters.

“It’s worth a shot,” Rory said. “We’re going to need Sigils of Wielding to use them, but I’ll look into Warding guns as well.”

April nodded. “In the meantime, I can get started on setting up a garden. We can’t live off these snacks for long.”

“She’s very good at it,” Bo said.

“I can help too,” Jerome said. “Been gardening for my grandma for years now. Not sure we have the space, though…”

“I also looked into it,” Trish said. “Problem is, I’m not sure if the soil is good enough.”

“There’s got to be some somewhere,” April argued. “We can restructure the gardens we already have. In other places, we can build raised garden beds. Containerized ones to hold plants.”

“We do have a lot of free wood we can use,” Dez said, looking around at the pile of broken furniture against one wall.

“Those won’t work. Well, some might, but we essentially need rot- and water-resistant wood, and furniture wood can sometimes be that, but not always. I’ll have to see.”

“More importantly, we need soil,” Rory said. “And seeds to grow the plants from. I like the idea, but we’ll need to gather the items first.”

They lapsed into a discussion about what they needed to do for the next few days. Trish was the first to offer to go out and hunt for supplies, and Rory agreed on the condition that anyone going out would stick to the neighbourhood. Malcolm was leading Diane and the other office workers into the palace, while Alyssa was taking care of her kid and the pets. Mikey and Ned were keeping watch from the towers.

Before that, April still wanted to work on the defences. While Leo and Leanne helped Viv set up more spreadsheets on their computer, this time about their Mana store, Rory was dragged upstairs with Dez. He distantly wondered how exactly Viv was measuring how much Mana they had.

April showed them how the semi-automatic rifles she had would provide a good cover with their range and firepower. Rory agreed that it could actually work, once he had Warded them. Dez didn’t seem enthusiastic about the idea, but he didn’t protest either.

But that had less priority than others, since he still needed to make Sigils of Wielding. The real thing they needed to take care of first was the food source.

They started working on the gardens next. A lot of the debris from the fight with the Wilder had been cleared off, but the ground was still a mess. Even with half a dozen of them working together, it took over an hour just to clear up the remainder of the rubble and fix the garden so that it was ready to be planted.

Lucky for them, Dez’s group had shovels they could use to speed up the process. Rory stepped back once they were done, wiping sweat from his forehead. They exchanged smiles. Their hard work had paid off.

The garden was still a bit messy with piles of earth dumped on the sides, but they had dug up rows of little trenches to place the plants or seeds in. There wasn’t a whole lot of space, but the plants they planned to use—like lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, onions, and maybe herbs like basil and cilantro—wouldn’t need much room.

“Now we just need to worry about getting things to actually put in there,” April said.

“Right.” Rory looked at them all. “Good job, though. We’re halfway there. And we’ll get the rest of it done soon enough.”

“I can mess around some more with it since we have some time. Make some drainage holes, see if I can limit weeds.”

“Don’t obsess over it,” Bo said eyebrows raised in amusement.

April pushed his shoulder. “I won’t.”

“We’re going to need tools to garden too, right?” Dez said. “More things to salvage.”

“Or we could try making some,” Rory said. “Though I guess we don’t really have steel of anything of the kind.”

“Wait, can’t you just use your Sigils?” April asked. “Now that I think about it, you could use your Sigil to produce more wood too.”

That was a good note about the Sigil of Wood, though Rory still shook his head. “Sigils are limited. You might not have noticed it, but everything Sigils produce vanish over time. Usually after a short time.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, well, magical as it is, you don’t want to break the world with it. Otherwise, we’d have an infinite supply if everything.”

“But these things grow stronger right, and with them, everything they summon grow stronger too. Think about how much we can summon once they’re at a really high Tier.”

Rory frowned at that. There was a look in April’s eyes he wasn’t sure he liked. An almost avaricious gleam that was lost in a future where she wanted for nothing, thanks to the power of her Sigils. Rory, and likely the others too, had been so focused on survival, on just making sure they lived to see the next day, the idea of using the Sigils to make their dreams come true sounded like a foreign concept.

But it wasn’t impossible. One could, theoretically, raise their Sigils’ Tier to such great heights, the thoughts of what they might be capable of was staggering.

“What’s that?” Dez said.

He was looking across the courtyard at the end of the parking lot. His sharp intake of breath made Rory follow his gaze too.

“What are they doing here?” April asked.

There was a Wraith and a Ghoul at the end of the parking lot. They had come to a pause at the gate, staring everywhere as though they were lost, but happy to be so and spend their time just looking around and appreciating the sights. The others had spotted them too, and the sudden rise in tension made Rory’s breath catch.

“This doesn’t look good,” Bo said. “I knew it was a bad idea to get these things on our side.”

Rory decided to not let that kind of talk get a hold of them. “We don’t know why they’re here. Let’s go see.”

He made sure he was at the lead. The Wraith and the Ghoul spotted them coming and stopped moving, deciding to wait next to a barricade that was yet to be rebuilt. Dez grimaced at it.

Rory stopped a few feet from the monsters. “Why are you here? Can you speak?”

The Wraith stared at Rory for a long time. He was starting to think the monsters couldn’t speak, especially since he had seen no proof they could do so back on Wither Elm street. Then the Ghoul spoke.

“Our speech is limited,” she said. The voice was definitely female, though heavy and old, but the body was built like a man. Not that there was a lot visible of it, with all the rags and torn flesh and bones poking out here and there. “We may only do so one at a time. It is the same for listening and even comprehending. We are… limited.”

“I… see. But yes, what are you doing here? Did your Wraith Lord send you to help us?”

“Correct,” the Wraith said. Rory tried not to jump at the suddenness of the reply. This one had a reedier voice, harder to place, with the same ethereal quality as its master. “We are to assist. How may we do so?”

“An easy way is by not coming here whenever you want just to jump on us,” Bo said with enough vehemence to make them all look around in surprise.

“Bo,” April hissed. She grabbed his arm in both of her hands and started dragging him back. “Kids, come on, let’s help your dad take his mind off stuff.”

Leo and Leanne cast worried looks at the monsters, then at Rory, before following their parents back to the main hall. Rory frowned after them. There was likely history between Bo and the Wraith Lord, or perhaps the Wraiths themselves. Something to get to the bottom of later.

“What exactly can you do to help us?” Dez asked.

“We follow simple commands,” the Ghoul said. “We may look, we may attack, we may travel, we may carry what you wish.”

Simple commands. Rory understood that much. But his question was if there was a catch. “And in return, what do you or your Wraith Lord seek right now? I’m aware of our deal to provide him and you all with the Sigils you need. But I’m curious if there’s anything else.”

“We do not know the answer to what you ask.”

Rory sighed. Of course. No reason to assume monsters who shared a single brain would be capable of answering what the hidden intent of their master might be.

“I know what you can do,” Dez said. “We need lookouts. Scouts. It would help if you can keep watch for other monsters approaching us. You don’t have to engage or stop them, unless you can do so easily. But we do need advance warning.”

“What’s going on here?”

Rory turned to see Viv approaching with Trish and Allen in tow. Those latter two had been together for quite a while. Rory resisted his impulse to waggle his eyebrows. Who was he to care if Allen had a thing for getting his ears talked off by Trish for ruining her car?

“We have visitors,” Rory said. “They’re from the Wraith Lord I told you about. They want to help.”

“With what?” Viv asked, screwing her eyes at the Wraith and the Ghouls, both of whom stared unblinkingly back at her.

“With scouting and the like. Actually, I have another idea that you two can help with. Can one of you fetch a green register from my backpack in the hall? It should be near the top.”

“I’ll get it,” Allen said, dashing off.

“How’s that going to help?” Trisha asked.

“Do you want to ruin the surprise?” Rory asked.

“I mean, it can’t be that great of a surprise.”

Thankfully, Rory didn’t have to keep Trish waiting for long. Allen soon returned carrying the dark green register with him. Rory quickly looked through it, determining the locations he thought would be best.

“Do what Dez said,” Rory told the monsters. “But also, I want you to visit and scout around a few specific areas in town as well. The Wraith Lord said you know how the local area works and the fact that you’re here, unguided, is proof of that. So, you’re going to visit the locales around the Grand Market, the park with the old boar’s head, and the government residences near the town hall. See if there are any humans alive there. Just don’t scare them.”

“You think that’s a good idea?” Viv asked sceptically.

The Wraith replied before Rory could. “It is horrific that it has come to judging whether using monsters to save people is a good idea or not. But it is what it is.”

That silenced them all for a good while. Rory was beginning to see why the Wraith Lord wanted him to help these monsters. They were quite intelligent still.

“And in return?” the Ghoul asked.

Rory had known this was coming. He pulled out the new Sigil of Learning he had received from the encyclopaedia. “Try this. It might help.”

The Ghoul accepted it with near-reverence. “We will inform you of our findings soon. Thank you.”

Minor deal completed! For successful completion, you have earned 20 Credits.

Ah, more Credits. Rory was going to have to see how he could use them.

The Wraith and the Ghoul left, leaving him wondering if they could rescue more survivors from the surrounding areas. Hopefully, they’d have less trouble with that than the last excursion.