While Edward was finalizing the blueprint for the ruins, another week had passed. The different rules to link runes together were quite complex, and Edward needed this time to finalize everything. Funnily enough, he recognized the identification rune as he had already seen it in the ruins before. It was depicting an opened eye inside a blooming flower watching the beholder. This identification rune had to be matched to a token to distinguish allies from foes. Edward would have to create a token for everybody who wanted to go inside the ruin, right now he would create only one for Caspian and another one for himself. The ruins were still dangerous, and they would be useful to him only, the others weren’t able to read Damkinan.

He planned to make another token because he wouldn’t stay forever in this village and somebody needed to have access to the ruins just in case. Also, it might be useful if he ever encountered a problem while going back inside the ruins. And the final reason was that it would help greatly in installing the rune barrier, he needed someone to protect him while he would install it.

Now that he was having more time, and since more than a week had gone by since he ordered them, Edward went to retrieve the boots at Greta’s shop. With all that happened, he had almost forgotten them, but the state of his actual shoes was there to remind him that he direly needed them.

He found back the shop without a problem. When he entered the store, there was only one other patron inside, which was quite less than last time. Since he was there only for the boots, he walked directly to Sheyla, Greta’s daughter, that was holding the shop. I should take the time to ask for Greta. It would be interesting to learn how she picked up her knowledge about runes.

“Hello, I ordered a pair of boots some time ago, are they available?” Edward asked her.

“Good morning, yes, they are by now. I thought you would come sooner actually. Clients are usually impatient to get their new goods. Since you didn’t come until now, we put them in the reserve, wait a minute while I retrieve them.”

Edward looked around the shop in the meantime. Some of the shelves are half empty. Did something happen?

Sheyla came back soon after.

“Here are your boots, that will be ten silvers.”

Edward noticed that the durability rune was etched cleverly onto the boots, it looked like an ordinary ornament hidden among other decorations, and not at all like a magic rune enhancing this footwear. While he was paying, he asked about the lack of clients. “Did something happen? There are fewer clients than last time, and some of the shelves are empty.”

Sheyla, smiled apologetically “Our suppliers are not able to go outside, and neither are we. How can we resupply in leather? We don’t have that much leather left aside. Without raw materials, we can’t manufacture goods. As it happens, since you are an awaken do you have more information about when we will be able to leave the village safely?”

It was Edward’s turn to feel awkward. “Sorry about that. But we don’t have much of a choice, it’s not safe to go out with all those Bloodmaws around. They are not afraid to leave the forest and attack the village. I’m working on a solution to seal the ruins they are coming from. Permanently.”

“Yes, everybody is doing what they can, I guess.” Was Sheyla’s answer.

“Can I talk with Greta? You mentioned it might be possible last time.”

“Yes, actually, now is a good time. Since we have less material, she can’t work as much as she wants and she is more available. Follow me to the back shop.” Sheyla said while gesturing for Edward to follow her.

An old woman with greying hair was sitting in front of a leather piece on a workbench. Although she was getting old, she still seemed as solid as a rock. Noticing them coming, she left the piece she was working on to look at them. Her face was wrinkled, but her grey eyes were looking straight at Edward without wavering.

“This is Edward, the client I told you about who wanted to talk to you,” Sheyla announced before leaving them to hold the shop. She couldn’t leave the shop unattended for too long, especially with another patron inside.

Greta waited for Sheyla to leave before speaking. “I supposed you are here for the runes.”

Edward was going to speak but Greta stopped him with a hand sign. “I’m not as naive as my daughter. She is good to hold the shop, but she sees people as kinder than they really are. Ask your questions, I can give you that after how you managed to handle Carlson.”

“I mean no harm. I’m indeed here for the runes, during the expedition someone mentioned that your products were better than the others because you mastered a rune. At first, I wanted to learn it from you, but later on, I managed to find a book describing and teaching how to use runes. Now, I’m coming to you more by curiosity than by necessity. Can you tell me where you learned the durability rune from?” he asked her respectfully.

“I see. Before answering your question let me tell you a piece of advice first. You shouldn’t flaunt everywhere that you have mastered the usage of runes. In backward places like this village, you don’t risk much as you are already an awaken. Those places are only dangerous for people like me, whom jealous or bigot people like Carlson will threaten to throw on a pyre. But in a big town, there are already runes masters of an important noble family. They won’t take it lightly if another concurrent enter what they see as their part of the market. At best they will try to rob you of your runes’ knowledge, at worst they will simply kill you to eliminate a concurrent.”

“You traveled to another town before?” Edward asked, surprised by this piece of information. From what he understood, Agripin wasn’t having many visitors and most of the villagers were native.

“Oh don’t be this surprised. I’m only coming from Gobéliard, it’s not that far away, you just have to cross the Vipin’s Forest. It would be an easy task with an escort if not for those Bloodmaws right now. Anyway, I was once part of the entourage of a small noble family. This family had managed to hire a rune master who arrived in the town not long ago. Since I was myself a craftsman, and since I was quite pretty at that time, he taught me this rune to improve the durability of my crafts. However, not long after, the family I was part of got suppressed from all sides by bigger families.” Greta paused to catch her breath.

“All sort of false accusations were thrown at us, the finances were cut, and warriors were never coming back from safe expeditions. Seeing where all of this was going I chose to flee before I was found dead in my bed in one way or the other.” Greta finished her explanations, her expression downcast.

“I’m sorry for what happened to you. Could you tell me the name of the family which oppressed yours?” Edward asked bothered by the fact that people weren’t better in this world than in the one he came from. No matter the place, the powerful were still preying on the weak.

Greta laughed dryly. “You don’t understand. It wasn’t one family that was oppressing us, it was all the major families who were doing it together. I guess it is fair game for them, anytime one family might grow enough to threaten the balance, they gather to send it back to the dust. If you are that interested in my story, I was part of the Artificium family. I doubt any trace of it exists anymore.” She shook her head.

“Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep it in mind. At least you shouldn’t have any more problems here. I used runes quite openly, and Carlson has been downed a notch.” Edward told her, deciding that he would enquire about what happened to this family when he would go to Gobéliard, to see if anybody else survived. He wanted to explore this world fully, and Gobéliard was the nearest town, so he was sure to visit it at one point. He could do at least that for her.

“Yes… thank you for that.” Greta let out slowly.

Edward left the shop still shaken by Greta’s story. Noble families, more like hyenas, killing anyone that could become a concurrent. And they are living their best life as if they didn’t do anything wrong simply because they are strong enough. It might be difficult to change mentalities, but I can become stronger myself. I have to correct the wrongdoing I encounter. I can’t let assholes get out of their wrong deeds as if nothing happened.

However, before I go to Gobéliard, I need to finish what I have started here. The village can defend itself now, but I still need to seal the ruins so that ordinary villagers can get out safely. And I think I still have much to learn from Damkinan’s library.

Edward went to meet Balin and Caspian now that his blueprint was ready to seal the ruins. He would need help to put this plan in motion since he would be defenseless while he engraved the runes. When he found them, he exposed his plan and his new idea to seal the ruins.

“It is a clever solution. To use the enemy force against itself.” Balin mused.

“I mean the Bloodmaws are so brutish and I was having an energy supply problem. It felt like the right way to do it.” Edward said while patting his head.

“We should go in force. Thanks to you we now have enough awakens to keep the village safe even if the three of us leave.” Caspian said.

“I would never have agreed two weeks ago. But nowadays even the number of Bloodmaws is starting to decrease. We only managed to attract four of them in the last wave. There were a lot of them at the start, but their number is still finite. The three of us should be enough to reach the ruins. And with so many awakens, once the ruins are sealed, we will be able to deal with any stragglers. I bet some guards will even complain that there are not enough monsters for them to become an awaken!” Balin laughed.

“Then it is settled, let’s head out tomorrow.” Caspian decided.

“I’m glad that I can count on you,” Edward said, smiling heartily.