The wind whisked in tidy spirals through the grass as the orange glow of the dawn broke over the trees. Gentle touches of light warming the surface of Mirio’s skin. Half of his body was cold except for a warm fuzzy lump on his side keeping him warm. He opened his eyes and turned to the side.

“Ezee, thanks boy”

He patted his fur and then slowly sat himself up. While not as blank as the night before, his memories were still hazy, as though he was remembering them from a vast distance. His chest felt hollow and devoid of magical and divine energy, and a deep feeling of apathy swirled through his body. He gripped what remained of his tattered and now one sleeved shirt and looked at the battlefield around him. He glanced over at the dead and bowed his head in a moment for the lost.

“I am sorry I couldn’t protect you”

He rose to his feet and stumbled a little as he had to redistribute his weight to his right side. As he limped off towards the tavern Ezee felt his absence and began to stir. Mirio gripped up his sword and hacked at an inch wide wooden pole set just under the bar, and then pried it loose. He tapped its end on the ground and then tested if it could support his weight as he walked.

He slid Ember into its sheath as Ezee trotted into the Tavern.

“Hey bud, sorry about all this”

Ezee looked up at him as if he understood and then headed back outside to wait for him to pass through.

The sky turned from a mild grey to a deeper blue as the sun perched just above the treeline.

Mirio squinted as he saw a horse drawn cart appear at the edge of the treeline.

“Hey! Over here” he waved to the passerby.

“Good gods, what happened here!” the trader said.

“Are you heading to Elmvale?” Mirio asked

“Aye”

“Bandits got it, don’t go there. Help me to gather others who head that way, get them to direct people to Gimly by the guard barracks. And then see if we can’t get some good men to bury these souls”.

The man looked at Mirio for a long moment and then composed himself, “I’ll do that, I know a few others were behind me on the road, we’ll get started”

Mirio looked up and waved as another wagon came into the field.

… A couple of hours later...

A young man approached Mirio. “We’ve been sending the early morning traffic to Gimly as you said, I think it is time you went over there and spoke to them, we’ll deal with the rest of the dead here”

Mirio nodded, “I’ll head on my way”. He pulled Rocky closer and then carefully hopped up into the saddle.

A man called out from where the thralls fell “These ones are coming to!”

“What?!” Mirio said, “I thought she killed them”

“No no, look, see. They are in a right state, mumbling nonsense and such, but they are alive”

“See if they come to, and if not, I guess bring them back to Gimly in a wagon, maybe there will be someone there that can take a look”

“Right” the man replied as he scurried about checking other fallen thralls. Mirio gazed over his shoulder at them all for a second and then hopped down next to Tad. He tapped his cheek, and checked his chest for a heartbeat.

“Hang in there” he said before mounting himself onto Rocky. He galloped off towards Gimly and arrived outside of the barracks where a crowd was gathering.

“Oy! Are you him? The one that told us all to gather here?”

“Look, I think its the man they were talking about”

“His armor is in tatters, he looks like a wreck, and he’s covered head to toe in blood”

“Daddy, daddy, look it’s Mirio”

Rocky’s hooves clopped as he approached the crowd and came to a stop before them.

“I’m sorry guys, I don’t bear good news. Last night monster hunters set loose a monster upon the town. It destroyed half of Gimly and turned hundreds of citizens into thralls. The guard rallied and tried to stop them, and the Sawtooth Queen that commanded them. And we managed to actually take them down, but, bandits rode in and slaughtered what remained of the guard. They took Elmvale, and I can’t say for sure any of the surrounding villages will be safe for long. Once the bandits are done looting town, no doubt they’ll raid further out”

“How is it you are the only one left alive?” a woman in the crowd called out.

“Luck, I guess”

“What do we do?” a man called out as clutching his daughter to his side.

“Our best bet is to gather everyone together, and head northwest to the city there, hopefully they’ll take us in”

“This is terrible” one of the women called out.

“I’m sorry”

“Well it isn’t your fault, you are one of the brave heroes who faced the bastards. And thank the gods for you, who knows what would have happened to us if we showed up at the gates of Elmvale. We’d probably be robbed, beaten, or worse if it wasn’t for you”

“Thanks, I guess. I do have a favor to ask of you all”

“Yes?”

“Are any of you trained in healing, mending, or taking care of others at all? Or know of any in your towns that are?”

“Aye, there is the herbalist”

“Good, good, send for her first, and have her meet me here, those enslaved by the monster will need her help. The rest of you gather up all you can, get the people from your villages to meet here and in the noon we will head west over the canal into Darlan.”

The villagers nodded, “God bless ya good knight”

“I’m no knight” he chuckled”

The man looked at his sword and armor and recorrected, “Ah, right right, god bless ya good paladin, we’ll be off to get ready then”

Mirio nodded with a slight smile.

As the crowd moved off they muttered and spoke to each other all seemingly catching onto the word paladin and murmuring it to each other.

As the early morning passed and the villagers headed into each of their towns, people went door to door, and across to all worksites to spread the word of what had happened. Amidst all the bad news people clutched to the story of a lone paladin that was the lone survivor and had fought off the beast, remaining to guide the villagers on their journey to the kingdom of Darlan.

With each telling of the story, and in seeing people’s eyes light up with hope when hearing about Mirio, the villagers thought nothing of embellishing the story a little so as to rouse the hearts of folks they had to bring the bad news to.

An hour later the herbalist arrived to look upon the fallen thralls as they arrived by wagon to Gimly’s main square. The fountain flowed behind the herbalist as she stretched out her hand to greet Mirio.

“You must be the paladin the people are raving about”

“Oh no, I’m no paladin, just a guard”

“Don’t tell the others that, hope in times like these is hard earned, and the people need something to believe in as they uproot their lives”

Mirio nodded, “I’m not a fan of that kind of rumor, but its fine I’m not about to bring anyone down”

“They mentioned a bunch of poor souls enslaved by a monster?”

“Ah, yes, this way, they are in the back of the wagon”

The middle aged woman with streaks of grey in her hair and a warm smile tapped him gently on the shoulder as she passed him towards the wagon.

“You want me to take a look at that leg of yours too?”

“Maybe later” he said as he nodded at the back of the cart.

“Oh dear, there certainly are a lot of them”

“Four more wagons of them over behind me”

The woman hopped up into the wagon and looked through the crowd of bodies “I’m afraid some of these have passed on. Internal bleeding, looks like they were trampled”

“That must’ve been the horses when the bandits rode in”

“Looks like it” she said as she pulled back the eye of one of them and shone a lantern stone in their eye. “Pupils have good dilation, contracting nicely, not sluggish”.

She then leaned over and tapped on the knee of one of them causing it to jolt “Good reaction time”. She then placed her ear to their chests “Normal heartbeat”.

“Hrmm, it isn’t a stroke, the blood around their nose is just superficial. Likely from the stress. It seems that with food, water, and time they might recover. Physically anyway”

“And what about mentally?”

“Well that is the thing isn’t it, we won’t know until we know. I can brew some tinctures and have others brought over from my shop, but the rest will be up to them”

Mirio nodded solemnly, “Okay, we will send some to gather more of your things” he then leaned out to some of the young men passing by who were older than him by a handful of years “she’ll need a few guys to gather up the herbs and tinctures from her shop, grab a couple of others and head over”

“Sure thing” the man nodded.

Mirio limped back from the cart as the herbalist stepped down. They both stood in silence for a while as Mirio was caught up in thought. The herbalist tapped him on the cheek, “You are a good soul, which god is it that gave you your light”

“My what?”

“The light in you, it is bright to those who can see”

“No, no god or goddess just me”

“Goodness, that’s a first, the divine energy it practically bursting from you”

Mirio cringed a little as she spoke, the light she spoke of felt like an empty void to him. It felt pious, cold, and inhuman. However, somewhere within the light something else stirred, a familiar feeling of mystery that had guided him as he had learned to fight and wield magic. He clutched onto that feeling inside like the last embers of a fire that had been reduced to ash.

“It is just the ashes of a fire that burned too bright” he responded “Hopefully it recovers in time, like the folk here”

The woman smiled, “I’m sure it will”.

… An hour past the midday sun…

Mirio stepped up high up on the back of a cart and raised his hands to gather the people to hear his words.

“Thank you all for coming, and coming prepared to travel. I know that you all stand here knowing you are leaving your lives behind you. Unfortunately, with the guard dead, and no one else to help us, we stand no chance against the bandit horde that has taken Elmvale. With raiding being their most likely next action, it falls on us to make our move before they start to make theirs. And so we head out right now west, to Darlan. Sadly, as refugees. I’m sorry I can’t bring you any more hope than this, but know that last night could have been much darker. Those who gave their lives, truly did so for your own. It is for them we must continue on bravely in any trials ahead”

The people murmured and nodded before a child yelled out “Mister Paladin, is it true you beat an evil beast that took people’s minds from them”

“I certainly tried to. Everyone helped”

“Gods bless you” a woman cried out, “Really, I can’t imagine what horrors you’ve seen, just, gods bless you”

Mirio forced a smile and then nodded to the people, “Let’s get on the road”. He stepped down from the wagon and signalled to the driver to head out as the herbalist rode to his side on top of Rocky.

“Did you tell me to ride in the wagon just so you could try my horse” he quipped.

“No, no, that wasn’t the only reason,” she smiled.

The wagon wheels grinded over the red dust of Darlan blown onto the road. The sun was high in the sky, each ray of light sizzling against any exposed skin.

“Mommy, it’s too hot”

A mother drew pieces of cloth from her satchel in one of the carts and wrapped her daughter.

“I know dear, I know”

A young man hopped off the back of one of the wagons and approached the crowd of people behind him. An elderly man struggling to keep his breath was covered in sweat that soaked through his clothes. “Here, take my spot on the cart, you need to rest”

“Oh no, I don’t want to be any trouble”

“It’s nothing, I need to stretch my legs anyway, and we all are in this together”. A woman smiled in the crowd and reached out to touch the young man on the arm.

“Is there any room for my sister, she is carrying a child”

“I don’t know” he said before turning around. As his eyes landed on the woman and her sister he saw the bump on her belly and changed his tune “Ah sure thing, I’ll go ask another of the guys to help”

“Hey Jora, hop down and let this lady up”

“Aww man!”

“Yeah yeah, just hop down and help”

“Thank you, thank you so much” the woman said as she stepped up into the cart and took a seat.

“No problem, like I said we are all in this together” the man replied.

Heat waves drifted up from the surface of the road up ahead. Mirio’s eyes narrowed as he made out the silhouette of a wagon by the side of the road. His eyes darted to the outcroppings of rock nearby assessing the situation for danger. He then turned to the herbalist on Rocky.

“Hey, do you want to take my seat for a bit, I think I am going to ride up ahead, to check that out”

“Sure, just give me a second”

Mirio hopped onto the saddle as the herbalist took the reins of the lead wagon.

“Yah yah”

Puffs of red dust lifted up as Mirio galloped ahead.

“What’s happening, where is he going?” a woman in the crowd said.

“Is something wrong?” a man asked the herbalist.

“No, nothing is wrong, he is just scouting up ahead”

“Oh I see” he looked to the horizon with a hint of concern.

After ten minutes at a gallop with Ezee following behind Mirio slowed down and steered Rocky around the cart. He peered over at the rocky outcrops and then trotted to the other side of them where he spotted an opening to a cave.

“Easy rock, just hold here while I go check it out”

Mirio pulled the walking stick from the side of the saddle and limped over towards the cave entrance.

“Detect good and evil” he whispered under his breath as he channelled mana into his eyes.

Four blue figures shone within the cave around a fifth figure in grey laid out on the ground. He blinked and dismissed the spell to see the red rock surrounding the cave entrance.

“Hello there” he called out as he entered, “I saw your wagon by the side of the road”.

An elven woman with braided hair and leather armor turned towards his voice while reaching for her bow. A young halfling reached out and stopped her. A horse stood behind them, along with a man feeding it and stroking its mane.

Mirio glanced at the woman and recognised her from a couple of nights earlier. “Silvia, right?”

Silvia dropped her guard and sprinted up to meet Mirio. She looked to the side, checking the situation for a moment, then wrapped her hands around Mirio in a big hug. “I’m so glad you are here!” she said before letting him go, “Wait, why are you here?”

Mirio smiled and touched the side of her arm before looking over at the figure on the ground “Is somebody injured?”.

“Yes, it happened last night out of nowhere” Silvia replied. “He just keeled over and these lights came from his arm and floated into the sky, he has been out ever since. He is sweating a lot and the sun is too hot, so we thought we would wait it out here”

Mirio nodded and then turned to the halfling, “So who is it that is injured?”

“He is part of our group… He has a blistered arm, it is seeping with some kind of strange fluid”

Mirio knelt beside Garett and looked at the man laid out on the floor, “Hey, I think I know this guy”.

“You know him?” Silvia asked.

“Yes, he took a lesson from me back at the guild, and I’ve run into him a couple of times. Hrmm, that’s strange. You mention he is one of your party now? He said to me he didn’t really like working with others” Mirio said as he looked at the mark on Yuta’s arm.

Mirio looked at the discharge coming from Yuta’s blistered and swollen arm and used his knowledge of the arcane to investigate the wound.

“It looks like a mana burn”

“What is that?” Garett replied

“It is when magical energy transmutes within the flesh itself. It usually happens with novice practitioners who can’t control the crystallization of the ether, or people trying spells that are beyond them. In rare cases it comes from curse marks branded into the skin”

Silvia knelt down beside Mirio “When it happened there were light flashes coming from near Elmvale”

“Yeah, that was me, there was a battle” he nodded.

“A battle! You are serious!?” she then looked at Mirio’s injured knee and walking stick “Oh, are you okay, you are wounded”

“I’ll be fine with some rest” Mirio said as he probed at Yuta’s arm. “Wait a minute, there is a mark here, did you guys know about this?”

“No, it is all blistered”

“There is definitely a mark here, a tattoo branded onto his skin. He didn’t have this when I saw him last. I mean he had a burn mark but not a brand. I hate to say it but it looks like he has the mark of a curse”

Garett and Silvia locked eyes as they came to a realisation.

“What is it, you guys look like you just caught onto something”

“We went into a tomb in the misty meadows together, and well…” Silvia replied.

Garett looked at Yuta’s arm and then back to Silvia again “It had to be the dragon!”

“Wait, a dragon? In the meadows?” Mirio turned towards the two with a look of curiosity and bewilderment.

Silvia took in a deep breath and sighed, “Yes, I know it sounds crazy but there was a dragon in the tomb. Well not in the tomb, he was under the tomb in a dug out passage below it. Kobolds had connected part of an old ruin beneath the ground with a tomb on the surface”

Mirio rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought.

*Maybe this is the same dragon as in the dark castle?*

*If so, that means that I wasn’t just imagining it. A dragon really was seeking me to fight Akur. But why?*

“We can talk about this later, for now can one of you go out to the road. I am with the people of the vale, at the head of the caravan is a herbalist by the name of Yana. She might have something to help him”

Silvia nodded and returned to the road to see plumes of red dust kicked up by thousands of refugees. Her mouth was agape in shock.

*Just what happened back there?*

Yana entered the cave and knelt beside Mirio.

“I suppose this is the injured young man the girl mentioned”

“He has a curse mark, looks like it triggered, he has been out like this since last night. Do you have any tinctures that help with mana burn?”

Yana nodded and reached into her pouch. She popped the lid of a glass vial and soaked a bandage in a purple ointment before applying it. “This should help him recover”

Mirio nodded at the bandage curiously, “How does it work?”

“His body is creating too much brine because the wound is absorbing his mana. This should stop it from drawing anymore away and allow him to recover. But his magic may be stunted for a while. Do they know what marked him?”

“They said they ran into a dragon below the meadows,” Mirio said as he stood up.

“A dragon? And so close to the village…” she said as scrunching up her brow in thought. “It isn’t like them to use curses. They are capable of it but it is seen as beneath their pride”

Mirio limped towards the exit of the cave. Rays of light danced around his form as he leaned on his walking stick.

“Monster hunters unleashing catastrophe upon the vale, bandits, and now a dragon. How can anyone hope to overcome adversity when it all happens at once”

Yana looked at Mirio half within the cave and half in the light, and saw within his eyes the struggle of a man trying to understand if he did enough. “Don’t judge yourself based on what you could and couldn’t do. Ask only if you did the best thing you could at the time”

Mirio nodded and then balled his fist, “I don’t know if things like this can be stopped, and if they can I sure as hell don’t know how. But, I will move forwards knowing I will ask myself if I did what I could, and hopefully next time I will be able to say I did with all of my heart”