During Mahnu's travel towards the north east, the King was trying to wonder how he should feel. Due to this, Mahnu could feel his suffering.

He was mostly worried about how he should act, so not to chase her away. He had no doubt there were many sorrows that she had come across, that he may not be able to help with.

Would it be asking her too much for her to stay beside me? Especially when I know that she is immortal now...She wouldn't grow old and die, like me...Is it a completely selfish request? Maybe...I should let her go...But...I don't want too!

He didn't know what it was, why he felt like he needed her in his life now, but it was something he didn't want to go without. He had a strange amount of fun making her talk and found it satisfying every time she has opened her mouth since then to speak!

Wanting to coax her into his bed was a little harder, but it was all that more challenging! Of course, he had never really admired the fact that there hadn't been a lady worth chasing...Well, until now...All the other women would only be too happy to do whatever he wanted and it was nice that one of them had said no and does whatever she wants!

Sometimes...He felt like she was the King, instead of him...Only because she was so...

Sighing, yet again, the King wondered if he should completely let her do her thing and come back to him when she was ready...But what if she never comes back!?

King Richard became conflicted with his thoughts and, sometimes, they overflowed into his actions and people became aware that something was making him unhappy.

He had traveled back to Conrella, after finally getting in the reports from the Loyal Royal Knight travelers, but spent much time alone and rarely spoke to anyone outside of his duties. Marcus was sure that since the King had become aware of The Siege, he had changed. He decided to simply watch him and make sure that nothing embarrassing happened to the King, just to stop him from doing something that he may regret afterwards.

Having so much news become known to His Majesty might have been too much and Marcus wanted to make it up to him but was unsure how. It was true, when Marcus first heard of The Siege from his grandfather, he had not believed it to be the real history of Kralaide! At least the King seemed to accept the past as truth, making Marcus feel somewhat at a loss towards his past self, in which he had needed more time to come to terms with this exact story…If the King can accept it so easily, why hadn't he!?

He watched as the King continued his duties and noticed that he was drinking more wine then he used to. Marcus was unable to tell whether he should try to ask His Majesty to confide in him, or to hope that the King might confide in him himself. But as the days went on, the King persisted to remain temperamental, making people start to feel awkward and uncomfortable in his presence. Not only that, the King was starting to get scary when something went wrong within Kralaide...

***

Mahnu finally arrived at Brackan, nearly a week later, and stared at the mindless people walking around.

How had she not have noticed this drastic change!? The humans might not be suffering but surely why didn't I notice the whole town becoming like this?

She hated herself for spending her time in other areas. Her opinion of the other towns needing more help than this one...Was very wrong! Had she not come here to get meat at some stage recently?

No, she thought, after a moment of retracing her steps in the last few years.

When she had been at Nowell all those years, she had decided against meat and got rice and wheat instead, thinking it would have been better for the skinny humans in Nowell…

If only she had made one trip here to Bracken, she could have seen it!

Before that, she had been in the west and had gotten meat from hunting herself, so…She had not come to Bracken for well over a decade or two!

Mahnu sighed unhappily and was interrupted by William, whom she had forgotten was by her side. William had seemed to become the perfect traveling partner. He was always doing what he thought was best for her and their situation. His thoughts were simple and didn't make her existence harder and she had even gotten used to them…Even his frequent but silent questions…

But he knew, even though he was human, that something bad was happening here!

"There's something wrong here."

It wasn't hard to see, even if you weren't a God that could read minds. The town was a mess, having people scavenge for food thoughtlessly and slowly, like the town was in some sort of time loop. There were some lucky places that hadn't been touched, but just outside their doors was a mess that didn't stop for a few metres.

…You wouldn't even be able to ride a carriage through the town...

Lifeless eyes, slow movements and even some people weren't dressed. Many had their hair in knots and were covered with dirty clothes, that they had probably worn for days...

It was truly a big problem...Making Mahnu feel worse, as she took all this in...

"Yes. Change your horse and get it ready, you'll be riding at full speed towards the capital shortly."

He looked startled but nodded.

"I'll meet you at the inn there, when you're ready." He said pointing.

William had grown to like Mahnu as she seemed so determined. He still did not understand what was going on, but he trusted her and the importance of what they were doing.

Already exhausted, William tended to the horses, to trade them for other fast and healthy ones.

Once the saddle was in place, he went to get some food and water for his trip.

…It might only be two, small little and easy jobs but...

Horses had been let out of the close by stables, leaving none there for William. He had already a bad feeling seeing the gate left opened before he even walked in. Then, when he saw on a piece of parchment, someone selling horses, he went there...Only to find someone had died in the fence...Just laying there, making the fence droop down and most likely letting the horses loose...

The sight was something to behold, making William cover his mouth in shock. He had trained to become a knight, but it does not help when you really see a dead body...Especially one that looked mangled because of a fence...

If he had no duty to preform, he would happily make a grave for this person, but time might be of the essence and William walked firmly away from the area, already willing to help clean up Brackan later, when he had finished what he has to do.

Finally, William found horses at a carriage hire place, as the horses had been tied down, and he took two of them, tying them up at the very quiet inn that had no innkeeper.

It was...Like a dead town, a town with nobody...Yet, clearly, rummaging could be heard in the distance. Where they looking for something?

He has had so many questions all this time, yet, had learnt a long time ago to never question them out aloud. He had to serve, and do as he was told, never to question what and why...But never in his life, had he questioned so many things in the space of two weeks...And the biggest question was, why…Why were the people like this!?

Sadly, he was someone that wanted to know facts, especially about history, and William was enthusiastic about how this had happened…

After William was completely ready to leave at any given notice, he climbed into a bed at the inn, to wait for Mahnu to return.

He hadn't been able to find one clean room in the whole inn. Each one looked as though it had been ransacked, yet, some personal belongings were still here, making everything all that much more questionable.

Having to make room for two people, just in case Mahnu wanted to have a sleep too, William sighed to the trouble's he's had since being here. Even having to find food was a lot harder than he had thought!

Since the food that was left around and in cupboards had already been eaten in the close by buildings, William ended up finding food in a storage place, that required a key to open it.

Seeing that the door was damaged, William shook his head and slammed down a big hammer upon the lock and chains, to try and break it off.

After trying twice, the lock fell to the floor and there the stored winter food was. It seemed mostly good still, making William happy.

Deciding to take things that would be something that he could eat quickly, William left the rest and the door opened, so that the people around here wouldn't starve to death...

It was a sad thought and William really wanted to bring the food to the people who really needed it, but he also knew...That he needed to rest as soon as possible. He saw that Mahnu seemed to be fine and be able to go with minimal sleep, but he wasn't as lucky. William had approximately four hours sleep a day for the last week and knew he wasn't doing as good as he could, as it was obvious because he had to try twice at that lock over the storage shed…Especially since knowing he might have to ride out to the capital in a fast pace, he knew he needed as much sleep as he could get, so…Helping the people here was just something he couldn’t possibly do right now.

Mahnu had ran through the town, trying to track down where the God's were hiding. This was easier, because she could hear thoughts, but Bracken had around 110k population, so it still took some time to go from one place to another, as it was also quite a large area. A lot of big nice houses were closer to the beach and river, but the God's hadn't chosen those houses, making Mahnu lost upon who the God was. As far as she was aware, a lot of them wanted the best of everything, taking whatever they wanted and desired...

Since she had gone around the river and beach areas, it only led Mahnu to slowly go closer to the middle of Bracken...

It is all confirmed, she thinks. There are definitely God's making slaves out of the people here in Brackan...But, where were they?

As too much time went past, she finally came up with an idea of following a 'slave' and after the third time, she finally found one that seemed to have been 'summoned' to go to what she was looking for!

Following this slave, Mahnu finally found two God's. Shaking her head, Mahnu hated that she had found evidence to prove that she had been right...They were in front of her eyes now, she could no longer deny it and think history wasn't going to repeat itself.

She remembered them as Thelmos, a lazy male God and Eliza, a female lust God. Both, in which, had power to make slaves. But it was mostly the slaves of Thelmos that were looking for the tablet, as Eliza's slaves were different. The powers of the God's are connected to their personalities, meaning the slaves of Thelmos might be slow but they were easy to manipulate, just like their 'master' Thelmos. But Eliza's slaves had a slight temper and preferred to appease to sexual desire, like Eliza herself. Now the few times she had seen those 'sexual desires' around the town made sense!

Since Eliza was female, whom preferred male over female, most of Eliza's slaves were male and they fought for her attention. And most of her slaves, were handsome and young...

Having looked around the area, to see if there were more than these two Gods, Mahnu didn't find anything.

But even though she didn't find any other God around, she didn't trust that there wasn't anymore, as she'd prefer to not make the same mistake again and have mankind back to where they started yet again.

She wished for a power that could locate other God's, so then she could be certain, but...

Even if there are more, she knew that these God's had to leave as soon as possible. If nothing was done, then people may even die from starvation or dehydration because no one was working on any farms or fields, nor getting water to give to people...And already, she had seen at least two dead bodies upon the ground to state this has already happened…

If only they had suffered, then she would have known earlier to come here! But she knew better than anyone, that slaves didn’t feel…So, they would not think to drink or eat, unless their master’s gave them the order to do so.

Going back and getting as close as she could to Thelmos and Eliza, Mahnu waited for any kind of news that could help.

Sadly, for a short time, lust noises were made and there was silence, so time went by slowly...

Finally, Mahnu overhears them talking about the tablet and other small details before she decides to return to where William was sleeping.

Word needed to be sent as soon as possible!