While Ned was still gone, Rory turned his attention to the others who hadn’t received it as much yet.

He had focused on Trish and Allen for a while, granting them both more of the Sigils they already had so they could raise their Tiers faster. They were both rather envious of the higher Tiers displayed by the Homeworlders and wanted to reach new heights of power as quickly as possible.

The process was simple enough. While they practiced with their Sigils, they made sure to create enough of a surplus to have leavings outside of the area they were practicing in. That allowed Rory to safely use his Weaving while they continued to spar.

He Wove discarded steel weapons, puddles of hardened concrete, stray roots, and broken branches of wood. All that raised the Tier of his Sigil of Weaving as well. Since the obtained Sigils were of a very high Tier too, comparatively, the overall exercise was fantastic in maximizing the strength of the recipients’ Sigils.

Of course, they still had to practice getting a hang of their Sigils’ growing power. Besides that, they also had to formulate better ways of using their abilities effectively.

For instance, Allen’s Sigil of Wood at Cerulean VII could perform a new trick of growing directly from the body of any target he selected. After he had gotten over the rather horrific implications, he had to come up with new strategies to effectively use the new ability.

Trish was the unfortunate test dummy for such an exercise, but she didn’t mind in the slightest. Not when Rory was helping her own Sigils to grow as well.

“This is awesome,” Trish said, waving around her axe appreciatively. The blade’s edge seemed to hum as she swung it. “It says I can now chop through stone.”

She grinned evilly at Allen, who baulked for good reason. His Sigil of the Gargoyle already had hard time standing up to Trish’s vicious blows. With bonus cleaving power against stone, he’d be in serious trouble.

“Just don’t go overboard,” Rory reminded them. “I don’t think Evelyn will appreciate patching up silly mistakes.”

“We’ll be fine, right, Allen?”

Allen gulped. “Sure…”

Rory left them to their devices. For one, he could only help them raise their Tiers so much before his Sigil of Weaving couldn’t keep up with their progress. Sigils at lower Tiers than their current Tier raised it by a lower increment than higher Tiers. A Cerulean VII Sigil would raise the same Cerulean VII Sigil’s Tier by 10%. But a Cerulean VI would only raise it by 5%. It got halved again when it fell another Tier, and so on.

So instead of focusing on the same people, Rory headed over to the others to offer the same kind of treatment. Some of them accepted. Well, the ones who could did. Vern’s Wraith Shackles, Samson’s Limestone, Miles’s Stormfire, and Dez’s Abyssal Inferno all received the same benefits.

But it didn’t work the same way for some of the others. Evolution Sigils were harder, so while Rory could help with Viv’s Omnipresent Sabre, he couldn’t do as much for her Sigil of the Thunderclaw. Alia’s Sigil of Summoning was the same. The only way for her to improve was to keep using the Sigil over and over and practice. At least she was having fun with her Dreadraptor.

“I don’t think I ever caught your name,” Rory told a former Neophyte.

She had accepted a Sigil of Wind, which Rory had obtained on the roof when he had gone to inspect how April’s garden rebuilding efforts were coming along—she was doing fine. He’d had the idea when he had remembered about someone using a small tornado in the battle against the Thundershells. Said person had sadly passed away, but their idea had remained.

“Arie,” she said. Her eyes turned to slits. “We al—I already have a Sigil. The Sigil of Roaring. I haven’t tried it though. I’m not sure I want to.”

“Why? What does it description say?”

Arie hesitated. “It says I can repel enemies with a vocal blast, but I’m afraid it might have collateral damage.”

“Ah.”

Her fears made sense. A sound-based ability, especially one that seemed to depend on the volume of the produced sound, would no doubt affect anyone in the vicinity. There was no point in repelling monsters if it repelled friends as well.

“We’ll just have to be careful about how we use it,” Rory said. “That’s why we’re here, to give people space to test out everything they’ve got.”

“Right, but that’s why I also volunteered with a different Sigil. So I’m not useless when I can’t use my other Sigil.”

Rory admitted that it was fair. “How are things apart from the Sigil issue? I know it’s been a rough few days. First with the Stormscale, and then with the Thunderclaw… but I hope no one has been giving you any trouble.”

He trusted everyone to treat the former Neophytes no different from anyone else, but he could still see people like Bo having second thoughts and letting those affect their behaviour unconsciously. It wasn’t something he intended to allow for even a second. They might not look human anymore, but their minds and hearts were in the right place. That was all that mattered.

“No, everyone’s been fine,” Arie said, eliciting a little sigh of relief from Rory. “Well, everyone who chooses to interact us, that is.”

“Are some of them avoiding you?”

“Perhaps. I’m unsure. It has been a strange few days, as you’ve said, so it might simply be that they are too busy right now. And scared. These are difficult times, after all.”

“Difficult times are when we all need to band together and forget our differences, hard though it might be.” This time, Rory’s sigh wasn’t one of relief. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Please, don’t go to any trouble.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll make sure everything is fine.”

Rory left the poor woman to figure out her new Sigil while he went to meet Viv next. She was causing quite the ruckus at the back of the palace with her new Sigil.

“Look at what I can do!” Vi said excitedly when she spotted Rory approaching from behind.

Her arms were covered with the dark-blue metallic-rocky patches. Well, the arm that existed was covered with them. The other one was constructed entirely from the metallic rocks. Lightning flashed over both limbs. When she brought both metallic palms together, her red sabre extended outwards above and below, electricity flickering along its length.

“That’s amazing,” Rory said with a smile. She was faster with her movements now, getting used to her armless condition at a rapid pace. Her hair was flying everywhere thanks to the electricity sparking through it.

Viv laughed. “You haven’t even seen the amazing thing.”

She raised her sword with one hand. The red blade extended even higher so that towered into the sky. Lighting sparked along its length, and a bolt burst out of the cloudless sky to land about thirty feet to the left of where Viv was standing. Except, she wasn’t standing where she had been a moment ago.

Viv had somehow reappeared at the exact spot her lightning bolt had struck down.

“Did you just teleport with a lightning bolt?” Rory asked, mouth slightly agape.

Viv’s grin was nearly manic. “I did. I didn’t combine my Sigils or anything. I don’t think anyone can do that unless you’ve got Weaving, but somehow, the abilities are transferrable.”

Rory shook his head. “Like I said, that’s amazing.”

Viv laughed again. Rory’s heart lifted seeing his wife enjoying herself like that. He could remember that feeling of heavy devastation when he had first seen the severe injury of having one of her arms severed from the rest of her body.

She had taken it stoically back then, partly thanks to her Sigil of Prime. But Rory wouldn’t have been surprised to see her becoming depressed, suffering internally no matter how much she tried to pretend she was fine. Losing an arm was incredibly traumatic after all.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Viv looked truly happy with the gifts of her new Sigil. Rory shook his head. Sigils were quite the marvellous thing.

Viv showed him more of her new powers and they chatted casually for a while, but then there was a shout from outside. A moment later, Trish appeared, looking rather harried.

“Ned’s back,” she said, breathing heavily after her run. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you. The Wraiths have big news, apparently. Come on!”

They followed her quickly. Rory was starting to dislike the rapid news they were getting all the time. Couldn’t they get some rest here for a change?

The Wraiths had come to a stop under their new signboard. Ned was nearby, being tended to by Evelyn. Rory frowned when he saw him. There were more black scales over his body. It seemed the Hooktongue Sigil was acting up again.

“Hello,” Rory greeted the Wraith and the accompanying Ghoul. “I’ve heard you have news? Again?”

“We bear many messages. Are you ready to listen?”

“Yes, of course. Go on.”

“Some Ghouls have spotted a contingent of Otherworlders to the east,” the Ghoul said. He had a raspy, old-man voice. Rory wanted to offer the poor monsters a glass of water, but he figured it’d simply seep through the creature. “They are wounded and are desperately fending off monsters. They do not have long to live. There doesn’t seem to be other Otherworlders coming.”

“Why… are you telling us this?” Dez asked.

The Ghoul stared at him. “It seemed that you were interested in the practice of saving those in mortal danger. So, we supposed you’d wish to know if there were any in your vicinity who were on the verge of dying. Unless you had reserved that intention purely for Homeworlders.”

“You’ve got it wrong,” Rory said. “The Homeworlders came to us for help. We didn’t go out to rescue them. That would be breaching the agreement.”

The Wraith spoke this time. “Be the semantics as they may, the underlying result of helping others remains. You may exercise the same wish, you may not, but our master charged us to inform you. If this topic has been exhausted, we will move on to other matters.”

If the Wraith Lord had been anywhere nearby, Rory would have frowned at him. “Go on. What else is there?”

“The Wraith Lord wishes that you create a Sigil that can hide his presence. He fears the Otherworlders and the Homeworlders will seek to root him out, and he wishes to prevent the possibility from arising.”

“Why would the Otherworlders and Homeworlders be interested in him?” Trish asked.

“The monsters are acting up. They are causing significant problems to both the Otherworlders and the Homeworlders. It is only a matter of time they devote a certain amount of time and resources to eradicating the monstrous presence in major battlegrounds such as this town. The Wraith Lord will no doubt fall under that classification and be summarily removed.”

“Unless he can prove to them that he isn’t like the other monsters,” Rory said.

The Ghoul groaned as he stepped forward. “It is harder done than said.”

Rory stared at him. “You mean easier said than done?”

“Yes.”

Sighing, Rory nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“He needs it quickly. By tomorrow, if possible.”

“I understand. I’ll get to it as soon as I can. Anything else?”

Both the Wraith and the Ghoul shook their heads. Rory raised his eyebrows. He couldn’t recall if he’d ever seen them show physical reactions like that. At least, nothing so humanlike. They were gaining a lot more than just information via the Sigils of Learning.

“Then I’ve got a task for you,” Rory said. “You are to find Arelland, an elf from the Otherworlder Coalition, and deliver an urgent message. Tell him that we’re being threatened by the rebels, and that we need his assistance as soon as possible. Impress how urgent it is, and make sure you deliver the message in private.”

“We are monsters,” the Wraith said. “Privacy will be our only recourse as well.”

“Then I wish you luck. It really is very urgent, so we need you to find Arelland as soon as you can. In fact…” Rory pulled out a walky-talky from his coat and handed it to the Wraith. “Take this. It’ll help us keep in touch better. Give it to your master so we can talk more easily.”

The Wraith looked at the walky-talky without any expression on its dead face. Then he hid the walky-talky under a flap of its coat. The Ghoul and the Wraith departed, shuffling away with rapid steps.

Rory swallowed. He hoped they’d be fast. There was so little time to deal with the threat posed by the rebels.