The dark elf cast runic fire bolts on the pile that was all too eager to burn due to it being brittle and dry. Large gusts of flames and smoke flared up as everyone began to burn their own respective corpse piles, waiting for a couple minutes before the furious fire died down, only leaving behind ash and bones.

“Are we just going to leave these here like that?” Mary asked as she stared at the aftermath of her first sacrificial ritual.

“I got this.” Regis noted as he used his ‘terraform’ spell in a previously never tried way.

The ground sank down beneath the ash and bones, letting them slip into a small hole that was soon covered by the condensed dirt wall that collapsed on top of it before hardening into a proper dirt road.

“Neat trick,” Osmond praised after watching the events unfold. “Looks like that innate earth magic of yours is getting better.”

“It does have its uses.” The spell weaver nodded before the group packed up and headed over to the bridge that was barely five minutes of walk away from the town gates.

The old priestess wasn’t joking when she said that the bridge collapsed. Broken pieces of stone could be seen sticking out of the turbulent river while the foot of the bridge barely reached inward two meters before abruptly ending.

“She lied to us,” Quentin spoke up as he ran his fingers along the sooth covered broken edges of the stone bridge. “This bridge didn’t just collapse. I can recognise explosives anywhere.”

“That doesn’t mean it was them,” Letty argued. “It could have been the other settlement down the road or the people from the other side of the river.”

“That would make sense,” Osmond agreed. “If they heard about the fallen that appeared after the battle, they might have decided to create a natural barrier using the river.”

“Smart move,” Fabien sighed. “A dick move for sure, but a smart one.”

“Doesn’t really matter,” Regis stepped beside the bridge, placing his palms on it. “We need this bridge.”

After saying that he began to cast ‘lesser mending’ on the broken bridge, the rest of the group joining in to aid his efforts. Over the course of the next hour, pieces of the broken bridge slowly floated out of the river, fusing back into their original place. With the undead threat temporarily gone, some of the more curious locals even came over to see for themselves how the outlanders repaired the bridge. By the time they were done with the arduous task, the sun was slowly setting above them.

“We managed to finish quite early,” Valerie clapped her hands together to get rid of the dust on them. “Shall we try to make our way do that outpost beside river?”

“Only if you want to arrive at the dead of the night,” Osmond shook his head. “That old lady said that it would take about three days of walking to get there. Travelling with the wagon should cut the down to a bit less than a day.”

“It’s pointless to play the guessing game,” Cruise grumbled. “We’ll find out once we get there either way.”

“We have maybe three or four more hours of daylight left,” Quentin noted. “It’s best if we don’t risk it. Let’s just spend the rest of the day here and we’ll head out tomorrow morning.”

“We might as well use the time to sort out all the junk at the back of the wagon,” Amanda reminded them. “I’ve seen some good camping gear, but most of the junk is worth more recycled into crafting materials.”

“Will we be able to travel like this all the way to Thorn Vale?” Letty asked as they walked back toward the small town.

“We should be able to go on like this until that fishing outpost, but it might get troublesome after that. No one is supposed to know about the existence of Thorn Vale, so it stands to reason that there are no roads leading there either.”

“We might have to leave the wagon at the outpost.”

“It’s not like we lose out too much since it was a freebie anyway.” Fabien shrugged.

“I see you already finished repairing the bridge,” the elderly priestess called out to them as they entered through the opened gates of the town. “You really are as capable as you claimed to be.”

“We had to deal with a lot worse on our way here,” Amanda stated as they joined the grey haired woman. “And we’ll likely have to fight worse in the future.”

“There’s no need to be by so glum child,” Delcine chided in a motherly tone. “You must take things one step at a time and everything will be fine. While you were out there fighting, the townsfolk got together to talk. Our innkeeper had already prepared some rooms and his wife’s been busy in the kitchen with a proper meal for you. We have little to offer you as payment, but we can at least provide proper food and bedding for the night.”

“And some coins,” an unfamiliar voice butted into the conversation. “For a job well done.”

The owner of the voice was a pudgy man in a relatively fancy attire. His well kept beard and hair was a far cry from the ordinary dirt smeared townsfolk.

“The least we can offer to you as our thanks for making our settlement safer.”

“There’s no need for that,” Quentin declined flatly as he looked at the greasy fellow. “We already agreed to help in exchange for passage and shelter for the night.”

“I see,” the man’s irritating smile faded. “I wouldn’t expect any less from a paladin of the Saintess. In that case, I’ll leave them in your care, mother Delcine.”

The man spun around his heels and trudged away with a pair of guards following him.

“Who the hell was that asshole?” Cruz scoffed as she spat after the arrogant stranger.

“Rook is... well, I guess you could call him the temporarily appointed town governor. The local lord placed him here after the former town governor died during the first attack of the fallen.”

“And I take it you’re not too fond of him either.” Valerie sighed as she watched the old priestess’ face darken while talking about the man.

“Rook was always an arrogant fool, but he managed to weasel himself close enough to his lordship that he was assigned as temporary governor until a better one is found. At least that’s what was supposed to happen, but with all these abominations, our town was cut off and no news has been received from his lordship since last week.”

“Which direction does this lord of yours reside?” Osmond asked while the group walked toward the local inn, dozens of curious townsfolk staring at them from the distance.

“His estate is on the other side of the bridge, just a day shy from the next settlement down the road.”

“That’s quite a distance in such dangerous times.” Amanda mumbled.

“The bridge has been repaired,” Letty noted. “So you could try to send someone if you wanted to talk to that nobleman.”

“You needn’t worry yourself child,” the elderly woman sighed. “Rook might be a slimy coward, but he’s at least smart enough not to cause too much trouble. And besides; you have your own task to worry about. Come. Our inn might not be fancy, but the beds are fine and the food is warm.”

“That’s more than enough for us,” Cruz remarked as they entered the building. “We had to sleep in far worse places; a certain someone even having to stick around the sewers.”

“For the record;” Regis looked at the wood elf annoyed. “It was a perfectly clean and empty area with the proper camp set up in there.”

“If you say so.” The warrior monk shrugged as they all sat down around a large table that already had quite some food placed on it.

From the looks of it, the locals offered up three chickens and what the warband hoped to be a rabbit. The roasted meat was surrounded by similarly roasted vegetables and some freshly baked bread.

“I almost forgot what it smells like,” Letty smiled as she picked up a small slice of the fresh bread, deeply inhaling its scent. “Do the locals locals have enough grain reserves to make bread even at times like these?”

“I’m pretty sure they made it an exception for us.” Quentin sighed as he thanked mother Delcine and the woman behind the counter for the meal.

“Let’s not waste it then,” Fabien mumbled between a bite of chicken drumstick and a piece of potato. “I doubt we’ll have a chance to eat stuff like this for a while, so savour it while you can.”

“I’m glad to see you like my wife’s cooking,” a robust man with light brown hair and beard walked by, placing a couple of mugs willed with ale. “By the time you’re done with the food, both the beds and the bath water will be ready.”

“A bath?” Valerie asked back practically grinning from ear to ear. “If I’ve known that you’ll throw in a hot bath as an extra, I would have rode all the way to the next town to clear the path of the fallen.”

“Settle down Val,” her brother sighed. “There’s a good chance we’ll have to do that later either way.”

“Travelling back and forth around these parts is going to be a problem if there are no gateways.” Osmond reminded the group after taking a sip of his mugs contents.

“If you’re talking about one of them magic things that help folk travel far,” the innkeeper cleared his throat while picking up the empty plates. “There’s one of those beside the church, made by a spell caster hired by his lordship.”

“Ask and it shall be given to you.” Quentin said with a choir boy style tone, earning a slight laughter from the group.

“Jokes aside,” Regis finished off his ale. “Having a gateway out here will come in handy. I don’t really know what range these things have, but it most likely depends on the quality of the enchantment. “Either way; thanks for the meal. I’ll head over to the wagon to sort out that junk pile.”

“Just don’t take too long,” Fabien called out to the dark elf as he was leaving. “Or else you’ll have to wash down with cold water.”

The young spell weaver left the inn and found a small pack of curious children circling around the wagon while whispering to each other.

“There’s nothing valuable inside,” he spoke up loudly, making a children shudder as they turned around flustered. “We only have some travelling equipment and a bunch of useless junk in there.”

“We didn’t want to steal anything,” one of the little girls stuttered as they all looked at him with their eyes stopping on the iron grey magic staff. “Are you spell caster, sir?”

“I guess I do count as one.” Regis answered somewhat mysteriously as he patted the little girls head while stepping beside the wagon.

“Can you teach us?” A boy asked from the back after gathering his courage.

“Magic is a dangerous thing,” he sighed. “Not to mention that it’s a rare gift, so there’s a good chance that none of you have the talent for it.”

His words made the younglings lower their heads, making the dark elf sigh.

“I can teach you a simple incantation,” Regis finally relented after seeing the kids going all sullen and hopeless. “I can’t make any promises though. If you can’t cast it after ten tries, that means you don’t have the talent.”

“Yay”! The kids practically screamed in excitement and their fervour made even the dark elf smile.

He sat down at the edge of the wagon’s back, explaining the children how to cast light wisp along with the proper wordings of the chant. Much to his surprise, out of the near dozen kids, three of them actually managed to summon the floating light ball in less then five tries.

“Well I’ll be,” he let out a small whistle. “It seems that three of you do have magic of your own. You in particular seem to actually have an affinity for the element of light.”

His gaze was on the golf ball sized light that was just a tad bit more brighter and livelier than the other two. Its owner was the same little girl that first spoke up, claiming that they weren’t trying to steal anything. The rest of the group looked at the three children obvious envy, even if they didn’t say anything at the moment.

“Does that mean that we can become your apprentices, Sir?” One of the three asked while speaking to him in a surprisingly formal manner, but Regis just shook his head.

“Sadly, I would make for a poor teacher. I’m also on a journey with my companions and our path is wrought with danger and monsters. It’s not a life I would wish for any of you. Don’t feel bad though. With all the bad things that happened, magic is needed more than ever before. If your parents can take you to Rust-well Keep, show this spell to the guards and tell them that you wish to learn magic at the spell casters’ guild. They will help you find your way.”

After explaining this, he turned towards the little girl.

“Alternatively, you could try your luck at the church of the seven paths. Your affinity with the element of light could make you a powerful priestess if your faith and your will is strong enough. You could help heal people or scare the darkness and the monsters away.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up as she listened to his words.

“Do not be happy yet,” the spell weaver warned her. “No matter which path you decide to follow, it won’t be an easy one. You’ll have to work hard and face many dangers, but I’m sure you will make it if you give it your all. You should go now. I have a lot to do.”

“Thank you!” The children gave a slight bow of gratitude and respect before turning around to leave.

“Thank you for giving them hope,” an aged yet gentle voice resounded from behind him as mother Delcine appeared from behind the wagon. “It is a rare gift nowadays. Perhaps the three of them really will make it one day. “

“Only time and their hard work will tell,” Regis sighed. “Do take care of them, please.”

“I will, don’t you worry.” Delcine nodded as she turned around to leave.