“We haven’t been formally introduced before,” the soldier spoke as they sat down. “I am Lieutenant Ernest. A lot has happened since you were last here, so what kind of information are you after sir paladin?”

“The important kind,” Quentin said with a calm tone as he accepted a clay cup with some fresh water in it. “We were travelling through some remote areas during the past few days so you could say that we are completely unaware of the things that were happening recently.”

“If you are interested in the aftermath of the war, there were some important events in the past days. East Fork and its surroundings were said to have been completely cleared out of the fallen, not to mention that they received a new governor. The road towards the midlands also got cleared of monsters, although there are the occasional reports of a few stray bandits, fallen or lesser demonic wretch seen in the more remote areas.”

“At least that’s some good news,” Regis sighed. “But I’m sure that people will find something else to bicker about quite soon enough.”

“They already have,” Ernest shook his head slightly. “The war took its toll on the people. Many of the villages are now empty of life, making the lords restless.”

“Anything that cuts into their source of income would make them restless.”

“True,” the soldier agreed. “But it’s worse than just that. According to the reports, several of the lower and middle noble houses have perished, leaving their lands unprotected.”

“And up for the taking I presume.” The dark elf deduced after hearing the man’s words.

“Indeed. We don’t know anything specific yet, but there are rumours of some nobles as well as upstarts trying to make a move on these now unclaimed lands. If they proved to be true, then we might face another war.”

“Let’s hope it won’t come to that,” Quentin sighed. “I have pretty much only seen death ever since I came to these lands. The people should be focusing on rebuilding instead of further bloodshed.”

“I’m sure that most of them want to do just that,” Regis said after drinking some water. “The problem is that as long as the nobles order them, they can’t deny the call of war. Not that they would have too many people left after all the shit that went down these past weeks.”

“We’re counting on that as well,” Ernest admitted. “With Harmarond now a demon-filled ruin and Menelrond struggling to clear out its share of monsters, there are plenty of refugees trying to make their way into our kingdom. The royals sent down a decree to make sure we’ll do our best to help the refugees settle down in the now empty settlements.”

“Smart move,” the paladin nodded in acknowledgement. “The desperate people would do anything for a new chance at life, and it would also help stabilise the kingdom’s population.”

“There sure were a lot of refugees coming into Hunor while we were there,” Regis agreed. “Let’s just hope we won’t be too late. Anyway; is there any other news of importance? What about the spell casters’ guild or the mercenaries’ guild? What of the merchants?”

“Well,” the soldier cleared his throat, trying to gather his thoughts. “The merchants’ guild is as coin hungry as always. As for the mercenaries; they have plenty of work to keep them busy with all the monsters now roaming throughout the kingdom. The spell casters mostly keep to themselves, helping the locals to keep their territories safe, but even some of the more remote guild outposts have been wiped out as well.”

“So I take it that if we were to look for mercenary work, we’d have to travel to the Midlands.” Regis tried to clear things up.

“If it is monsters you wish to hunt, then yes. The western region might have some stragglers and small hordes, but nothing a well-trained garrison couldn’t handle.”

“We’ll have time to talk about that later,” Quentin reminded his companion. “For now, it’s enough to know that the roads are at least somewhat safe to travel inland. Anyway; thank you for your time and the information as well.”

“It’s my duty.” Ernest stood straight as if to salute the paladin.

The outlanders left behind the soldier, taking a walk along the main street of the town. There was a surprising amount of people bustling about, life and order finally returning to Rust-well Keep.

“So what do you think?” Quentin asked his companion.

“He glanced over some of the details, but it’s pretty much what I expected.”

“Same here. I guess our plans stay the same then. It’s still worrisome that the nobles and the outlanders made their move so fast. We might have already claimed a territory for ourselves, but the others won’t lag behind too far either.”

“It was a bit of a hassle to get to the vale,” Regis sighed. “But we managed to get the place for ourselves. Now it’s just a question of whether or not we can keep it. The whole decree about the refugees is troublesome though. The nobles pretty much gained full support to take in the people.”

“We’ll have to move fast,” the paladin noted as they stopped in front of what seemed to be a noticeboard. “We should go back to Hunor as soon as possible to have a look. The sooner we can recruit people to settle in the vale, the better.”

“Should we go home immediately, or do you want to look around more?”

“Going home would be for the best. We have a lot of work to do, especially you. If nothing else, we need proper streets to walk on. I mean have you seen those potholes?”

“I should be able to fix up the market square and the main street in an hour or two,” Regis stated. “But I think that the barriers around the gateway and the Landwaker are more important right now. We need those up as soon as possible.”

“What about the outer wall? How tall can you make it now?” The question resounded as they made their way to the gateway.

“I haven’t checked my skills and spells in a while, but I’m pretty sure that I levelled up ‘terraforming’ at least once since I evolved the spell. I should be able to raise a two-metre-high wall now.”

“That’s a start,” Quentin nodded. “But it’s not exactly the highest wall I’ve seen.”

“Perhaps, but one of the advantages of building it from scratch is that I can stack the spell on the same area.”

“Four metres sound better for sure.”

“I planned to build it up to five.” The spell weaver stated as he grabbed his amulet, activating the gateway with it.

The runes of the magic circle lit up, swallowing the two in a flash of light. They felt the world spin around them as they reappeared in Thorn Vale, but it felt less troublesome than before.

“It seems we are getting used to this.”

“That would be a welcome change,” the paladin sighed. “I don’t want to see someone throw up every time we use the gateways.”

“Took you long enough.” A gentle voice called out to them as they noticed Valerie not far ahead, standing beside the Landwaker tree.

“We talked with one of the local soldiers to get her some information.” Quentin said as the two left the gazebo.

“Anything of importance?” She walked over to them.

“I’ll let Quentin fill you in on the details,” the dark elf noted as he headed towards the inn. “I have to get back to work.”

He left the two of them behind, entering the inn to put his knapsack away in his room. Once done with that, Regis headed back to the gazebo with his prepared supplies, spending nearly two hours enchanting its columns. When he was done, a shimmering barrier surrounded the gateway, barring access to anyone but those who had a key to it. Two such keys were created, one for himself and the other for Valerie, since she had the only other working talisman for now.

His next task was similar to the previous one, except he first used his ‘terraforming’ magic to create thick columns around the Landwaker, raising them to a height of four meters before turning them into low-grade marble. Several hours later the marble columns had been enchanted as well, sporting the same ‘ordinary’ grade barrier as the gazebo did. ‘This should do it for now, but I’ll have to upgrade it sometime later.’ Regis mused as he headed outside the village, not stopping until he reached the part beside the river where he originally began to reshape and harden the riverbed.

Taking a deep breath while organising his thoughts, the spell weaver began to make mental notes, creating an imaginary picture of what the wall would look like. After he had the mental blueprint ready, he began to create a condensed earth wall on top of the hardened earth line he drew up the previous day. Since he could only create walls in three meters long sections, he had to cast ‘terraform’ fifteen times before reaching the spot where the faded path lead to the village.

He then turned back, stacking a second layer of condensed earth wall atop the first one he built. ‘I still don’t have a clue how this thing works.’ The dark elf mused as he watched the hardened soil wall rise to a four-metre height. Although the spell description stated that he needed a soil-based surface to cast the spell, he never knew where the wall itself appeared from. Did he somehow draw soil from the deeper layers, or was he creating it through earth elemental energy?

It was one of those mysteries that he found better to leave untouched for the sake of his sanity. Either way; the top part of the wall was slightly different from the base. He carved out a metre-wide section of the original one-and-a-quarter-metre-thick wall to create a walkway half a meter down from the top. This left him with a knee-high and fifty-centimetres thick cover which he then cast terraform again, raising it by another metre to create cops and crenelles similar to the ones seen on battlements.

When he was done with the long section he formed between the river and the path, he began to cast 'earth to stone' on the wall, turning it into granite section by section. By the time the sun began to leave the top of the sky, a solid and well-built granite wall greeted Osmond as he came to drag away the dark elf to make sure that he ate something. Regis was in the middle of an experiment where he cast terraform on the last part of the wall beside the river that was still made of condensed earth. A large mound of condensed earth began to stretch outward from the top part of the wall, straight at the top, arched at the bottom. It arched over above the river, reaching halfway through before it stopped growing.

Regis could feel the strain on his mind as gravity fought against the hardened soil arch that only stayed above the river due to his magic. He held the spell up with his right hand, splitting his concentration so that he could cast ‘earth to stone’ on the still earthen part of the wall, turning the arching piece into granite as well. As the last piece of the all turned into solid stone, Regis collapsed to a half-kneeling position with large beads of sweat dripping from his forehead,

“That was some impressive magic you pulled here,” Osmond admitted as he helped up his friend. “You look like shit.”

“Your kind words never cease to amaze me,” The dark elf chuckled weakly as he looked up at his creation. “So what do you think?”

“It looks good,” the pale youth nodded. “Not as impressive as the one at East Fork or Rust-well Keep, but it’s still good. Come on, let’s get back to the others and eat something.”

“Did Quentin tell you about the things we learned at Rust-well Keep?” Regis asked as the two headed back to the village.

“Pretty much everything,” the pale youth nodded. “I’d say it’s almost exactly what I expected. Guess we’ll have to step up our game before the other nobles grab all of the refugees.”

“Quentin and I were talking about that as well. It would be nice to have more people here, but at the same time, we have to be careful about who we pick.”

“That goes without saying. Either way; we won’t be able to make proper decisions on an empty stomach. Come on. Fabien promised to cook something good this time.”

“This time?” Regis looked companion with a quizzical expression.

“You know what I mean.”

They finally reached the small market square of the village, finding the door of the inn’s entrance left open. Inside, the rest of the warband was already in the middle of their late lunch.

“What took you so long?” Fabien greeted them with the question as the two entered the inn.

“Regis wanted to finish the wall segment he was working on before coming back.”

“How much progress did you make?”

“About forty-five meters.” The crisp answer came as the dark elf accepted the wooden plate that had some slightly roasted smoked fish and vegetables on it, along with a thin slice of rye bread.

“That’s good, right?” Letty looked at the still weary spell weaver.

“If everything goes well, I should be able to build another forty-five or so metres long section before sundown. If I can keep a similar pace during the following days then I should be able to answer call the village in a week and a half or so.”

“We’ll try to pitch in as well once the other things are done and Mary teaches us that earth wall spell.” Valerie promised.