“I’m a loremaster. And a novice enchanter and a beginner spell scroll scribe.”

“Oh,” the woman’s expression shifted between that of amusement and slight frowns. “I never imagined you would pick that kind of path for yourself. I always imagined you would want to fight on the forefront of the battlefield, hurling fire and lightning at your enemies.”

“I can still do that even as a loremaster,” he stated as blue threads appeared on his left palm, forming into a runic sequence in a few seconds. “You’d be surprised how far my rune magic reached in these past weeks.”

“I do not doubt that.” She said with a smile as the runes melted together to form a small ball of light that floated up into the air.

“Are you trying to show off?” Amanda asked as they neared the two.

“Just making a point. Did everything go alright?”

“Yes,” Sophie answered happily as she stopped for a moment to look back at the people following them from a short distance. “We managed to find whom we were looking for and then some. There’s even a crossbowman among them.”

“Why would a soldier want to come and live in a recluse settlement?”

“Because your friends don’t seem to care about me being a dwarf.” A light yet gruff voice resounded from behind the sun elf as a reinforced leather armour-wearing dwarf walked forward, followed by a similarly dressed dwarven woman and a pair of dwarven youngsters.

“Most folks don’t like our kind, saying that we’re either drunkards or troublemakers.”

“We decided to try our luck,” the dwarven woman spoke up. “And your companions were most welcoming towards us.”

“As you can see”, Regis looked at his friends. “We’re quite a colourful group ourselves. I trust his judgement if Quentin decided to bring you along.”

Here the dark elf turned back to the guardswoman for a moment.

“I guess it’s time for us to go,” he sighed. “It was good to see you again. Take care and say hi to Lithia for me, will you?”

“You know I will,” Norma said before hugging the spell weaver. “Take care of yourself and don’t forget to visit in a few days. I’ll have our answer by then.”

“I’ll try to visit again soon.” Regis promised before saying his goodbyes and heading out towards the spellcasters’ guild.

“What do you need an answer for?” Quentin asked after catching up to the dark elf.

“I asked her if she wanted to come and live in the vale with us.”

“I see,” the paladin nodded. “That’s a hard decision to make, especially since she has comrades and family here.

“That’s just it,” Regis noted. “I asked if she would mention moving over to the whole guard squad and Lithia as well.”

“You sure don’t go easy with your recruitment plans,” Fabien spoke up from the side. “Then again, we could use more guards.”

“We would have to increase our supplies and our crop production before we could bring in that many people.” Amanda remarked with the others agreeing.

“Just another goal to work toward,” Sophie chirped as they neared the spellcasters’ guild. “Did you learn anything interesting from her?”

“Only that the local nobleman became a lot worse than he was after his son got killed by the dark elves of the Exiled Court. He ordered his soldiers to thoroughly search and shake down anyone that wants to leave Hunor.”

“Son of a bitch,” the infernal youth cursed. “How does he expect the people to survive if it takes away what little they managed to save?”

“I don’t think he cares,” Quentin let out a deep sigh. “The loss of a child is a horrible thing to live through. It can lead people down a dark path.”

“He won’t be able to walk on that path for much longer,” Regis stated. “With the refugee recruitment decree of the royals, Verhen will have to let the people go and their future lords won’t take it kindly to him openly extorting their future vassals.”

“I’m more worried about the decree’s implication on us,” Amanda noted. “Now everyone will come here to gather whomever they can and I doubt they will be happy to see us doing the same.”

“The decree is meant for the nobles and we have one of our own,” Fabien reminded his companions. “We’re not breaking any law so they can’t do anything against us recruiting people either.”

“At least not officially.”

“There’s the guild.” Sophie pointed at the familiar building mostly to inform the refugees following them.

“So how are we going to do this?” Quentin asked from the dark elf.

“We can’t all go at the same time, so we’ll have to do it in two turns. Someone has to come along and others will have to stay with the rest.”

“We’ll go first,” Amanda and Sophie volunteered. “The guys should stay behind the make sure that nothing happens while we’re away.”

“Fine by me.” The paladin nodded.

“Alright then,” Regis stepped into the middle of the teleportation circle. “Gather around and make sure that nothing hangs outside the circle. It’s going to be a tight fit though.”

Half of the refugees walked closer with unsure steps and stood inside the runic circle’s confines. The dark elf reached up to his chest, touching his gateway talisman while focusing on Thorn Vale. One by one the runes lit up in quick succession before a bright flash of light swallowed them. A weightless moment later the light receded and the nauseous refugees swayed out of the circle, some vomiting out whatever their stomachs held.

“Sorry about that,” Sophie said in an apologetic tone. “Teleportation can be a bit rough sometimes.”

“You could have mentioned that a bit earlier lass.” The dwarven arbelist noted while holding back his daughter’s hair and gently patting her back.

“Just try to breathe slowly,” Regis said as they left the gazebo. “It should pass soon.”

“Is this it?” one of the refugees asked as they all looked around. “This place is deserted. Even the Landwaker is so tiny.”

“That’s because it’s still young,” Amanda noted. “As for the village; we told you that it was only recently reclaimed. There are empty houses to inhabit and there’s enough food to last us until we grow new crops. What else do you need?”

“She’s right,” another refugee reprimanded the man. “Just be glad we got out of Hunor without any trouble. Don’t concern yourself with him dear. He was always a hard-headed oaf.”

“What did you…”

“I need a drink.” The spell caster sighed while the refugees kept arguing.

He headed back to the inn, grabbing the pitcher from the counter before pouring some water.

“Are you alright?” He heard Sophie’s voice from behind his back.

“I’m fine,” the brusque answer resounded. “I just need to meditate a bit and then I’ll head back to Hunor for the others.”

“What about the ones already here? You don’t seem too happy about them.”

“They’re strangers,” Regis stated with a flat tone. “It will take time to see whether they’re worth the trouble or not. For now, we should focus on filling up and expanding the village.”

“Yeah,” the sun elf nodded in agreement. “We should also start thinking about a proper name for it. It’s weird to always just call it ‘the village’ you know.”

“We’ll talk about it once everyone’s back. For now, just try to figure out a way to keep the people from killing each other, please.”

“That’s going to be a challenge,” Sophie laughed. “But I’m sure we’ll manage.”

As the sparrowhawk ranger said that, she headed back outside to help her companion. Regis sat down on a chair to meditate, feeling the subtle shift in the arcana density of the air surrounding him. ‘It looks like the Landwaker finally grew to a point when it’s starting to affect its surroundings, but it's still far too small to make any truly noticeable change.’

He thought as he slowly regained his spent arcana. When he was ready, he walked back to the gazebo and used the gateway to reach Hunor. As the flash of light receded he found himself staring at Fabien.

“You got back awfully fast,” the storm knight remarked. “We expected you to show up in half an hour or so.”

“Do you want me to go back?” Regis joked, looking over to the group of refugees nervously waiting not far from them with Quentin watching out for any sign of trouble.

“Just recharge fast and get us out of here,” the infernal answered with an obvious nervousness in his voice. “Lots of guards have been walking around, asking for too many questions about us for their own good.”

“Do you think they’re going to cause trouble?”

“I don’t know, but they didn’t ask those questions just for the fun of it.”

“I’ll try to hurry up then.” The dark elf noted as he unceremoniously sat down on the gateway’s surface with his cloak’s end folded beneath him.

He focused his mind on regaining his arcana through meditation while the storm knight nodded toward Quentin. The paladin understood the signal and began to make preparations for their departure. By the time the spell weaver opened his eyes again, everyone was ready to go.

“Looks like it’s high time for us to get out of here,” Quentin said as they noticed a group of unfamiliar guards hurrying towards them from further up the road. “Everyone, get inside the circle!”

The surprised refugees hurriedly stepped inside the gateway’s runic array and Regis reached up to touch his amulet.

“Halt!” one of the running guardsmen yelled. “In the name of Lord Verhen...”

The rest of his words could not be heard as the gateway lit up, Fabien flipping the bird towards the incoming soldiers being the last thing everyone on the street could see before the light swallowed the people inside the circle. The infernal youth’s somewhat cocky attitude changed as soon as they arrived. He stepped to the side, wheezing and trying to hold in whatever was in his stomach.

“You just had to insult those guys, didn’t you?” Quentin asked with a somewhat rueful look.

“It’s not like they know the meaning of the gesture,” Fabien retorted. “And besides, they wanted to stop us from leaving Hunor.”

“I didn’t recognise any of them,” the dark elf noted. “It’s not like I met with every guard in Hunor before, but they definitely looked unfamiliar.”

“That’s because those bastards are more crooks than guards,” the carpenter woman stated while trying to calm her daughter. “I knew those bastards from Harmarond. They were troublemakers and ruffians, always preying on the weak.”

“How the hell did those bandits get their hands on guard uniforms?”

“Norma told me that Verhen recruited new guardsmen to replace the ones lost during the battles against the fallen.” Regis said with the carpenter nodding.

“Those dogs bent the knee the day we arrived, earning a bed and the right to harass us without any trouble.”

“They can’t reach you here,” the paladin patted the woman on the shoulder. “So don’t worry about them.”

“Although our exit was a bit hasty,” the spell weaver cleared his throat. “Let me welcome you to your new home. It’s not much to look at for now but hopefully, we’ll be able to change that soon enough.”

“If I can get a bed for me and my family,” one of the refugees spoke up. “Possibly one with a roof over it, then any place is good, rundown or not.”

“You weren’t joking when you said that I will have my work cut out for me.” The carpenter noted as she looked around.

“Mom,” her daughter tugged on her sleeve. “There’s a Landwaker tree here and it's so pretty. I’ve never seen a small tree before.”

“That’s because it has been planted only recently,” the paladin noted with a smile. “Everyone in our group has a bit of magic and we worked together to raise the tree as fast as possible. If we keep it up like before, it should mature in a month.”

“It looks healthy enough,” Bertram noted as the group left towards the outer circle of the village. “The one in our village was ruined by the demons that attacked. It was a shame to see such an old and majestic tree rot away like that.”

“Where are we going to live?” his wife asked after shaking off her nervousness. “Is there a farm outside the wall of the village?”

“Not yet,” Regis answered. “But I can build one pretty fast and with the help of our new carpenter, fixing up a roof shouldn’t take too long either.”

“Are you a mason?” Another refugee asked, earning a slight chuckle from Fabien.

“He’s a fighter, a loremaster and a whole lot of other things,” the storm knight stated. “He’s also an earth mage capable of raising walls in minutes, so conjuring up a ground-level house wouldn’t take too long for him.”

Fabien’s explanation earned an incredulous look from the people, making it obvious that they either thought he was exaggerating or straight up found the thing impossible.

“We also plan to tear down the current wall around the village so that we could expand it. Regis already began to work on building the new outer wall.”

“It’s going to take a few weeks,” the dark elf reminded his companion. “Especially with all the new work coming in.”

“It sounds like you have most of it planned out already,” the carpenter woman followed along as they slowly reached the gate of the village. “As long as there’s wood to work with, I’ll do my best to craft the beams and planks necessary for the new roofs as soon as possible. My name is Jody by the way your lordship, and this is Judy.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Jody and Judy.” The spell weaver responded to the woman’s slightly awkward curtsy.

While Quentin and some of the refugees broke off from the group so they could pick out a home for themselves from the ones available, Bertram and his family followed the dark elf outside the village to where their recently harvested crops were planted. Sophie was already there with another family of four, most likely to show them the place they would live and work at.