The First Mage

A knock on the door of the ritual room interrupted our discussions about the Callings.

“Yes?”

At my prompt, Bren opened the door and stepped closer, though he didn’t actually enter the room. “Lilly, we received a report from the southern wall. Two beasts were briefly spotted at the edge of the forest, but they turned around quickly and seem to have left.”

“Hm... category three?” I asked.

“That’s what they looked like, yes.”

Two wolves who crossed our barrier, took a look at the town, and then left...

Based on everything I knew, beasts didn’t usually move in pairs or groups, and all they cared about was hunting their next meal. Two of them walking to the edge of the forest and then casually turning around didn’t quite fit that picture.

“Sounds like that might’ve been them...”

“You mean the talking beasts...?” Bren asked.

“Yea. Though I’m not certain yet. Anything from Grym?”

“He increased the number of guards on the walls, to cover more ground at all times.”

“Good. Let us know if anything changes,” I said, and Bren closed the door again after saluting me.

“So they did come here...” Reurig said.

“Hmhm... That sucks,” I said. “They turned around though, maybe they won’t actually attack the town...”

If they’re intelligent, maybe they’re smart enough to not approach a town as large as Alarna, I thought for a second, but then I realized that Cerus might’ve been smaller, but with all the soldiers that had been there at the time, it shouldn’t have been an attractive target either. Unless these soldiers weren’t any danger to them...

“Hey, Miles... do you think they might still be after you?” Tomar asked.

“We can’t rule it out yet I guess...”

‘Huh? Why should they be after you?’ Lilana asked.

I thought back to our second encounter with these kinds of beasts. “You are the anomaly?” one of them had asked Tomar, and when they learned about my existence, the pieces appeared to fall into place for them. They wondered why I had been in Alarna, but when we weren’t able to give a satisfying answer to that question, they decided to simply “take care of us” and be on their way. They had also said we smelled unusual, which the beast at the water source in town had said to us before as well. It did seem like they had been searching for me, for the “anomaly,” and they had tried to get rid of me.

The next time Tomar encountered them was in Cerus, not long after we had been there, and they had apparently killed everyone in town. Initially, I thought that maybe that’s just what happens if a bunch of beasts got hungry, but Reurig told us that there hadn’t been a lot of signs of people having been eaten or dragged away. Not to mention that beasts didn’t typically raid towns like that.

And now, just a few weeks after that incident, and after we got back to Alarna, they were here. I had ignored the possibility so far, but it was starting to seem more and more like these talking beasts might be following me. Although Alarna was the closest town to Cerus, so, technically, it could have still been a coincidence.

‘You didn’t think it was worth mentioning that you’re being followed by beasts!?’ Lilana asked, alarmed.

“I’m still not sure. And would that have changed anything?”

‘Well... I guess not... but it would’ve been nice to know...’

“Yea... sorry about that,” I said to Lilana, and thought about whether them being after me was good or bad. “I just want to know which possibility would be better for us.”

“What do you mean?” Berla asked.

“Well, if they’re only after me, that means everyone else might be safe. I’d have to figure out how to deal with them, but afterwards we’re good. If they’re actually after me though... and this is the second group of them, more of them might come.”

“Right...” she said.

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see, we can’t really do anything either way for the moment. Though I should probably brief Grym... If they come, maybe they’ll hold back if the guards tell them that the anomaly is coming out voluntarily.”

Of course the question then was, “What happens afterwards?”

Reurig had estimated that Cerus was attacked by about a dozen beasts. If they came here, and I were to approach them, would I be able to talk to them? Or, in the worst case, beat them? I didn’t want to endanger anyone else if the beasts only cared about me, but twelve of them would be a lot. Not to mention that the one that confronted us on the road to Cerus had been able to avoid Tomar’s attacks to a degree.

‘Uhm... Miles?’

“Hm?”

‘When you say you’ll meet these beasts outside...’

Oh... right. I’ll always endanger someone else... Either Lilana, or... I thought, and glanced at Tomar. If I go back to him before that point, he will be the one in mortal danger...

Lilana had warmed up to us, but I could hardly blame her that she wasn’t crazy about the idea of being involved in a brawl with a dozen beasts. Especially since the first and only beast she had ever seen was that category six, which was too fast to even follow with your eyes.

“What is it?” Tomar asked, noticing me looking at him.

“Well... If they’re only after me,” I said, “I would ideally not want to risk other people’s lives.”

“Huh? Wait, you mean you want to meet them alone?” he asked.

“That way everybody else would be safe. It’s a good scenario.”

“Is it...? Anyway, I’ll go with you,” Tomar said decisively.

Riala seemed a little confused about what exactly we were talking about right now, but after looking between me and Tomar a few times, she blurted out “Me too!”

“Heh, thank you, Ria, but—”

“No buts,” Berla said, interrupting me.

“Huh...?”

“What makes you think we would let you go alone? That would be suicide. And we don’t know what these beasts will do, what if they... kill you... and then go after the town?”

Looking at the determined expressions on Tomar’s, Berla’s, and Reurig’s faces, it was clear that there was no changing their minds. They would stand by my side, even if I wanted to somehow do it alone, or as alone as possible. I hadn’t really had time to think the entire situation through, but upon further reflection, this was obviously the way to go, seeing how I would always put someone in danger. If I wanted to reduce the overall risk, we would simply need to fight in a group.

“Alright. Thank you,” I said with a smile. “But we shouldn’t take her with us...”

“Actually...” Berla said. “We probably should.”

“Well, maybe, but good luck convincing her sister...”

Riala would be a big asset. Not only did she have fighting experience, she was also one of the few Sourcerers we had, and based on our previous experiences, it seemed like we might’ve been the only ones who could actually hurt these talking beasts.

“Huh? Are you talking about sis?” Riala asked, feeling left out.

If I went back to Tomar, and Lilana stayed in town, we would be down to one Sourcerer, with two hands, for two shots at a time. Even if the beasts didn’t manage to evade our attacks, we wouldn’t be able to hit more than four before they’re upon us. Maybe six if we’re really lucky, but that was unlikely. Any Fighters who were going to be with us might be able to distract the remaining ones to a degree, but if they aren’t able to hurt the beasts, it would be very dangerous for them. We could try bringing more Fighters, so they can cover each other, but then they might start getting in the way of our shots, lowering our chances to take out the beasts before they can do harm. Not only that, every single dead Fighter would be a real issue for the town. Say they were to kill us and then leave without attacking the people inside the walls. It would be good if Alarna still had some Fighters left then. Or worse, what if the Fighters all died out there and the beasts turned to the town afterwards...? The bottom line was, one more Sourcerer would go a really long way. Here we go with the moral dilemmas again. Risk a town full of people or the life of a little child?

Since we didn’t know what the beasts would do, the chance for them to attack the town and its citizens would have to be defined at fifty percent. It could go either way. With Riala out there, however, our chances of winning would rise considerably, and I would put them well above fifty percent, because we would potentially be able to kill more than half of them in the initial attack. This also meant that the risk to the town would drop, because if we didn't fail, there weren’t going to be any beasts who could invade Alarna. That’s a sound argument to me... but what about Zara...?

“Well...” I said, as I crouched down to look Riala in the eyes, “we could use your help against the beasts, but your sister won’t like that.”

I could’ve started by telling her how dangerous it would be, and that she really needed to think through whether she would even want to come, and blah blah blah, but I knew very well that Riala would want to help us if given the chance. Hell, when we knew absolutely nothing about the Wildlands, and we thought we might die the moment we set foot into a forest, she still didn’t hesitate to come to Cerus with us.

“Of course I’ll help you!” she said with conviction. “Sis knows we need to protect the town!”

“Does she?” I said with a wry smile.

Riala thought about it for a moment before once again answering with absolute certainty. “She will! I’ll explain it to her!”

Like sister, like sister... These two don’t understand each other one bit.

“Alright,” I said with a chuckle, as I patted her head, “give it a try.”

I can practically hear Zara approach with heavy stomps already.

‘Ugh...’

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

‘I’m coming too...’

“Oh. I mean, I would really like that, but you don’t have to. I understand if—” I said, but was interrupted by Lilana.

‘I can’t hide in here if even Riala is coming! But... we will win... right?’

Three people... six hands... six to twelve shots... Now these odds I like quite a bit.

“Our chances just went up considerably... I do believe we will win,” I said happily. “I’m also very curious to talk to them again though. Maybe they’ll be more talkative this time.”

Even if we didn’t have all the answers yet, at the very least, we knew just a little bit more about this world than we did back then. Those beasts seemed to know much more though, and I would try to get every bit of information out of them that I could.

We spent a good portion of the afternoon going over our battle plans, and at the end of it, we felt ready. If we didn’t encounter any unexpected curveballs, I was fairly certain that the beasts would hardly stand a chance. Though I wouldn’t have minded if they had waited just a little while longer to show up.