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379 days until the Arkon Shield falls

Incident report: Unauthorized entry in transformation center detected. Item marked for administrator attendance. —Trials Log Entry #232,129, 490,013.

My sleep that night was restless, full of angry dragons, burning cities, and grieving families.

I woke with the dawn the following day, my eyes puffy and bleary. I was eager to resume my journey south, but before doing so, I walked a slow circuit around the hamlet, searching for signs of the orc company’s passing. It did not take me long to find them.

On the eastern end of the hamlet, I found a clear set of tracks formed from footprints too large for any human to have made. The trail led both east and west. Rubbing my chin, I spent a moment digesting that. The most obvious explanation was that the orcs had returned to the same place they’d come from.

But where was that? And how far away?

I was desperate to find out but knew I couldn’t risk it. If I was captured or worse, Sierra would be left ignorant of the threat. Better leave tracking the orcs to the scouts, I thought, reluctantly stepping away from the trail.

Retrieving my sled, I wasted no further time before setting out. I had delayed my return to Sierra long enough.

I had only a vague notion of my required heading: southwest. I hadn’t been this way before, but I knew the village had to be less than a day’s hike away—somewhere in the narrow band of grass plains between the forest and river—so I envisaged no difficulty in locating it.

I encountered no one and nothing as I trekked south through the foothills. While I walked, I considered the dead hamlet again. I still didn’t know why the orcs had burned it. It couldn’t have been just an act of wanton violence.

If the orcs only cared about killing humans, they could have slain many more of us—more efficiently too—before we entered Overworld. There had to be another reason for the hamlet’s destruction.

The mystery was troubling and made me worry again about Sierra. The orcs couldn’t directly attack the village, of course. The commander had established the Forerunners as an independent faction, repudiating humanity’s Patron. Until the Arkon Shield fell, no orc could enter Forerunner territory.

But that did not mean they couldn’t threaten us indirectly. I could think of multiple ways for the orcs to do that, which was what concerned me. With orcs in the area, it was only a matter of time before Duskar’s warlords discovered the settlement’s existence—if they weren’t already aware of it—and when that happened, I was sure we could expect reprisals.

The commander must be informed, I thought. Feeling a renewed sense of urgency, I increased my pace.

✽✽✽

Around noon, Sierra came into sight.

I shouted in delight, seeing the village’s high wooden walls peeking above the swaying grass. I’d been reasonably sure I had been heading in the right direction but hadn’t been certain until now.

As I drew nearer, more details about the village became apparent. I’d been gone for nearly an entire week, but even from the outside, I could tell much had changed in that short time. On either side of the north gate—the same gate I’d left through days ago—two narrow vertical structures rose above the palisade wall. Guard towers.

“Soren’s been busy,” I murmured. Each tower was formed of logs bound together and reinforced with metal bands. Wooden roofs had also been constructed over their heights to shelter the guards manning them.

Shielding my eyes from the noonday glare, I peered more closely at towers and made out movement in the left one. The guards there had spotted me and were pointing. Buoyed by the thought that my journey was nearly at an end, I sped up a little.

The village’s gates creaked open, and a squad of spearmen jogged out to meet me. A familiar tall red-haired figure was at their fore.

“John,” I exclaimed, stopping to greet them. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Welcome back,” the big man replied. Closing the distance, the lieutenant wrapped one of my hands in his own paws and shook it vigorously. “I’m glad to see you.” Stepping back, he surveyed me from head to foot, his gaze pausing only briefly on my bare forearms. “And in one piece too.” He grinned. “We were beginning to worry.”

I smiled. “It has been an eventful few days.”

John laughed. “With you, when is it not?”

Before I could protest that unfair characterization, the lieutenant held up his hands apologetically. “Only joking.” He gestured me towards the gates. “But come, the commander will want to speak to you. The scouts have been out looking for you every hour of every day for the last couple of days.”

About to step forward, I stilled. “Oh? Is something wrong?” Jolin was not one to panic.

“No, nothing like that,” John assured me. “At least, not that I know off.” He shrugged. “I guess the old lady is just as concerned about you as the rest of us.”

I frowned. Somehow, I didn’t think that was all that there was to it. Something’s happened, I thought. Had Jolin received her own reports of the orcs?

“Come on,” John said, hurrying me forward again.

I glanced at the sled behind me.

“Don’t worry about that,” the big man said, seeing the direction of my gaze. “My squad will see to it that it reaches your cabin.”

My cabin? I didn’t voice the question, though. Unhitching myself from the sled, I waited for John to lead the way.

The lieutenant turned to one of his men. “Sten, inform the old lady that our lost mage has returned and that I am on my way with him in tow.”

“Yessir,” the spearman said and ran off while the rest of the squad began hauling away my sled.

John turned back to me. “All right, let’s go.”

✽✽✽

I stepped through Sierra’s gates and nearly fell over in shock. The village was almost unrecognizable.

John grinned at my expression. “Different, isn’t it?”

I nodded slowly, staring fixedly at the hard packed dirt roads crisscrossing the settlement and the rows of log cabins on either side of them. “How?” I finally managed to get out.

John scratched his head. “I don’t know all the details. This is the crafters’ doing: Soren, Melissa, and Albert’s people.” He gestured at the streets and houses. “What I do know is that all this was only made possible by our workforce increasing tenfold overnight.”

I looked at him blankly.

“You remember the influx of new fish the day Earth died?”

“Of course, I do,” I said. “But how could refugees manage all this!”

John chuckled. “You’re forgetting the newcomer buff and how fast you yourself progressed under it. Without any murluk attacks to worry about, the old lady had no compunction about putting all the new fish to work straight away. She issued a faction-wide decree. Those who wished to remain residents of Sierra had to assist in building their own homes, or they’d be expelled.” He grinned. “That got everyone moving, let me tell you.”

“Remarkable,” I murmured. And it was. The improvements made to the village in just a few short days were nothing short of miraculous. I resumed walking, stepping onto the settlement’s central road. Swiveling my head from left to right, I studied the buildings on either side.

Most of the houses were basic one-room constructions with only a single door and window, but they were all well-made and of better quality than the homes in the destroyed hamlet I’d passed through yesterday.

John and I were not the only ones on the street. People passed us by, hurrying to and fro on one task or the other. Many stopped to greet me, most by name. I nodded back, even though I didn’t recognize more than a handful of faces.

The changes to the village’s residents were just as apparent as those to the settlement itself. Gone were the ill-fitting murluk rags. Now all the soldiers wore form-fitting leather armor or hide armor cut to size. Even the civilians were dressed better. And while few people sported metal implements or weapons of any kind, there was an abundance of leather and wooden goods on display.

“The village looks prosperous,” I remarked.

John nodded. “Establishing the settlement and stopping the constant murluk attacks went a long way to boosting morale. People started to remember what it was living like on Earth and wanting that again. With both an abundance of time and basic tools, nearly everyone adopted a trade of one kind or another.” The lieutenant spread his arms to take in the entire village. “The results speak for themselves.”

“It certainly does,” I agreed. “You and the others have done well.”

John clamped a hand down on my shoulder. “This is as much your doing as ours, Jamie,” he said solemnly. “Don’t forget that.”

I shrugged, a little sadly, but didn’t contradict him. While I had been out slaying monsters and gathering power, the rest of the village had been rebuilding human civilization.

We’d chosen two distinctly different paths.

And despite my conviction about the rightness of my own choices, I couldn’t help but wish that my chosen path was a little less destructive.

✽✽✽

The tented camp had not entirely vanished.

Nearly half the tents remained, still to be eaten away by the encroaching cabins and road network. One of the tents to have disappeared though, was the commander’s pavilion.

An enormous two-story building had replaced it or rather was in the process of replacing it. Work on the structure was still ongoing. Carpenters and masons were climbing all over the new building, fixing planks and setting bricks.

“Where did the bricks come from?” I asked.

John grimaced. “We’ve been hauling rocks all the way from the foothills. The scouts haven’t located a closer source of stone yet.”

“I see,” I said. As we drew closer to the building’s entrance, I saw that only the structure’s base and central pillars had been made with bricks; the rest was wood. “Is this the new command center?”

John nodded. “And the village hall too. Until the crafters get around to constructing a separate military headquarters, this here building will serve as both the village’s administrative and military center.”

We walked into the village hall. The inside was even more unfinished than the outside. John hurried me past the empty entry chamber and through a long central passage before finally coming to a stop at a closed and guarded door.

Recognizing me and John, the sergeant on duty bobbed his head in greeting and gestured me forward. “Go on in. They’re expecting you.”

“This is where I leave you,” John said. “I must return to my post at the gate.”

“Thanks for escorting me,” I said.

The big man nodded and made to turn away, then paused. “Oh, I almost forgot. We have a tavern now.” He grinned. “And beer—of sorts. Find me later, and maybe we can share a drink.”

“I’ll do that,” I promised.

Turning back to the closed door, I pushed it open and stepped within.

✽✽✽

The new command chamber was huge. Stretching nearly the length of the room was a conference table, and behind it was an oversized desk—the commander’s, I presumed.

Seven people sat around the table. Jolin, Marcus, Petrov, and the four civilian heads: Melissa, Albert, Soren, and Beth. From the sounds of it, they were in the middle of a meeting. “… we can increase our output even more now,” Melissa was saying as I walked in.

At my entrance, heads swung my way, and the conversation died down.

Jolin rose from her chair and strode up to me. Standing at arm’s length, she studied me for a moment, her shrewd gaze roving over my bare arms and armor spotted with blood and ash. I’d not had a chance to clean up properly since leaving the hamlet, and it showed. The commander didn’t remark on my appearance, though. “Jamie,” she greeted warmly, taking my hands in her own wrinkled ones, “I’m glad you’re back. We missed you.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” I replied, choking back sudden emotion. I didn’t know why but I was more touched by the old lady’s welcome than I should have been. “It’s good to be back,” I said simply.

“Did everything go well?” she asked.

I hesitated, glancing at the others in the room. I trusted them all, even the sometimes-brash Anton, but morale was a fickle thing.

Even from my short stroll through the village, I could tell the residents were in good spirits. I didn’t want to destroy that with rumors of dead settlements and approaching orcs. Better I speak to Jolin in private and leave it to her to figure out how far to spread the news, I decided. “Yes, everything went well.”

Behind the commander, I saw shoulders relax and smiles break out. “But I have much to report,” I added softly.

The old lady seemed to perceive my concern and didn’t probe for further details. “I’m sure you do,” she said. “Why don’t you take a seat? The crafters are just about finished with their daily report. We can talk after that.”

I nodded and headed to the table. But before I could seat myself, the others rose from their seats to greet me in turns.

Marcus pumped my hand vigorously. “Jamie, you idiot, what possessed you to head out alone!” he exclaimed, but despite his words, the blonde scout captain was smiling. “I would have gone with you if you asked.”

I unentangled my hands from his and shrugged uncomfortably. “I know,” I said, “but it was something I had to do alone.”

Before he could respond, Melissa enfolded me in a hug. I stood frozen in her grasp for a moment before relaxing and responding in kind. “Welcome back,” she said, stepping back. “Anton’s been asking after you every day.” The head crafter smiled ruefully. “He’s not been best pleased with my answers and has threatened to set out after you himself!”

I chuckled. I could well believe it of the passionate blacksmith.

Soren and Albert stepped forward next to clap me on the back, and even Beth and Petrov, who I knew the least well, had kind words to add.

Feeling the penetrating gaze of the commander, I glanced her way. I’d been wondering why she hadn’t chosen to meet me in private. Perhaps this was the reason.

To remind me.

All unnoticed, it seemed Sierra had become the very thing I thought I’d lost forever: a home.

I’m home, I thought, surprised by how true the words rang.