I didn’t want to let Kalli go. We embraced. Each holding the other. Each not wanting to let go. For some reason, time marched on even though I willed it to stop.

When I pulled back to breathe, I gazed longingly into Kalli’s eyes. Her blue eyes still mesmerized me like they had the first time I saw them.

Kalli…

She blinked. Yes?

I hesitated.

I need to tell you something.

She blinked again. Did she know the effect she was having on me? It was difficult to think.

If you get into trouble, I’ll drop everything and rescue you. I want to help these people but I can’t lose you.

She didn’t blink. Instead, she sucked in a deep breath of air and kissed me again. Mel, you know I love you? Right?

I fought to concentrate. It wasn’t easy.

Yes.

She smiled while our faces were attached. It felt weird. Do me a favor.

Anything.

She had me right where she wanted me. Save these people. I know you can do it.

I had nothing. My brain was mush. Kalli had hypnotized me with her lips. All I could do was draw out my response.

Okaaaay.

“Come on lover girl.” Kiki cajoled us as she walked past carrying supplies. “It’s time to go.”

I slept alone that night for the first time since I could remember.

Congratulations. You have reached level 28

“I felt that.” Kalli giggled as I staggered into the dream, overwhelmed by the sensations of leveling up.

She approached me from behind and wrapped herself around me. “I only want to dream about you tonight. Let’s skip the dreams and just be together.”

I turned and kissed her nose, wanting the same thing as my girlfriend.

Waking up alone sucked. Rather than it feeling like an adventure, my life in Gaia had suddenly become a job. A full-time job. I emerged from the house that had been vacated for me with three hundred new citizens that needed awakening. Not only that but we desperately needed to get on the road.

It wasn’t practical to take all of the refugees with us, so we had to come up with a plan for all of the trolls and humans that I had picked up in Wrotor. The first thing I did was invite all of the newcomers to the guild. The villagers were ecstatic that they could suddenly speak Troll. I wasn’t sure what the language of the trolls was called but it all sounded like English to me.

Awakening all three hundred refugees in one sitting proved to be impossible. Esha helped me assign tasks to the trolls one by one as I unlocked them. Some she sent out hunting or gathering. Other more trusted trolls were sent with handwritten letters to deliver to far-off kingdoms.

Esha explained it to me. “When the other lesser races hear what you’ve done here, they are all going to want in. Awakening has always been a human thing. Everything on Gaia is about to change.”

I didn’t have time to ask what she meant. There was simply too much to do. The villages finally had enough people to send caravans back and forth down the roads I had built using World Editor. Humans and trolls worked together to assemble makeshift carriages. Joe’s creations were better but the villagers were able to make do.

We traveled about an hour north of Run Dale and then I used the World Editor to create another mountain similar to the one I found Wrotor in. It was easy to punch a hole in the side of the mountain and hollow out an area for them to start a new town. I even assembled some basic housing for them.

I laughed and told Esha that the castle would have to wait. She grinned and said, “I plan to personally escort you as your empress to be since Kalli cannot be here.”

Kalli, who had overheard the conversation, had a few choice words for the troll in guild chat. Esha! We haven’t traveled that far yet. Don’t make us turn this caravan around.

After having traveled all night, I imagined that Kalli was quite a ways away but her words had the desired effect on the troll. Esha pouted and replied. I was just having a little fun with him. Don’t worry. I’ll behave with your mate.

While I wasn’t able to awaken them all, we left the majority of the trolls in [New Wrotor]. It turned out that the trolls were fond of the name and were just as comfortable in the new mountain as they had been in the old one.

We ran into the Ruffalo herd again. With our added numbers and more experienced hunters, we were able to capture a few of the Ruffalo alive. We also made it to the location where we had fought them the previous time.

The slain Ruffalo lay where they had fallen, a few of them still intact. One of the new guards, Everard, explained, “It’s too late to use the meat for food. It would probably be best to leave them here.”

Getting an idea that I would have hesitated to try if Kalli was present, I asked, “Do you mind if I try something with them?”

The man looked confused. “What do you mean, my lord?”

I sighed, having not yet become accustomed to being called that. “I have an idea that might help us while we travel.”

Esha made her way over towing four Ruffalo on a leash behind her. “I’d like to see this myself.”

So I made my way over to the nearest intact Ruffalo. Reaching down, I placed my hand on the carcass. It was cold and slightly bloated to the touch. I pushed with my mana, breaching the body with little difficulty.

Everything had stopped, frozen in the rigors of death. The memory of the baby and its tiny fragile core winking out of existence still stung. As I expected, the place where the beast’s core was supposed to be was instead just a hole, devoid of life.

Swallowing hard at the thought of what I was about to do, I let my mana gather into a ball, placing it where the core was supposed to see. Nothing happened. I then tapered my mana through the creature’s channels, opening them as I went along. From there, I connected it to a circuit, allowing a steady flow of mana to circulate.

Once I was satisfied, I used my skills from the Shaw Bloodline to clean up the body, revitalizing the flesh that had begun to rot. When I pulled back, I looked down at the fallen Ruffalo. It was still as lifeless as ever. I tugged on the invisible string of mana that led me back to the corpse and willed for it to rise.

Esha and the guard both shrieked and clung to one another as the cumbersome creature slowly climbed to its feet. Everard, suddenly realizing the error of clinging to the smelly troll, pushed her away.

The troll, for her part, just laughed at him before turning her attention back to me. “What did you do? Necromancy is a forbidden art, even for you awakened humans.”

I looked back at the empress and grinned, “I don’t think this is necromancy. It’s just a puppet. It’s not alive.”

The troll raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s the same thing as necromancy.”

Placing my hands on my hips, I asked, “If I’m a necromancer, shouldn’t I feel something? I didn’t get a special class or skill or anything. I just used my mana to make Bob here get up to help us out.”

The troll's mouth fell open, drooling a little bit. “You named it?”

“Why not?” I asked, laughing as I instructed Bob to stand next to the Mecharriage.

There were a few more dead Ruffalo but I didn’t want to test the limits to my newfound skill before we found something more fun to animate.

We arrived in the fourth village without any additional stops. As the journey had taken most of the day, I stayed up half of the night curing sick villagers. Kalli stayed up to keep me company as I struggled to stay awake. As we had expected, the fourth village was much worse off than the first three that we visited. Half of the villagers were dead, some of them in their beds.

Esha informed me that she would oversee the burial of the fallen along with the instruction. “You are not to attempt to revive any of them.”

I sighed, realizing my new skill creeped the troll out. “Don’t worry. I’d never try that with a human.”

“Or a troll.” She amended seriously.

“Or a troll,” I repeated, letting her know that I wasn’t about to try to reanimate sentient species.

Kalli chastised me as well. You probably shouldn’t use that skill too much. People might mistake you for an evil mage.

Learning from the previous village, I erected tents for the people who traveled with us. One for the trolls and one for the humans. It wasn’t discrimination. Trolls just had very different ideas of what smelled good.

The last thing that I needed to do before bed was to name the village and build a wall.

ENTERING WORLD EDITOR MODE

I decided to call the fourth village [Joefield]. Simple walls and a small building for myself to sleep in were all I did for the night. That and spending all of my mana to connect the new village to the empire. After I finished, I was anxious to curl up and go to sleep. I could be with Kalli that way after all.

Right after I shut my eyes, Kalli sought me out in our dream, telling me all about her adventures for the day. I had to remind her that I watched her all day. “You were very cool when you fought that flying lizard thing.”

She grinned at me. “I know. I used a fireball to shoot it down and finished it off with my mana sword. Did you see the new move that Run taught me?”

I matched her grin. “Yep. I saw when you ran off to find a bush right in the middle of your lesson too. I bet you miss my ability to create toilets for you, huh? By the way, why does it feel so much better when you do it?”

Her smile turned into a scowl. “Stop watching! And, ew, stop feeling when I do that!”

I pointed an accusatory finger at her. “You watch and feel when I do it. Admit it.”

She shoved me, blushing furiously. “Stop talking about it.”

I took her advice and kissed her. We didn’t talk much for the rest of the night.

I woke with a big grin on my face. Perhaps being separated from Kalli wasn’t going to be so bad after all. The morning brought about the same routine of awakening the villagers and making their living conditions a little better.

So few villagers survived the plague, that I was tempted to make it a troll town and send the survivors back to Run Dale. However, the villagers didn’t want to relocate, insisting to stay in the land of their forefathers. We struck a compromise and I assigned some of the refugee humans to live there with them instead. There were too many refugees to house them all but at least some of them got new homes.

While we were on our way to the next village, I decided to get to know some of the refugees. One in particular. Guinny’s dad. I walked up to a rather burly man with red hair that reminded me of Kalli’s and asked, “Hey, are you Guinny’s old man?”

He turned on the spot and grabbed me. “Did you see her? How is she? Is she alive?”

I nodded emphatically, trying to pry myself out of his grip. Guinny’s dad was strong. “Yes. She was fine when I met her. She misses you. Guinny fought to get someone to rescue you.”

He smiled proudly. “That’s my girl.”

Meanwhile in a carriage far to the north…

Wendy sat in silence beside the woman known as Lady Mardella. She had tried scowling at the woman until her face hurt. The aeromancer was livid. She even turned down tea. That was something Wendy had never done in her short life.

Not only had the archmage taken Wendy prisoner and tried to capture her friends but she had also treated a whole village of people like garbage and tried to kill another village of innocent trolls. It was a good thing Wendy got her warning off before she had been cut off. Small victories.

Lady Mardella studied the girl curiously. “You will have to talk sooner or later. You are my guest after all. I can tell that you have the makings of a powerful mage. If you just give me a little cooperation, I can assure you that you will have a very blessed life. Your friends as well. It’s not too late for them. No damage was done. There is a place for all of you in our society.”

She looked expectantly at Wendy. Did she honestly think that Wendy would cave and thank her lucky stars that the archmage was gracious enough to whisk her away from her friends? Wendy wasn’t that fickle. She wouldn’t cave. Not even for the best tea in the world.

When she didn’t get an answer, Lady Mardella went on. “You know. You might like it in Dabia. The world’s capital is truly a sight to behold. That’s where we’re going now. I hope your friends come to visit us there. It will be glorious.”

Wendy scoffed. “That is never going to happen.”

Lady Mardella cackled gleefully. “My dear dear child. They are already on their way.”