Year 2, Fall, Third Month, Fourth Week.

“Sir, I'm sure there's a very good explanation…”

“Of course there is, feel free to share it with me…”

Horacios forced a smile while trying to think of what could have happened to the burned buildings. He hated that he had to address the Supervisor as his superior, the man was just a servant of the City Lord while he was noble, at least by birth. After sneering at the Supervisor's lowly heritage and cursing him a couple of times in his mind, he returned to think of the situation. If something happened, the Guards watching over the fields would have sent for him, but…

“Sir, maybe an accident happened, the buildings caught fire and the Guards decided to take the harvested crops to the Guard's Tower…”

“I see… And how did they managed to move the crops without a cart? Do they have a cart? I supposed they took the villagers with them too.”

“Sir… I don’t know what happened… Maybe it was an attack! The Sandines or beasts, like the first section…”

“I shall report this to the City Lord immediately.”

“Sir, wait! You can't!”

The Fighter escorting the Supervisor quickly moved to block Horacios.

“What is this Captain? Are you trying to attack me? Was this your doing? Are you trying to steal from the City Lord?”

Horacios remembered what happened to the Captain of the first section and almost lost it, he wouldn’t be used as a scapegoat! He retreaded and mastered all his calm to speak politely.

“Please, wait a little longer, Sir. I sent some Guards to check the village, it won't take long…”

“Humph… You better find me some answers Captain or not even your father will be able to save your head…”

***

Old Bill looked at the girl sleeping on the healing bed, she looked so peaceful, how nice would life be if she could be like this at all times. Bill's smile turned bitter as he sighed in regret, it was impossible to change her now. He exchanged a few words with Mary, who had just entered the tent to check on Sania and then left. He didn’t have time for regrets, right now he needed to work to guarantee they would survive the escape.

He turned towards the Forest, another group of villagers was leaving. Soon, it would only be the elders again, maybe it was their fate to be left behind and sacrifice themselves so the younger generation could live free. Sania's incident had hit him hard, thankfully, Samia wasn’t here to see her sister in that condition. Bill pushed away the self-deprecating thoughts, he wasn’t ready to die just yet, he had just discovered a new amazing craft. Once they escaped the Kingdom, they would thrive faster than was ever seen. He crossed the camp and stopped by a fire near the northern border.

“How is she?”

Old Bill sat in a chair close to the fire and took a sip from the warming tea before answering.

“She's recovering… Mary said she should be able to leave the healing bed by tomorrow…”

Marlen gave Bill a sympathetic nod, before adding:

“Do we have until tomorrow?”

The Council members exchanged worried looks before turning to the fire. Since the camp was only a temporary location, they didn’t bother constructing another pavilion for the Council. Therefore, the available members chose to meet up around the fire on the isolated side of the camp.

The fire wasn’t there for the light as it was just past noon. With only a few days before winter started, the strong cold winds already swept through the wind region. Even though their health had improved, it was better to be safe than sorry. Tael, the only younger member present, decided to offer some comfort.

“Either way, we can't move everybody until tomorrow… We should have an emergency plan, though.”

Marlen sighed silently, how ironic was for the younger generation to be offering wise advice to them. But thinking about it, it wasn’t all that strange, they had been dealing with life-threatening situations for almost two years. While the last time she faced a similar situation was 16 years ago… Marlen gave Tael a sweet smile, before adding:

“You're right… Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”

And so they planned. The Council members discussed all the possibilities and responses they could think of. However, they couldn’t imagine that a few minutes later, some guests would be entering their village.

***

“Where are they?”

Horacios howled and kicked down another hut. The weak building couldn’t resist the Captain's fury and fell into pieces. The Supervisor was already moving towards Wind Castle where he would report the matter to the City Lord, all that Horacios could do right now was to find the villagers and discover what happened. If he could fix the situation and retrieve the crops before the City Lord acted, he would have a chance to escape punishment, but if he didn’t find anything… His father's past accomplishments wouldn’t be enough to save him from getting executed.

If this happened before, he would be able to escape with only losing his position, but the Kingdom was in a tense situation right now and the Wind Lord was already suffering the pressure from the other elemental regions.

“Look through everything! Don’t leave a single stone unturned… Don’t be mistaken, if I fall, all of you will be sacrificed too!”

He looked at the entrance of the village and remembered something. Last year, when he came to pass the Royal edict, the village Chief had a strange behavior, he could swear the man moved faster than he should and didn’t suffer too much from his punch. Could it be that the old man wait for almost two years to take revenge on him?

Horacios would never know how close he was to guessing the truth. However, his self-centered personality and mental limitations prevented him from seeing the bigger picture. In his mind, if someone stole the crops it could only be to harm him.

Since the Captain threatened their safety, the Guards doubled their efforts to find anything, and after an hour of searching, they finally found a clue. The villagers had been really careful to not leave behind anything that could point to their location. However, they overlook a simple but very incriminating clue. Caiset was a resource village, a farming one to be more exact, so they wouldn’t receive any Merchants in the village. Their only chance to exchange something was to go to the bifurcation where the Path forked to Eastforge. So, how could they have fresh marks of wheels all around the village?

It didn’t take long for the Guards to track the marks to a specific border in the village. Horacios looked towards the direction in which the marks left the village and smiled.

“I'm coming for you, old man…”