After Captain Lera and the other soldiers had arrived back in Alarna, he immediately went to make his report to the king. With only the two of them in the room, the conversation between the two old friends was less formal than usual, but this did not make the topics they had to talk about any easier.

“Our losses were minimal, as predicted, but we failed to capture them... I’m sorry, Hertar. I suspect that the mayor is harboring them, but we don’t have any proof of that yet, and he kicked us out as soon as we met. I left a squad there to monitor the town.”

“I was really hoping for better news,” Hertar said with a frown. “Something happened while you were away.”

The king told Lera about the announcement the temple had made just a few hours before and how there were already signs of citizens believing the High Priest’s stories. Not only had he drawn them in with promises of a better tomorrow, he had also implied that the king and the authorities were at fault for the recent incidents. By itself, these claims might not have been such a big problem, but the appearance of “Hope” gave his words a lot of weight.

“Of course the people want to believe his words when an ‘angel’ is standing by his side,” the king said, shaking his head. “That priest who’s studying the scripture sigils evidently made a breakthrough. Though I have to admit, that woman’s aura was impressive.”

“You were there?”

“In disguise, yes. She doesn’t quite feel like a god, but it’s more than enough to make an impression. Though the way she produced water gave away that she was just another living water source. Giving off an aura and using water were the only things she really did, but Orthur used her very well.”

“And without the boy or some other kind of proof that she’s not a divine messenger, it’s difficult to contest his words...” Lera concluded. “This might cause a lot of issues... We need at least one of the fugitives, before the situation spirals out of control.”

“Right. Unfortunately you came back alone,” the king said, in a non-accusatory way. If the temple were to play their cards right, and it looked like they were, they would convince the majority of town to follow them in no time. That would be the end of the king’s faction. Hertar and his family were commanding the soldiers and informally controlled the authorities, but on most days he was little more than a manager. A position that the High Priest would be more than happy to take from him.

“Damn it... Do they have more people like her? Are they able to give this ability to anyone now?” Lera asked.

“Our sources in the temple apparently don’t know anything, but I don’t believe Orthur would miss this chance if they were able to do it. He would want the ability for himself. Either they don’t know how to do it or they’re lacking the required items. If they used a water source as well, maybe they wouldn't feel comfortable destroying another one right away. Especially since there are no more small ones in town.”

If there had been more people with this ability in the temple, they could’ve possibly turned one of them, or in the worst case, simply used them to reveal that the High Priest was playing the citizens. If they managed to do that, they would turn around the entire situation and ruin the temple’s reputation instead. As it stood, that was not an option, however.

“That means we need the boy or the girl. More than ever...” Lera said, crestfallen. “This puts my failure on an entirely new level.”

The king gave a sad chuckle. “Hah, it does. While we’re depressed anyway... Berlotte talked me into looking for Berla. Based on the evidence he found, Eissen believes that she survived and is traveling with the fugitives. Have you seen her?”

Lera looked surprised for a moment. He hadn’t expected the king to already know about her. He hadn’t been entirely sure how to broach the subject and was waiting for a good opportunity to mention it to him.

“He’s right... Berla is alive. She was with them when we found them at the ritual platform. She looked healthy, but she’s missing a leg. Though she was still surprisingly fast when they fled. She’s always been an agile one,” Lera said with a smile. “If she were to stay with them, she might even live on somehow.”

The king fell into thought. They needed the fugitives. Regardless of whether they were hiding in Cerus or whether the mayor was harboring or holding them, Hertar would need to send soldiers there again. At the same time, he started to wish he didn’t have to, as not doing so might allow his dear niece to live some kind of life. However, at the end of the day, he knew what he had to do. He could not just leave the town in the hands of the High Priest and the temple, and he had no other way to counter them. They had to act fast.

He looked at Lera’s injured shoulder. “Can you still do your job?”

“Of course. I’m happier than ever that I was never a fan of the spear,” Lera said.

The decision was made. They would go to Cerus once more and they would not come back empty handed, even if that meant having to seize the entire town.

“How soon can you move out again?”

***

“The idea sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it?” I said to Berla at night, controlling my body like Miles usually did for the first time. Interestingly, it didn’t feel so weird to me. Maybe because it was my own body. Miles had wanted to give sleeping a try after going an entire month without it in this world, so I agreed to go on night duty. Reurig and Riala were already sleeping as well. I was surprised at Berla staying up, but apparently she didn’t need a lot of sleep, which explained how she could talk to Miles every night.

“A little crazy?” Berla said. “He wants you two to be the next Alarna Ragar. It’s most definitely crazy. And he couldn’t even tell us how exactly he wants to do that yet. You can’t just waltz into town, talk to a couple of people, and suddenly you are king. Sometimes I forget he’s only been here for a month. He clearly doesn’t understand our world yet.”

“I know what you mean... but...” I said and gestured towards Reurig. “There’s also proof that it can work.”

Our newest party member had appeared out of nowhere and essentially decided to follow us on the spot, based on Miles’ “crazy” plans. This would surely not be the reaction every citizen would have, but we also couldn’t ignore it entirely. Not to mention that Berla had come around fairly quickly herself, even if the circumstances were different.

“Both of us have seen you out in the Wildlands though. Telling people that you can repel beasts or kill them with a flick of your finger will do very little to convince anyone. Especially if it’s coming from convicted criminals. And before you bring it up... the mayor is weird as well for going along with everything.”

After Reurig joined us, we had to explain his presence to Mayor Cerus, as he couldn’t just go back out through the window, because of the guards. Naturally, he couldn’t go out through the door for the same reason. Miles briefly lamented that the “ninjas” in this world couldn’t just disappear in a cloud of smoke, but he quickly recovered and simply asked the guards to fetch the mayor once he came home for his lunch break.

The mayor didn’t even bat an eye when Miles told him that an old family friend had found us, thinking us in mortal danger, and wanting to rescue us. When Reurig found out that we were good, he supposedly decided to stay with us, since he had deserted to get here, and he had even killed an assassin that was after us. It’s not that this new story didn’t fit our existing one at all, but the number of concessions the mayor was willing to make, and how willingly he overlooked our convenient stories, did seem weird to Berla and me. Even if we immediately turned over Reurig’s weapons to the guards.

Miles on the other hand was sure that the mayor would do everything he could to keep us happy for the moment, as long as it didn’t inconvenience him too much and our progress was promising. While Berla and I were a little uncertain about it, Miles had been right so far.

“I’m not going to pretend that his ideas always work out great... But he does seem to be right more often than he’s not,” I said. “And if we can come up with a proper plan... it would be pretty amazing, wouldn’t it?”

“You want to be king that badly?”

“Oh, gods no. We’ll have to find someone else for that,” I said with a chuckle. “I definitely don’t want that kind of responsibility. But if there’s a chance for any of this to work, I think I want to try. Maybe nobody would ever have to die in a beast attack again... Heh, I pointed out you and Reurig as examples, but I guess he convinced me too.”

“Even though you’re another very special case. There’s not a lot of people who saw their mother get killed by a beast, and who were then imprisoned and threatened by the guards and tortured by a priest. It’s no wonder you would be ready to turn on the town like that...”

“And what if there was enough space, resources, freedom, and safety that nobody would have to be ‘put to rest’ ever again?”

“Of course that would be nice...” Berla said with a sad look towards her missing leg. “But the point is, he doesn’t have a plan yet, and it’s not going to be that easy. Have you really thought about what’s going to happen if you try this? Not about that world you’re dreaming of, but how you’re going to get there. Do you think the king will ignore you trying to take over the town? What will you do if you’re facing platoons of soldiers, every single one ready to kill you?”

She knew I wasn’t comfortable talking about killing people, or even just about letting someone die, enemy or not. I understood that this was handicapping us, however. And if we truly wanted to change something, I would have to accept that there might be collateral damage.

“I won’t just go along with everything, and we’ll have to come up with an actual plan, but Miles is right,” I said. “They could just leave us alone. Or they could’ve talked to us normally if they wanted our help. But they didn’t even try! And if they’re going to stand in our way when we try to improve the world for everybody... If we reach a point where there’s no other way... That’s just how it’s going to have to be. I think I’m done playing along as well.”