Rory did his best to ignore the state of their Settlement as he headed over to the former spot of the gate. Ned was standing there, looking mostly unharmed save for a nasty gash on his arm. Rory was thankful for his relatively good condition.

“I hope this isn’t something bad,” Rory said.

“I don’t know about bad.” Ned blinked as he peered forward. “I was scouting around up in the air when I saw… Otherworlders. That’s what they were!”

Rory swallowed. Otherworlders, Ned had said. Not monsters.

A few of the others gathered behind them. Trish, Allen, Bo, and one of the Neophytes. No one else came.

Rory focused on the driveway for Ned was right. There was definitely a group heading their way, and now he understood the poor guy’s difficulty on deciding what to call them.

The figures began drawing closer. One of them was clearly Arelland, easily recognizable with his mask and his mech suit rolling forward. Another looked like a dwarf, all hooded and cloaked, a broad-brimmed hat hiding everything but his dark beard. A 5-foot-tall walking lizard and a giant who could have touched the palace’s roof with a jump made up the rest of the group.

Arelland’s presence made Rory’s heartbeat slow down by just a fraction, though the unease still pressed down on his chest. He had to wonder why the elf had brough so many other Otherworlders with him. Everyone else was a little tense as well. He couldn’t blame them.

Certainly an interesting time for Arelland to return with his friends on the onset of the war, of the attack by the Thunderclaw Knight, and of the system’s warning.

There was also no sign of Mara.

Arelland stepped—or perhaps, rolled—forward ahead of the others when the group came to a stop at the foot of their stairs. “Hail, Rory. I have returned.” He looked back at his companions, all of whom were staring at Rory’s group. “These are the other members of the delegation sent by the Otherworlder Coalition. We are here to decide if you would be a good fit for an official trading deal and recognition.”

Rory nodded at the Otherworlders. “You chose a fine time to appear.”

Arelland’s eyes surveyed the area of the palace. Rory could glean nothing from his impassive gaze. He wondered if the elf had any information about Alex.

“I see you have faced some difficulties recently,” Arelland said.

Rory nodded. “We have. Where’s Mara?”

“She left my side a few days ago. Stole…” Arelland’s eyes frowned at the destruction everywhere, especially the broken bits and pieces of the Thundershell corpses everywhere. “She stole the Thunderclaw Core from me.”

The Thunderclaw Core. Rory had never heard of it before, but he was going to assume it was something the elf had looted from the Knight’s body when he had first fought he monster. “And then she sold it to the Imps?”

“Ah, you’ve met them.”

“Yes, we did,” Trish said. “No thanks to you.”

“Unfortunately, I was unaware of their presence when I met you. I only learned of them when I reached Sanctorum. It is what you used to call Dwellmont,” he added at their confused looks.

“Is that how this came about?” the dwarf asked all of a sudden, his accent thick. When he moved his head, Rory caught a glimmer of glasses. He either had sunglasses on or goggles of some sort. “The Imps caused all this?”

Rory related the incident of them meeting the Volcanic Imp in the same driveway the Otherworlders had taken. Arelland frowned, the dwarf hummed, and the giant grumbled deep in his chest. Only the kobold showed no overt reaction.

“I would hazard a statement that this is the first sign of the war,” the walking lizard said her words in a hiss.

“I agree.” Arelland looked up at the sky where the storm clouds were beginning to clear up. “You’ll need to begin soon.”

“Begin what?” Trish asked.

“The merchanting, right?” Rory said. “I got the warning from the system. They’re going to send someone to check soon.”

“What?” Trish stared at him, and several of the others started in surprise as well. “You didn’t tell us before?”

“I just found out less than an hour ago.”

That put a damper on their sudden excitement. Not that Rory had intended to remind them of the attack.

Thankfully, the dwarf decided to break the uncomfortable ice.

“My name is Delic,” he said, lingering on the “-ch” sound at the end of his name. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Rory. I heard you are a Weaver. You are in an interesting position, offering your skills to all.”

“Yes,” Rory said. “Arelland did a great job explaining all the… implications.”

Delic laughed at that. He nodded afterwards, and Rory got the feeling he had the dwarf’s respect, though for what, he wasn’t sure.

“I am Severliss,” the walking lizard said, her words ending in a hiss. “It is a pleasure to meet you. May our acquaintance prove to be long and fruitful.”

Upon closer inspection, Rory found that the Severliss’s body was more humanoid, so she was like a minotaur but with a dragon head instead of a bulls. Her snout was filled with big fangs and two horns jutted out of the back of her head. Where her dusty travel clothes didn’t cover her up, light caught on her purplish scales at her every little movement.

“I hope so too,” Rory said.

The kobold’s slit pupils glittered at his words.

“I am Urg,” the giant said. He spoke in a heavy, thunderous tumble. “I do not seek pleasure in this. We are here to discuss our proposition, nothing more. Therefore, let us begin and be done with it.”

Where the others looked more civilized in their attire, he was dressed in little more than rags, most of his marble-hued skin exposed to the elements. His head was wide like his body, his neck non-existent and his long hair a dirty mess. Clearly, he didn’t think much of the meeting if he couldn’t be bothered to look somewhat decent.

Arelland tutted. “Fear not, Rory. Urg acts that way with everyone.”

The giant rumbled. “It is the only way to act.”

Rory could say otherwise, but perhaps this was a cultural difference or something. Maybe Urg’s kind simply valued pragmatism and detested formalities and beating about the bush.

“Regardless,” Arelland said. “He is correct. We are here to discuss the terms of obtaining your letter of recognition and the trade deal. Though… there is a complication.”

“The Imps, yes?” Rory asked.

“Yes. I wasn’t expecting them to act so quickly.”

“You make it sound like orchestrating an attack against us isn’t the only thing they did.”

“It isn’t,” Delic said. “The Imps sent us a delegation a few days ago.”

“What did they want with you?” Rory asked. “I’m assuming they didn’t threaten to eradicate you if you didn’t evacuate Dwellmont.”

“You are correct,” Severliss said. There wasn’t a single trace of humour or any other emotion in her voice. “They have stated their case and offered their terms, and it was only Arelland’s timely… intervention that prevented an official deal being struck.”

“So, you’re not willing to make a deal with both us and the Imps?”

“Ah yes. Arelland mentioned you were lacking in information. No matter. The system only allows a single system-approved business in a certain locale. We cannot have both you and the Imps in the same area.”

“That’s…” Rory wanted to let loose a strong of invectives but there was no point. This system wasn’t something he could exactly argue with. “Well, we were here first, so. We claim this land as ours.”

“Whatever claims you may wish to put forth, the Imps do not care. Neither does the system. They only thing that matters is proving your worth.”

“And how would we go about doing that?” Viv asked from behind. It seemed their meeting had gone on long enough to draw her in as well.

“We have a task for you,” Urg said. “You and the Imps have the same one. You are to provide us with four select items that you think will benefit us the most. We each will receive one of these four items. We will judge which of our two options, one from you and one from the Imps, is better for us, and then decide who has our approval for forming a trade deal and receiving a letter of recognition.”

“Wait.” Rory pressed his fingers to his forehead and tried to think clearly. “You want us to create something for each of you, and then you’ll judge us based on how useful the created item is to you all?”

“Correct.”

“How are we supposed to know what is useful to you? We’d need to—”

“That is for you to determine to the best of your abilities.”

“That seems unfair,” Viv said. “What’s useful to one person might not be useful to another. Most beneficial is something that everyone determines individually. How are we supposed to understand what each of you personally value enough?”

“Again,” Severliss said. “That is for you to explore and understand however you best can.”

Rory sighed. It wasn’t impossible. The obvious route was to engage in conversation with each of the representatives and try to figure out what they preferred, what they needed, and what not. But something told him it wasn’t going to be that easy. He doubted any of them would want to speak with him beyond this meeting, except, perhaps, Arelland.

That was going to have to be his method of getting ahead in this.

“I assume you’re not going to hang around after this meeting,” Rory said. “So I can interrogate you and you can kindly inform me about what exactly you need the most.”

Delic laughed throatily. “We will be leaving soon, so I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

“Preparing for the battle?” Dez asked.

“Among other things. As you must prepare once you have… recovered.”

Rory’s face darkened.

“Have you started working towards getting a letter of recognition from the humans?” Arelland asked.

“We have been busy,” Rory said. “And now we need to take care of some things first.”

Delic peered past Rory. “Tell you what, if we can manage to officially strike a deal, some of us dwarves will come in and see what we can do about your Settlement.”

“What do you mean?” Viv asked.

“We have quite a lot of architectural expertise, so I think we can help you repair and even improve on what you have or used to have. Think of it as an extra impetus for getting the recognition from the Otherworlders.”

“I think we have more than enough impetus,” Trish said.

No one spoke for a while after that. An uncomfortable silence hung like a deathly pallor over them all. Rory wasn’t inclined to help remove it. Arelland and the Otherworlders’ distraction could no longer keep his thoughts from the corpses awaiting his attention, from the injured and demoralized who needed his help and guidance.

That’s when the heavens broke open.

The Battle Apocalypse has now begun. To all vaunted participants, may fortune favour your bravery. To the rest, may you find the path to righteous salvation before you are destroyed. A storm of Mana has been granted to you for the purposes of fielding your first campaign. May the best prevail.

Rory took note of the words before him, but he barely registered them. His eyes were fixed on the sky above, where the clouds were dissolving into a rain of Mana. No, a growing storm of Mana. They really did have no time to waste.

“Ah.” For the first time since he’d come here, the giant sounded actually pleased about something. “It has begun. I believe I can now be myself once more.”

“What are you going to do?” Rory asked.

“We will join the war effort,” Delic said. “Where needed, of course. Not all of us are frontline fighters like Arelland and Urg here.”

“And will you now be meeting the Imps?”

Severliss smiled at Rory, baring her fangs. “Why, aren’t you a curious one.”

Rory wasn’t sure what he felt about the people at Mirrorend. Despite having no sense of concern or worry for them, they were fellow people all the same. Homeworlders sharing a similar plight. A part of Rory sympathized with their goal of standing against the Otherworlders. A part of him wanted them to beat the Otherworlders, even Arelland if need be, and win for the sake of humanity.

He voiced nothing of it, though. Rory was sure his new friends wouldn’t appreciate those kinds of sentiments.

With final goodbyes, the Otherworlders began leaving. All but Arelland.

“You all go on ahead,” Arelland said. “I’ll catch up with you at the marketplace.”

While the others left, Delic paused to turn back. “Business to attend?”

“Just a little promise to keep.”

The dwarf smiled, first at the elf, then at Rory. “See you later, then.”

Even after the rest of them were gone, Rory found he had nothing to say to the elf. Instead, he turned back to the others as the first flakes of Mana fell among them.

“There’s a storm coming, huh?” Trish said, palm stretched out to receive a glowing blue flake.

“Doesn’t matter,” Rory said. “We’re going to work through whatever storm this system throws at us, at least until it’s unbearable. We’ve got people to bury or burn, wounded to assist, and a palace to rebuild. Don’t have time for storms. Let’s go.”

As the others trudged back to the palace, Rory froze. A storm. Again. Just like the one a mere hour ago that had wiped out nearly half of them. Then Viv was by his side, Arelland on the others. Their presences felt solid. Warm.

At the same time, the urgency hit him hard. At some point in the near future, the system would be hammering down upon them for having a seemingly illegal Safe Zone, unless Rory and company managed to set up their merchant business. It felt like there was so much to do in so little time.

But they had survived all storms thrown at them so far, costly though it had been. Rory would make sure they survived them all.