Chapter 24

Wil was currently organizing the House Guard, having them form patrols to protect the nearby towns and the outlying farms and vineyards. Brookmoor did not have a large Imperial Legion presence, leaving it to their Guards to defend the region.

He had already sent orders to abandon the more remote areas of their fief, pulling back to the larger towns and more easily defended, well supplied regions.

There hadn’t been an attack yet, but everything he was seeing from the Black Moon, and the rising Negative Energy in the air, spoke of the coming conflict.

“Message from the Eastern Patrols. Everything is clear.” Garman said, walking up to Wil where the young man was standing in the dining room of the estate, a large map of their fiefdom spread out on the table. Markus was on his way to the capital to report to the Emperor, and oversee the interrogation of Tabitha, leaving the defense of Brookmoor to Wil.

“Alright.” Wil confirmed, marking a notation on the map in front of him. “Any word from the Capital?”

“Nothing new. Last we heard, they were still struggling to contain the afflicted. Thank heavens we haven’t had to deal with that here.” Garman said, looking over the map with Wil. There had been a few isolated incidents of people losing their minds at the sight of the Black Moon, but they had been easy to contain.

“Small mercies.” Wil replied quietly.

“Listen Junior, Markus will find her. You just need to be patient, and concentrate on what you can do here. Someone needs to see these people through this, and with your father imprisoned, it’s on you and Markus.”

“Gods damn it all, I should be out there looking for her!” Wil shouted, slamming his fist onto the table. With a crack, the thick wooden dining table snapped in half. The crash stunned Wil for a moment, and he stared in shock at what he had done.

“And do what exactly? You haven’t recovered from the Cultists, you need to rest, regain your strength. You’re going to need everything you’ve got, Junior, or we’re all going to suffer.” Garman advised him.

“When did you become the responsible one?” Wil responded, lowering his clenched fist, and flashing a grin at his friend.

“Experience and age, Junior. Someday you’ll get there, if you’re stupidity doesn’t get you killed first.” Garman said, patting him on the shoulder. They were interrupted by Kellerman dashing into the room, a concerned look on his face.

“We’ve got trouble in the town Cemetery. Patrol found a group of zombies clawing their way out of their graves.” Kellerman explained, sparing the broken table a brief look, before turning to Wil for orders.

“I’ll handle it, Junior. I’ll ride out there, put them down for good and burn the bodies. Send an order to the other Patrols, any dead bodies they find need to be burned or we’ll have every corpse in Brookmoor after us.” Garman said, walking out of the room.

Wil trusted him to see them through the crisis, the man was too stubborn to die, Aachen had proved to more than once.

“I’ll send messages out.” Kellerman said, giving Wil a brief nod before leaving the young man alone in the dining room.

Wil stared at the broken table a sighed. Drawing on a small amount of his mana, he focused it into a Tier 1 spell.

“Repair” he muttered, touching his hand to the wood. In moments, the shattered pieces reformed, the only sign they were ever damaged was a line through the middle, where the fragments had been rejoined.

He didn’t have a moment to enjoy the fruits of his labor before a tremendous crash sounded outside, followed by screaming. He heard the stomping of armored feet as the House Guard moved towards the commotion, ready to defend the estate.

Wil bolted from the room, already drawing his sword. Taking the stairs two at a time, he rushed out of the manor house, entering the front courtyard.

In front of his family home was a ship. It appeared to have been ripped from the ocean and ruthlessly smashed onto his lawn. It was missing its mast, and both the front and rear ends of the ship were gone, sliced off as if by a sharp knife.

The air reeked of ozone, the telltale sign of powerful magic. Ringing the boat were dozens of his House Guard, weapons drawn, and spell matrices prepared.

“Wil!” A voice yelled from the top deck. A silver haired woman was leaping from the ship, floating gracefully towards the ground. Landing, she dashed forward, ignoring the line of warriors and mages in front of her.

“Astrid? Stand down! They’re friends.” Wil ordered, just as the beautiful woman slammed into him, throwing her arms around his torso.

“How did you-” he tried to ask, but she cut him off.

“I did it! It was terrible, Wil. The moon cracked, and everyone was going crazy, but Bell and Annabelle got us to the ship. Then, when we were trying to sail away, a giant thing, came out of the water and tried to eat us. So, I used an Escape Orb my mother gave me when we were adventuring. It was supposed to only carry me and a few people, but I guess it was stronger than I thought!” She explained, her voice going a mile a minute.

Wil had trouble keeping up, but he was glad she was safe. It was even better when he spotted Bell, Quentin and the others slowly climbing down using a gangway stretched from the deck to the ground.

“Bell, Annabelle, Edvard! Welcome to my home. Interesting way to travel.” Wil said when they reached him.

“Aye lad, and a welcome one. That creature almost had us before young Astrid whisked us away.” Bell said, shaking Wil’s hand.

“I’m glad you’re safe.” Quentin replied, elbowing Astrid out of the way in order to hug Wil.

“You too. According to the story Astrid was telling, Brookmoor is safer than Elbing for you right now.”

“Do you know what is happening, Wil?” Edvard asked. Wil nodded at the question.

“Serena’s been taken by cultists. I fought them in the Capital…I thought we stopped them.” Wil answered, before stopping, trying to force his emotions down.

“Mara?” Annabelle asked, dreading the answer. Wil simply shook his head, unable to reply. They stood there for moments, taking in the information, taking comfort in each other. Bell took the news the hardest, Mara had been practically family to him. Walking away, the older man stepped into the manor house, preferring to be alone with his grief.

It was a long time before they regained their composure enough to carry on.

“Wil, what are we going to do?” Quentin asked as he led them all inside. Servants scrambled to prepare rooms for his friends.

“We’ll defend Brookmoor until Markus and Kathryn return. Hopefully they’ll have a lead we can follow to find Serena and put a stop to all this. That’s all we can do for now.” Wil said, his voice filled with resignation. He had responsibilities here, as much as he wanted to find Serena as soon as possible.

“We’ll find her, Wil.” Quentin reassured him, her hand on his arm comfortingly.

“I know.”