I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping happily and voices in the distance making smalltalk. As I slowly opened my eyes, I wasn’t immediately clear on where I was, but a familiar sense of comfort washed over me when I realized I was hunched over the desk in our office, my right cheek pressed cozily against its wooden surface.

Huh. Haven’t fallen asleep at my desk for a while. How nostalgic, I mused to myself.

Few understood how I could sleep in such an awkward position without waking up with a stiff neck, but I found it oddly rejuvenating at times. And today was one of those days, as the haziness cleared from my mind and I felt a fresh surge of energy coursing through my veins.

But as I tried to recall what had happened before I dozed off, a movement caught my eye. Startled, I jolted upright and found myself face-to-face with a young girl staring at me intently.

“Whoa. Hey,” I blurted out.

“Good morning, Miles.” Riala greeted me with a forced cheeriness that failed to mask the anxiety in her expression.

“Are you okay?” I asked, concerned.

She nodded, her head bobbing listlessly on her hands propped up on the desk. “Sis left,” she murmured.

“Ahh, I see...” I replied, feeling a frown tugging at the corners of my mouth. I glanced out the open door, peering into the dimly lit clearing beyond. The sun had yet to rise over the treetops, and I knew I still had time.

“Sorry that Hayla interrupted us last night. I meant to talk to you,” I continued, hoping to ease her unease.

“It’s okay, I wanted to spend time with Sis before she left anyway. Even though she kept trying to convince me to come with her.” Her signature pout was accompanied by a light grumble. “That’s so annoying.”

“I can imagine,” I sympathized. “But you know that she’s just worried about you, right?”

“I know... But I’m strong, she doesn’t need to worry about me. Nobody here is treating me like a baby.” Defiance laced her voice.

“Unfortunately, that’s just how parents and older siblings are,” I said with a wry smile. “Misguided or not.”

“Tomar didn’t do it either!” Riala retorted.

“Yea... Say, Ria, you didn’t know about this until last night either, right? That you and Tomar were siblings?”

She shook her head. “Uh, uh.”

“Hm.” I was still contemplating this new information. I figured Tomar hadn’t known either, or he would’ve told me at some point. On the surface, it didn’t seem to change much about our situation, but I had a gnawing feeling that there was more weight behind this revelation. As if it meant something.

We both fell into silence, each lost in our own thoughts. Riala was the first to break it. “Now I hate it even more how mean Sis always was to Tomar.”

“I can understand that,” I acknowledged. “But I believe she let you spend time with him because he was your brother. That’s something, isn’t it?”

Riala nodded, though disappointment still lingered in her eyes. “I guess...” she said as she finally rose to a sitting position. “But I think she won’t stop. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”

“Oh? Did she say something?” I asked, feeling a mixture of curiosity and worry.

Riala heaved a weary sigh. “Yea. She thought I wasn’t listening when she talked to Lait. They said they will ‘not tolerate that you’re doing as you please,’ and that she would come back for me.”

My hopes for this truly being the end of our back and forths hadn’t been high, but I now felt a tinge of disappointment as well. “Meh. And so it continues,” I complained. “It’s frustrating that we can’t just explain everything to her. Even if there weren’t any risks, she wouldn’t believe a word I say.”

Riala nodded in agreement. “Yup. Lait even still believes that you can control people.”

I let out a deep sigh, my shoulders drooping in resignation. “I guess that was to be expected,” I said wearily.

We chatted a while longer, Riala telling me everything she had overheard, even though she didn’t like to spy on her sister. In a way, she was caught between two fronts. She loved Zara, and she wanted to spend time with her, but she was not willing to do it on Zara’s terms. To be free to make her own decisions, Riala needed to rely on my backup, which necessitated that I had information to act upon.

While she wasn’t able to tell me much that I couldn’t have guessed by this point, I did learn that Zara had wed Lait just to be reunited with Riala. And that Lait was supporting his new wife in her ambitions. Though he probably didn’t have much of a choice, given Zara’s stubbornness. I was relieved neither of them had any real power. If Zara had married someone of importance, like the king, it might’ve put us into more of a bind.

“At least Lait is nicer than Konnor,” Riala exclaimed as she kept talking about the two. “He has decorum!”

“Decorum, huh?” I chuckled, shaking my head in amusement. “One evening with a Ruler and you’re picking up big words?”

“I like it,” she replied, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “It sounds fancy.”

I grinned warmly at her, remembering my own sister and our shared love for senseless discussions about nonsensical topics, like the sound and meaning behind words. Riala and I now had one more thing in common, a sibling lost to us. I was unwilling to dwell any longer on heavy topics though and decided to change the subject. “So, what’s happening outside?” I asked. “And why didn’t anyone wake me?”

“Hayla said not to, because you need your rest,” Riala explained. “Berla and Reurig aren’t back yet, but everybody else is up.”

“What about Asena and the others? Are they behaving?” This I had been a little concerned about, and I felt bad that I had gotten distracted and fallen asleep without checking on them.

Riala’s answer elevated my worries. “Yup. They’ve been lying around and watching everything like Hati did at first. I wonder if they’ll later laze around like he does as well,” she teased, a playful glint in her eyes.

“Perhaps some of them,” I laughed. “But I suspect Asena will never relax to such a degree.”

“I hope she’ll let me ride her someday though. She’s even fluffier than Hati!” Riala exclaimed with a twinkle in her eyes.

Asena had adamantly refused the idea, no matter how much Riala begged, but I wished her the best of luck in convincing the wolf otherwise.

“Shall we see what the others are up to then?” I asked, my stomach growling in agreement.

“Okay!”

An unnatural spring in my step, I stood up from the desk and realized once more that I felt weirdly energetic. I attributed it to a good night’s sleep at first, but now it felt like more than that. It appeared that Riala noticed this as well.

Cocking her head in curiosity, she asked, “You're feeling good too?”

Surprised that I wasn’t the only one, I replied, “You feel it too?”

Riala nodded. “Mhm! I’m sad, but my body feels... tingly.”

“Something like that, yea...” I fell into thought as we made our way out of the office and towards the front door.

The feeling reminded me of the first time Tomar experienced mana flowing through him. We had had an abundance of energy, due to the mana amplifying his natural abilities. By now I was well and truly used to that new baseline, so it seemed weird that both Riala and I were experiencing the feeling again. No matter how many answers I found, it seemed like a new question was always right around the next corner.

We emerged into the clearing, and I surveyed the area in front of the houses—our main square, so to speak. The smell of wood smoke and cooking food wafted in the air, and I could hear laughter and chatter filling the surroundings. Most of the others were gathered around a cooking pot hanging over the campfire, waving at me in greeting. The only ones missing were Oryn and Emeryn. Meanwhile, the mods were scattered around the area, watching everyone with great interest, just as Riala had reported.

Bounding over to the group, Riala exchanged animated greetings with everyone, and I trailed behind her, until I caught sight of people approaching in the corner of my eye. My gaze was met by four Fighters, making their way through the thick undergrowth to the east. Berla and Reurig appeared first, followed by Brie and Garn, all of them wearing broad smiles as they greeted the rest of us with waves and cheerful banter.

As we converged around the fire, Garn piped up, “Hey there! It was about time you got us!”

I chuckled, “Sorry, we were a bit busy. But I welcome you to the Wildlands! Are you guys alright?”

“We are now,” Brie replied, beaming. She looked between me and Bren as she continued. “I was honestly a little worried after we didn’t hear anything from you.”

“I can imagine...” Bren said apologetically. Standing up, he greeted them properly and continued. “What’s the situation? Is Eissen still giving everyone a hard time?”

“Actually, it’s worse than that,” Brie said, an exhausted tone in her voice. “Eissen was killed, and now every wannabe captain is jockeying for power.”

A collective gasp echoed around the fire as we all absorbed this shocking news. “Eissen is dead? What happened?” Bren demanded.

“Let’s sit down and talk it over,” I suggested.

And so, as we shared a meal, Brie and Garn recounted the events that had occurred since we had last been in touch. We listened intently as they revealed the revenge of the Kalens, the executions that followed, the chaos that ensued as Eissen’s death triggered a scramble for leadership, and the citizens’ reactions to the establishment of the Guild. In turn, we explained our plans, our next moves, and showed them around our new home.

On our tour we also stumbled upon Oryn in his quarters, where I solved the mystery of the previous night’s events. It turned out that I had dozed off mere moments after our experimentation had begun, and Oryn had taken it upon himself to delve into the study of the stone. Brie and Garn had a hearty laugh over my inability to live out my obsession, happy to know that nothing had changed.

Lastly, I consulted with Reurig, who had brought back intelligence regarding the caravan, which was scheduled to depart in just two short hours from now. Given this limited window of opportunity, it wasn’t long before I decided to head out and meet them. After explaining to Riala that she couldn’t come because I didn’t trust the mods enough to let them alone with the others yet, I climbed atop Hati once more.

From my elevated position, I gazed across the clearing, into the eyes of a growing number of members for our group. With each passing day, our operation was expanding, but fortunately I remained comfortable with the pace at which it was evolving. In fact, I was positively exhilarated by the prospect of what we could achieve with more hands and claws on deck.

As the sun crept above the treetops, its warm rays illuminated my face, and a gentle breeze tickled my nose. The sky was an endless expanse of crystal blue, and I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear, confident that today was going to be another great day. Last night was just an outlier.

Those were my honest thoughts as I looked up and saw two birds fly by peacefully. My face then froze, noticing something odd. The sky suddenly began to shift. I stared slack-jawed as a smattering of purplish-lavender spots dotted the previously unbroken blue expanse.

I squinted my eyes, thinking I was imagining things, but the others’ expressions soon mirrored my own stunned disbelief. Within seconds, a purple-hued veil shrouded the sky, and the air around us grew heavy.

The confused faces around me signaled that nobody knew what was going on, validating my eventual response. “What... the... fuck...?”