The next morning we woke up and got ready to head out. I let the others know what Blink had seen as we armored up. None of them knew what to make of the monster, but we all agreed that we would just deal with it as we went. The hope was that it would be taken care of for us.

As Irwin finished his last bite of breakfast, he said. “I am more worried about the orcs and what that will mean for us.”

Renfry shot him a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

Our healer replied. “With the number of undead orcs we have seen, knowing that they are still attacking here worries me somewhat. Why would they keep throwing bodies at the lich? Also, what will happen if he isn’t here? Or, more specifically, what will happen without his controlled army?”

I nodded slowly. “Those are good questions. Sadly, I largely don’t think that we have answers for them. The lich is holding Blink as a prisoner, and he has to go for that reason alone. Then there is the fact that he came after us. If he hadn’t, I would likely have tried to pass on right past him.”

Kasidy smiled. “I don’t think you would have just passed them by. I am sure that you would still have tried to reclaim the area that’s yours.”

I shook my head. “Nope! It wasn’t mine. I had never owned it until I got it with the Tower. Honestly, that was just random chance becoming a Marquess. I don’t mind most of the perks, but there are some drawbacks. Worse than that, I have to choose between either pawning off the real work of leading the lands or settling down and doing it myself. Neither seem like something that I honestly want to do. I would rather just be me.”

Renfry laughed. “Well, as they say, that ship’s sailed!”

I sighed and nodded. Then I got up and started to gather the rest of my gear. Much of it was left behind at the wagon, as we weren’t expecting this part to take so long. Everyone else was doing the same. Kasidy was the last to finish getting ready then we all filled up next to do the door.

I nodded to Renfry, “You ready?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Irwin, good to go?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Kasidy, you all set?”

She just smiled and nodded.

I was about to tell Renfry to go when I remembered something. “Hey Kas, what was it that you wanted to tell me yesterday?”

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I don’t remember it will come to me again.”

I smiled. “Okay, Renfry, go back out front; we are heading down the street to the next section of the city.”

My house champion nodded, drew his sword, and opened the door. He stepped out into the hallway and scanned both ways. I watched as the slight tension that he had in his shoulders faded away. He grunted and then moved to the end of the hall heading back to the main room.

We repeated the same process to pass into the main entrance room of the temple. The magical lights above lit back up as we came through the side door. They started lighting up the mosaics next to us and then went counterclockwise around the room. I paused to take a look at the wall art next to us.

As I looked at the wall, it all started to click, or rather some of it did. This room felt like it was very similar to one that I had just seen in a dream. Right in the middle of the floor was a rug with a pillow. The mosaic on the wall beside me showed a room like this and two men sitting on the rug. The sunlight was made to look like it was moving toward them but hadn’t reached them yet.

It clicked, this place might not have been the same place as my dream of Ash, but it was close to it. Like the building was designed after the one in my memory. The me in my dreams said his name for the first time, where it didn’t change to my name. He called himself Maximus. But Kasidy had said this was someone else’s temple.

I pulled my eyes from the wall and asked. “Kas, whose temple did you say this was?”

She pointed over at the doors with a huge tree carved into them. The tree was divided into four sections, each showing it in a different season. A memory was tugging at my brain as I tried to put everything together.

Then she said. “This belongs to the god of seasons and harvests.”

I nodded as we walked toward the front door. “Do you know his name, not his title?”

She shook her head. “No, the songs I have don’t use his name. They just have his title, there are a few gods like that, and most of them are newer.”

I sighed, I felt like I knew something about this, but I couldn’t make things stick. Then Renfry spoke. “In my day, at least one of his names was common. It was Maximus. He was one of the old gods then, so to hear that he is thought of as new is odd.”

I kept myself from staggering, but just barely. The Ash guy I had been dreaming about since I got here was now calling himself by the same name. Ash had been working for Order and Chaos as well. My brain was moving, but I had stopped.

Irwin placed his hand on my shoulder. “My lord, are you alright?”

I slowly nodded. Then I started to think it through a bit more. I was not alright… not at all. That stooge Sam worked for this god; that’s where I had seen the tree before. Sam had worn it when talking to me about being targeted by War. Sam knew this Maximus guy; I was sure of it.

I let a deep breath out. “Yeah, let’s go get Blink. I just pieced some things together about this god from things that I knew. That’s all. I just wasn’t expecting to learn something like that here.”

Kasidy gave me a warm smile and nodded, then said. “You sure? You looked like you did the first time I saw you.”

I laughed and shook my head. “No, I am still conscious. The first time you saw me was after you knocked me out.”

Irwin and Renfry both laughed. Then we picked our pace back up. It was time to get my bonded companion back. I forced the thoughts of Sam from my mind and what all it might mean that the dreams I was having were from the early days of a god.

As soon as we got up to the door and pulled the brace off of it. The slight shimmer that had been on the extra large doors faded away. Renfry glanced back at me, and I nodded. Then he slowly opened the man-sized door.

The morning light shined in, but nothing charged us. So we slipped back out and headed down the steps. As we did, I noticed a few details that I hadn’t seen before. There were two platforms on the steps about halfway down. It was empty and looked perfect for one person to stand on and talk like it was a stage. The other was much larger, and sitting on it was one of those huge two-person drums.

As we shuffled passed it, I quietly asked, “Anyone know why they have a drum here?”

Kasidy whispered back. “It’s used to formally call out other temples. Most temples no longer have them, only the really old ones.”

Since it was still early morning, the light was casting long shadows from the opposite side of the street. It was those shadows that we moved into quickly. Then, we started to make our way to the next section of town toward the castle. It wasn’t very far until we passed through another wall.

As we came through the gate, we saw even more large buildings like the one we spent the night in. Most of them were showing their age. There were a few, however, that, while they looked abandoned, didn’t appear to be falling apart as badly.

I wanted to ask about the temples still in good repair, but I didn’t dare. I was still unsure how much to share with everyone here. Asking my questions would have shown that I didn’t know what was happening. It also would have made more noise than we wanted. While we hadn’t seen any patrols, I felt we were working on borrowed time.

The next set of gates we passed through took us into smaller buildings again. The gate was clearly not meant to do much to defend the city. Instead, it was more just a line dividing the sections of the town. What surprised me, however, was the building directly in front of the gate.

Most of the other buildings on our trip had shown their age. Even the temples that were better looking still had gained a somewhat worn but not dilapidated appearance. However, this building that sat looking at the gate we had just passed through was perfect. The glass was clear looking through into the building, and the walkway in front was dust free.

I signaled to head inside. Renfry moved up to the door and tried to open it. However, the latch didn’t let him. I waved Kasidy forward, and she knelt in front of the door and pulled a pick out of her hair.

A moment later, she stood up, smiled, and we filed into the building. We pulled the door behind us, and she threw the latch. I quickly looked around, noticing that all the goods lining the shelves were clean.

Irwin shook his head. “I bet this is a cored shop; that’s why everything is still clean and here.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know that shops could be cored. I knew some buildings had been but didn’t know shops.”

Renfry shook his head. “Not all shops, but there were a few that made things that could have cores. I never knew of a general goods shop like this one being cored.”

I nodded. “Okay, so we have been moving for about an hour. Let’s take a short break and then head back out.”

Kasidy nodded. “Since the goods look okay, I’ll take a look to see if there is any food. We didn’t bring much with us.”

I nodded, “Good idea. Everyone take a moment to look around and see if there is anything that will help. But we can only take a few minutes; then we need to go.”

Renfry sighed. “We’ve been lucky. So far, there haven’t been any minions in this whole section of the city. That said, we should keep our eyes out and hope we don't run into any.”

“Yes, we have. Okay, take just a few minutes to see if we can find food or something, then we need to move.”

* * *