Edeline would be the first to admit she was hardly an outgoing person. During the short time she had been forced into leading Hallowscroft, she had preferred to work privately, only meeting with people when necessary. It was part of the reason the situation had gotten as bad as it did. Simple proof that she was no leader of men, and never would be.

  Despite that, she could tell, after just a moment, that something was dreadfully wrong in Lasfont.

  There was no one here. No guards at the entrance to the town. No passerby walking up and down the road beyond. No footsteps on the cobblestones, no words being whispered, no haggling from vendors and shopkeepers. There was no sound but their breathing and the wind, all empty air.

  "Well, can't say I expected this," Myronel spoke, drawing his sword.

  Edeline did the same, settling into a guarded fighting stance. She might be tired, they all might be, but if it came to battle, they were still more than ready to protect themselves. The question now was...what were they protecting themselves from?

  "Welcome to Lasfont," Nela commented.

  "Indeed," Hamond said, "So now where do we go?"

  "This is not right," Ugotlas spoke. He was half-crouched, tail flicking back and forth rapidly. There was clear fear in his voice, something she had never heard from him before. "The residual magic...I have never seen a spell of this magnitude. Not our wisest, not anyone...this is beyond me. This is beyond us all."

  It was not how Edeline had wanted to find out what a panicking Sekhmati looked like. But at least it gave her an idea on how to proceed. "Teleios horama," she said, calling on the spell to augment her vision and let her see the essence of magic itself.

  Everything gleamed faintly, as if covered with a shimmering dust. It would be beautiful, if the implications were not so dire. An enchantment of this size and power, spread across...could it really have covered the entire town? Even if it did not, this made the spells she had received from the Stormsage statue seem mundane, as basic as the simple light spell was in comparison to them.

  Hamond gasped in turn, having used the same spell to see the state of Lasfont. "What in Aether's blood did this?"

  "I'm going to assume we should get out of this town," Nela said.

  Edeline sighed, letting the spell fade. "It's not that simple. Even if we were to set aside our goals here, we need more supplies." There was no way around it. Even if they gave up here and returned to Hallowscroft - which she would never agree to - they needed food aplenty for that journey, or any other they chose.

  "Would be nice if either of you could come up with a spell to conjure food." Nela wiped her forehead with a hand. "Anyway, do we search for the nearest tavern or-"

  "Look up there!" Jylania interrupted, pointing.

  Following the girl's outstretched finger, Edeline spotted it immediately. Or rather, she, because the part of this creature that wasn't that of a beast was very clearly that of a young woman. But instead of a horse, this seemed to be a bird. Wings instead of arms were hanging down at what looked to Edeline to be an awkward angle. The legs, or at least what Edeline could see, were covered in feathers.

  But most unlike the horse...man they had faced before, there was no savagery in her eyes or face. The woman, whatever she had become, gazed down at them with...was it sadness? Edeline was not sure if she was imagining it, but one thing was certain. The bird woman was not attacking, and showed no signs of hostility.

  "Greetings!" Myronel called out, stepping in front of the group.

  The bird woman spread her wings, rearing back. The dark feathers, with specks of lighter gray among them, made for quite the impressive sight. It was beautifully majestic, even if the creature was unnatural.

  A second later, the woman screamed.

  It was a sound without words, unrestrained raw emotion echoing off the buildings. Whether it was sorrow, rage, or fear, Edeline could not say. Perhaps it was all three. But whatever it was, it signaled the confrontation here to everyone, or everything, in the town.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  After a moment, the scream faded, and the creature's wings were lowered once more. With one final glance at them, the woman turned away, walking awkwardly out of sight. It was hard to see with the sunlight and the woman's brown skin, but Edeline thought she saw some strange symbols on her bare back. Could that be part of whatever enchantment had made her into this creature?

  Edeline thought back, trying to remember if the horse man from before had similar symbols. They had not checked, a detail Edeline now found herself cursing. With his body now little more than bone and ash on the plains, there was no possibility of knowing any more.

  "That hurt my ears," Jylania stated.

  "You and me both," Nela said, "Was that supposed to be a warning?"

  "It's possible," Myronel said, "Whatever it was, everyone and everything had to have heard it. We need to move before-"

  "You there!" a voice rang out.

  "-they get here," Myronel finished weakly.

  A pair of armed men came trotting down the street. They both wore a similar outfit, although one of them had no sleeves on his dark tunic. The town guard, perhaps, which was a bit of relief to Edeline. Maybe now they would get an explanation for what had befallen Lasfont.

  "Travelers, I suppose," one of the men said, looking them over.

  "Five of them," the other man noted, looking at his fellow.

  Edeline held back a sigh. She didn't have to look back to see that Ugotlas had yet again hidden himself with his own magic. While that worked well enough for the farmers they met for one day before continuing north, the issues of trust it could create in a town they intended to remain in were all too many. Nothing that could be done about it now, though.

  "You're lucky we got here when we did. When we heard the cry of one of those bird monsters, well..."

  "She did not attack us," Edeline pointed out.

  "It would've. We've seen them tearing up dead bodies, so trust us. And they're not even the worst." The man looked around, suddenly on edge. "It's getting late in the day, so you need to follow us."

  "Worse comes out at night?" Hamond's expression was that of tired despair. Edeline could sympathize. This was very much not what they had expected to find in Lasfont.

  "Worse shit indeed," the first man said, "Trust me, you do not want to face down one of those."

  "Understood," Myronel said, "Lead on."

  The men started to move off, with them following. "We'll be headed for Southwind Street," one of them explained, "We've been able to barricade most of it off, so we're holed up in there."

  "I just said they were travelers, you fool," the other man snapped, "They probably don't know Southwind Street from the backside of a sphinx."

  Edeline decided to not comment on that remark.

  "We came from the south," Myronel told them, "We had hoped to meet with someone here in Lasfont, but...what exactly happened here?"

  "Monsters happened," the guard said, "The captain can probably tell about it better than we can."

  "Guess we better meet with your captain then," Myronel noted. Edeline shot him a glare, annoyed that they would have to meet with someone with them in their current state. Not that her brother was wrong. If this captain were in charge of the survivors, they would have to talk briefly, regardless of how exhausted their group was.

  "Hope you know how to use those weapons. We need every sword arm we can get."

  "We've seen a fight or two," Myronel offered as reassurance. Given who and what they had fought, that was underselling their skill.

  "Not sure why you brought the girl along though." The man gave a curious look at Jylania. "Bit weird to have a child like that on the road, right?"

  "She had nowhere else to go," Nela answered defensively. The part about there being nowhere else Jylania would rather be would go unsaid, Edeline silently reminded herself. It would remain that way unless the matter of Nela being a healer came up. Which, given the state of Lasfont, might be very soon.

  "Good of you to take her in, I suppose," the man in front said with a shrug, "Although Lasfont isn't the safest place. Not any more."

  "As we've learned, nowhere in Hyarch is really safe," Myronel said.

  "I could believe that," the man replied, "Anyway, we're about there."

  The street narrowed further ahead, and in front of them Edeline could see what looked like a pair of tables stacked on their sides. Hardly an effective barricade, but she guessed it was that way to make it easy to take down to let people through.

  "We're back!" one of the men with them called out.

  A moment passed, then with a grunt from the other side the top table was pulled away. "You found more survivors?"

  "Travelers, actually. They'd gotten the attention of one of the birds, but we got there first." Edeline fought back a surge of anger at the blatant lie. To think this pair had seemed friendly, only to act so self-servingly. At least the truth would be made clear in their meeting with the captain.

  "Bet they wish they hadn't stumbled into this shit." The other table was pulled aside, and another guard beckoned them in. "Welcome to Lasfont, I guess. You want me to take them to meet Captain Takhat?"

  "If it's not a problem, we'd prefer to find a place first to leave our bags," Myronel spoke up. Edeline briefly wondered what Ugotlas was going to do, but decided that he had made his decision to hide. Besides, no doubt the sphinx would easily find his own way in.

  "Fair enough," the sentry said, "Get in here, and we'll find you some space."

  They headed through, emerging out into a wider street. Behind them, Edeline could hear the sounds of the men lifting the tables back into place. In front of them, a few scattered groups of people huddled in whatever shade they could find, talking in low voices.

  Edeline had seen similar looks of desperation before. Knowing her brother, knowing Nela, they both would want to do something about it. Knowing herself, she would not...she could not bring herself to say no.

  The Elemental Hex had waited countless years. They could wait a few more days yet.

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