The Ebil river continued flowing around the island, separating the island from the wildlands to the north, and elven lands to the south. The sun beamed down, coating grains of sand and dusting ripples in the water. Everything shone, bright, glittering, and harsh.

  A few of the men had been injured in the fighting, though none as badly as Laryn. He would have to rely on his boosted constitution to help him heal more quickly.

  Hela, the woman who’d bandaged up his leg, took up her role as healer, tending to all the injured. She had performed the same function in Jardensvale, making her one of the most important and valuable members of community. Out here in the wildlands, medical attention could b very limited.

  Laryn looked over his domain.

  Voidling corpses lay strewn across the beach. He would have to sift those. Where had Widan and Gaten gotten to?

  Come to think of it, Laryn hadn’t seen Gaten since the voidlings had been killed.

  “Widan!” He called the boy over. “Have you seen Gaten? Where did he go?”

  Widan looked uncomfortable, and then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know.”

  “He was with you, when you were getting ready to defend the shelter against the voidlings. You were very brave, by the way.”

  “Thank you sir.” Widan glanced furtively toward the trees.

  “He’s not in trouble,” Laryn said. “I want to know what he knows.”

  “He didn’t want to do it,” Widan said. “His father made him.”

  “Gall,” Laryn gestured to the scarred man as he walked past. “Will you go with us to find Gaten?”

  The big man nodded, and Laryn climbed to his feet. His wounded leg stung, and his knee was stiff as he started walking. The joint soon warmed up, and the three of them walked into the woods of the island.

  Widan led them to a crevasse between two stones. Gaten sat there, red-eyed, sitting atop the crates of missing supplies.

  The boy started when he saw them, then cast his gaze into the ground. “So,” he said. “My father is dead, then?”

  “He is,” Laryn confirmed. “Tell me what happened.”

  “I didn’t know he was going to go crazy like that,” Gaten said. “He kept telling me how amazing the kingdom core was, and how we needed to claim it and re-found Jardensvale. He said we might need to change the name to Corilsvale, though.”

  Gaten wiped snot from his nose with the back of his hand. He seemed… relieved?

  “I was worried that he would win and take over the core,” Gaten said.

  Laryn’s eyebrows raised. “You… didn’t want him to win?”

  Gaten shook his head. “I was afraid of what he might do if he was in charge. He gets crazy about being in control,” Gaten said. “He… breaks things sometimes. Jarden always seemed to manage him, being the older brother, but since Jarden died, things got worse. I mean, not just with the village being destroyed. With my father.”

  “Worse how?”

  “He would rant and rave about Tasam,” Gaten said. “He made me come here last night, and I saw him… He…” The boy drilled into the ground with his gaze. “He was making me spy on you too. He forced me to steal these supplies the other night.”

  “What happened last night?” Laryn pressed.

  “He… well… Tasam was dead,” he said. “And he was strangling Talia. I wanted to stop him but… I couldn’t do anything. He made me drag Tasam to the water, to dispose of the body.” Gaten choked up, unable to continue speaking.

  “You didn’t want to,” Laryn said. “You wanted someone to find the body, and to realize what Coril had done.”

  Gaten nodded.

  “You intentionally threw the body into a part of the river where it might not be washed away. You dropped him into that eddy on purpose.”

  Another nod from Gaten.

  “I’m so sorry,” Laryn said. “I’m sorry about what happened to you. And I don’t blame you for what Coril made you do.”

  Gaten took a deep shuttering breath.

  “Now, if whenever you’re ready, you’re welcome to come help us again. Stay here as long as you need.”

  “You’re not going to kill me?” Gaten asked, peering up at Laryn with surprise.

  “Why would I do that?” Laryn asked. “Enough people have died today. Widan, Gall, can you start packing these crates back to the beach? We need to build a storehouse. We have a lot to do. Gaten, if you feel up to it, you can help.”

  Laryn began limping back through the woods, leaving the others to their work.

  “That was very charitable of you,” Adi said.

  “To not kill the boy?” Laryn scoffed. “I need him. I need all of them. I’m furious that Coril threw away Tasam’s life, and his own, to serve his own ambition.”

  “You need them?”

  “A kingdom needs people, to grow,” Laryn said. “And the only way we’ll survive in the wild is with growth.”

  “Will you trust one of them to rule, while you search for a coresmith?”

  “I think my initial plan was far too naive,” Laryn said. “And now that I have subjects, the need to move the core nearer a road is reduced. We can build our own road now. And I’ve realized that the Conqueror’s Core is too powerful a tool for me to trust it to anyone. Coril and Tasam proved how it can bring out the worst in ambitious people. We have the seeds we need to start building a kingdom here in the wilderness.”

  “This is great news,” Adi said. “I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you that you had the makings to be an excellent ruler.”

  Laryn laughed softly. “Liar,” he said.

  “Well… fine. You weren’t exactly looking your best when you activated the core. But look at you now!”

  Laryn emerged onto the beach and surveyed his kingdom. A half dozen men worked to drag the voidling corpses over to the kingdom core. Tasam’s remains lay beside the core as well, along with Coril’s remains.

  It would take some time for Laryn to sift them all. He hobbled over to the core.

  One of the men—Thallon, the blacksmith—hacked at the corpse of the stone-beetle, pulling away large portions of carapace.

  “What are you doing?” Laryn asked as he approached. Thallon glanced up from his work, cutting around another armor plate with his knife.

  “Harvesting chitin,” Thallon said. A thick sheet came away from the corpse, and Thallon stacked it with the other’s he’d recovered.

  “It’s useful,” he said. “It makes good armor. The spines are hard, and can tip spears. We had a lot of voidling equipment in Jardensvale; but we lost most of it when we ran.”

  “You know how to do all that? You’re our new armorer, then. Let me know if you need anything to help.”

  Thallon nodded, and returned to work.

  Laryn walked over to the core, and Adi appeared beside him.

  “Can I sift the remains of the voidlings, after Thallon is through with them?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Adi said. “How much essence you get depends on how much you sift.”

  “So… Is it possible to sift more than one corpse at a time, then?”

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  He looked down at Corvil and Tasam, lying quietly beside each other. Their faces were quiet masks of peace, the quiet neither one had been able to attain in life.

  “It’s volume based,” Adi said. “So you could stack them in your barrel together, probably, or just lay each one on top of the other—”

  “No,” Laryn cut her off. “I’m not pressed for time. They each deserve their own attention.”

  He knelt beside Coril.

  “Why?” she asked. “Coril betrayed you.”

  “He made some bad choices,” Laryn said. “But I can still recognize his qualities. He was a brave leader, who tried to lead his people through danger to safety. He deserves my respect for that.”

  Lifting Coril’s sword, he examined the edge. Several nicks and chinks marred the fine edge, scars from being used in a fight against Laryn’s sorcery enhanced steel.

  “Thallon,” Laryn called, tossing the sword to the armorer. “Do you think you can salvage this?”

  Thallon examined the sword and grinned. “I definitely can. But it’s going to take a bit of work.”

  Laryn cast [Sift] over Tasam first. “Farewell,” he whispered, pressing essence into the core. “You were right, all along. I should have listened to you. Your death is on my shoulders.”

  He spent the cooldown period helping clear refuse away from Thallon’s work area, dragging voidling carcass over to the core.

  Then he sifted Coril. “You were a fool, and a liar,” Laryn said as the essence of Coril’s body swirled around his hand. “But a brave one. And a fighter. You wanted power—now you are power.”

  He pushed the essence into the core, and rose, turning to see Gaten standing just outside the fence around the core. Laryn gave him a nod, and the boy approached.

  “My father was a bad man,” Gaten said.

  “He made some terrible choices,” Laryn agreed. “But we all make bad choices sometimes.” He rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. “You can choose to be better.”

  He thought of his own father. The man had many flaws. Traits Laryn wished to avoid, yet still saw in himself. He thought of Keldin. If he had made a different choice that day… but no. He couldn’t rollback time. Not that far, at least. Not yet.

  “Will you stay with us, Gaten?” Laryn asked.

  “You ask me to stay?”

  “We need you. We need all the help we can get, out here, in the wilderness.”

  Gaten nodded slowly. “Where else would I go?” he asked. Then, seeing Laryn was serious, he smiled. “You won’t regret it.”

  Laryn smiled, and clapped a hand on the lad’s shoulder. “I don’t think I will. Now, help Thallon get these voidlings processed.”

  After sifting the remains of the voidlings, Laryn pulled up the core interface and examined the map.

  One hundred core essence, with a balance debuff of twenty-two percent left him with seventy-eight total influence, or three and a half per tile. He didn’t have quite enough influence to capture three more rings worth of tiles and get additional constitution, but he could at least get the magic and strength.

  He traced out the tiles he wanted to capture. His kingdom would be a perfect hexagon, containing five completed rings. Some of the land he’d claimed lay on the southern side of the river, but he needed it to gain the ability buffs.

  Locking in these claims would reduce influence, and make things a bit harder for the people here. Was Laryn willing to make that tradeoff, to gain strength just for himself?

  In this moment, yes. It made sense. He needed to be strong. He locked in the move, and his kingdom expanded. All the new tiles he claimed were water essence, save two. This slightly adjusted the balance he needed to reach, reducing his debuff to 15%, and leaving him with 1.39 influence.

  A rush of strength surged through him. His sense of elements enhanced with his magical aptitude.

  He was ready. It was time to grow the kingdom.

  Laryn also had all the remaining gobo paste gathered up. They had no way of knowing what might have been poisoned, so it all had to go.

  “Adi, this is more refined material, right?” Laryn thought about the massive water mills in the capital of Eltar, where they refined and processed raw materials before sifting them. “It should be more dense with essence? I’ll get more by sifting it?”

  “That’s true,” Adi said. “But with that small quantity, I’d recommend adding it to a larger mass of leaves and sticks and stuff, so you maximize your efficiency. You might get one or two extra essence with one sift.”

  “A lot of production work for not a lot of gain,” Laryn mused. “But in the future, with more people and more equipment, it might start to be worth it.”

  That night, Laryn gathered the remaining people around the camp fire. Seventeen in total, including the youngest, a seven-year-old girl named Cara.

  In the absence of Coril and Tasam, some of the other Jardensvalers had become more vocal.

  The healer, Hela, and the armorer, Thallon, had stepped up in particular.

  Laryn addressed the gathered people.

  “You all saw what happened today,” Laryn said. “Coril betrayed all of us. I realized that I shouldn’t leave this place. Ishtoran meant for me to be here, to activate the core and rule. I should never have doubted that.”

  The light faded in the western sky as he spoke. Warm firelight illuminated the faces of the people around him.

  “I know it’s not a great offer, but anyone who wants to stay here is welcome to remain. It will be occasionally dangerous, and often uncomfortable. We will fight against the void. And we will grow.

  “If you’d rather take your chances elsewhere, or journey to Townshold, you may. I’ll outfit you with provisions. If you choose to stay, you’ll be vassals in my domain.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Thallon said. “I ventured with Jarden into the wildlands because I wanted to build something bigger.”

  “You have something special here,” Hela said, rising from her seat, and speaking more to the people of Jardensvale than to Laryn. “Jardensvale may have been a pearl in the mud, but Vallor is a diamond in the stone. There is work and danger here, yes. But also opportunity. I will stay. We must fight the void.”

  One by one, each of the Jardensvalers spoke, asserting their determination to remain in the wildlands. Each of these people had lost nearly everything they had spent years building, yet here they were, ready to start over and do it again. Their commitment and trust in him brought a tear to Laryn’s eye.

  “What did you call this place?” he asked Hela, after everyone had spoken.

  “Vallor,” she said. “We have called it this since we first saw the light of this fire through the trees. It means ‘light in the darkness’ or ‘spark of hope.’”

  “I like that,” Laryn said. “Vallor it is.” He raised a fist into the air, and began to chant.

  “Vallor!”

  The former Jardensvalers joined in with him.

  “We are Vallorian!” Hela shouted between the cheers.

  “Vallor!”

  “The light that shines in the darkness!”

  Laryn grinned from ear to ear.

  “Vallor!”

  The chant faded away, replaced by the rushing of the river. Stars appeared overhead, and darkness filled the spaces between trees.

  Despite the energy of his subjects, the exhaustion of the day still found Laryn. He rose from the campfire, preparing to bed down for the night.

  Three figures walked into the ring of firelight. Tall, elegant, and grim faced, all eyes turned to stare at the newcomers. Conversations cut short as hands reached for weapons.

  Elves.