Doubts, questions and unspoken worries whirled through his mind as they walked at a brisk pace. By the time they arrived, the sun was only at its zenith. They still had hours of daylight left. Despite that, almost everyone was at camp. The gatherers had already returned, and the two hunters who went out today were at most a ten minute walking distance away.

  “We need to talk.” Charles pulled him aside as soon as they returned. “Tell me you found the thing the Witch needed to create Hallowed Ground.”

  “I did find the base the Witch created,” Alaric raised his hand before Charles could celebrate. “But she didn’t have a mana core there. That’s our new problem. Let’s meet behind the church in a few minutes, I’ll make sure Ava and the others come too.”

  Charles’ shoulders dropped with disappointment. “… That’s unfortunate,” he muttered quietly, then walked away.

  That’s an understatement. After dropping by the water barrel to grab a quick sip, went to the church to wake Jason up. Ava darted off to find Clara and Sarah. A handful of minutes later, everyone had arrived behind the church.

  Sitting in the shadow of the dilapidated church, Alaric explained everything they found.

  “Castle Dorwan, was it?” Sarah folded her arms. “Robert and I went there yesterday, chasing a damn deer. Well, we didn’t go too close, but it’s a pretty clear shot from here. Didn’t see anything hostile… but that doesn’t mean it’s safe.”

  “It’s most certainly not safe.” Jason said with a grunt. “We have to assume that.”

  His words plunged the group into silence for a short while.

  “We don’t have a lot of options, do we?” Sarah folded her arms and leaned her back against the moss-covered wall. “We can wait and most likely die when the timer runs out.”

  “… yeah let’s not do that please,” Clara sheepishly piped up.

  “Agreed.” Sarah turned her gaze to Charles, who also nodded. “But it means we’ll have to take some risks. We have two more full days of sunlight before the timer runs out. We have two chances to get a mana core.”

  “Going to the southeastern spire is pretty much equivalent to suicide.” Martin insisted.

  “But we know for sure there is a core there.” Alaric met the older man’s gaze. “We don’t know if Castle Dorwan has a mana core. We don’t know if it’s teeming with enemies. And need I remind you – we still need to figure out how the base she created works. Will it work fine when we put the mana core in its slot, or does it need more done to it?”

  Martin’s lips parted as he prepared to protest, but then he stopped with a scowl. “Wait, you want to put the mana core there? Not… here?”

  “The base is there. We can’t replicate it here – it’s huge.” He turned his gaze to Charles. “That’s another thing we need to do – we need to prepare to move everyone to the castle.”

  His eyes shot wide open. “What?” Charles exclaimed. “That’s…” his voice faded. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I can convince everyone-“

  Annoyed at his sudden uncertainty, Alaric raised his voice slightly. “You’re their leader, aren’t you? Make them listen now.”

  The other man visibly flinched. “You weren’t saying the same when you were running around doing your own thing.”

  “I never bloody did my own thing!” Alaric hissed.

  “Guys, now’s really not the time-“ Sarah began to speak, but he raised his hand to stop her.

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  “No, now’s exactly the time. Charles,” He glared at the man. “I did what had to be done. We are all doing what needs to be done. My job is to make sure we don’t die to the Profaned Legion. Your job is to make sure we don’t kill each other. To make sure we don’t starve, die of dehydration. To make sure things are running smoothly.” His gaze grew cold. “That doesn’t mean we’re below you. That doesn’t mean we take orders from you. That certainly doesn’t mean you get to speak to any of us like you’ve spoken to me that day.”

  “Al…” Clara’s voice was but a whisper. Victoria hushed her before she could continue.

  “You lead because you’re allowed to.” Alaric continued with an ice cold voice. “But you’ve been alienating people. You won’t keep that position for long if you alienate enough of them.”

  The other man’s face grew red. “Without me, it’d be chaos here.”

  “I’m well aware – which is why I’m asking you to do your job. Your job, which doesn’t include ordering us around and making demands. We are all afraid and stressed, but I won’t be spoken to like that again. Am I clear?”

  Charles glared at him for a few moments before curtly nodding. “Crystal.”

  Bloody finally. “Back to our previous conversation – the mana cores.” He continued as if the other man wasn’t seething with anger. “No matter where we get it from, we need to move everyone to the castle. According to the Witch’s notes, the Hallowed Ground should appear around the mana core we place. The inscriptions she carved should give us a clear visual when the mana core is placed, so we’ll know if it worked or not.”

  “Either way we’ll have to pack up and move.” Sarah’s strong voice seemed to soften the charged silence following his words somewhat. “Should be simple enough – we don’t have much stuff anyways. That doesn’t answer the question of where we’ll get the core though. Castle Dorwan?”

  Carl, who had been silently listening until now, finally spoke. “Correct me if I’m wrong… but we are dead for sure if we can’t get a core, right? Like… it’s a certainty?”

  Alaric shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.” As far as we know.

  “Then… shouldn’t we try everything?”

  “… we are though.” Jason scowled. “What’s your point?”

  Carl gestured at the group. “I mean… we should go to both places. There are plenty of able-bodied people here, even if we count Reuban, Ava, and Jason out. Not to mention Victoria’s pretty formidable. You don’t need Alaric or his wolves in Castle Dorwan – no offence but Alaric himself isn’t a particularly great fighter. It’s the mark that makes him formidable.”

  “Fair point, Ava and Jason are the scary ones.” He chuckled.

  “Yeah. So… my point is we – all of us – go to Castle Dorwan and try to find the Core. Alaric goes to the spire to get the core from there. He can ride Cinder and probably make it.” Carl avoided meeting his gaze. “I know I’m kind of throwing you under the bus here but we’re dead if we don’t get a core anyways.”

  “What? No, you can’t send him alone!” Clara exclaimed.

  Charles stared at Carl in disbelief. “No offence, Carl, but that’s cold.”

  “That’s rich, coming from you.” Carl glared daggers at him.

  “We closed that subject, guys.” Sarah clapped her hands, drawing everyone’s attention. “And no one is sending anyone anywhere. We’re deciding together.” She turned her gaze to Alaric. “Well, it’s more like your choice, but I think it’s too risky. We can check Castle Dorwan tomorrow, and if there is no core there, we still have a day left.”

  No, it’s too late by then.

  “Not enough time. It’ll take a bit longer than the daylight we’ve got to make it there and back, if I have to fight at all.”

  “Are you sure?” Charles hid his emotions well. “Cinder was fast, but not that fast. And… despite out disagreement, I don’t think you should take such a huge risk. The people count on you – they trust you will protect them. Losing you would shatter whatever morale is left.”

  “And we’d lose the wolves and horse.” Edward shook his head. “Someone else should go. I volunteer.”

  “Cinder won’t listen to you as he’ll listen to me.” Alaric shook his head. “That’s even riskier.” He glanced at Charles. “I understand your concern too, but the other side of the coin might be certain death if Castle Dorwan doesn’t have a core.”

  “Can’t we check today?” Charles asked.

  “We’d barely make it there and back if we approached it just to take a look from the outside.” Sarah folded her arms. “But… Cinder?”

  “I can ride,”

  “You’d be going alone again. Same risk, different place.” Charles shook his head. “Someone else should. Volunteers?”

  Ava bit her lip. “A bloody great time to be out of commission.” She cursed under her breath.

  “I’ll go.” Sarah stood up. “I’ve got what… five hours of sunlight left? I can ride there in two at most. Probably faster. At best, I get to check a few rooms. At worst, I take a look at it from the outside, check through the windows and hope a system message pops up confirming the mana core.” She brushed a few leaves off her shirt. “Damn, a message like that would be awesome just about now. Alaric, tell Cinder to listen to me. It’ll be a good test on how he does with another rider.”

  As he watched her ride off, he tried to shake off the feeling that it was a mistake to go out there on her own. He turned his gaze away, towards the countdown. Each second ticking down was bringing them a second closer to certain death.