Omen: 3, 9

  Lady Marcia watched as the group began to leave, having packed up everything quickly. She had kept her eyes on Adam, who, along with several of the others, mahe process of pag up, also getting hands on with pag.

  ‘Adam is my brother.’ The young woman recalled the words Jurot had spoken. She couldn’t help but feel there was more to the group than what was let on, but what they had let on was quite a lot. The Iyrmen had been so free with their words, but when it came to Adam, there were very few things they said, but one of the statements was something which repyed stantly within her mind.

  Adam is Adam.

  She had learnt he was strong. She had learnt that he was a father, and quite the fool of a father at that. She had eve the name of his children, all six of them, and that one of them had been born earlier that year. There was, however, no mother. Any further prompting was awkward, so they hadn’t asked for more in casual versation.

  The retionship between Adam and the others seemed rather awkward. Adam was sidered a Nephew of the Iyr, so he was ner to them. However, he was also a brother to Jurot, and not just in a friendly sense, but in the sehe Iyrmen viewed Adam as Jurot’s brother, in the same way Nirot was their cousin. The Aswadians also viewed him favourably, though it seemed Dunes was the closest to him. The farmers and porters also seemed to speak quite highly of the young half elf, almost in an awkward reverence.

  It was Dunes who had been the key for Marcia to uand the situation, however.

  ‘Is that why he came to speak with me?’ Marcia thought. It was Dunes, after all, who had e to speak with her. ‘Manager Dunes.’ That was the title of the young Aswadian, who was a member of an order a seemed to hold such a title. ‘Manager Vonda…’

  Lady Marcia retreated back to her office. She sat ihought for a long while. She tried to recall all she had learnt about Fate’s Golden, as well as Adam. She wrote down the list, and as she kept writing, she could feel a sense of ridiculousness withiuation.

  The information reposterous, improbable, b impossible.

  Marcia dipped her quill within the ink, before beginning to write a letter. She, as a ander of perhaps the most important minor fort in the nd, should have been able to send word to the Lord Marshal. The letter expihe situation, the reason as to why she was sending word to the Lord Marshal, and finally, a question to firm something. The moment it could be firmed, they would o view the written words not as rumours, but as fact.

  ‘Oh,’ Marcia thought, realising she had fot to mention the pair of demons, before adding it in as a footnote, and the promise Jurot had stated to her, hoping it was enough to deal with the ramifications of allowing the demons to rest at the fort. Marcia wondered if she should have mentio earlier, sidering one of the bits of information the young woman had written about Adam.

  Adam remained silent as they made their way along. The others could feel it, an aura of darkness ing from the half elf. Adam’s eyes met Lucy’s, and the pair nodded between one another, before they tinued onward silently.

  When it was time for lunch, Adam inhaled deeply. “I’m going to do it.” His eyes fell to Jurot, who looked to Kitool. When she didn’t, Adam stepped aside.

  Mana: 25 -> 22

  There were several tenders for Adam’s favourite Third Gate spell. One was Fireball, a spell which made battles trivial. Another was Sending, which allowed Adam to send short messages to others. He hadn’t yet sent any messages back to his children, the children too young to uand what would be happening, which pained him so.

  However, while journeying out across the nd, all of Adam’s panions would say this was his favourite spell, and they had to one of the soldiers.

  Mage’s Tower.

  Adam sighed after washing his face with soap, before sinking deeper into the bath. ‘Why the hell do they have two forts so close to one another? How they be as stupid as the Aldish too?’

  Thankfully, Adam was able to have another bath that evening, and the m too. Though he was a half elf, and could go a week without bathing, he refused such a life.

  The jouro Ever Green was uful, the group marg through the forested hills.

  “What the…”

  The walls of Ever Greeed them. Adam, who was getting sick of trekking up hills, sighed. The walls of Ever Green were built upon raised ground, with a gate set uhe walls. The road towards the town swerved, but instead of being a the winding road, Adam was too busy staring at the nd around them.

  Where ohere lush green, the nds around Ever Green were now dark and full of death, as though as storm of fire had rushed across it. Ohe greenery around Ever Green surpassed the greenery withiown walls, but that was no more.

  Fred stared at Ever Green in shock. As a Florian, there was no one who wasn’t proud of Ever Green, the oown which caused even northero begrudgingly accept the south wasn’t too bad after all. ‘What have they done?’ His Floria burned hot.

  As the group approached the walls, noting the various archers on the walls, a guard blew a whistle, holding up their hand to stop them.

  “State your business,” the guard called.

  ‘I remember it being so easy to pass through st time,’ Adam thought. “We’re just passing through.”

  The guard he appearance of the group, the number of Iyrmen, the number of Aswadians, and finally the member of Life’s Rose. The guard was an older fellow, with a face that appeared as though he had bit into a lemon, with a freshly shaven face that was almost shiny.

  “What happened here?” Adam asked, uo tain himself.

  The guard narrowed his eyes at the fellow in puthral, who was not an Iyrman, since he had not removed his helmet. However, the young man was steel rank, meaning he wasn’t a nobody. “The army tried to siege our town, but the bas-,” the guard cleared his throat, recalling the member of Life’s Rose, “they weren’t able. When they retreated, they burnt the fields on the way out. Thankfully, Lord Asa mao stop it before it got too bad. What you see is the worst of it.”

  “Damn.” Adam shook his head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “We’re thankful it was not worse.” The guard let out a soft sigh, before his eyes returned back to the rest of the party, before his eyes fell to Jurot. “No trouble?”

  “No trouble,” Jurot replied.

  “Alright. Thirty gold’s the fee for yroup.”

  “Okay,” Jurot said.

  As they stepped inside, Adam whispered. “Don’t we have the pque?”

  “The pque is for Aldnd,” Jurot said.

  “Oh…” Adam blinked. “Right.”

  Ever Green was as beautiful as ever. The roads were wide and small clusters of wooden buildings dotted around the area. The buildings were fairly small, though they were stacked quite high, three to five stories tall.

  However, no matter where Adam looked, all he could see was greenery. There were as many parks as there were roads, some which became dirt paths through the greenery which people could walk through from one area to the .

  The town had a grid yout, as any other town, but there were maions of the town which gave to a more natural yout, where buildings of old had been preserved, some curving and winding this way or that way. The town was also yered, with steps leading upwards to the yer, though there were a few rge roads oher end of the town which were slightly steeper, but allowed carriages and carts to be pulled through.

  As they trekked through the town, which bustled with life, Adam noted how simir, yet different it felt to Red Oak, a vaguely familiar sensation.

  The Adventurer’s Guild in Ever Green was huge. It was fairly simir to the Adventurer’s Guild in Red Oak, made of stone for the first floor, and the hree floors were made of wood, getting slightly smaller towards the top. However, there were so many flowers and vines growing all around the guild, and there were even small ses where a bunch of old people were currently rexing on the roof top garden. To one side was a training field, and the other a small field, more like a garden, full of herbs. The building proper was also slightly rger than the guild in Red Oak.

  “We’ll be able to find an alchemist for the business here,” Jaygak joked.

  “Why are you thinking about that when we should be thinking about the most important thing,” Adam said. “No, the seost important thing.”

  Jaygak guessed what the most important thing was. “What is the seost important thing?”

  “Tea,” Adam stated.

  “Ah.” Jaygak’s head bounced, for of course it was that. “They have moon tea, which assists with sleep.”

  “Mnnn…” Adam’s sleep, though slightly troubled, seemed to be gettier. “Good idea.” ‘I should be careful, since I’m a half elf in the south.’ Adam gnced around, noting the rge number of people gng their way. ‘Do they know?’

  The younger Iyrmehe awakened wolves and dire wolves towards the stables.

  Why are they looking at us?

  Said the half elf who wore puthral armour, surrounded by Aswadians, Iyrmen, a member of Life's Rose, demons, awakened wolves, and dire wolves.