Walking through the early morning forest since had been an unsettling experience since his waking. An all-consuming silence covered the place, causing every sound he made to grate madly against his nerves. It was an excruciating quiet. Unnatural. He had no point of reference for what the forest should have sounded like at this time of the day, but Casek’s subconscious seemed convinced that silence was its antithesis.
Fortunately, several hours into their sullen traipse amongst the trees, the birds began to flitter between branches once more, whistling out their first tunes of the day. Small mammals followed soon after. Squirrels skittered across the floor, and woodmice darted away through the underbrush as soon as they came close.
As life returned to the wood, Casek felt himself relax slightly, as though some kind of natural order had been resumed. Even Raelynn, who had studiously stayed a dozen paces ahead of him—no matter how fast he moved—seemed to lose some of the tension in her shoulders and face.
Perhaps that was what prompted him to once again try to strike up some kind of conversation with her.
“You know, if you’re wanting me to help with your friends, you’re probably going to have to tell me where we’re actually going and what we’re up against. Gods, even just knowing where we actually are would be a blessing at this point.”
Raelynn looked back, face tight, but still answered. “What do you mean ‘where we are’?”
“Well,” he said, shrugging. “I know we’re in a forest. But beyond that? No idea. I have no idea what this place is called or what part of the world we’re in—even whether we’re near or far from other people.”
“We’re on the southernmost landmass on Feres. As far as I know, it was once a rural country called Pyria. We know little about it anymore. It was the last place to fall to the Shadow, and the only country of the World That Was that recorded to have won a battle during The Fall.”
A smile threatened to spread across her face as she continued, eyes distant. “A ragtag militia of farmers, fishermen and hunters. Normal men and women who stood against all the horrors the universe can muster, and won. At least, at first. It is from here that the foci came from originally.”
The words stirred something in Casek. No memory was forthcoming, but a heated pride stirred deep in his core. He knew this place.
Of course, came Tauph’s sombre voice. This is where we lived.
Casek sucked in a breath. It was only a name, really. He still had no memories of ever being here, no recollection of the people or places he’d once known; but it was still strangely fulfilling to learn where you came from. If nothing else, it would explain why he was so at home in these woods, and why the skill of survival here was so firmly embedded in his subconscious.
“Is this where Oreia is, then? In the last place to fall?”
Raelynn shook her head. “No. Pyria was abandoned not long after. There are no more records after that. The scattered remnants of humanity fought on for many years after. Oreia was created centuries later.”
“I’m trying to imagine what kind of fortress that place must be to have held out for so long against the Shadow, but I can’t even begin to picture it. I bet it’s some sight.”
Raelynn stopped dead. She peered back at him, mouth slowly opening, eyes wide with shock. A disbelieving scoff escaped her mouth, before the smile finally slipped through her self-control.
“You really don’t know anything, do you?”
“I told you—”
Raelynn raised a hand, cutting him off. “I know you told me. It’s just this might be the first time I’ve truly believed you. Nobody in their right mind would call Oreia a fortress, nor would they believe such a thing could hold back the Shadow for as long as Oreia has.”
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“Then how?”
“One thing alone keeps us alive after all this time,” Raelynn said, setting off again, but this time allowing him to match her pace. “It’s no impressive fortification or disguise. Simply the grim reality of humanity’s situation.”
Casek frowned. “What do you mean?”
“How does it serve the Shadow to put any effort into seeking out and destroying our last city?”
He opened his mouth to respond, but hesitated as he his mind connected the dots. “It…doesn’t?” Casek started, and at Raelynn’s insistence, he pressed on. “For the Shadow, we’re a food source—as long as we are controllable, why would you eliminate a self-replenishing source of energy for good?”
“Exactly. The entirety of human civilisation is gone. What they left is no credible threat to them. So the Shadow puts very little effort into rooting out Oreia itself. Instead, they only pick off those who venture out, allowing our numbers inside the city walls to stay reasonably consistent. The reality is that Oreia belongs to them, in much the same way free-roaming sheep belong to their shepherd. The sheep might have the run of the mountainside, but in the end they’re still mutton. They know we don’t have the numbers to fight back, and that we have no way of acquiring them, either.”
She glanced at him then, with a startling intensity. “Well, until now, that is.”
The whole thing made a sick sense to Casek. Of all the things his mind had carried with it through the sleep, the memory of how coastal anglers selectively fished particular areas sprung to mind. They would intentionally steer clear of known breeding grounds, knowing that this would restock the fish supply for the following year.
For the Shadow, Oreia was that. The hunters giving their prey an amnesty in one place, so there would always be an ample supply of game.
He forced himself to smile. “Strangely, that hasn’t put me off. Just the idea of other humans makes the rest of it easier to bear. Besides, like you said: now we have a way to fight back. To free the people who have been trapped. Maybe even to restore a little part of what has been lost.”
Raelynn really did laugh this time, a soft and awkward sound, as though she were unused to the very idea of laughter. “That’s what I want, too. To restore what was lost. So much of our history and collective knowledge is gone—part of the reason I became a Binder in the first place was to try to recover some of it.”
“Is that what you were doing out here with your people? Looking for lost parts of history?”
The smile slipped from her face, but there was no trace of anger in her voice as she explained. “No. The Binders who operate outside of Oreia are mostly hunters and scavengers. We help feed the city and acquire the resources it needs to keep going. We were here searching ruins for foci. Too many of those have been lost in the centuries of fighting, too.”
“You can’t make more?”
“The artificers say the material that makes them work no longer exists. They can replicate all of it besides the bit that actually allows you to touch magic. We had a healthy supply, once, but every lost Binder is also a lost foci. Eventually, that adds up, and we need to find more.”
“I take it you ran into problems?”
Raelynn scoffed bitterly as she ducked under a low-hanging oak branch. “No part of this mission has been without them since we made land in Pyria. There are more powerful Shadowspawn active here than we could have possibly predicted. They picked us off one by one until I was all that remained. I survived because I was the weakest—the least appealing meal—until I was the only meal. A pair of Bel’gor attacked me at once whilst my power was spent, and you know the rest.”
Casek nodded, noting that the tree cover around them was thinning, allowing more and more of the crystalline sky to show through the canopy above.
“So,” he said. “Who are we rescuing first?”
“We’re heading to the southernmost tip of Pyria. The Shadow took the last of my team beside myself in a ruined town by the coast. Idris is a character, but we won’t get far with rescuing the others without him. He is an artificer.”
At Casek’s blank expression, she went on. “He can make things. Useful things.”
“What are we coming up against here?”
“We need to get there first. We’ll be out of the forest soon, and will have to cross a fair few miles of marshland before making it to the ruins. The marshes themselves are teeming with shades and Drau—but hopefully nothing more dangerous than that.”
Casek suppressed a grimace. To his mind, a single Drau was dangerous enough, let alone more. “What about in the town itself?”
“That’s where we run into our first major problem. A nest of Bel’gor, half a dozen strong at least, has gathered up all the townsfolk to feed. Had Idris been at full-strength when we stumbled into the middle of them, we would have both made it out, but…”
He swallowed, but brought his hand up and placed it reassuringly on her shoulder. “You will both make it out this time. Whatever it takes.”
Raelynn nodded, but didn’t respond, and Casek tried not to let the panic show on his face. It would do no good now. He had his mission, and people relying on him to get it done. No matter the danger arrayed before him, it wouldn’t be fear that brought him down.
For one thousand years, humanity had fought on, knowing full-well they were fighting a war they were doomed to lose. Today, that changed. He narrowed his eyes, taking a deep, steadying breath. If Casek wanted that second chance at life, it had to.
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