Davon was stunned by the splendor of the Guild’s war room. A giant map of the entire continent covered a massive table in the center of the space. The tapestries on the left and right walls were actually more maps, detailing each individual section of the continent.

  Gathered around the large table were quite a few familiar faces. Emma and Grant stood on the far side, deep in discussion, while Meyer looked over their shoulders quietly. Opposite them, Lyla stood alone, a look of contemplation on her face as she stared down at the map. All around the table, Davon saw many of the Revenants he had fought alongside during the siege.

  Kai and Davon quietly joined the crowd gathered around the table, taking spots by Lyla. She greeted them silently.

  “We’re all here now,” Grant announced, nodding at the new arrivals. “We can begin.”

  “The situation around the continent is chaotic, to say the least.” Meyer waved his hand over the central map, and several spots lit up with a soft glow. “Three forts and a city lost in the north, two cities lost in the west, and one fort lost in the south. Here in the east, Heinburg is the only lost settlement, thanks to our efforts yesterday.”

  “All fronts are now holding a stalemate. This presents us with an opportunity,” Emma continued, her eyes glued to Heinburg’s spot on the map. “Without the need to reinforce other fronts, we are in a position to launch a counteroffensive: an attempt to retake Heinburg.”

  Grant looked around intently at the gathered Revenants. “To that end, we are forming a new Revenant faction: the Vanguard.”

  This announcement sent murmurs rippling through the crowd. To Davon’s knowledge, it had been years since a faction was last formed.

  “This faction will contain mostly the Guild Revenants currently present in this Guild House, supported by the Green Trackers.” Grant pointed at various places on the map as he spoke. “The plan will proceed in three stages. First, those of us gathered today will create a forward base as close to Heinburg as is safe. Second, when the Revenants lost in Heinburg resurrect, they will be sent to reinforce us, at which point we will clear a path towards the city. Finally, reinforced a final time by the resurrection of the Revenants lost in yesterday's siege, we will make a push for the city walls. From there, we will have to adapt.”

  Grant stepped away from the map and crossed his arms. “Any questions?”

  Several hours of discussion followed to work out the details of this plan. Davon lost track of most of it. His mind was spinning at the idea of participating in another siege, and on the other side of a city wall. Kai had to shake him out of his mental haze when the meeting concluded.

  “Now, the lot of you go get prepared,” Grant ordered, dismissing the crowd. “We’re setting off tomorrow at the break of dawn.”

  —

  Davon spent most of the preparation day in his room, lost in thought. He hadn’t expected the most difficult fight of his life would turn out to be grappling with his own mind. Yet there he was, struggling to balance himself amidst uncertainty, determination, and a need for vengeance.

  He found it infinitely more difficult than the fight with Aelius.

  The following morning went by in a daze as well. Davon was more or less dragged by Kai down to the gates, packed into the back of a cart alongside his two companions and a load of supplies, and sent off towards Heinburg.

  Sitting in the back of that cart, Davon took a moment to study his companions. Kai had passed out almost immediately after the cart started rolling, arms crossed and head bowed. Lyla was, as ever, busy with her spellbook. She was managing to work with her quill, somehow preventing it from smearing on the page as the cart bounced along.

  Davon’s swirling thoughts began to slow down. He looked at Kai, remembering how troubled the young warrior had been after their first resurrection. Yet the siege of Walden’s Hold seemed to have reawakened something in Kai. He seemed much more like his old self, eager and confident about the battle ahead.

  Davon let his eyes drift to Lyla. Her expression was still carefully blank, but she had opened up so much since that first meeting in the courtyard. Again and again, she had demonstrated fierce care for her teammates. She was going to have his back, and Kai’s, no matter what.

  For the first time, it sank in for Davon that he wouldn’t be facing any trials alone. All his troubles seemed so much more surmountable when he imagined these two by his side.

  Out of nowhere, he realized he was smiling.

  Lyla’s hand paused, quill still pressed to paper. Suddenly, she looked up at Davon, causing him to look away awkwardly. It still surprised him just how much presence the petite blonde commanded.

  “Davon?” She spoke quietly to avoid waking Kai. “Could I ask you something?”

  Davon looked back at her, stammering as he replied, “Uh, yeah. What do you need?”

  “Do you remember, on the morning of the siege, I mentioned that… during my resurrection, I saw something and remembered it?”

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  Davon narrowed his eyes, failing as usual to discern anything from Lyla's neutral expression.

  “Yeah, I do, now that you mention it. Writing and voices, right?”

  “Yes, and flashes of the night sky. ” Lyla looked down at her spellbook. Davon noticed she was bouncing her leg. “It all slipped my mind during the siege, but now that we’ve had some time to rest, it’s been…”

  Lyla struggled to find her next words, something Davon had never seen her do before.

  “Bothering isn’t the right word,” she finally continued with a faint scowl. “Haunting me, more like.”

  “How so?” Davon prodded, leaning forward.

  “I… the more I think about it, the more I think I see a pattern.” Lyla set down her quill and took her spellbook in both hands. “A connection between the stars and the writing. A- a… pattern.”

  Concern crept into the back of Davon’s mind as he watched Lyla struggle to explain her predicament. The more she tried, the more frustrated she became.

  “B-but when I put it to paper, it makes no sense,” Lyla growled, gritting her teeth. “It has been driving me insane.”

  “Lyla, slow down a moment.” Davon reached out and placed his hand on Lyla’s shoulder. She seemed to startle at the gesture. “Breathe.”

  Following Davon’s advice, Lyla closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then another. Davon watched her expression slowly turn from utter frustration to her usual, neutral self. Even her leg stopped bouncing and went still.

  “Thank you,” Lyla whispered, and Davon leaned back into his seat. “I’m okay now, I think.”

  “Good. Now, I don’t know much about magic, but I do know a bit about obsessions,” Davon admitted. “And the best way to deal with something like that? Take a step back, and let it sit for a while.”

  Lyla looked at Davon, her piercing eyes scrutinizing his expression. After a few moments, she sighed.

  “Yes. That might be for the best.”

  “That said… if you think talking it through would help, I’m happy to listen,” Davon offered with a friendly smile. “When you’re ready to come back to it, I mean.”

  Lyla wrapped her cloak tightly around herself. “I’ll take you up on that, when the time comes.”

  She closed her eyes. Settling back into the relative calm of a moving cart, Davon let his thoughts wander, enjoying the break from the ongoing battle in his head.

  Whatever lay ahead for him, or for Lyla, or for Kai, they would face it together.

  —

  Three days of travel later, Davon found himself wondering if the forest would ever end. He had started to glimpse rolling hills through the trees, replacing the mostly even landscape around Walden’s Hold, but that was the only change. The Vanguard expedition was still surrounded by trees, trees, and more trees.

  Davon recognized that a boring journey was a good thing, overall. Preserving their strength for the upcoming conquest would be helpful in the long run. But it was hard to keep from wishing that something would happen.

  In an attempt both to stay prepared and to stave away boredom, Davon followed the Boneshaper’s advice and tried to meditate. He would close his eyes, tug at the mental strings between him and his Reliquary, and wait for a response. Most of the time, none came. But occasionally, he could swear he felt… something coming from his Reliquary. A vague impression, or the ghost of an idea. He wondered if that could be counted as ‘talking’ with his Reliquary.

  These attempts didn’t really provide sufficient distraction from the monotonous landscape. Davon was so bored that when he began seeing things in the shadows around them, he assumed it was just his own mind trying to entertain itself. Then he thought the strange shapes or sudden movement might be a trick of the crimson shades in the forest gloom. Regardless, every time he focused on what he saw, it turned to be something completely mundane.

  On the third day of travel, however, Davon spotted something very real. Here and there in the forest, trees and other foliage were petrified. Leaves, twigs, and all.

  Davon pointed out the unsettling discovery to his companions.

  “Huh… that’s weird,” Kai muttered, eyes locked on a nearby petrified tree. “What does it mean?”

  Davon rubbed his hands together nervously. “Nothing good.”

  “Look, over on the other side.” Lyla pointed towards a petrified bush. “And there’s more, deeper into the forest.”

  As they traveled onward, the group noticed several of these petrified plants in the forest around them. Eventually, they came across an entire grove, fully petrified.

  “Do you think it could be caused by the Crimson Reavers somehow?” Kai asked, subconsciously shifting the axe in his lap.

  Lyla’s face was carefully blank. “More than likely, I’d say. We’re getting closer to Heinburg. The city’s been occupied by them for a while now. They might be doing something to the surrounding area.”

  “Or this sort of thing just happens around them after a while,” Davon suggested. He stared at a petrified patch of moss with a frown. “I’m not sure which option is more terrifying.”

  “Hey…” Kai suddenly sat up further, his eyes wide. “Now that I think about it, have you heard any wildlife recently?”

  Kai’s question seemed to open a pit in Davon’s gut. When he thought about it, he realized there was a distinct lack of any animal activity, even birdsong. Even worse, he couldn’t pin down when exactly it had started.

  Davon took a second to look around them. Their cart was roughly in the middle of the Vanguard’s convoy, leaving them comfortably surrounded by friendlies. Yet Davon couldn’t help but feel uneasy at the unnatural atmosphere in the forest.

  Suddenly on edge, he reached for his bow and placed it in his lap.

  Just in case, he told himself.

  When the Vanguard convoy eventually stopped to make camp for the night, the trio decided they would take separate watch shifts. Previously, they had taken the same shift, feeling more confident in each other’s presence. But the recent changes in their surroundings made them agree that it would be best if they didn’t all sleep at the same time.

  Come morning, the convoy finally broke through the tree line. The grass beyond the forest was gray and dying. Roughly a mile away, the barren ground rose into a large hill, which was all that now lay between the Vanguard and their destination.

  Davon grew anxious, thinking about the complete lack of life in the surrounding landscape. Sure, it was nearly winter, but this kind of desolation was unnatural. His mind ran wild. If the terrain around the city was doing this badly, what kind of state would Heinburg itself be in?

  Apprehension gripped Davon as their cart moved ever closer to the crest of this hill. He noticed his companions seemed to be equally nervous, eyes locked on the road ahead.

  When they finally crested the hill, Davon’s heart sank.

  He stared outward at a charred landscape, pockmarked with Crimson Reaver encampments. The city in the distance lay silent. Carapace-like buildings had been erected on top of the already existing stonework like some kind of parasitic growth.

  Judging by the sheer number of encampments surround the city, the Vanguard had their work cut out for them. Davon doubted they could even make a dent in the enemy’s forces, at least before the first wave of reinforcements arrived.

  Davon gripped his bow, squaring his shoulders grimly.

  Looks like we’ll be stuck here for a long while.