Chapter 63: Onwards through the storm (1/2)

“You just let her go?” holding his forehead, the guard captain sighed and looked to a mage standing near the wall. “No risk?” he asked and the mage nodded.

“She's fine. I’m sure of it cap.”

“Alright alright, come on then. Line up people we have to check you for taxable and dangerous materials...” the guard captain said.

‘Dawntree is under attack and this is what they do...maybe we should’ve stayed in that dungeon.’ Jeremy thought but lined up nonetheless. No reason in making the guard your enemy, they were unpleasant enough as it was.

“You would expect them to treat such a high level expedition like us with some leeway. Not like we couldn’t be a serious help up there...” Rin commented quietly from the side, the first people were being checked by two mages with detection skills.

“I agree with the first comment. Dawntree has a lot of higher leveled people though and we both know that the noblehouses hold so much influence not only because of money and history. I’m sure they’re doing fine on defense even without us there. I’m not so sure about the other cities south of Karth...”

“Yea, even though we’re the westernmost city it’s quite the fortress...”

“Alright you’re up, come on...” one of the guards motioned for Jeremy who quickly walked up to the mages. He was still wearing the Taleen armor Lilith had given him.

‘I hope that girl’s fine. So strong at her age...’ the guard nodded and Jeremy waited for Rin a couple meters in the front. Some of the previously checked had already ran to the city to check on the situation and their families. Seeing the guards’ casual behavior though Jeremy wasn’t too worried. Not like he had many people in the city he cared about anyway. The ones he did care about would likely have a way to get away anyway.

“You’re thinking about her?” Rin asked as she joined his side.

“Yea, the way she reacted. She might be much less experienced than we had assumed.”

Rin nodded “Shock and awe...she makes quite the impression, though I do hope she doesn’t lose that smile of hers because of this. You think she’s gonna be alright?”

“That she does...I hope so too Rin and I don’t know. I’ve seen people broken by less but then again I’ve seen people persevere where I didn’t expect them to. Life is full of surprises, so let’s give her a chance to surprise us.”

A couple minutes later all the surviving members of the expedition had joined the group while some had left already. The remaining group walked together to the city above. Coming out of the tunnel they saw the snow fall.

“Winter eh...” Jeremy said and looked above, only to see a massive bolt of lightning strike the magical barrier held up by mages around the city. The noise was deafening and both the golden light of the barrier and the lightning itself made Jeremy look away quickly and blink his eyes. A combined effort of several level 100 people was easily enough to stop an elf’s attack. ‘Sadly that doesn’t work out as well if you’re fighting something close quarters inside a throne room...’ he thought as he glanced towards Rin. Though he wasn’t sure how an elf would compare to a Praetorian.

The woman was beautiful, the snow falling in her red hair and the cold giving her cheeks a slight red tinge. Jeremy felt a pang of guilt at the fact that he felt glad someone else had died in her place.

“I’ll go check on my family Jeremy...do you...wanna come too?” she asked him and he nodded.

“Sure, let’s go then.” they had talked quite extensively in the past week and Rin knew he had nobody in the city to check up on in the event of an attack.

They walked through the streets, passing fights and nervous animals. The ongoing bombardment certainly didn’t help and even though the people were inside the city at all times anyway, knowing that there was no way to get out changed the feeling of protection to a feeling of imprisonment.

‘They can still escape into the mountain...yet that is even more uncertain than escaping into the wild.’ Jeremy thought as he looked at the storefronts. ‘They’re already hoarding food...’ though with magic there was likely no shortness coming, everything but mushrooms would become a luxury. A lot of coins would trade owners in this siege. ‘Let’s just hope there’s someone left to spend it after this is over...’

The two reached Rin’s house a while later. It was nothing too special yet to even own a whole house in Dawntree was quite an achievement. With her adventurer rank and level the pay way obviously good enough though.

“I’m home!” immediately skidding could be heard upstairs as a light brown mutt ran down the stairs. The dog jumped Rin and she hugged it and laughed. “Yea yea, I missed you too...”

“You’re back Rin...” a voice came from upstairs as a woman quite similar looking to Rin slowly advanced but stopped in her tracks, looking at Jeremy. He smiled at her as he did to some students but she just stared at him.

He nodded and quickly left the house. “I’ll be outside.” Rin looked at him and put the dog down.

“I’ll get you in a minute...sorry.” she said.

Jeremy waited outside, moving his armored boot in the snow. The noise of it being pushed together still was a delight, even at his age. Luckily Dawntree got a lot of snow in Winter. He watched the people hurrying past, preparing for whatever they thought this siege might bring. In the past hundreds of years the city hadn’t been breached by anything so nobody truly expected that to happen.

‘Should always be prepared for the worst though...’ Jeremy thought and looked up. Though seeing how unorganized the elves’ attacks were he just shook his head. ‘The only reason they haven’t destroyed humanity is their arrogant nature...’ he saw how the spells hit different places of the shield every time. They didn’t want to strategically weaken one of the barrier mages, they wanted to break through with their individual power. Additionally there were pauses in between the strikes as well, as if the elves were giving each other time slots to attack. Jeremy didn’t smile at their efforts though, he knew what happened when they did break through and it wasn’t pretty.

The door behind him slowly opened and Rin peaked out. “You can come now Jeremy.” she said with an apologetic smile.

He couldn’t help but smile back as he entered the house again. The other woman was sitting in the living room now and was fidgeting with her hands. “Jeremy, meet my younger sister Laura. Laura, this is Jeremy, he’s a friend of mine.” she said calmly, sitting close to her sister and motioning to Jeremy who sat down on a chair opposite the sisters.

“It’s nice to meet you Laura. I’m a teacher in the academy.” Jeremy said, smiling as he got off his armor. Rin nodded at that and got up to do the same.

The two were putting the armor in a corner of the room as a loud explosion could be heard above. Jeremy quickly checked outside but came in again and nodded. “It’s fine.” he said. Laura had began to fidget more at the explosion but the dog jumped on her lap and curled up to cuddle her.

“I knew you’d be doing ok with her.” Rin whispered to him when they hid away their armor. “And good idea with the armor. I’ve been so lost in though...at least there’s no blood on it.” she finished and joined her sister again.

“We’ll have to go to the Forkspear estate soon. Agor will be waiting.” she said as she petted the dog.

“We probably have a couple hours for the reports to finish. Jasper will probably leave quickly to join the defense organizers so it’ll be Agor. He’ll probably need a little longer.”

“You’re right...” she answered and calmed down a little.

“You don’t have to come you know.” Jeremy said but she shook her head.