Looking at the movement down below, I knew that there wasn’t time to consult with Serin or the rest of the party before I decided what to do. The harpies needed to be contact and quickly. There was only one person that would be able to get to them in this situation.

I had to call for Celine. “Celine, if you can hear me just answer, but stay hidden.”

“What is it master?”

“Are you fed enough to get to the harpies and return?”

“Yes master, but is something wrong?”

“Yes, can you see what’s going on down below?”

“I can… There seems to be a lot of activity.”

“There is. It’s our enemy, and if they come across the harpies, they would be in trouble.”

“I’ll go to them right away. What should I tell them?”

“Tell, them to stay out of sight, but if there is any sign of people coming to the village to get out of there. Ugh… But if they move, we need to know where we can meet up.”

If only I had a map. I looked at the ground below, but there weren’t many gaps in the movement. If they were going to move anywhere it would have to be further out.

“Should I wait master?”

“No… Just pass on the message for now. Hopefully I can meet back up with the others at the guild and we can find somewhere suitable before they have to move.”

“Right, I’ll go to them now.”

“Thanks Celine.”

It fell silent and I took that as Celine had left.

The four of us still on the tower platform watched the lights on the ground, it was almost as if we were in a daze.

Ameri who had been leaning up against the wall and staring down below, stood up. “Do you think they’ll be okay?”

I turned my back on the sight below. “I hope so… They can fly if they need to. There’s no reason to think that would be able to escape. I know they can take care of themselves. My biggest worry was that they would try to stay there long than they needed to, waiting for me. But Celine will be with them now.”

“She’ll be there already?”

“I think it’s almost instant.”

“I’d heard some things, but I didn’t know if it was true…”

“It’s a very helpful ability. If it weren’t for her, I don’t know how we would’ve warned the others…” I looked down at the light before turning back to the rest of the group. “We should head back to the guild. I’d like to meet back up with the others and I’m a little worried about the situation there.”

Ameri was nodding. “Yeah, not everyone in that crowd was behaving sensibly. A lot of them were panicking. In those sorts of situations things can easily happen.”

“I know.”

“That girl… From the front desk, does she mean something to you.”

“She does… Come on, let’s get back there.”

“Right.”

 I quickly crossed the platform and stepped through the doorway to the stairs. Then I began the climb down to street level.

When I stepped out outside, it quiet. There were shouts in the distance but the area around the tower silent. It was almost if it had been desert. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I was hit with a new worry.

What if the guard had begun deserting their posts, after seeing what was going on outside?

The city already had too few, it wouldn’t take many desertions to make the defences seriously undermanned.

Once the girls joined me down on the street, we set off back to the guild. Ameri and Lucy knowing the area best took the lead once again.

Just as we had crossed the street that ran parallel with the city wall and were about to turn into the closest side street, Aetherin spun around.

She moved in a blur as she opened her parasol in front of her. There was a clang as something hit and an arrow dropped to the floor.

She lowered the parasol and pointed towards the wall. “Elf archer!”

I couldn’t make out anything at the point she gestured towards.

Aetherin ran across the street, before jumping into the air.

“Aetherin! Hold up… Well, I suppose it’s too late.”

I looked up and down the street and apart from the three of us stood at the junction no one else was in sight. Hopefully no one had spotted her.

Ameri ran over. “What just happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure… All I saw was that arrow hit the floor. Aetherin protected me, she’s gone after the one that shot it.”

“You were lucky!”

“I know.”

As we spoke a shadow shot down the wall and landed on the street. We both flinched at first but soon realised it was Aetherin returning.

She looked a little disappointed as she reached us. “I’m afraid I couldn’t catch them.”

“That’s okay. I’m surprised you even saw them to begin with. I couldn’t!”

“They were well hidden. I only noticed their presence just as they were taking the shot. If I’d been any slower, you would’ve been hit!”

“But I wasn’t hit, you protected me.” I glanced up and down the still empty street. “We should head back to guild before anything else happens.”

“We should.”

Ameri and Lucy led the way back down the side streets back towards the guild. We were moving with much more urgency than before.

Luckily, we didn’t run into any more trouble on our way and the steps leading up to the guild building we soon in sight.

The situation as we stepped inside had seemed to have calmed a little from earlier. There were still lots of adventurers inside and a tense atmosphere, but crowd around the front desk had dispersed somewhat.

Jules soon noticed our arrival and began waving, beckoning us over to the desk.

As soon as reached the desk she leant over. “Did you check it out?”

“Yeah…”

“Well?”

“It isn’t looking good out there. Hopefully I’ve warned them in time, but things at the wall aren’t great.”

She nodded. “I know, we’ve had a few reports of the guard abandoning their posts.”

“It looked that way, the tower we climbed up was empty… That and we were attacked on our way back here. I doubt it was from someone that was already inside the city.”

“Attacked, that’s concerning…”

“Yeah, lucky for me Aetherin was there! What’s Lisa saying about all of this?”

“I only spoke with her for a moment. She just gave me a few words to deal with people at the desk. As she can imagine, she’s pretty overwhelmed.”

“I can. The others, has anyone turned up yet?”

She slowly shook her head. “None of your party have come here yet.”

“That’s a little worrying too.”

“Yeah, when no one came I half thought that you might have already met up on your way, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“No. I’ll try and get in contact with them.”

I quickly opened the adventurer system and sent out a series of messages. From the looks of things there were all still at home… Hopefully nothing had happened.

I tried not to worry, knowing that all of them could more than take care of themselves. As soon as Celine returned, I could send her to check for me.

“Did Lisa say anything else? What did she want us to do?”

“Stay put in the guild and wait for your party.”

“I’ll stay for now, but if I don’t here from the others, I’ll have to go looking for them.”

“But you’ve already been attacked.”

“Exactly… That’s why I’m worried about them.”

“Lisa will have a fit, if she finds out you were attacked and then headed back out again.”

“Hopefully I won’t need to… Anyway, what about you, are you going to have to stay on the desk all night?”

Jules slumped on the desk. “Hopefully not. If nothing else happens for a while I’ll be able to head back upstairs, but something tells me that the night is finished with us yet.”

“You might be right.” I sighed. “Well, I’m going to go back to my room and try to get hold of Celine and the others again. Don’t worry, if I go anywhere else, I’ll let you know first.”

“Okay…”

I left the front desk and along with Aetherin, Ameri and Lucy, headed back upstairs. The four of us piled into my room.

Aetherin looked calm and composed, but Lucy and Ameri were clearly on edge. They were pacing up and down the room.

I tried to relieve the atmosphere. “Why don’t we all take a seat and I’ll try and contact Celine?”

The two stopped pacing and came and sat down on the bed next to me. Aetherin pulled up the only chair in the room and sat down near the bed. Now that everyone was seated and looking a little calmer, it was time to call Celine.

“Celine, can you hear me?”

There was no response.