Oakenpost was a bowl of soup around a warded fire courtesy of a town witch who was a bit rough around the edges, but otherwise friendly enough. Shroudmoor was a tavern with all one could eat or drink for the night and a place to lay one’s head. Timberford, on the other hand, spared no expense in thanking Kendrick, Bellara, Sahni, and everyone else who had pitched in to battle the servants of darkness. It was also a great cause for celebration for everyone else who had survived and lived to fight another day.

The plaza was converted into a makeshift festival grounds, with stands pushed aside, a simple wooden stage hurriedly erected by magic, and tables gathered and filled with a feast fit to feed three towns. On the stage, a four-elf band played wind and string instruments that seemed foreign to Kendrick, but yet analogous to ones he felt he’d seen in his forgotten past. During the band’s intermission, there was a magic show conducted with aura that involved telekinetic sleights of hand and causing objects to vanish and reappear throughout the audience. There was even a jester with a self-deprecating slapstick comedy routine that got the whole crowd laughing. All but three members.

Kendrick managed to smirk a few times during the routine as he sipped at a mug of dark beer from a brewer’s stand. “I’ve never seen so many people using magic in one place,” he thought aloud. “I figured you witches were a rare breed here.”

“The Ecumene is home to over a billion souls in all,” Sahni explained, “and it’s mostly humans. There’s roughly one witch or wizard for every two hundred non-magical citizens.” She smiled softly. “We’re out there. You just need to know where to look.”

“A lot of masters and adept spellcasters from Redrune Academy and other magical schools have been called to serve in the armies,” Bellara added stoically. “Here in Kanthos or on the continent of Varyngard. Attempts have been made to give every town and village at least one witch or wizard to keep guard and help them fight.” She gnawed on a steaming turkey leg between thoughts. “This is the most I’ve seen in one place since the Academy, too. I miss it.”

Sahni looked at her friend like she wanted to put her arm around her and then decided against it. “We’ll go back someday.”

Bell started to scoff but stopped herself, then looked up at Sahni, then Kendrick, and sighed into her turkey leg. “Someday.”

A short while after the band concluded their performance, the sun had gone down and torches and crystals were lit to illuminate the celebration. The mayor called for everyone’s quiet and delivered some more words to his townspeople. Thankfully, Kendrick learned, thanks to the healing efforts of Sahni, the town wizard, and two of the other witches who had helped slay the demon, there wasn’t a single fatality in all of Timberford that day. After a brief political speech thanking everyone in attendance, the mayor brought on the final entertainment for the night: an orc fire juggler.

Kendrick lamented the day’s turn of events. What should have been a chance to celebrate another victory became fraught with conflict because of Bellara’s inexplicable, callous intervention. Restraining Sahni so she couldn’t help him. Pushing him so hard to fight, telling him to get lost if he was unable, or unwilling, to enter the fray... After all he’d done for them, and how agreeable he’d been since being brought to the Ecumene without his knowledge or consent, this was how she repaid him? He kept the peace for Sahni’s sake, but he stewed in his own growing resentment the entire evening.

“Here, take this bag,” Bellara told him later on as the festivities were dying down. She handed him an empty burlap sack with a crystal inside. “We should load up on supplies tonight so that we can head out tomorrow at first light.”

Kendrick obliged, just as he had obliged everything else asked of him since arriving in this place mere days ago. They filled their bags with wrapped loaves of bread, dried meats, fruits, and some sort of sugary-coated nuts that came in their own smaller bags. He filled and filled his bag to the brim, yet it never seemed to weigh anything more than the crystal at the bottom.

“The wonders of enchanted bags,” Sahni told him with a wink, swinging her bag up and down effortlessly. He couldn’t help but smile a wide smile.

It seemed she had a habit of staying positive even when he couldn’t.

***

Sleeping accommodations in Timberford were much nicer than they’d been in Shroudmoor. The mayor gifted them a four-bed suite for the night in the nicest inn the town had to offer, as a special thanks for their efforts. Upon retiring to their room, Kendrick had noticed the spellcasters who had slain the demon entering their own rooms down the hall as well.

They could sleep soundly knowing that the town wizard pledged to stand guard throughout the night, and that the four corners of Timberford had been refortified with special warding that would send up magical flares into the sky if the town’s boundaries were breached. He, Bellara, and Sahni each climbed into their own respective beds and got comfortable. Kendrick’s bed was wider than his wingspan and longer than he was tall, a luxury to which he was not accustomed. The second-story window was cracked slightly to allow a cool breeze into the room, along with fresh air, and everything was exquisitely attuned to Kendrick’s exact preferences.

Even still, sleep eluded him that night. When he did manage to doze off, it was far from restful...

***

It was daytime. Early in the day, or late, but not night and not noon, judging by the tilt of the orange sunbeams. It must have been late in the day. A key turned in a door nearby and the latch clacked open.

Someone was home.

“Hey,” said Kendrick.

The other person didn’t respond right away. When he glimpsed them, they were partially blocked off by shadow, an incomplete rendering of their physical form. He remembered this happening before; it angered him, the way his dreams were coy with everything he wanted to know.

“Did you hear?” the other person asked.

Something was wrong. He could tell by the tone of their voice, even muffled as it was. “Hear what?”

“The news. Have you heard anything?”

“No, I just woke up. What’s going on?”

He realized then that someone was standing in a corridor just behind him. “Kendrick, I think we should take it outside.”

“Outside? What for?”

“Please. It’s not safe.” There was desperation in their voice and a sense of dreadful urgency.

He reached for the handle of a door.

Another hand grabbed his wrist.

***

Kendrick awoke in a cold sweat. He looked around the spacious room, eyes already acutely adjusted to the profound darkness of the Ecumene at night, with its lack of electricity. Blood raced through the veins of his tense body. In the bed next to his bed, separated by an end table, he watched Sahni’s chest rise and fall with her breathing. Bellara slept in the bed across from his on the other side of the room, and her telltale snoring was already evident. He caught his breath. He settled back into bed.

After that, he kept opening his eyes with a start, fearful that, even though they appeared to be the only three in the room, perhaps someone or something was somehow still watching them...

***

“May Aldiel guide you and protect your journey,” said the mayor the next morning. They bid him, and the town of Timberford, farewell in the plaza as they loaded up the remainder of their belongings for the road. “The Overworld has blessed us with kind and courageous defenders like you. Safe travels, now.”

“Are we ready?” Bellara asked them cautiously. Kendrick nodded in response.

“Ready,” Sahni answered her.

“Good. Let’s go.” She led the way on the main road leading out of town and eventually turned back to add, “I know that we still have... a lot to talk about, by the way. I haven’t forgotten.”

Kendrick mulled over how best to break the ice—either poking at it gently with a chisel, or smashing it with a sledgehammer. He ultimately opted for the latter. “I could have died, you know.”

Bellara scoffed. Then she turned back with an apologetic look and a wave of her hand as if asking him to excuse her. “Look, I understand it may have been a scary moment for you, but with the two of us there, you were never in any real danger of dying.”

“His aura has barely reached double digits at this point, Bellara,” Sahni protested. He could tell she was trying hard to stand her ground. “And... Look, you always push so hard to try to get him to the next level. Don’t you think you’re being too hard on him?”

“And what about her?” said Kendrick. “Restraining your own friend with the same spell you’d use on an imp? When she hadn’t even done anything wrong?”

“I wanted you to try at least before she did anything,” Bell argued. “What’s so wrong about that? She was running to take care of it for you! It may have been startling to you at the time, but I had my reasons.”

“And what would those be?”

The redhead stopped in her tracks just as they left the city limits on a path that split three ways into the woods. She about-faced and put her hands on her hips. “Oh, I don’t know, Kendrick... How about the fact that you only seem to make progress when I’m pushing you? How about the fact that I brought you here as a desperate last-ditch effort to save our world? How about the fact that she and I stole a priceless artifact from our school that we may never be able to return to now—either because we’ll be wanted criminals at best, or at worst, our school, and the rest of the Ecumene, will no longer exist once the Dark Lord finally steps through the Rift? Have you stopped for one moment this entire time to consider what we’ve had to endure these past two years?”

Dark Lord? Kendrick wondered privately. Never mind that. “That’s the only reason I ever did anything you asked of me,” he shot back. “I left that shack where you found me because I was scared, because you told me to be scared. I picked up the Psysword because you told me to. I kill things because you tell me to. Everything—”

“Guys,” Sahni murmured.

“—that I have done since the moment I’ve come here has either been out of self-preservation or following your orders.”

“And look how far you’ve come these past few days!” Bellara went on. “That’s not an accident!”

“Guys?” Sahni said again, a bit louder.

Bellara poked him in the chest. “You’ve gone from—and don’t take this the wrong way—kind of a sniveling coward to a respectable warrior in training. If a mother bird never pushed her hatchlings out of the nest, would birds ever learn to fly?”

Kendrick scoffed, “Um, I’m pretty sure that’s a natural part of a bird’s life cycle. This—” he said, gesturing at the town behind them “—this, uh, traveling exterminator thing, this summoning me from another universe thing, pretty sure this is not normal and—”

“Guys!” Sahni shouted. It was the loudest Kendrick had ever heard her speak. He looked at her, and then his eyes were drawn to follow her gaze. A figure blocked the path ahead of them that led out of town.

“Bellara Cass? Sahni Khloremi?” A man dressed in a bright orange hooded cowl, brown robes, jeweled necklaces, and wearing ornate, arcane-looking tattoos on his neck and the backs of his hands, stood in their way. He frowned at them, looking down at the two of them over the bridge of his pronounced nose.

“Can we help you?” Bellara spat back, sounding annoyed.

“I should hope so,” the man replied sternly. “You’ve already answered several questions of mine, but several more still remain.” Kendrick’s stomach sank as he got an inkling of what was about to happen. “I am a Warden of the Redrune Academy. I understand you’ve taken something that does not belong to you.”