It took a little more than a day before the attackers left Alcion. Once the attackers discovered their two dead riders, they searched the forest and the surrounding area. They were unknowingly looking for Renna and me. We were able to keep ourselves hidden. Thankfully, they never looked up to see whether we were hiding in the trees.

  We walked toward the village, which was eerily quiet. Renna walked with her sword in hand, and I was ready to cast magic. There shouldn’t be any of the attackers left, yet we weren’t going to allow ourselves to be caught by surprise.

  The good news was that there weren’t many dead bodies. There were a few dead, though nobody I knew very well. That was a blessing at least, I would have hated to come here and find everyone I cared about dead. That gave me hope we could still save the villagers.

  Still, I couldn’t help feeling regret as we walked around to see if there were any survivors. I know Renna is right about not being able to help, yet I couldn’t help feeling guilty. Perhaps, if we tried, we could have fought with some of the other villagers. Perhaps, with Damon and Elias, we could have saved some of our people.

  It was wishful thinking. I was experiencing survivor’s guilt. I had experienced this very thing back in my days in Vietnam. At least most of the villagers weren’t dead. I needed to save them.

  “This is awful,” Renna said.

  Her voice was so quiet, I wasn’t sure I was supposed to hear her. I decided not to respond and kept moving. Quite a few of the houses were damaged in some way. Some were still on fire, while others had collapsed ceilings or walls. Despite my better judgment, I used water magic to take out some of the small fires we came across.

  We were close to my house. My heart began to beat like a drum. My family should be prisoners but what if they were killed? Damon was a strong fighter; I didn’t see how the attackers could have taken him without killing or severely wounding him.

  I was surprised not to see any bodies when my house came into view. Was my family poisoned like I was? That would explain some things, but how did we get poisoned if that was the case? I forced the thoughts away and stood in front of my house. The front door was kicked in, so I walked in.

  There were some knocked over chairs and whatever valuables may have been in here must have been taken. There were open drawers with random piles of trash all over the floor.

  The bracelet Elias had given me was gone. I hadn’t taken it with me to the forest. What an idiot you are! If I had worn it like I should have, then it wouldn’t have been taken. That was the least of my problems.

  There was no sign of my sister or parents. There were no bodies. I couldn’t see even a speck of blood.

  They must have been poisoned like us. There was no way Damon would go down without a fight. It was relieving in a way. I may have issues with him, but I didn’t want him to die. It would be possible to save him, so long as he didn’t do anything to get himself killed. At least my family was alive.

  Renna grabbed my hand. “It looks like your family was taken, I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

  I squeezed her hand back and gave her a reassuring smile. “That means they can be rescued. I was worried they might have been killed.”

  I’m sure I wasn’t very convincing. Renna nodded anyway and we walked around the rest of the house. All the books were gone, along with the swords Damon gave me for my tenth birthday. Not that I was going to carry it anyway, I saw no point in carrying a sword when I had magic. A sword would only slow me down.

  “Can we go to my place?” Renna asked.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” I said.

  We walked out of the house. What a mess this was. Who attacked our village and why? I didn’t know enough about the politics of this world to even question who. They didn’t look like bandits, they were too organized and well armed. That was one thing I hated; how hard it was to get news. It could be months or even years before we found out why this happened, assuming we ever did.

  “Looks like most of the village may be taken as prisoners,” I said to break the silence.

  “More like slaves,” Renna said. “Why else would they be taken? They’ll be put to work or worse.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. Luckily, we arrived at Renna’s house. She rushed inside without a second thought. Like mine, there was nothing but a mess. No blood, no signs of a struggle and no valuables left.

  Renna walked slowly through the house while I remained at the entrance. She took longer than I expected before returning. She looked sad, not that I could blame her. “We might as well explore the rest of the village. Surely someone must have escaped,” she said.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  With that we walked around the village. I didn’t know how long we had walked; all I know is we found nobody. That was until we arrived at Elias’s house. There was blood near the front entrance, enough to where there had to have been a few people killed, yet there were no bodies.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Renna and I looked at one another before entering. When we walked inside, there was more blood sprayed over the walls and the ground. There were holes all over. I turned the corner and saw someone sitting against the wall with a gaping hole in his chest. It was Elias and he was alive.

  I rushed over to him. He raised his head and smiled. “You’re… both okay,” Elias said weakly.

  I didn’t say anything and cast healing on him. It was as I feared, the wound was too severe for my magic to heal him. A more skilled mage could have saved Elias. I could barely keep myself together. “I’m sorry, I-I can’t heal you,” I said, feeling my voice beginning to crack.

  It reminded me of a painful memory. When I tried to stop the bleeding of my sergeant. A man I had admired. I recalled trying to make the bleeding stop and yelling for a medic. Unfortunately, I was helpless. He succumbed to his injuries by the time a medic arrived. This situation was far too similar. I couldn’t even use healing magic to save him.

  “N-no, you can’t. This wound… would require a… Mystic level mage,” Elias got out before coughing out blood.

  How Elias was still alive was a miracle. Not that it mattered, he would be dead soon. He was pale as a ghost. “Do you know why Alcion was attacked?” I asked. I saw no reason not to get some information, even if I’d rather he lived.

  “I don’t know… Everyone began collapsing, except for…” Elias coughed before continuing. “Me.”

  “I’m pretty sure it was poison. While I was in the forest, I nearly fell asleep and barely cast detoxification magic in time,” I said.

  “M-must have been in… the food or water,” Elias said. He grimaced as he straightened himself. “Listen to me… The both of you. The attackers… Were from either North or South Ornea.”

  “You recognized them?” Renna asked.

  “Y-yeah. I’d heard of a potential war brewing between Dracaena and Ornea… Should have planned for an attack here, with us being so… close,” Elias stopped and took a couple of deep breaths. “The villagers should be… treated well… Ornea isn’t cruel.”

  “We’ll save them. We’ll save all of them,” I said. My hand curled into a fist. That was my purpose, and nobody would be able to talk me out of this. I couldn’t do this alone; I’d need to gather help. I’m sure the prisoners were going to be guarded.

  Elias nodded and raised his right hand to point at the floor near his broken table. “Under the floorboard… Is some money. Take it.” As I went to move, Elias grasped my arm with surprising strength for a guy on death’s door. “The man who… did this to me… He was a swordsman… I stood no chance… You must be… careful. I’m sorry… for not being able… to… do… more… for…”

  Elias went silent and his head fell. He was dead. To say my heart dropped would be an understatement. He was like family to me. He taught me how to use magic, along with my sister. Life was unfair and that thought didn’t make me feel any better.

  I wiped my eyes and was surprised to see tears. I couldn’t help it, I lost a mentor and a friend. Renna held me and waited for me to finish crying. Once I was done, I stood up and wiped the rest of my face clean. My eyes felt raw.

  These were the first tears I had ever spilled in this world. I had forgotten how terrible it felt to lose someone you cared for. A part of me wished I could tear my heart out, but that wasn’t the answer. I needed to be strong. Not just for Renna, but for the villagers who were taken.

  Without saying a word, I walked over to the floorboard Elias pointed out and found the money. The bag was small and held about twelve coins. All were silver. Gold was the highest currency, followed by silver, and then copper. It took twenty silver pieces to equal a gold piece and twenty copper for a silver piece. With twelve silvers, we would be fine for a bit, at least, I hoped.

  “We should bury him,” Renna said.

  “Yeah,” I said. We walked over to Elias’s body. I used magic to lift him up and walked to his backyard. I created a hole with magic, then we placed his body inside, and I moved the dirt over him. “May you rest in peace.”

  I didn’t know the proper way to say goodbye in this world. Renna repeated my words, so either what I said was fine or she didn’t know either. My thoughts began to drift to Elias’s final words, about a swordsman who he didn’t stand a chance against. He would have to be Sentinel ranked to take Elias out so easily.

  That made my stomach queasy. Renna and I were barely intermediate ranked. If we ran across a Sentinel ranked warrior, we’d stand no chance. I shook my head to clear those thoughts away, there were other things to think about. First, we needed to find out where the villagers were taken. Then I could form a plan to rescue them.

  Curiosity got the better of me and I headed toward the exit. Renna followed me. “What are you doing?” Renna asked when I walked into a nearby house.

  “Checking to see how we were poisoned,” I replied.

  The table here wasn’t broken. There was some food and water on the table. I cast analyze as I got closer to examine the food and water. I put more mana into the skill than normal, allowing for a more thorough inspection.

  There was nothing that seemed off about the food. I couldn’t help worrying that this skill may not let me see the poison. That fear vanished when I looked at the water. There was something different about the water. It took me a moment to realize there were traces of mana.

  Ah, that would explain why the poison didn’t affect Renna or me immediately. The water must have been poisoned and was activated by the magic user who did this. That explained why so many of the villagers were caught without much of a fight.

  “You found something?” Renna asked.

  “Oh yeah, the water was poisoned,” I had forgotten she was in here with me.

  “But Elias wasn’t poisoned, was his water not affected?”

  “Likely not. Elias is a mage, he probably conjured water whenever he wanted to drink, or he detoxified himself like I did when I realized we were poisoned.”

  “I wonder what poison it was,” Renna said.

  “Something involving magic. I found traces of mana, likely activated when we got tired inside the forest. This must have been planned for some time.”

  “For most of the villagers to be affected by this… It could have been weeks or even months,” Renna said.

  Here’s where my lack of knowledge about magic hurt me. Would the contaminated water remain that way until someone cleansed it? Was there a time limit? If a spell could be cast to last months or forever, it would be good to know. The magic in this world was far more complicated than I expected it to be.

  Not like it mattered, I had no use for such magic now. “We should check out the rest of the village to make sure there is no one else. Once we do that, I say we leave.”

  “Agreed. The money Elias gave us should help us get started,” Renna said.

  My peaceful life in Alcion was over. I stood up and walked out of the house. I had no choice but to save my family and the other villagers. I realized that meant I would have to kill. There was no going around it, I would need to kill to save the villagers. I would save my family, even if it was the last thing I did.