A little over three months passed since we left Bastian’s hut, and we arrived at Starcrest. We had a few encounters with monsters over the journey. Other than that, we had no problems and the few monsters we did fight were weak. Every night I used the spells Bastian gave me. I could already see my mana growing again.

  It was nice to cast a spell and then go to bed. Improving my magic without having to fight monsters was a nice bonus. I wished I had asked Bastian how long these spells would be beneficial to cast. I didn’t want to rotate through the spells if they only lasted a few months. Guess I’ll find out someday.

  Almost every night during our journey, Renna and Arsted sparred. The results were always the same, though Renna was activating her sword more sparingly. She was getting good at using the swords’ ability, usually when she thought she saw an opening or as a last desperate defense.

  Since getting the magic sword, Renna no longer used her original sword. I’d thought she was going to try learning to use both swords at once. When I asked her why she kept her other sword, she told me it was given to her by her parents, and she wasn’t going to get rid of it no matter what.

  That made sense to me, so I didn’t try to encourage dual wielding swords. It was probably a dumb idea anyway. One last thing that happened during our journey was that I could now make four stone bullets at once. Using those inefficient spells seemed to help me use my other spells more efficiently, that or perhaps my mana growing was the reason.

  I still didn’t have a good way to fight someone in close quarter combat. I had done a little sparring with Renna during the journey and while I could see her movements better, I didn’t have a good way to protect myself. It was starting to annoy me and was something I planned to focus more of my attention on.

  The first thing I noticed about Starcrest was how large it was. It was bigger than Dacha Fortress. There were layers of stone walls, with five sections of walls, with each section housing a group of people. The fifth stone wall, which was at the back of Starcrest protected the lord’s castle. The fourth layer was where most of the nobles stayed, while the other three were public for anyone. Commoners mainly stayed in the first two layers, while the third was what I would equate to middle class of my world.

  One of the first things I noticed upon walking into Starcrest was there were a lot more elves. There were a few in Dacha Fortress but here I could see dozens walking around. There were demons as well, with some looking like Arsted in terms of skin at least. Some had horns and there was one who didn’t have eyes, yet he was able to walk as if he could see everything.

  “I know of an inn that will take us and our mule,” Arsted said.

  “Lead the way,” I said. I looked over at Renna who was staring at everything around us. She looked as amazed as I felt when seeing this place.

  Arsted led us to an inn, where he talked to the innkeeper, who took our mule and gave us a room. This time we all had to share a room due to how packed it was. There was one issue. There were only two beds. In the end we decided Renna and I would sleep in the same bed, while Arsted would get his own.

  I won’t lie; I wasn’t looking forward to sharing a bed. I’d been lucky to get my own bed since leaving Alcion. It wasn’t like these beds were large. At least I wasn’t going to be sleeping on the ground for a while, I took solace in that.

  “Arsted, do you know where the guild is?” I asked.

  “Yes, do you want to go now?”

  “Unless Renna wants to wait, I’m ready to go.”

  “Let’s go!” Renna said.

  We were off again, going to the guild. “How come Dracaena hasn’t attacked this place?” I asked. This place was huge, if Dracaena attacked, surely that would hurt South Ornea.

  “It’s complicated. Starcrest may be in South Ornea but it’s a major trade hub and it’s well defended. Breaching this place would take considerable resources, something Dracaena won’t commit to. This will also be a good place for you to find people to assist in rescuing your parents.”

  “That’s good to know.” I took out the journal I made for myself and wrote those details in. I didn’t want to forget the important details about Starcrest. I may not need to know this now but what if this would be good to know in twenty years? One thing I had learned in my old life was that if I didn’t write things down, I’d forget the details when I needed them most.

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  It took us nearly an hour to get to the guild. Unlike the other guild halls I had seen, this one had guards standing at the front. A couple of people with hooded robes tried to walk in and were forced to lower their hoods before being allowed entry.

  I took the lead and stopped when the guards held out their hands. They looked at the three of us. “You’re good to enter,” the guard said.

  My guess was that the guards were looking for someone. I almost asked before deciding whatever the reason they were here for wasn’t my problem. I stepped through the doors and was met with loud cheers. Not for me of course.

  Nearby, there was a table where a crowd had gathered and two people sat at the table, each taking a drink from their jugs. It didn’t take me long to realize they were doing some sort of drinking game. This could be good to gather information.

  We walked toward the front desk, but I stopped when I heard something interesting. “Did you hear about Dracaena’s move?” An adventurer said to another.

  “You talking about them focusing on North Ornea?”

  “Yeah. Sounds like they tricked North Ornea to send aid here, then Dracaena sent a large army by water and invaded. Now South Ornea is scrambling to send aid to North Ornea.”

  Interesting. I hoped our families weren’t in North Ornea. Civilians died in war and slaves more so. I would hate to hear my family had died because they got caught in a battle they didn’t want to be in. My father was a skilled swordsman, and my mother was a healer, perhaps they would be fine… I hoped.

  “Thorian, what are you doing?” Renna asked.

  “Sorry, I was just thinking,” I said and caught up with her.

  “What were you thinking about?”

  “Nothing important.”

  Renna looked at me suspiciously. “Fine, be that way.”

  Thankfully, I didn’t have to say anything else as we arrived at the front desk. A demon who looked like a human with two horns was standing there. “What can I do for you?” the demon asked, looking at Arsted as he spoke.

  “Is there a letter for a party by the name of the Seekers?” I asked. The demon looked down at me and shrugged to himself.

  “Let me check.”

  A loud cheer caused me to turn around. At the same table as earlier, one of the men who had been drinking was vomiting into a trash can. The other drinker was celebrating and downed the rest of his mug. He moved aside and two elves took their place and began drinking.

  The teller came back. He was holding two letters. “Before I can give these to you, do you have your adventurer cards?”

  “Yes.” I put my hand in my robe pocket, and it took me a second to find it. I handed it over to the demon, who looked at the small tablet closely.

  “All right, here you go,” the demon gave me both letters.

  I hoped this was good news. Renna and Arsted followed me as I went to a table in the corner away from everyone. We barely sat down when a server came by.

  “Anything I can get you three?”

  “Nah, we’re fine for now,” I said. Renna looked disappointed but kept her mouth shut. The server walked away, and I opened the letter.

  The letter was from Esmond. “Wow, Esmond sent this two months ago. How did he move so fast?” I said aloud.

  “He has his ways,” Arsted said.

  “What does it say?” Renna said.

  I glanced at the letter and read it silently for a moment. “Esmond says he might have found a lead on the kidnapped villagers from Alcion, and he will report when he has more news.” The first letter was barely a paragraph long. Hopefully this second letter had good news.

  The second letter was dated eleven days ago. I quickly opened the letter and like the last one, it wasn’t very long. “Esmond says he can’t get further inside to verify the prisoners, though he says we will need help as the place is heavily guarded. He’ll give us another update when he can.”

  “There goes not looking for help,” Renna said.

  “We were expecting this,” I said.

  I wish Esmond had said how many people were guarding the place. Heavily guarded could mean anything. Thirty guards? Two hundred? A thousand? No, I doubted there were a thousand and not likely to be a couple hundred but still! Heavily guarded, and not knowing how many guards there were, was important information to leave out.

  We had money to start hiring people. I wasn’t sure how many or for how long, which made this difficult. While I was thinking through this, Arsted grabbed the second letter and glanced over it. The letter contained the location where he thinks the prisoners are.

  “How far is the prison camp?” I asked.

  “It’s near the borders between South and North Ornea. I would not be surprised to see the villagers sent there,” Arsted said.

  “Why do you think that?” Renna asked.

  “It’s a popular mining spot. There’s a lot of money and materials to be made there.”

  That made me feel confident that our families could be there. I hoped that meant all the Alcion villagers were there. If they were, then we had one area to save and then we could go back home. Not like that would be easy. I couldn’t imagine South Ornea letting us stroll out of these lands with a ton of slaves. That was a problem we would need to solve.

  “We need allies. Arsted, you said we should be able to find help here in Starcrest, right?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll need to do. If we ask around, I’m sure we can find some people for hire.”

  “I’m not sure telling people we’re going to attack a mine is a good idea. Won’t that get us reported?” Renna said.

  “No,” Arsted said before I could think about it. “As I said before, Starcrest is a major trading hub, and I would bet there are other people here looking to rescue prisoners. You will find people all over the world here and no one wants to get involved with the guards over something like this.”

  “That’s good. I don’t want to deceive anyone who may be willing to help,” I said.

  “Well, you might be in luck,” an unknown voice said, causing me to turn and see a man with dark brown hair, blue eyes and a red headband standing at the edge of the table. How long had he been listening to us? “I have a solution to your problem.”