The afternoon air was cool.
For the first time in days, it smelled of neither smoke, blood, nor fear.
Only damp earth, freshly cut wood, and hot food.
Emily stood by one of the fortress windows for a few moments, watching the city.
Carter was still standing.
It hardly looked like the same city.
Several houses had lost their roofs. Some streets were covered in rubble, and dark stains could still be seen across the stones. The walls were covered in makeshift repairs, patches of magic, and wooden planks where the monsters' claws had torn entire blocks apart.
But people were walking through the streets.
Soldiers.
Women.
Elderly people.
Children.
Some carried wood.
Others repaired doors.
A group of men was trying to rebuild one of the fountains in the square.
There was life.
After so many days, that felt almost like a miracle.
"Want to take a walk?"
Emily turned.
Lusian was waiting for her.
"Yes."
They stepped into the inner courtyard together.
For several minutes, neither of them spoke.
It wasn't an uncomfortable silence.
Just a strange one.
Emily had grown accustomed to the noise of the past few days.
The pounding against the walls.
The soldiers' screams.
The roars that tore through the night.
Orders.
Bells.
The sound of magic striking the creatures.
Now, all she could hear were hammers.
Footsteps.
Voices.
A city trying to remember how to live.
Lusian looked toward one of the towers.
"Looks like they're repairing the well."
Emily followed his gaze.
"Yes."
Her voice came out quieter than she expected.
"It broke on the second day."
Lusian waited.
"There were fights over water."
Emily lowered her eyes.
"I never thought I'd have to order my soldiers to guard a well."
"In a besieged city, water is worth more than weapons."
"I know."
Emily paused.
"Now."
Lusian looked at her.
She gave him a faint smile.
They continued walking.
Soldiers from the duchy were unloading supplies on both sides of the courtyard.
Crates of food.
Barrels.
Construction materials.
Medicine.
Objects covered in runes.
Emily watched the men work.
She still found it hard to believe that all of this had arrived.
"Did you sleep last night?" Lusian asked.
Emily let out a small laugh.
"A little."
"A little?"
"It wasn't like the previous nights."
She ran a hand through her hair.
"I didn't wake up to screaming."
Lusian smiled.
"That's good."
Emily nodded.
"Yes."
She was silent for a few seconds.
"I didn't realize how badly I needed sleep until I finally got some."
"Then try to get some again tonight."
Emily glanced at him.
"You should too."
"I will."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I don't believe you."
"Why?"
"You haven't stopped since you arrived."
Lusian thought for a moment.
"If I stop, my men will too."
Emily smiled.
"That sounds exactly like something a duke would say."
"Then I'll say something less noble."
She looked at him curiously.
"What?"
"Albert would make that face he always makes when he thinks I'm about to do something stupid."
Emily let out a small laugh.
It was barely a sound.
But afterward, they both fell silent.
Emily seemed surprised.
It had been days since she had laughed.
They walked a little farther.
Then Emily stopped.
She looked toward the walls.
Beyond them stretched Carter's fields.
Or at least what remained of them.
The crops had been crushed, ripped from the earth, and trampled into mud. In some places, entire furrows were still buried beneath the creatures' enormous footprints.
Emily had watched those fields burn during the siege.
Only now did she understand something she hadn't been able to grasp then.
They hadn't come for the city.
They had come for the fields.
First came the herds.
Hundreds of animals had descended from the wooded areas, crossing roads and fences, devouring everything they found. They had kept coming even after the soldiers began hunting them.
Then the other creatures had appeared.
The predators.
Following the herds.
Emily remembered thinking it was an invasion.
Now, looking at the ruined fields, that idea seemed strangely wrong.
There had been no invasion.
They had simply followed the food.
The problem was that the food was no longer where it had always been.
Emily looked toward the forest.
All her life, it had stood beyond the fields like a natural boundary no one needed to explain.
Now it looked different.
There were places where the trees were taller than she remembered.
In the darkest parts, some leaves gave off a faint glow.
And between the trunks, she could make out movement.
Something large.
Then another.
Emily stood still.
"They're coming back," she murmured.
Lusian followed her gaze.
That was what worried him most.
It didn't matter that Carter had survived.
It didn't matter that the duchy's army had cleared the surrounding area.
The phenomenon was continuing.
The world was still changing.
Emily stared at the ruined fields.
"Do you think it will happen again?"
Lusian took a few seconds to answer.
"I don't know."
Emily looked at him.
"How much time do we have?"
He slowly shook his head.
"I don't know that either."
She lowered her eyes.
"Then what do we do?"
Lusian looked at the forest beyond the walls.
"We prepare."
"For what?"
"For whatever comes."
Emily was silent.
"What can we do?" she asked.
Lusian slowly shook his head.
"I don't know."
His gaze returned to the fields.
"But we can prepare."
He paused.
"There's a plant that might help. It grows quickly, needs little space, and can be cultivated inside the city. If we can get enough seeds, we could reduce our dependence on the fields."
Emily nodded slowly.
"And the walls?"
"Reinforce them."
Lusian looked toward the damaged towers.
Then his gaze returned to the forest.
"So we'll be ready when the next one comes."
Emily looked at him.
"You have to go back."
"Yes."
The answer was immediate.
Too immediate.
Emily smiled faintly.
They continued walking toward the central square.
The difference was obvious.
The same houses.
The same cracked fountains.
The same dust-covered streets.
But the sound had changed.
"Jonah, put that down!"
A boy stopped with a piece of meat in his hands.
"But, Mom, I'm hungry!"
"And I'm afraid you'll get mana fever!"
The boy hid the meat behind his back.
"Nothing's going to happen to me."
Emily smiled, but the expression quickly faded.
The woman was right.
Since the rise in mana, even food had to be monitored. The meat of certain creatures could contain more energy than a human body could withstand.
To a monster, it was food.
To a human, it could be poison.
The mother took the boy by the hand and led him away.
Emily watched them disappear into the crowd.
"We don't even know what we can eat anymore."
"We'll learn."
"When?"
Lusian didn't answer.
Emily didn't press him.
A little farther ahead, elderly people received hot meals while murmuring prayers. Soldiers unloaded crates. Women organized the children. Some men repaired houses.
It wasn't happiness.
Not yet.
But it was life.
Emily looked across the square.
"How many people did you bring?"
Lusian was silent for a moment.
"The caravan started with around two thousand."
Emily frowned.
"And now?"
"More than seven thousand."
She turned toward him.
"Seven thousand?"
Lusian nodded.
"We found survivors along the way."
"From where?"
"Everywhere."
He looked toward the streets.
"Abandoned villages. Families hiding beneath collapsed houses. People sheltering in dry wells. Children who hadn't eaten in days."
Emily closed her eyes.
"And you brought them."
"Yes."
"Lusian..."
"I couldn't leave them."
Emily watched the families crossing the square.
Some still wore the clothes from their villages. Others carried whatever little they had managed to salvage.
A woman held a little girl while waiting for food.
Emily lowered her eyes.
Seven thousand people.
Seven thousand lives Lusian had found along the road.
And now they were here.
"They're not safe," she murmured.
"No," Lusian replied.
Emily looked at the walls.
Then at the ruined fields.
"But they're alive."
Lusian remained silent.
"Then we'll find a way to keep them that way."
"Emily..."
"No."
She gently shook her head.
"You didn't bring them all the way here just for them to die a few days later."
Lusian looked at her for several seconds.
"I'll do everything I can."
Emily smiled faintly.
"I know."
She looked back toward the square.
"And so will we."
She was silent for a moment.
"Carter will take them in."
There was no doubt in her voice.
"They survived. That's enough."
Lusian nodded.
Emily took a deep breath.
They walked toward the wagons.
That was when Emily noticed something she hadn't seen before.
Metal boxes.
Rings.
Bracelets.
Small containers covered in runes.
The soldiers took them from the wagons and handed them to the supply officers with the same casualness with which they had unloaded the food.
Emily frowned.
"What are all those?"
"Arcanum."
She picked up one of the small containers.
The metal vibrated softly beneath her fingers. Even closed, she could feel the folded space within.
Emily studied it for a few seconds.
"How many do you have?"
"I don't know."
She looked up.
"You don't know?"
Lusian shook his head.
Emily looked back at the wagons.
There were more than she could count at a glance.
Rings.
Bracelets.
Containers of different sizes.
Objects that, in Carter, could represent an entire family's fortune.
And here they were, mixed in with the supplies.
Emily looked at the soldiers' wrists.
"Those are Arcanum too?"
"Yes."
She looked down at her own hand.
The Sneider Ætherion caught the light of the setting sun.
For years, she had considered that ring one of her family's most valuable possessions.
Now she saw similar objects on the wrists of ordinary soldiers.
Emily looked back at the wagons.
"I've never seen so many together."
Lusian smiled.
"Ætherions are still extraordinary."
Emily raised an eyebrow and pointed at a wagon reinforced with black plates.
"And that?"
"A Relic."
Emily stopped.
"A Relic? I thought they were legends."
"Some are. That one works."
Lusian kept walking.
It took Emily a few seconds to recover before she caught up with him.
"The Douglases really do have too many things hidden away."
"Probably."
She let out a small laugh.
"That doesn't reassure me."
For the first time, she understood that this wasn't simply a well-equipped relief caravan.
It was the duchy.
A small portion of its power had arrived in Carter with Lusian.
And even so, he would have to leave.
"Was the duchy attacked too?"
Lusian took a moment to answer.
"Yes."
"Is it safe?"
"For now."
Emily nodded slowly.
She didn't need to ask anything else.
There were other cities.
Other territories.
Other people waiting for help.
Lusian couldn't stay in Carter while the entire world was changing.
"When are you leaving?"
"Soon."
Emily looked at him.
"How soon is soon?"
Lusian looked toward the walls before answering.
"As soon as I'm certain they can stand on their own."
Emily lowered her eyes.
"I understand."
They walked a few steps in silence.
"Are you afraid?" Lusian asked.
Emily looked at the city.
The damaged houses.
The soldiers.
The families who had arrived with him.
Finally, she nodded.
"Yes."
Lusian said nothing.
Emily took a deep breath.
"I don't know what's going to happen."
He looked at her.
She smiled faintly.
"And that scares me more than the monsters."
Lusian held her gaze for several seconds.
"Then let's not try to know everything."
Emily frowned slightly.
"What do we do?"
"Whatever we can."
He looked toward the walls.
"One thing at a time."
Emily was silent.
Then she smiled.
"That sounds very unheroic."
"It works."
She let out a small laugh.
"Then I suppose we'd better start."
They continued walking.
The soldiers kept working. Children ran between the houses. Someone repaired a window. A woman handed out bread.
For the first time in days, Carter seemed alive.
Emily looked toward the walls.
Beyond them, between the stones, a small plant had begun to grow. Its leaves gave off a faint blue glow.
No one seemed to have noticed it.
Emily had.
The sun slowly disappeared behind the walls.
Carter was still standing.
For now, that was enough.