The night passed in a deathly calm, an almost unsettling tranquility after the storm of blood they had just witnessed.
The fire crackled at the center of the makeshift camp, casting dancing shadows across the exhausted faces of the group. The stench of iron and death still clung to the fabric of their clothes and lingered in the night breeze.
Dayana sat idly beside the bodies she had reanimated moments earlier. At a slight gesture of her hand, one of the corpses shuffled forward with stiff steps and held out an empty cup.
—Bring more firewood.
The undead turned on its heels and obeyed in silence. Emily let out a restrained chuckle as she wiped the dried blood from her knuckles.
—You never lose the habit.
—And what exactly do you expect me to do with them? —Dayana replied with a shrug—. They don't need them anymore.
A few yards away, Adela gently scratched the back of her white tiger. Near Lusian, Thunder rested on the grass; small blue sparks crackled through his dark fur whenever he raised his ears at the sounds of the forest.
Lusian kept his gaze fixed on the embers. He had been lost in the same heavy silence for hours. He had fought to his limits. He had watched thousands perish within minutes. And yet, it was not guilt weighing on his chest.
It was the certainty of inevitability.
The anger of knowing that all of it had been as bloody as it had been necessary.
Emily settled down beside him, feeling the warmth of the fire.
—What are you thinking about?
Lusian took several heartbeats before breaking his silence.
—That this is going to happen again.
Elizabeth raised her head from the darkness, attentive.
—You mean the heroes?
—Heroes, armies, fanatics, inquisitors... —Lusian stirred an ember with a wooden stick, sending a shower of sparks into the air—. It doesn't matter who they send next. As long as we remain on this land, they won't stop.
No one dared contradict him. The evidence still lay fresh across the valley.
Lusian raised his gaze toward the starry sky.
—We have to leave.
—Where? —Elizabeth asked.
—To the other continent.
Emily raised an eyebrow, surprised.
—The place from the legends? Where they say monsters hunt alongside men?
—Yes.
—We have absolutely no idea what awaits us there.
—Precisely because of that.
Emily offered a warm smile filled with understanding.
—That sounds like you.
Lusian said nothing more. He simply watched the fire consume the wood. For the first time in months, he had no desire to test his blade or measure his strength against another threat. He did not want to discover which divine entity was pulling the strings of the next conspiracy.
He simply wanted to disappear.
Hours later, the ashes of the camp were left behind.
The harbor lay sleeping beneath a thick, damp fog. Beside the pier, rocking gently with the tide, waited a dark-wood galleon, its sails furled and its holds packed full. Albert inspected the last crates of provisions while a handful of sailors finished securing the ropes and moorings.
When he noticed Lusian approaching, the old man bowed his head with solemn reverence.
—Everything is ready, my lord.
Lusian gave a slight nod.
—Good work.
Albert offered a tired smile tinged with bitterness.
—Just try not to sink it in the middle of the sea.
Lusian held his gaze for a heartbeat.
—I promise nothing.
The old man let out a quiet laugh.
At that moment, light footsteps broke through the murmur of the waves. Isabella emerged from the fog with a travel bundle slung over her shoulder.
Albert frowned in surprise.
—What are you doing here, Isabella?
—I'm going with you.
—Isabella... —Lusian warned gravely—. The Duchy needs capable minds to oversee its reconstruction.
—Mónica will manage it infinitely better than I ever could —she declared, walking past him without giving him a chance to argue.
She stopped one step away from Lusian, standing straight and resolute.
—Will you let me go with you?
Lusian examined her in silence for several seconds.
—It's a dangerous journey.
—I know.
—There's a very good chance we may never return.
—I know that too.
Isabella held his gaze without blinking.
—Even so, I have no intention of staying behind.
Lusian glanced at the travel pack she was carrying, then looked back into her eyes.
—Get aboard.
No arguments. No speeches. Isabella smiled with relief and boarded the ship. Lusian followed a few moments later.
Albert remained on the weathered wooden pier as the rest of the group—Emily, Elizabeth, Dayana, and Adela with their beasts—began boarding in orderly fashion.
—Take care of the Duchy —Lusian called from the railing.
—Until your victorious return, my lord.
Lusian stopped, but did not answer. He simply took one last look at the silhouette of the coastline.
He was leaving behind a trail of ashes: massacres, bitter enemies, divine conspiracies, and fallen heroes. And if fortune favored him, perhaps the legend of the Devil would drown somewhere in those waters as well.
The sails unfurled with a muted snap. The wind filled them, and the vessel slowly began to pull away from the harbor.
Emily leaned against the railing, feeling the salty air; Elizabeth gazed into the endless horizon with a distant expression; Dayana smiled contentedly at the prospect of a new continent filled with unfamiliar corpses to raise; and Isabella settled down a short distance from Lusian.
He said nothing.
He remained motionless at the stern, watching as the familiar land disappeared into the fog behind the ship's wake.
For the first time in many years, he had absolutely no idea what awaited him on the other side of the ocean.
And, strangely enough, that uncertainty gave him a peace he could not remember ever having felt before.