Valerie made no move to speed up, hide, or otherwise escape the woman calling out to her, but neither did she go through any great effort to allow her to catch up. She kept pulling Lucas through the crowd, weaving through the throngs of people lingering between the endless rows of tents when she could and forcing open a path when she couldn’t, all the while keeping her neutral gaze firmly ahead. The woman had stopped calling out to them, at least, but that was mostly because she was barely a few metres behind them.

  Lucas wasn’t sure what was going on, but every time he looked over his shoulder, she appeared to be closer. Close enough now that he could see the fierce scowl on her uncannily pretty face, getting angrier every time yet another person got in her way. She was a striking woman—that was his first impression of her up close. A heart-shaped face, verdant green eyes, and orange hair that seemed fiery in the mild afternoon sun. She wore gleaming white armour of the same style as Valerie’s, though hers was significantly more polished, since she probably hadn’t been roving the countryside for the last couple of months. Her cloak, too, was pristine, the same colour as the sky above.

  For a brief moment, as he looked back to check how close she’d come, her eyes and Lucas’ met. There was a breathless second where time seemed to stop, and he was sure the woman would recognise him for who he was. But she gave no particular reaction beyond a baffled look before turning her furious attention back to Valerie.

  It wasn’t long before she drew close enough that she was able to close in on Valerie’s other side and hiss, “I thought we left this kind of childish behaviour behind years ago.”

  “There’s nothing childish about my behaviour,” Valerie snapped back, not even glancing at the newcomer. “I’m trying to get to the city as soon as possible, and thus I do not wish to stop.”

  “And it would have delayed you so long to look back and acknowledge me, would it? I’m sure the fact that you know very well how I despise being ignored had nothing to do with your actions, did it, Vayon?”

  Valerie looked at him and rolled her eyes. There was a brief moment where the redheaded woman and Valerie were forced to part as the crowd became particularly dense—people crowding outside a large tent giving away food, it turned out—but Valerie kept him close.

  “Who’s this?” Lucas murmured to her.

  “Her name’s Florence Wynn,” Valerie said. “An old comrade, as you can no doubt see.”

  “You seem uncharacteristically antagonistic, right now,” Lucas observed.

  Valerie just scowled, but Florence was back before she could reply, leaning over Valerie’s shoulder to get a look at her face. “I must admit, it took me off guard when I returned to Dawnguard from my mission to find you’d set off on a mission of your own. I was under the impression you’re not supposed to take missions away from the front lines, or so you went to great lengths to imply.”

  “That wasn’t a rule,” Valerie said, sending the woman a flinty look. “My career has just so happened to play out that way, thus far. There’s no edict banning me from running regular missions, if I so desire.”

  “You just haven’t found the time to do so, is that it?” Florence’s nose wrinkled, then she smoothed out her expression and let out a soft sigh. “Well, far be it from me to scold you for finally following my advice and taking on a more low-stakes work for once. Except, no, you’ve gone and got mixed up in something serious again, haven’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Valerie said tightly.

  “Come on, Val,” Florence groaned. “I’m not an imbecile; it doesn’t require any particular talent in deductive reasoning to take the fact that you’ve arrived from the north at this time and figure out you decided to go and stick your nose in this Harwyck fiasco. Look at you! Your cloak is practically black. I bet it barely has a speck of mana in it.”

  “You’re not entirely incorrect,” Valerie said. Lucas couldn’t help but notice she was keeping herself between him and Florence, and wondered what that meant about the woman’s trustworthiness. He didn’t think Valerie was likely to reveal his identity in this situation even to Claire herself, but her actions still made him wary, and he found himself watching this Florence out of the corner of his eye as they continued to navigate through the teeming crowd.

  Apparently, he needn’t have bothered. “So. Out with it, then,” Florence said, craning her neck to eye him over the top of Valerie’s head. The two were of almost the same height. “I assume this man you’re escorting is an important person you extracted from the city, or something?”

  There was a pause as they were forced to take a detour behind a larger tent to avoid a truly impenetrable-looking mass of people packed together around a white-robed man who appeared to be giving off a healing aura.

  “His name is James,” Valerie said when their path was more open, “and he’s a lunamancer.”

  Florence blinked a few times, her gaze flicking between Lucas and Valerie for a moment before settling on the latter. She gave Valerie a sad smile. “Ah. I didn’t think you were still pursuing solutions to that issue.”

  “My pendant broke,” Valerie said.

  “What?!” Florence hissed, briefly coming to a stop in her shock, separating them as people filled in the gap, and Valerie left her behind without looking back once again. It took her a few seconds to weave back through the crowd to Valerie’s side again. “What do you mean, it broke? That thing was crafted by Lady Claire herself, was it not?”

  “Even Lady Claire hasn’t managed to create an enchantment that grants total invincibility to magical objects,” Valerie replied with a roll of her eyes.

  “But it had so much mana in it! Surely a human Wand can’t possibly act as an adequate replacement for that!” She glanced at Lucas. “No offence intended, Ser James. I’m sure your skills are exemplary, for Valerie to have sought you out and, ah, recruited you to assist her. But I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how difficult and time-consuming it is to gather lunar mana, and the pendant we refer to was a product of decades of work by the greatest Wand Aerth has ever known.” Lucas just nodded, unsure whether it was safe to speak, and she looked back to Valerie, leaning closer. “How in the five hells did it even break?”

  Valerie grimaced. “A demon.”

  There was a hitch in Florence’s step, but this time she didn’t come to a stop. “How, Val? I may not be as experienced in facing demons as you, but even I know that’s no explanation. The bloody thing was specifically designed to fight against demonic influence, so how, pray tell, was it destroyed by a demon?”

  “Extenuating circumstances,” Valerie said. She continued in a lower voice, cutting off Florence’s reply, “Not something I’m willing to tell you about here, where anyone could be listening.”

  Florence studied Valerie’s face for a long moment. Valerie’s expression was blank, but Florence seemed to find something there regardless, her eyes going wide before narrowing. She leaned in, and spoke quietly enough that Lucas wouldn’t have heard it without the enhanced hearing Jamie had granted him. “You were complaining about that group, last time we spoke. Said Lady Claire wasn’t taking them seriously.”

  “She should have,” Valerie growled back. “She really, really should have.”

  Lucas couldn’t help but agree. A member of said group, if they meant the same one he was thinking of, had tried to kill him, after all.

  Sucking in a breath through her teeth, Florence grimaced. “Come, I’ll escort you to the city gates. I’ve been assigned to assist the city watch with the refugees out here,” she said with a note of bitterness in her voice. “Please let me know if you intend to venture out from the city once more? I should be finished with my duties here by week’s end, and at that point I would very much like to speak to you in more depth. No avoiding me, Vayon!”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Valerie said.

  Florence scoffed, but she upped her pace to lead them onwards, her head held high. Her cloak seemed to grow brighter, like the sun was passing near the patch of sky her mantle represented, and many in the crowd shied away, not quite bowing, but definitely respectful.

  Lucas and Valerie exchanged a look, then swiftly moved to follow Florence through the gap her sheer presence was creating. Their progress still could not be considered fast by any means, but it was at least quicker than how they had been moving before. More than that, the thinning crowd gave Lucas more room to actually see what was going on around him, rather than feeling like he was stuck in the middle of a scrum.

  They turned off from the main road, Florence evidently thinking better of trying to go straight to the city when there were so many people packing the way. Instead, she led them through labyrinthine route zigzagging between tents and campfires and myriad scenes of hope and despair. For every hollow-eyed soul, there was another man whose eyes burned with determination to keep on going. Those who had given up were matched in equal number by those who would never surrender; it seemed like everywhere he looked, there was someone trying to get another to eat, or telling a joke, or playing a song.

  It was as harrowing as it was inspiring. The refugees, driven here by a war that blurred nightmares and reality, huddled around meagre fires, clinging to the promise that the great white-walled city would protect them from the demonic assault. Demons had never reached Dawnguard, after all. Safety stood so close in reach.

  Children with ruddy cheeks and dirty clothes darted between shelters. An air of desperation and defiance clung to every whispered prayer, the wind carrying the smell of sweat.

  They passed a makeshift infirmary where healers in soot-stained robes bent over the wounded. The infirmary smelled of poultices and scorched flesh, and the groaning of the afflicted formed a dissonant lullaby that would haunt his dreams. A wiry woman in a white floral gown, features sharpened by sleepless nights, flittered between the patients, her hands glowing an icy blue. Valerie pulled him onward before he could drift towards it.

  Lucas found himself wondering, as they navigated through the camp, how many situations like this one had played out in the past as the Blight advanced, and how many more would play out in the future, if nothing was done. How many more could play out, before there was nowhere left for the people to go? He liked to imagine a heroic last stand, humanity banding together on the eve of annihilation, but then he saw a woman with the same blank eyes as some of the survivors of Taunton, and that notion drained away.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  There was no stand to be made against demons. Not with sheer numbers. All that stood between chaos and the last bastions of humanity were those powerful and courageous individuals who could truly fight those monsters on equal terms.

  One day, he was going to have to be one. For the first time, looking around at this place, at the dichotomy of hope and despair, he didn’t dread the prospect. Didn’t get stuck on the absurd concept of him fighting monsters out of an eldritch horror story. Didn’t feel fear and bewilderment over the idea that he would one day wield enough power to sunder armies.

  In fact, that time couldn’t come fast enough.

  One day, I’ll take the fight to the demons for real, he thought, and he determined it was an unspoken promise. I’ll kill every last one of them, from the lowest beast to the Dread General and the Demon Lord himself, so that these people never have to go through this shit again.

  But that was something for the future.

  Right now, he could see a little girl with dirt on her face and a hollow look in her eyes, and he stopped to approach. She was so blond her hair was practically white, and her eyes would’ve been a fascinating shade of amethyst if they hadn’t turned milky from whatever had afflicted her. She should’ve been in one of those infirmaries they’d passed by, not crouched at the corner of a large tent, going unnoticed at the side of the packed crowd. But he supposed that was just how things were going to go, when so many people had been forced out of their homes and herded south by monsters; people, even children, were going to fall through the cracks.

  But he’d seen her now, and he’d catch her before she could fall all the way.

  He expected Valerie to keep him moving forward, but her grip slackened as he neared the girl, and instead she moved ahead of him, reaching beneath her cloak. Her brows furrowed as she rummaged around for a moment, then she went still. Slowly, she turned her gaze to him.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll help her.”

  Valerie nodded. Her lips were thin, and there was a look in her eyes he couldn’t place. Florence joined them a moment later, her eyes fixed on Valerie. She placed a hand on Valerie’s shoulder, but Valerie didn’t seem to notice.

  Lucas leaned down over the girl, who gave no reaction to his presence or his reaching out with a hand glowing a soft white. Even when his fingers ghost over her shoulder and his mana trickled into her system, she didn’t even flinch.

  Otherwise, he might have made some effort to hide his grimace. Her mana was… withered. Not corrupted, not like he’d seen at the hands of beasts or demons. And it wasn’t infected like Valerie’s either. It was more like when someone spent so long away from the sun that their skin turned paler and paler. He couldn’t diagnose exactly what had happened to her or what might have caused this, but he’d had a lot of practise with using his lunar mana to alleviate ailments of the soul, in the last week or so. It didn’t take much effort to drip some into her system and cycle it around a bit; since she was a child, her system was so undeveloped it practically only covered her bones, just as Lucas’ had done when he first arrived here.

  In a matter of minutes, the fog in her eyes was clearing up, and she was blinking blearily up at him as if waking up from a long sleep. Her brows furrowed, and her lips trembled. Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but Valerie’s hand on his shoulder hushed him. “You’re safe now, child,” she said in a voice softer than he ever knew she was capable of. She held out a hand, and the girl seemed to take it on pure reflex. “Come along now, we’ll get you somewhere safe. How does food sound?”

  They found an area that seemed to be dedicated to taking care of children who’d arrived here without a guardian, or who’d gotten lost. A matronly old woman in a grey shawl smiled at the young girl, who hadn’t spoken a word in the time they’d led her there, and thanked them for their help. She quickly moved on, with dozens more children packed into her small tent, most of them in a similar state to the one Lucas had helped.

  Valerie nudged him to move on, but there was less urgency to it, now. When he looked back at her, he found her watching that tent with a distant expression, even though they couldn’t see the little girl any more.

  Florence was no longer leading them as she had been, instead taking up a position on Valerie’s other side. She leaned over and whispered something to Valerie, but Valerie just shook her head as if to dislodge a thought and picked up her pace, forcing Lucas and Florence to hurry to keep up.

  It took much of the rest of the day to navigate through the camp, with many more incidents similar in nature to the previous. The sun was well into its descent by the time they passed by the last tent and made their way into the no-man’s-land before the city’s looming, impossibly tall walls. Even here, people seemed to occupy every possible space. Pushing through was a work of effort, especially since Valerie insisted in them staying together, not willing to take her sight off him for a moment. Florence’s shining cloak proved a boon once more, respect for the Order parting the crowd like a plough.

  Eventually, the chaos of the crowd gave way to a more orderly line to enter the city, overseen by watchmen in white and red armour and red mantles, with a five-pointed star icon on their chests. Here, Florence’s cloak did nothing to part the crowd, though it did get them ahead into a smaller line that was apparently meant for important people who all seemed to be escorted by someone connected to the city watch in some way—it said a lot about the situation that even so-called VIPs had to be stopped and checked, though their line move notably fastre than the rest. It wasn’t so much a queue as a very slow shuffle toward the checkpoint. Lucas assumed they had a plan to get him through, since he had no way of identifying himself. Maybe two skycloaks vouching for him would be enough.

  They were in the line for a few minutes when Florence spoke, addressing him in a hushed voice. “Your lunamancy was impressive back there, Ser James.”

  He eyed her. “It was nothing. Basic stuff, really.”

  “Even the basics of lunamancy are impressive,” she retorted. “It is a rare art.”

  “Ser James has spent most of his life isolated from the wider world,” Valerie said.

  “Ah.” Florence considered him, green eyes sharp. “That would explain it. I couldn’t have ever imagined a Wand who delved into such a notoriously difficult discipline would be so humble about it. If you’re not a College-trained Wand, that makes much more sense.” She nodded to herself, and her expression softened. “Still, what you did for that girl was a kind thing. I know your mana is a precious resource.”

  “I learned it precisely for that kind of purpose,” Lucas said, eyes straying to Valerie.

  “Yes,” Florence said. She smiled grimly. “I hope she’s given you a good deal to get you to follow her around, Ser James. The places she typically runs missions to are, ah, not pleasant, shall we say?”

  “I won’t be returning to the front lines for some time yet,” Valerie said.

  Florence raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What brings this on?”

  “There are things I need to do in Dawnguard,” Valerie said. “I’ll be operating locally for a while, with Ser James here.”

  “Oh? Would you like company?”

  Valerie stared at her for a moment. “Perhaps.”

  Before long, they made it to the front of the line, and there was nothing between them and the city gates. The main, imposing gates were shut, forcing people to funnel through a few people-sized doors that seemed to have been cut out of the great white slabs of stone as an afterthought. That explained why everything was moving so slowly, at least.

  They barely stopped for a moment to talk to the watchmen guarding the doors—there were dozens of them standing sentinel, and they were all practically identical, save for their height and builds. All wore dark armour with an oil-like opalescent sheen, covering them from head to toe. Their full-face helmets had no gaps to see through, so Lucas assumed there was some magic going on there to let them see or hear anything at all.

  Florence exchanged some brief words with the guards who’d been manning the VIP line. As expected, it turned out Valerie needed no identification as a skycloak, and the two of them were enough for Lucas to be trusted as Ser James of Somercot. With barely a delay, they were waved on to one of the doors.

  Florence, of course, was still on duty. “I meant what I said earlier, Val,” she told Valerie, grabbing her by the elbow. “Speak to me if you intend to leave.”

  “We have no intention of departing Dawnguard anytime soon,” she said. “Ser James has a lot to learn before I will consider him safe to take missions with me.”

  Florence stared at her for a long moment with searching eyes, then nodded. “I’ll seek you out when my shift ends tomorrow,” she said, and then she was gone, slipping back through the crowds, heading towards the refugee camp once more.

  Valerie let out a sigh of relief. “That woman doesn’t know when to leave things alone,” she muttered.

  “It seemed like she was worried about you,” Lucas whispered.

  Valerie said nothing to that, and they made their way towards the doors. With only half a dozen entrances, and each only large enough to fit one person through at a time, there was once more a delay in proceedings, forcing Lucas and Valerie to join in the queue. It moved fairly fast, though, with the guards hurrying things along. In what felt like no time at all, Lucas found himself stepping through the gap in the great gates, the great city opening up before him.

  Valerie had told him much about Dawnguard over the course of their journey. From stories of its founding to more practical descriptions of its general layout, he’d felt he had a decent understanding of what he could expect to see when he finally arrived.

  But how could any amount of description prepare him for the truth that the walls were twenty metres thick, and made of white stone that looked sturdy as steel? What set of words could adequately brace him for the sight of hundreds of buildings reaching high into the sky, lining a road that seemed to go on for miles, right up to the Moontower itself? Was there any tale that might have matched up to the reality of just how many people were packed into the city streets, even with hundreds of watchmen trying to keep the area around the gates from getting too congested?

  The answer to all those questions, Lucas felt, was a resounding no.

  There must have been some kind of ward keeping the noise back at the gates, because the din of the crowd here rolled over him like a sudden burst of thunder, making him flinch back. If he’d thought the diversity of people among the refugees was impressive, it had nothing on the city, and he’d only just stepped through onto the main street. There were so many types of people on display at just a glance, hundreds of disparate cultures with their own clothing styles.

  He found his head on a swivel, taking in the sights, the sheer variety of the buildings. Some city edict had evidently forced any enterprising architects to keep with a general theme of ‘white’, but aside from that they seemed to have free rein to go wild as they liked. Some were made of timber, some stone. Others seemed to be white metal. Many buildings were ornate, covered in swirling patterns and murals and elaborate designs. All of them, every single one, loomed high over the wide main street. None of them could’ve been shorted than ten stories. Many surely had to boast hundreds.

  Lucas had come to a stupefied stop, and Valerie allowed it for a few seconds before pulling him along. The sights meant nothing to her, of course, she had eyes only for the greatest, most impressive building of all, rising seemingly infinitely at the far end of the street.

  “Come,” she said softly. “There’s work to do.”

  There’s a lot, Lucas thought, nodding dumbly.

  Being surrounded by this many people was a surreal experience. For weeks, he’d been alone, in an unfamiliar world, with only a cat—that turned out not to be a cat at all—to keep him company. Eventually, he’d gained a small number of companions, with one woman, Valerie, being the only constant among them. There’d been a time a time when he worried that he was the only person in the world, irrational as that sounded. It had terrified him.

  Seeing this many people alive and thriving lifted a weight he’d known was there but hadn’t allowed himself to think about too much. This world was on the edge of annihilation, and seeing that there was still some life, some civilisation, gave him hope he desperately needed.

  At the same time, though, it placed an entirely new weight on his shoulders, one that was perhaps heavier.

  Because it was partly up to him to protect these people, to deliver them a victory against the force of evil that sought to rob them of all they held dear. This city’s future hinged on him. All these people. All these buildings. All of this history and culture and life.

  Arriving here provided him a promise of safety that he hadn’t enjoyed in the months since he’d been dragged into this strange world. At the same time, it provided him a clarity of purpose that had been somewhat murky, even after Valerie had elucidated what had brought him here.

  He saw what he needed to protect, now, clearer than ever.

  Lucas’ fists clenched at his sides, determination coursing through his veins. He set his eyes on the Moontower, and moved forward, Valerie close to his side.

  It felt like he was finally taking the first step towards his destiny.

  done and all that. I'll have to go back and make edits at some point, but for now... This essentially marks the beginning of the transition to an entirely new arc. The tone of the story will change a bit, with more focus on Lucas' power, plus the politics of Dawnguard. Hope you guys enjoy it!

  Discord :)