Ascended

The mayor was waiting for us.

One of the guards must have ran over and alerted the mayor, because he was outside a walled estate. Not that we had far that we had to walk. We’d actually passed the mayor’s home on our way to the guard captain’s. All the lights had been out then, but that wasn’t the case now. The magic lamp over the gate was shining brightly and the entire house was lit up.

“Masters!” The older man had a huge smile on his clean-shaven face. His gray hair was just starting to bald, though his skin didn’t show any signs of scars or calluses. My appraisal of the man hadn’t been very high and this display of very fake happiness wasn’t helping that.

“We’re so glad that you have graced us!” He motioned down the street. “We have a house that was waiting for your arrival! I’m sure you’re tired! If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you…”

“There’s a bigger problem.” Val cut him off as she waved at us. “Naturally, if we had wanted to sneak in, you wouldn’t have seen us, but that wasn’t the case. We did not hide and weren’t quiet as we walked right into town.” She put her hands on her hips. “What if we’d been Zombies?”

“I-I-I assure you.” He swallowed. “We’ve never had a Zombie make it into the city that way.”

“Just because it hasn’t happened, doesn’t mean it won’t.” She looked from the mayor to the guard captain. “Gher has been destroyed.”

“WHAT?!?” The guard captain had a much more animated response than the mayor.

“How did Zombies make it through their walls?” The mayor was starting to look pale.

“They didn’t go through the walls.” Val points her hand at the ground. A short blast of frost shot out of her palm leaving little ice crystals on the ground. She turned back to look at the men. “There were three Touched...” She paused, her eyes daring them to speak before she was finished. “That used magic to dig a tunnel into the mine.”

“Are they coming this way?” The guard captain had calmed just a little, but he was breathing fast.

Val rolled her eyes. “Do you think we’d leave three Touched and a horde of Zombies alive to run here?” Val shook her head. “You really like insulting us.”

“I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY!” Dreg bowed until his forehead touched the road.

She wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t being completely honest either. Yes, we’d killed three of the Touched, but we’d let one get away. While we’d killed a lot of Zombies, we’d left a lot more alive in the burning city when we headed this way. While we hadn’t seen any blue Zombies, that didn’t mean that a few couldn’t make their way here.

“Ugh.” Val turned to the mayor. “The war against the Touched is ramping up. They are getting bolder and there are too many places that we are needed.” She shook her head. “Lapses in security like what happened tonight…” The redhead clicked her tongue. “If we’d been Touched…” She let the implications hang in the air.

“I promise you miss Master that it will never happen again!” The mayor looked over at Dreg, who was still face down on the ground. “Captain, get up! I want to know who was supposed to be on duty and as soon as their shifts end, I want every one of them in my office!”

The guard captain slowly turned his head up, but it wasn’t the mayor he looked at. It was Val.

“Go.” She waved her hand as she barely looked at him.

That was all the blessing that he needed. I’d never seen such a large man move so fast as he fled down the street.

“Now.” Val smiled. “Why don’t you show us to this house that you had waiting for us.”

“Yes.” The mayor turned and started walking.

“Is she always scary like that?” Ziggy was holding onto Eveth’s side.

“Only when she’s mad.” I didn’t know who might be listening, so I left out the part where she was having fun with her role. “She’s just worried that a lot of people could have gotten hurt if we weren’t the ones who came here tonight.” I did agree with her that something needed to be done. While it was the Bokor who should fight the Zombies, the city guards would have to step up and try to hold them away from the people until we arrived. Considering that the only way to send messages was with magic, which Humans didn’t have, or by horse or ship. Which is why missions like mine were so important. Without constantly cycling through cities and towns, it could be months before word of an outbreak reached the Bokor. By then, all we could do is burn the Zombies that had stayed behind.

I sighed. A long time ago, before I was even born, there had been a Bokor in every city. But some of the Humans had led a rebellion in an attempt to take our powers. It hadn’t worked, since without conditioning, you can’t ascend. The Humans had eventually all died either by Bokor hands or when they failed to ascend. Unfortunately, the Bokor lived a lot longer than Humans. While they still protected the Humans, the Bokor stayed in cities that were populated only by them or apprentices.

I pulled away from that train of thought before I started remembering my time as an apprentice. That was the past and we were in the present. I needed to know if there had been any Zombie sightings and if there was anything they needed our help with before we took a ship to Port Town.

I was glad that I didn’t need sleep, because I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.