As one body after the other was lowered into the ground, I kept a mental tally of the state they were in. Surprisingly few of them had frozen to death; the vast majority had died due to violence or physical trauma. It was difficult to tell in some cases. Whether somebody had died because a fist caved their head in or because parts of a collapsing house did, the head wasn’t pretty to look at. It also served as a serious reminder that people had fundamentally changed, that those with higher levels had to always be cautious and in control around those without the same enhancements.

  Maybe that was why Mundus had a cultural separation between adventurers and sedentary people. They didn’t want a drunk adventurer to accidentally cave in somebody’s face. Conflict between adventurers could have serious collateral damage, so keeping them out of important areas until they had proven themself, as they had done in Kolyug, made a certain amount of sense. It was something I would have to keep in mind for any community I visited in the future.

  Finally, I closed up the last grave, raised a last torch and inscribed a last name just below the crystalline flames, finishing up this gruesome and morose task. Thanks to the raven sitting above, I could see just how big and widespread the field of torches was. Much bigger than any football field, a quiet and solemn reminder of how many lives had been lost. A part of me felt guilty for it, but, at the same time, I had a feeling that religious fanatics backed by a powerful and likely growing city-state would cause even more lives to be lost in the future. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but it was the best consolation I had. This had been a mess, and it would continue to be one until the people here were settled with Maggie’s people.

  When I used another of my ravens to check in on Maggie, I realised just how much work she had done with her four companions. The survivors who wanted to go with her had packed everything they wanted to take; they had even kept things peaceful with Lorgar’s friends. Luckily, Lorgar seemed to remain unconscious; otherwise, that might not have worked.

  Once again, I wondered how strong the lingering influence of Lia’s concoction was, or maybe the shock was keeping people from acting aggressively; I wasn’t sure. Either way, I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t be able to accept people who continued to worship a deity that had mind-controlled me, to say nothing of the horrors the mind control had forced them to accept. Nobody would be able to keep me from lashing out. Sigmir would have a chance, but I had a feeling she’d be right there with me, trying to remove the heads from anyone who assisted in the mind control.

  But that was neither here nor there.

  The important thing was that Maggie had managed to organise the people here and made them gather up the necessary supplies. Now, they were just about ready to head out. However, amongst the roughly eight hundred people Maggie had gathered and organised, which was an incredible achievement in and of itself, only a small minority were fighters of any sort. The vast majority, easily some ninety, maybe ninety-five per cent of these people wanted nothing to do with fighting, magic or anything like that. These were the sort of people who had happily bent the knee to a deity the moment said deity had promised protection and security.

  A part of me was just a little sickened at their attitude, especially with the looks they gave my ravens. Those looks ranged from covetous to worshipful, sending shivers down my spine. While I was slowly getting used to the idea of having people pray to me, the idea that somebody would want a higher power to step in and provide their entire existence didn’t sit right with me. Especially not if I was supposed to be that higher power; I didn’t want that kind of responsibility.

  “How do you want to do this?” I asked Maggie after landing another of my ravens on her shoulder.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “You can observe from any of your ravens, right?” she responded with a question of her own. Bobbing the raven’s head a few times, I responded in the affirmative, curious what she had in mind. “Then, can you have the majority of them fly overhead, while keeping one each on the shoulder of a group leader? I’ve organised groups of capable fighters to provide protection. If you could provide scouting and communication, it would make things a lot easier.”

  “Just remember, the senses of my ravens are a lot worse than those of my actual body. It is entirely possible that I didn’t notice a threat, so make sure everyone knows they need to remain cautious,” I warned her, even if I didn’t think a monster willing to tussle with that many people was particularly stealthy. No, the biggest danger was that some fool might decide to leave the group, and a sneaky predator might make a meal of them. No predator able to survive would miss the group, but only a very desperate or foolish beast would decide to attack that many people. Even if the majority wasn’t able to defend against anything.

  “I’ll remind people, hopefully, this works out,” Maggie sighed, looking frazzled for a moment. She managed to hide it moments later, but that brief moment made it obvious just how exhausted she was. Probably not a surprise given how much she had achieved.

  With a few calls from her, people got organised, and I was introduced to the protectors of this trek. Maggie and her four friends had split up, each of them leading four additional people, so they all got ravens. Then, there were ten more groups, each with four to five people, bringing the entire protective force up to some hundred seventeen people. It sounded like a lot, but when considering how many people needed protection? It suddenly wasn’t all that many people. Hopefully, a few people in the main group were able to fight, or Maggie’s community might suffer for the support they provided.

  Or maybe not, a community needed more than fighters, maybe some of the people we were protecting now would turn out to be incredible scholars and take to the arcane path like fish to water. Or they might be able to raise crops and work the fields like a magician, providing all the food their community might need. Hopefully, they wouldn’t become drains on their community. If they did, Maggie would have to intervene, finding roles for them or removing the parasites from their community. Leaving them to starve was the worst possible option; that was the path to getting criminals, something their community couldn’t afford just yet.

  With fifteen ravens sitting on various shoulders and a similar number flying above and ahead, my attention was spread fairly wide. I managed to listen through the ravens and even pay attention to most of the things said, but holding a conversation was a lot more difficult.

  However, when one of the group leaders started speaking about the insane night they had, I gave her my full attention.

  “I still don’t get how that all happened,” she groused, a bit of annoyance peeking through the lingering stupor. “I mean, I’m not the type of girl to sleep around, and yet, I woke up in bed with a guy,” she grumbled, glancing at one of the guys in her group.

  “Neither am I, if I’m being honest,” the guy replied, sounding almost as annoyed, “But neither of us freaks out, and that’s weird, right?”

  “Depends,” I spoke through my raven, causing a bit of alarm until they realised where the voice had come from. “I’ve been observing the Blessed City for some time, and the name couldn’t be more ironic. You called it ‘Blessed’ because of the protective wards, right? Because you thought a divine blessing made sure you were all safe within its confines. Right?” I prodded a little, making the five people glance at each other, as if looking for a good answer.

  “That was part of it, yeah,” the woman asked, sounding a little confused, “Why?”

  “The wards weren’t just protective. Didn’t any of you wonder why you didn’t care that Lorgar publicly tortured people to death? I mean, you can’t believe that’s normal, right?” I pushed, noticing another round of looks and a few eyes turned a little glassy as they stared into the distance.

  “No, I remember,” the woman replied, her face turning an impressive shade of green all of a sudden, “Why didn’t I care?!” she gasped, only to step aside a moment later and noisily vomit into the snow. “What’s going on here?!” she demanded, staring at my raven, her eyes wild.

  “Why, you were ‘Blessed’,” I replied, not even trying to keep the snark out of my voice, “Didn’t you enjoy the divine Blessing that made it so you didn’t even question the silly pony and his radiant boss?”