Orrin worried that the demons would arrive before they made it back but Madi assured him the entire trip wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes. Brandt assured him that the town guards could take care of the remaining Hospital members, as well.

  “I’ll watch Daniel’s back,” the knight promised.

  “It’s not his back that I’m worried about,” Orrin muttered. He leaned in close to Brandt. “Make sure he doesn’t charge the demons or something. His class makes him reckless around them.”

  Brandt’s eyes flicked toward the [Hero]. “I’ll tap another guard to join me.”

  “I’m literally standing right here,” Daniel complained.

  Madi shook her head. “Orrin, you can [Teleport] us back, and we can join Daniel as soon as we drop off the supplies. If we leave now, we might beat them to the Outer Wall. There are only so many people who can [Teleport] and nobody has the mana stores that you do.”

  Orrin agreed and snuck in a few last-minute pieces of advice to Daniel as they walked toward Madi’s house. Brandt reappeared with a guard wearing robes and wielding a staff. Daniel waved as they walked inside to wait for their own [Locationist] to arrive.

  Orrin and Madi’s [Teleport] to Ceraun required two jumps. The [Locationist]’s spell wasn’t as strong as Orrin’s but she’d been to the breadbasket of Odrana before whereas he hadn’t. They stopped in a field near a river and waterwheel. Orrin saw a farmhand straighten and shade his eyes with his hand before they disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

  A moment later, they stood outside sand-colored stone walls that rose fifteen feet into the air. A gate with a handful of merchants waiting to be let in was a few minutes’ walk away. It seemed quaint.

  “Thank you. You can return,” Madi said as she handed over a bag of clinking coins. She glanced around nervously before pulling her hood up over her head.

  Orrin briefly wondered how much he could charge to zip people around the world. I need to travel to more places first and learn the rules. Like why are we outside and not in the city?

  “Is this Ceraun?” Orrin stared up at the walls. “I thought it would be bigger.”

  “Ceraun is the province. This is the closest thing to a capital city. Terraco. It’s where Maeve said to meet.”

  “Why couldn’t we jump into the city?” Orrin asked Madi as the [Locationsist] disappeared. She must have been eager to get back to Dey. She didn’t say goodbye. In fact, she hadn’t said a word the entire trip.

  Madi rolled her eyes. “Orrin, think about it. Odrana is undergoing a political upheaval. A Demon Lord is invading Dey as we speak. The elves are jumpy after being harassed and I’m not even going to get into the situation in Veskar. Major cities that can afford it are on lockdown. I doubt the Wellan family can afford teleport wards to cover all of Ceraun, but they’ll have trackers set up. Any unauthorized [Teleport] into a city is targeted as a hostile act. Why do you think my father always has you report your jumps to the elves?”

  Orrin scratched his neck. He’d assumed Silas was anal.

  “You thought he was being a dick,” Madi said exasperatedly. She adjusted her shortened spear to hang within easy reach and walked by him. “Keep up. We need to make this quick.”

  The line into Terraco moved quickly. Orrin paused as he took in the view.

  With the height of the wall, Orrin assumed he was entering a medium-sized city, something smaller than Dey. He was wrong.

  Vast fields stretched far into the distance. He saw enclosures with different chattel, including sheep, cows, and a hybrid pig-donkey beast he hadn’t seen before. The lack of buildings nearby confused him until he noticed that multiple hills had windows.

  “Do they live underground?” Orrin asked as they moved forward down a packed dirt path. Something big in the distance rumbled and one of the hills moved. “What is that?”

  Madi laughed and pointed. “Ceraun has to protect the crops and livestock from monsters but the land is too vast to fully enclose with walls. See those buildings?”

  “That’s a building?” Orrin squinted into the morning light. The hill stopped.

  “Ceraun has created the best earth and plant mages in the world. All construction is made using the magic of hundreds of people working together. They are made to look as natural with the land around them as possible. Some of the buildings are sloped so livestock can climb and eat from the grass covering the outer layers. From what I understand, the buildings move and create links with each other. The walls around Terraco are in the least defensible areas and the buildings create a barrier around those portions not protected. Any two buildings can connect with magic. I’ve seen it once or twice. They can call up a wall of earth between two of them or even an electrified fence. It’s all moving and rearrangeable so the lands can be rotated for maximized use.”

  “And everyone lives under a hill?” Orrin moved to the side of the road as two smaller wagons pulled by a single horse each passed in the opposite direction. “That doesn’t seem healthy.”

  Madi shook her head. “These are mostly processing and work quarters. The people of Ceraun are agricultural and live outside the main enclosed spaces. There are some small towns and villages but the vast majority of work is done here. I’m sure a few people live here full-time like the Wellans but even they have a castle a few miles to the north.”

  Orrin watched a woman in a field spraying water from her hand like a hose. She waved at them as they passed.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Maeve will have the supplies for the [Purify] potions for us in that plant,” Madi said as they walked toward the nearest hill/building. “We’ll grab what we need and go.”

  The disguise failed to hold up as they got closer to the hillside. It still resembled a hill but Orrin could see the ziggurat structure underneath as they approached. Windows dotted the outside and figures moved within. A massive barn door slid open from the side and people dispersed, going about their duties.

  A single guard in full plate and a giant sword that would have put Gertrude to shame waited outside the opening. Once Orrin and Madi were close, the hand on the sword let go of the handle and moved toward the helmet’s facemask. A small hook flipped and the helmet up. The woman inside smiled and waved.

  Orrin forgot to breathe. She was gorgeous.

  Sweat dripped from her brow, likely from standing out in the morning sun but that didn’t detract from her beauty in his mind. From inside the helmet, her short brown hair fell in light curls that framed her face. The light reflected off the metal helmet and he noticed a run of burgundy streaked throughout as well. Her sky-blue eyes sparkled as she reached out to clasp Madi’s hand. Orrin’s heart pounded and he was forced to cast [Calm Mind] on himself.

  “Little Catanzano, I haven’t seen you in years. When Maeve told me you were coming, I made sure to change my shift. How have you been? Where is Brandt?”

  “It’s good to see you, Zoe. I’m well,” Madi answered, pulling the tall woman in for a hug. “Brandt is keeping things in check back home. I can’t believe you are still working for the Wellans. You know my father would pay anything you wanted if you came to work for Dey. Brandt would be happy to see you, too.”

  Zoe laughed, waving a gloved hand. “You know that’s not true. He’d send me away quicker than a Veskar mercenary retreats.”

  She noticed Orrin standing beside Madi and took her helmet fully off, putting it under her arm. “Who is this handsome man that you’ve brought me? This isn’t the [Hero]. I heard he has a sword almost as big as mine.” Her eyes widened. “Is this Casimir? Or do you go by Orrin? Maeve told me a little about you.”

  Orrin nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets.

  Madi nudged him with her shoulder. “Yes. This is Orrin. Maeve is expecting us. We need to get back to Dey with the shipment she’s got for us. Is she inside?”

  “She’s about,” Zoe answered, leaning over to look Orrin over. “Maeve told me you were cute but I thought you were older from her description.”

  “I’m old enough,” Orrin stammered.

  Madi coughed as she tried to stifle a laugh.

  Zoe put her hand on Orrin’s shoulder. She had to be over six feet tall. In her full plate armor, the guard made him feel tiny. “I owe you for saving my cousin.”

  “Your cousin?” Orrin felt the hand on his shoulder squeeze.

  “Iona. She sent me a letter,” Zoe said as she ruffled his hair. “After you push the demons back, you should come back and visit. I’ll buy dinner.”

  Orrin blushed. Madi let her laughter escape and slapped Orrin on the back.

  “Let’s get inside before you catch fire,” she teased.

  Zoe smiled and waved toward the entrance. “Go ahead inside.”

  Madi didn’t say a thing as they moved into the building. Orrin caught her glancing at him but he ignored her.

  Inside the sliding barn doors, a dozen pathways split off, with signs posted at each entrance. The floors were grass but the walls were solid metal. Orrin read “Laboratory,” “Irrigation,” “Border Control,” “Planning,” and “Quarters” on a few of the signposts before Madi walked down a hallway marked “Management.”

  “Have you been here before?” Orrin asked as he jogged to keep up.

  “Not this particular location but I’ve visited Ceraun before. They like uniformity in their houses,” Madi replied. “Their guards, on the other hand, get bored easily and like to try new and exciting things whenever they get the chance.”

  “What?”

  Madi elbowed him gently in the ribs. “Daniel is right. You’re oblivious. Maeve will be in the management area. She’ll have the shipment location.”

  Another three turns and they walked into the last thing Orrin ever would have expected. A cubicle farm. A flurry of paper moved around and Orrin saw firsthand a new type of magic: competent administration. Small desks were lined up with dividers giving only the barest modicum of privacy between each other. Men and women sat for a moment in chairs, scribbling furiously, before running down the middle aisles to ask questions to someone else. Messengers came in with more paperwork that was promptly sorted and moved to the correct desk. The entire thing was surreal. If it wasn’t for the grass under his feet, Orrin could have been back on Earth in a corporate office.

  Maeve sat at a desk near the back, flipping through a folder. Three workers stood around waiting for her to look up.

  Madi grabbed Orrin’s hand and pulled him along the outer path. Maeve glanced up and said something to one of the waiting workers, who replied and left the room in a hurry. His awkward friend from school caught them getting closer and waved.

  “Madeleine! Orrin! Welcome,” Maeve said, standing up and leaving the other two waiting workers behind. “I’m glad you made it safely… and so quickly too. Let’s get you those potion supplies you need. How is the Horde repulsion going? Did the elves join the fight? I would love to talk with one of them someday.”

  “Hi, Maeve,” Orrin answered but she kept talking and asking questions until Madi stopped her.

  “Maeve, I’m sorry but the demons are moving toward the Pass right now. We need to get back. This isn’t a social visit,” Madi interrupted. “I’m sure we can figure out a way to get an elf to talk with you about trees after we stop the end of the world.”

  Maeve nodded seriously. “That would be best, I suppose. I’ll show you to storage room twenty-two b-four. That’s where we’ve collected as much of the ingredients as we could. I’m not sure we’ll be able to get much more within the next week or two.”

  Maeve brought them down more pathways and up three flights of stairs. She talked as they moved. “We had a few of the things you needed on hand already but had to pull a few of our senior plant mages in to speed up the creation of some parts of your request. We’ve dedicated about ten acres to growing more of each item, but that could take anywhere from one to two months to go into full production.”

  “Maeve, we told you that we only needed what you had on hand,” Madi chastised as they climbed the last steps. “It’s an emergency order, not an ongoing production line.”

  Maeve waved a bracelet over a door labeled “22 B-4” and pushed the heavy door to the side. “I find overpreparing is best.”

  Orrin watched the lights flicker on and groaned. Hundreds of pallets were stacked in a room that could hold a small airplane. Each box was marked with the ingredient name and when it was packaged.

  “Madi, I’m not sure I can carry all of this,” Orrin complained. “This will take days.”

  “Grab what you can for one trip and we’ll come back when we can,” Madi answered after a long moment. She played with the strap holding her spear to her side. “Make sure you get a few boxes of everything.”

  Orrin sighed and began walking through the room. From what he could gather, there were a half dozen different ingredients the potion makers needed to create the [Purify] potion. The wooden boxes looked heavy. He picked one up and pushed it into his pocket using [Dimension Hole]. It moved into his storage space with ease but he still had to do the initial lifting.

  Orrin grabbed two more at once and paused when he heard Madi talking behind him.

  “Thank you, Maeve. This will help. While he’s busy… is Zoe seeing anyone right now?”

  The top box slipped off and fell with a clatter.

  “Are you okay in there?” Madi yelled into the room.

  “Fine,” Orrin replied loudly as he healed his broken toe. “I’m fine.”

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