===

  Time Until Election: 23 hours, 55 Minutes

  ===

  Time Until Nightfire Arrival: 13-27 Hours

  ===

  My vision was entirely clouded by pale green spores and I could not see a thing. Had I failed in saving Molly? Was I even still beside her?

  Then there was a terrible hacking noise in front of me, or perhaps it was below, or maybe beside me. I felt around with my hands to find the source of the sound.

  Something grabbed onto my wrist. A hand. I grabbed back and began tugging the weight of a human backward. I was quite fortunate that I wasn’t tripped up by any barbed weeds.

  Eventually I made it out of the cloud of spores and slipped on a sloped hill. It had been Molly who I’d pulled out of that mess, quite fortunately.

  I checked her condition.

  Her body shook violently as she continued to cough, eyes and nose watering. I didn’t know how to aid her.

  “Green Thumb? What can I do for her? Did we succeed?” I felt around for the Soul Mirror on my chest to make sure it was still intact. I felt something rough protruding from it.

  The druid hadn’t responded.

  I looked down at the mirror. The head of an arrow had buried itself directly between several of the diamond fragments and cracked the tin, breaking the connection of the gems. In other words, Green Thumb’s soul had been freed.

  “Infernos,” I muttered. Well, at least he’d given me the chance to make things right. May his soul rest in the arms of the Celestials, whatever druids go. . . or did druids hope to go to the fae realms?

  Molly continued to hack, and I feared that inhaling the spores was killing her. I had to get her to Fern and Lysa.

  “Molly!” a voice cried out from up the hill. It was Oon running down with his bow.

  I tried to wave him to retreat. “Go back!”

  Swish.

  An arrow shot through the spore cloud and embedded into Oon’s chest. His body swayed and dropped, tumbling down the hill.

  Not even the meekest of sounds came from me. I was stunned, as the hunter rolled down the grass toward me.

  I twisted my head to see the archer, but the spores were too thick.

  Oon’s body halted a few feet ahead of me.

  I reached out a hand and summoned a portal directly behind him and cast Levitate Object to raise him a little off the ground, then grabbed Molly and brought them both through the opening into Fern and Lysa’s shoppe.

  The two apothecaries were thankfully there, and rushed over to aid me in getting both Oon and Molly on to tables.

  The room was dimly lit by a few candles, but Lysa set a lamp on a stool in between the two and lit it.

  Fern felt Oon’s neck. “He is dead.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I’d tried so hard to protect these folk, but so fragile were they.

  “We can help Molly,” Lysa said, gathering some odd looking pumps and other devices. “But the other is beyond our skills.”

  I felt mourning in my chest—a sensation so terrible that I nearly forgot who I was. Nearly.

  “He is not beyond mine,” I said, pulling myself back to my senses. “Please, keep his body preserved. I will be back.”

  Fern and Lysa gave each other an uncertain look, but nodded all the same.

  I had a brief moment to prepare some different spells and check my components

  ===

  Spells:

  Cantrips:

  

  
1. Create Fire (Arcane)


  
2. Decaying Tendrils (Blood)


  
3. Siphon Soul (Blood)


  
4. Spectral Hand (Blood + Arcane)


  
5. True Sight (Blood + Arcane)


  

  Prepared:

  

  
1. 
   
     
   
   
     
   1. Chains of Erabos (Blood+Arcane) (LOW)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Main Component: Chains+Severed Hands
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   2. Darksight (Blood)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Main Component: Animal Eyes
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   3. Force Darts (Arcane) (VERY LOW)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. 
         
           
         
         
           
         1. Main Component: Glass Bulbs.
         
         
           
         
         
           
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   4. Levitate Object (Arcane) (LOW)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Main Component: Flattened Tin.
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   5. Message (Arcane)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Main Component: Two Mirrors+A Silver Wire
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   6. Mirror Image (Arcane) (VERY LOW)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Main Component: Glass Mirror+Three Faces.
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   7. Portal (Arcane) (LOW)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Main Component: Polished Iron Ingot.
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   8. Resurrection (Arcane + Blood)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Half Phoenix tail + Iron Chains
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   9. Sense Mind (Arcane)
      
        
      
      
        
      1. Main Component: Lead
      
      
        
      
      
        
   
   
     
   10. Sleep (Blood) (LOW)
       
         
       
       
         
       1. Spider silk
       
       
         
       
       
         
   
   
     
   
   
     


  

  ===

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I prepared Darksight and Sense Mind to help me better anticipate enemies while in the forest. Seeing as the window was closing until the election, Resurrection would need to be prepared as there was a chance I might need it at the last second. I also took the moment to remove the broken Soul Mirror from my chest and placed it into my bag. Once I was ready, I turned and walked back through the portal.

  I was not finished with this quest yet. I found two thralls lying lifelessly at the end of the portal as I stepped through, arrows sticking out of the back of their skulls. I also noted that there were no longer birds in the air. I was out of thralls, my last two being the ones I had left in the town hall.

  ===

  Undead Servants: 6 2 Greenfolk Thralls, 7 0 Crow Thralls, 9 Intact Townsfolk Corpses

  ===

  Incredible that a Nightfire corrupted human could possess such precision. My mind wandered to the potential of mixing Nightfire with my own reanimation spells. So many possibilities.

  But no, it was not the time to speculate on such things. The Nightfire needed to be eradicated, and I needed to turn the election.

  A gentle breeze had dissipated much of the spore cloud, and now I saw that the ritual had been an astounding success. The entirety of weeds had shriveled, dry and black, all the way to the tree line.

  Green Thumb had tried to explain the magic behind the ritual, but in truth, I had found plant talk so painstakingly boring. So, I sort of summarized his teachings in my own, easy to follow explanation: the plant bonded to others, and the ritual to cure its infection could ripple out and destroy the weeds just as well. Understand that if I have failed in explaining these interactions, it was purely because I have given elementalism very little mind in my life, except in the ways that I needed to overcome it when encountering such forms of mages.

  Regardless, I knew now how the ritual worked and it seemed by the field of dead animals that I had eradicated much of the infected army—all except for that thorn of a corrupted hunter. I could not see where he was. Mighty impressive that he possessed the restraint to stay hidden within the trees and fire arrows, rather than charge forth with all the other wild animals that the Nightfire had pit against me. There was much I would need to learn about this plant, should I ever hope to utilize it in the future.

  Utilize it? What horrors could be wrought should I fail to contain it. . . would I fail?

  I again shook away the thoughts and summoned a portal to the tree line to begin my daring attempt at eradicating the Nightfire on my own.

  I had cast Darksight and Sense Mind so that I might pick up on any nearby creatures. That mutated hunter had been a particular thorn, and I could not allow him to sabotage my plans any further.

  The forest lit up in static grey-green tint as the one spell took place, and quite fortunately—or, perhaps unnervingly—I heard no indication of adversaries within the range of my spell.

  I wondered if the corrupted hunter had somehow died, perhaps killed by my bird thralls, or if he had wandered back into the forest. What a nuisance he had become, though I still dismiss how impressive he had been to take down several thralls and break my Soul Mirror.

  It didn't matter. I pulled out my scythe and continued the trek forward, using fire to burn away weeds as I went.

  Yes, yes, Bee warned about burning the forest, but it seemed to me that fire was the local fauna and flora’s least worry.

  Now, I could regale you with the harrowing tale of me trouncing through the weeds, each step a living nightmare as the thick layers of plant caught on to my clothes. I could talk all about the minor squirrel, or angry bird that attacked me. But in truth, I blocked near most of it out of my consciousness as I drove myself forward with full determination.

  And so, in a matter of some time, I had arrived at the core of the plants. Did I realize it was the core at the time? Not certainly. But I had strong suspicion, as the place I had arrived was this twisting forest of vines that consumed the forest of trees—like thousands of spider webs strewn about a swamp. It was mesmerizing to see this great cortex of Nightfire that had grown in a spiral from earth to treetop. Well, I might not have known for sure it was the core, but it certainly seemed like one.

  Then that infernal hunter took a shot at me. The arrow of course snapped in half as my protection charm activated, but I had met my limit of patience.

  I had whipped round, Decaying Tendrils sprouting from my arm, and lashed them around the hunter who had poked out from behind a tree. I then dragged him all the way to the center of the vine vortex, which was this twisted nightmare of interwoven glowing fruit and leaves.

  I then used Sleep on him so that he would lay still, and finally, for the good of all there was in the universe, used the hunter to conduct the same ritual I had with Molly to destroy the blasted hell-spawn of a plant.

  To Infernos with Nightfire, and might I never see it again.

  ===

  Time Until Election: 15 hours, 15 Minutes

  ===

  Time Until Nightfire Arrival: -

  ===

  Jevrick’s Main Quest: Restore Maplebrook

  

  
• Win Election.


  
• Revive Oon.


  
• Bring back the town’s dead.


  
• Earn Maplebrook’s trust.


  
• Rebuild houses.


  
• Restore population.


  
• Deal with Nightfire weeds before they destroy the town.


  

  Side Quests:

  

  
• Find out who burned down the chapel.


  
• Fulfill obligation to Atan.


  
• Cure Molly’s Nightfire infection.


  

  ===

  Ronald pondered the mass of decayed weeds that lay in large patches from the tree line to about halfway up the hill, as well as the hundreds of dead animals and undead. “Afterlives, what was that necromancer doing here?” he remarked.

  Guard Tobi shrugged. “I guess there was a battle or something?”

  “That much I can see. But what is with all those weird dried up vine things?”

  Tobi shrugged again. “You think he ran off into the forest again?”

  “One could hope. Come on, let’s get to bed. When the sun rises, all this necro-mayor business can finally be put behind us.” Ronald turned to head to his nice, warm, bed—secure that no fools in their right mind would vote for the murderous fool that was Jevrick.