Chapter 80: The wild lands were not empty.

Zyra let out a long, heavy sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Great, she thought. Somuch for keeping a low profile. "Thank you, Achilles, it’s not like my identity was top secret around here." There was no way she could let these Soul maidens walk away now. Had he done it deliberately?

Achilles let out a sigh and continued to try to convince Hunter as why the women should stay, completely missing the tense atmosphere. He began pacing around Zyra, waving his hands dramatically as he listed off his reasons. "Think about it, Zyra! The valley is perfect! Look at what this place has become? If it wasn’t for business, I would not want to leave either. Plus, these Soul Maidens are basically your sisters in terms of...I don’t know. You guys could form a squad, a team, a deadly sisterhood! Maybe you could be the three that take down Trinity and start a First 3 academy."

All the women standing there stared at him with a myriad of emotions reflecting in their eyes. The most common one was anger. It seemed like they all wanted to punch him or sew his mouth shut.

Hunter glared at his cousin. "Achilles, shut up."

Achilles immediately closed his mouth and put his hands up, taking a quiet step back.

Zyra rolled her neck in a slow, circular motion, trying to relieve the tension building in her shoulders. She looked at the two younger girls, her expression softening just a fraction. They didn’t look more that eighteen, one was blonde and tall, the other was also blonde but short. "Alright. What are your names?"

The tall blonde swallowed hard. "Tessi."

The short blonde responded shyly, "I’m Yanxi."

Tessi looked eighteen or nineteen, Yanxi looked no older than sixteen. Too young to be on the run, but that was the thing about the world now, it didn’t care about age, or what someone that age should be doing. They were all in the race to survival.

Zyra looked at Tessi, then Yanxi, and finally Malia. She crossed her arms. "And you...Malia. We all know your name, just like we all know that I cannot let you leave. You can stay. But only for now, until Achilles over here uses his brilliant brain to find you a permanent, safe place to live." She paused, letting a sharp, businessman-like smile creep onto her face. "But there’s a catch. Whoever decides to lay their head under my roof has to pay rent. Fifty low energy stones a week. Each."

"Fifty?!" Tessi gasped, her jaw dropping.

"That’s a fortune!" Yanxi cried. "How are we supposed to get fifty stones a week?"

Zyra shrugged, completely unmoved by their shock. "Take it or leave it. I can’t go any lower. If you keep complaining, the price goes up."

Malia stood tall, a confident smirk touching her lips. "Fifty stones is steep, but it’s better than being out there. I can hunt for the stones. These are the wild lands; there is no shortage of energy stones for the brave."

Tessi and Yanxi looked at Malia, then at each other. Realizing they had no other choice, they puffed out their chests, trying to look tough. "We can hunt too! We aren’t helpless."

Hearing this, Zyra clapped her hands together once, a genuine laugh escaping her. "Excellent! I like people who can pull their own weight. Follow me, ladies, let’s get you set up."

She turned on her heel and began leading the three women toward the side houses, leaving Achilles and Hunter standing alone by the empty cargo boxes.

Hunter slowly turned his head to look at Achilles, his eyes narrowed. Achilles gave a weak, apologetic grin.

*******

Over the years, the exiles in the wild lands had done the impossible, they had built communities where there should have been nothing but chaos. One of the most famous was the Twig Blue Crossing, nestled deep in the eastern side of the wild lands.

For a long time, it was a paradise for outcasts. It was peaceful, bustling, and boasted one of the largest trading markets in the entire region. If you managed to smuggle goods from the capital or four nations, this was where you sold them. Exiled hunters, rogue merchants, and ordinary people mostly low borns who just wanted to be left alone had managed to live together peacefully here for five whole years.

The leader of this fledgling shelter called himself Zoo, and he had been very proud of what he had put together.

But six months ago, the peace was shattered.

Out of nowhere, a group of terrifying men riding malevolent, shadow-furred flying beasts attacked the community. Nobody knew which dark corner of the world they had crawled out of, but they arrived with blood on their blades and declared that the independent community now belonged to them.

Naturally, some of the proud, exiled hunters tried to resist. It didn’t end well. They weren’t just torn apart by the beasts; the men themselves gathered the human meat, tossing it into salt barrels right in the middle of the market square. They casually told the horrified onlookers that this would be their food for the week.

Their leader, a large man with one ear who called himself Campbell, made a cruel decree:

"Every single Sunday evening," Campbell had boomed, picking his teeth with a splintered bone, "this town will hand over one thousand mid or high-grade energy stones. And to keep my boys happy, you will also give us one human. Just to keep our bellies full. In return we will offer you protection, no one would dare mess with my territory."

The people who were taken away with Campbell were never heard from again. Everyone knew they had probably been turned into stew, because Campbell and his group openly boasted about being proud cannibals.

At first, the town people wept and argued. But fear is a powerful thing. After a few weeks of losing their own neighbors, the community came up with a dark, unspoken rule: they would start offering strangers, traveling merchants, or anyone just passing through the town to Campbell instead. It was terrible, it was cowardly, but that was exactly how the Twig Blue Crossing had managed to survive for the past six months. It was better than running away, where would they even go! They had built their lives here!

Today was Sunday, and as the evening hours approached, the vibrant energy of the market completely died down. The sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky a bloody red.

"Hurry up! Tie the knots tighter!" whispered Zoo, his hands shaking as he secured the ropes around a traveling merchant who had unluckily walked into town just that morning.

The merchant was gagged, his eyes wide with absolute horror, muffled screams escaping his throat. His eyes found those of the man in front, pleading for help.

"Don’t look at me like that, friend," a man muttered, avoiding the unlucky, newest victim’s eyes while checking the chests of mid-grade spirit stones. "It’s you or my daughter. In the wild lands, you do what you have to do to see tomorrow."

There was a lot of movement in the wild lands lately, the community people would have to expand their hunting grounds. Rumor had it that a Soul maiden was somewhere out there. Maybe if they found her and offered her to Campbell, this nightmare would end.