The crowd was exactly at the entrance of the cave. Many people had already spotted the countless newcomers and walked curiously towards them; within the crowd, there were multiple whispers from confused citizens.
"Hey, what is this…" "I'm sure that person is Kael from the Veilguard… did they return?" "But what are all these people doing here?"
All the people were slowly gathering at the entrance. In the middle of them, someone was walking without any fear; most of these people were scared of going directly in front of the newcomers, but this one wasn't.
Darian and the others looked at the crowd before someone took more steps forward. Once he stepped out of the crowd and was walking in front of the city, the others could see him clearly: he was Allocen.
"Hey, that's Allocen!" shouted Vane as he immediately started to run towards him. Kael, next to him, breathed heavily.
"Tauren, would you mind remaining here to look at these people, or do you need to return to Skar-Zhul?" asked Kael in a rush. Tauren answered him calmly, "Don't worry."
"Liro and Darian, follow me," said Kael, rushing towards Allocen too. Darian and Liro both nodded together and walked right behind him.
"We're back, Allocen!" shouted Vane happily. Allocen allowed a small smile to form on his face. "Yo, everyone. It took you long enough," he said.
"Allocen…" called out Kael while breathing heavily. It felt as if Allocen already understood what he was about to say. "Are these the people from Yalemba?" he asked, already sure of both the question and the answer.
Kael nodded. "Yeah… we have a lot to explain."
Allocen moved his head away and signaled for them to go with him. "Shouldn't we be worried about the crowd?" asked Darian, worried that some of them might go crazy if they got too close. "Don't worry, we have Tauren who will take care of everything," answered Kael. While the Alterids walked through the middle of the crowd, they could hear many screams coming from different people.
"Veilguards, you're back!" most of the people shouted upon seeing the group of Alterids finally home.
"Who are all these people?!" shouted another large part of the crowd, confused by the sight.
"Are they enemies? Do they want to destroy our city?!" shouted other people, scared that the city might receive another attack like the ones that had happened before.
"Sigh..." Kael, annoyed, tried to find the strength to answer. Allocen, next to him, took care of it. "You'll receive the answer very soon; for now, you don't have to worry," he said. Kael was a bit surprised to hear Allocen speak in front of such a large crowd.
Allocen read his expression and sighed. "I can do it too, whenever there is the need." The moment they got outside of the crowd, they saw multiple other people running towards the entrance.
Suddenly, the group spotted both Alerya and Lara rushing towards the crowd too. "Allocen, what happened?" shouted Lara as she first spotted the Veilguard who had remained with them; then she noticed the others, and her expression changed immediately.
Even Alerya let out a big, reassured smile and slowed down. "So it isn't anything dangerous." As she slowly stopped, she began to walk normally; Lara next to her did the same.
"But what happened? Why are there so many people?" asked Lara, worried about what was occurring.
"Let's go inside; we'll explain it," said Kael as he started to walk toward the building of the Veilguards. The others walked behind him while Alerya positioned herself next to him.
"I saw many people outside the cave… are they from Yalemba?" she asked. Kael nodded, looking a bit worried. "Exactly… and these people need help," he said. Alerya, hearing that, decided not to answer until the moment they returned to the main building.
The moment they returned to the building, everyone felt like they had finally returned home from a long journey; in fact, the moment they had entered the city, they hadn't felt that way, returning had made them more worried.
And while Darian, Liro, and Vane were feeling more relaxed, Kael was the exact opposite. While Alerya sat down at her usual desk, Lara sat as always on the sofa and Allocen sat next to her, while the others remained on their feet.
"So? Just tell us what happened," said Alerya, as she understood that soon she might need to go down to the Seven Sages again.
While Kael, with the help of Darian and the others, began to explain what had happened, down below the city, the Seven Sages had just received the news of someone arriving at the entrance of their city…
"So, Jarko… you're saying that these people are from Yalemba?" asked the Herald of Roots of Jarko, who had just entered the big obsidian room again, breathing heavily. All the Seven Sages were in this room, listening to what Jarko was saying.
"I… I heard someone from Skar-Zhul saying that they are the people from Yalemba; something bad happened to their city," he said, breathing heavily. At the moment this had happened, he was about to go outside for a moment before he heard all the footsteps going in a single direction.
Jarko had made a big rush towards the entrance to see what was happening, and he was lucky enough to hear what he had just reported.
"Mhmm… they probably want to stay in our city," said the Lord of Stones.
"But should we make them stay here? Outsiders might not get along well with our people," answered the Eye of the Eclipse.
"We have received many different attacks recently, especially the most recent one from those two people…" murmured the Keeper of Silence. All the Seven Sages began to think for a moment before the Keeper of Silence spoke again: "It might be a good occasion to repopulate the part that we lost."
"I think that soon Alerya will definitely come to see us. Let's keep thinking about it until her arrival… You, Jarko! Stay alert if something happens," ordered the Herald of Roots. Jarko nodded his head. "As you wish," he said.
"And so, after that attack, their city was brutally destroyed and there was nothing we could do to help them…" said Kael as he finally finished telling what had happened on this short journey. Lara's face was shocked; she couldn't believe her ears, nor could she believe the fact that such a huge creature could exist.
Allocen remained with his usual expression, even if it slightly changed the moment Darian was speaking and providing more details about the time before Kael and the others had arrived.
"So that creature really exists…" Alerya hadn't forgotten the time Liro talked about that huge creature Darian wrote about in the diary; now, hearing this story, she could feel her body shaking.
Alerya immediately slammed her hands on the desk. "I'll go to speak with the Seven Sages. Therya isn't a bad city that will deny help to poor people who just lost their home," she said, starting to walk away with fire in her eyes.
"Will the Seven Sages accept this…" murmured Lara worriedly, but Alerya answered without any hesitation.
"They will. I'll put myself into it as much as I can," said Alerya, going out of the room. As she left, the others who had just returned to Therya let out a sigh of relief. "Let's just hope that she is able to do everything without any problem…" said Liro tiredly as he sat down on the sofa; Darian and Vane followed him.
"By the way, Lara, how are you feeling with your magic? Is your soul being fixed?" asked Vane, remembering that after the revival spell, she wouldn't be able to use her magic for a long time.
"Yes," she said, nodding her head. "The first month has passed; it isn't a problem for me anymore," she said, but from the tone of her voice and the expression on her face, everyone understood it was a clear lie.
"And you have already collapsed so many times…" said Allocen, remembering when she pushed herself too hard trying to help people in the hospital with her magic, reaching a point where she couldn't stand on her feet anymore and passed out.
"Hey!" shouted Lara, a bit mad, as she gave a small punch to Allocen's shoulder. The others, seeing that, laughed softly, realizing they had finally returned home.
"C'mon, Princess, we were waiting for you," said Jarko, seeing the princess.
"If you were already waiting for me, that's better." Alerya didn't even stop to look Jarko in the eyes as she walked directly toward the big room.
Any other time that she would enter here, she would feel scared or her body would shake, but right now, it wasn't like this. She wanted to create a realm that would accept everyone without any problem, exactly like her father wanted; she would fight with all her words, without any more fear.
Alerya didn't find it right that these poor people didn't have a house anymore; she knew that after the recent attacks, the city was becoming more deserted. With more people, Therya would return to being a living city.
The moment she entered the room, the Seven Sages were already on their big gold thrones waiting for her. Alerya kneeled down for a moment before she started to speak.
"If you've already understood what is happening in the city, I'll go straight to the point," she said without hesitation. The Seven Sages had never heard her speaking like that and felt curious to hear what she was about to say.
"We can't leave these people alone. We need to bring them into our city; Therya has lost too many people in the recent attacks," said Alerya as she started her speech.
"While this will bring a lot of happiness to these people, our city will receive a lot of improvement too," said Alerya, thinking that finally, there would be more and more people in the streets.
"We know, but there are a lot of things to consider, Princess," answered a voice that Alerya couldn't recognize, as once the Seven Sages were on their thrones, it was impossible to tell which one was speaking.
"I'll take care of all of it. I just need you to accept it… please…" said Alerya, looking down and closing her fist, hoping that they would accept.
"Princess Alerya, we will announce our verdict soon," said one of the voices. "For now, just go outside and gather all the people at the entrance."
Alerya, hearing that, felt that something was about to happen. She couldn't tell if it was good or bad, especially because when the Seven Sages spoke with her, it was always impossible to read their tone of voice.
"Alright. Thank you so much for having me here." Alerya kneeled one last time before she went outside the room and headed towards the exit.
"So? What did they say?" asked all of the Alterids together the moment they saw Alerya entering the room. Seeing that she wasn't going to sit at her desk, they understood that something important was about to happen.
"Let's go outside. We need to make the people gather," she said. All the Alterids got up from the sofa, and Vane shouted, "All right, boss, we're coming!"
With that, all the Alterids headed to the entrance of the town. Now, a lot of people were there; almost all the 17,000 people of Therya were looking at the entrance of the cave at the people standing there, scared about their future.