Alerya, together with her team, was currently going towards the entrance of the cave, where all the people were still located. Since the group had returned, only around an hour had passed; but even though not much time had gone by, no one had moved away. Most of Therya's people were still there.
The moment Alerya arrived with the Veilguards, she started to scream to grab everyone's attention. "EVERYONE, LISTEN FOR A MOMENT!" she shouted as loudly as she could.
Everyone suddenly moved their heads towards her, even the people outside the cave could hear her voice and remained silent. Alerya could still hear multiple voices from the people of Therya, it felt like they were wondering and talking about what was happening. Some of them thought that she would send the people away, while others believed the opposite.
While Alerya was still hearing these loud whispers in the crowd, she coughed before shouting again, "I SAID LISTEN FOR A MOMENT!" After she said it for the second time, everyone became silent.
Realizing that she had everyone's attention, and with the others following her, she passed through the crowd of people and positioned herself between the people of Therya and those of Yalemba.
"Allocen," she said. Allocen immediately understood, as they had talked about it right before. She had said that once she was in the middle of the crowd, Allocen would have to create a small platform under her to raise her up. Allocen, without answering, simply created a small platform right under Alerya that was able to raise her so that everyone could see and hear her.
Alerya looked below her and realized how many people were currently watching her. 'So, is this how you felt, Dad?'
Alerya realized that the times she had spoken to a crowd this big could be counted on a single hand. Currently, almost everyone in the city, plus the survivors from Yalemba, were hearing her. Alerya closed her eyes for a moment, breathing heavily, until she spoke again.
"Listen, the Seven Sages are about to arrive. I'm sure that they have an important announcement to make. For now, let's create space for the poor people outside the cave to enter."
Since the group had returned, the people from Yalemba had remained outside the cave. Some of them tried to enter the city, but Tauren, together with the help of Naluri, stopped them. At first, the crowd seemed a bit scared at the idea of letting this many strangers enter the city, so some of them were shouting that they should wait for the Seven Sages' word.
"We can't let them in!"
"Exactly, we don't know what power they have, they might attack us!!"
"We should wait for the Seven Sages!"
Alerya, hearing all this shouting, simply made a serious face toward the crowd. Everyone felt a shiver down their spine and could only remain silent.
"Perfect…" she whispered, before shouting to Tauren and the others, "C'mon, you can enter!" Alerya invited the others to arrive. Tauren, together with Naluri, Lily, and Enea, was followed by countless people. For the people of Therya, it felt as if the crowd would never end.
Some of them gave bad looks to the newcomers, but some of the people who were against letting them enter the city, after looking at their current poor conditions, lowered their heads, feeling a bit sorry.
Naluri noticed that the people following her were extremely scared. With her important role in this journey and in the city in general, she tried to reassure them. "Don't worry, don't be scared," she said. Some of the people felt Naluri's help and raised their heads, even if most of them still kept their heads low.
Suddenly, from behind the crowd, someone created a stage entirely made of dirt. The stage was larger than any the people of Therya had ever seen. From behind the stage, Jarko appeared; everyone seeing him realized that one of the Seven Sages was about to arrive.
"You did great, Princess. You can go down." Alerya heard the voice of one of the Seven Sages and realized that one of them had finally arrived. But while Allocen was slowly retracting the stone pillar, what she saw made her heart beat extremely fast. On the stage, there wasn't a single one of the Seven Sages, there were all of them.
The people of Therya gasped in surprise; they had never seen all seven Sages together in the same place. Alerya, without any hesitation, immediately started to run to reach the stage. The others followed her.
"Liro, why is there this much surprise?" asked Darian, confused.
"The Seven Sages never come out all together. I don't think it has ever happened!" shouted Liro over the crowd, who were talking loudly. Darian, with all this mess, wasn't sure if he heard right.
'No way… they're all here!' Alerya had never seen all seven Sages together outside their obsidian room. She knew this was an important reason for them to come here, but she had expected only three of them at most, not all of them.
"Silence, please…" said one of the Seven Sages, raising his hands. All seven Sages still had their capes on, so it was impossible for anyone to recognize them or see their faces.
The one who spoke was the Keeper of Silence. The moment he said that, everyone fell silent. It wasn't like when Alerya called for silence; the difference in their importance could be felt clearly. The moment everyone suddenly became silent, the Keeper of Silence nodded his head and began to speak again.
"As some of you might have already understood, these people are from one of the main four cities called Yalemba. But they are not here by their own choice," the Keeper of Silence began. Everyone remained silent to listen. Alerya was more and more shocked to see all of them here together.
"Exactly. They lost their home and they don't have a place to return to anymore. The people who came here today are exactly one thousand. A big number, you might think. But Therya has received multiple attacks that caused this city to lose a huge amount of people…" said the Keeper of Silence, clearly referring to the two times the city was attacked recently.
The first was when the Krukins had attacked with the portals, and the other was when Gyardibus, Dane, and Octavia attacked the city to make it their own garden.
"And I know how sad those attacks have been for all of you. Some of our most important people died. But it was because we weren't ready. We weren't strong enough. We didn't have enough help from everyone. Accepting these people into Therya might first make us look like a weakened city, but second, it will create more strength in the town. Think about it: what if we have more people helping us make this city as great as it once was?!"
Now the Keeper of Silence was slowly raising his voice. The crowd, still silent even though it was hard for them, could only agree with him.
"The people from Yalemba have seen more of these Krukins and how they act. They will be a valuable resource for humanity. We can't let them go away like this. We need to accept them. We have got enough space for them in the city. The more we are, the stronger we get. I'm sure that it is worth enough for both sides." With that, it felt like the Keeper of Silence had finally finished his speech.
The first one to clap her hands was Alerya. She was surprised to see that the Seven Sages agreed to such things. As she kept clapping, everyone followed her. In the midst of the noise, she suddenly whispered something to her team.
"Keep your eyes open… we remember what happened last time when there was such a big speech."
Alerya was clearly referring to the time Darian had fallen from the ceiling of the cave and the king was shot. Darian, remembering that, felt a shiver down his spine.
Suddenly, another of the Seven Sages stood next to the Keeper of Silence. He was the Whisper of the Abyss. "Now… people from Yalemba, you should follow Jarko, who will lead you to your new houses. He knows the position of each of them. We're just sorry that you will be placed in many different parts of the town." With that, Jarko headed towards the Yalemba side.
"You can leave them to me," he said to Tauren, who nodded. "C'mon, Enea," he called to Enea next to him, who was shaking because of the many people around.
"R-Right!" said Enea, rushing towards Tauren. It felt like Lily wanted to go too, so that she could speak with the others. Naluri, next to her, touched her shoulder. "I'll get the house for us; I'll come and search for you later," she said, smiling. Lily nodded. "Thank you!" She waved at her before rushing towards her friends from Therya.
"Princess Alerya… you need to accompany us now that Jarko is bringing the others to their houses," said one of the Seven Sages. Alerya couldn't tell who it was but nodded. "I'll see you later, guys," she said, rushing to the Seven Sages to help them return safely to their room.
"I'll go and see if some people are gravely injured in the crowd and help them." Lara waved at the group too and headed towards the people from Yalemba.
While everyone from Therya was going away, even if they were still suspicious about the Seven Sages' idea, they could only agree with them. From the crowd, Tauren, Enea, and Lily reached the others.
"Oh, hey Tauren!" said Kael, seeing first Tauren arriving, then the others.
"We hope that everything will be alright for your city now," said Tauren, shaking hands with Kael.
"I'm sure everything will be alright… are you going away now too?" asked Kael to Tauren, who nodded.
"We need to return. I left Nysira and Jaune with the new recruits." You could see that Tauren began to shake thinking about what happened every time Nysira and Jaune were alone; the thought only made him worried. "...We need to go," he said. The others laughed softly.
"Well, I'm sure we will see each other again, guys," he said, waving at the others. Enea, next to him, did the same. "B-Bye!" he said. The others, all together, waved back as they went toward the exit of the cave to return to Skar-Zhul.
"I guess you're an Alterid from Yalemba, right?" asked Allocen to Lily, who had only waved at Tauren and Enea and hadn't said a word yet.
"Oh, yeah… I'm Lily. Nice to meet you," she said, smiling warmly. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Allocen," he answered.
"By the way, Lily… what are you going to do now?" asked Liro, wondering what she would do here in Therya.
"That's obvious, I'll join you guys!" said Lily, surprising almost everyone. Before the others could speak, she took the floor again. "Looking around, I realize that this city is nowhere as good as Yalemba for someone like me," added Lily.
"C'mon, you don't even need a test to enter. We'll bring you to the building of the Veilguards," said Kael as he started to lead the way. Lily didn't even wait for him to finish speaking; she was already in front of him with sparkles in her eyes.