“Akumu protect us!” Kasyn shouted as he leapt away from the replacement gate, feeling undead hands clawing at his feet as they reached up from below the ground.

More undead were climbing out of the soil in all directions while others stalked out of fields, their gaze locked on Kasyn and his companions.

“Get to the middle of the road!” Emilie shouted at them as she kicked the cobbles and a line of them began to fuse together, preventing the undead from reaching up through it to grab them.

The line of solid stone was only just wide enough for Kasyn and the others to run along but it was better than nothing. Emilie had to repeat her spell every few meters but it meant they weren’t in danger of being grabbed from below.

Kasyn fired of an arcane bolt at the undead behind him only to have Damarys shout out, “Focus on the ones in front of us!”

It made sense. The ones behind were less of a threat than the others since it would be those between them and the main gate that would reach them first and prevent their escape. With that in mind, Kasyn fired at a group of approaching undead and encased them in slime, slowing them down and causing a few of them trip and fall. Zeter was picking off the elementals by striking them with their opposing elements, jets of water to douse the fire elementals, dust storms to weigh down the water elementals, and so forth. Damarys was slinging stones as fast as she could but with only one hand to both reload her sling and fire it, it wasn’t a very smooth process.

They were all running as fast as they could while also thinning the hoard forming in front of them but it was obvious to Kasyn that it wouldn’t be enough. Already the way to the main gate was blocked off and they would never be able to fight their way through.

“Great Akumu,” Kasyn bellowed, “save us!”

A calming ripple passed through the hoard and they slowed and as abruptly as they came, they fell back into the soil and were gone.

“No way that worked,” Zeter cried out in disbelief, much to Kasyn’s frustration.

Wasn’t this a sign not only of Akumu’s divinity, but of his continued existence? Kasyn was about to say so when a familiar voice spoke from behind them.

“Are you all okay?”

It was Tomodachi, the satyr captain of the city guard. He looked pretty beat up, with dents and a few cracks in his armor, matted blood on his fur, and bruises on his face. He was also pushing the replacement gate as though it weighed nothing to him.

“Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” he said, “I’ve been dealing with things in the other Wa’s.”

“Tomodachi,” Damarys gasped as she caught her breath, “Are we glad to see you.”

He nodded his head in recognition, then motioned towards the new gate.

“Where’d you get this?” he asked.

“Don’t know,” Zeter shrugged. “A different team was bringing it but…” he trailed off.

“How is Lord Akumu?” Kasyn broke into the conversation. “He sent you, didn’t he?”

Tomodachi gave him a long look, his eyes lingering on Kasyn’s symbol of Akumu that hung around his neck, before responding.

“No,” he drew out the word as though it was difficult to admit. “I haven’t seen or heard from him ever since the Tower of Light’s attack. I don’t expect to, either.”

“He sent you,” Kasyn stated, knowing it was true regardless of whether or not Tomodachi knew it.

“I guess this will at least help Kamillus keep the visitors out,” Tomodachi said, ignoring Kasyn’s comment.

“What visitors?” Damarys asked.

“Those ones,” he replied, pointing towards a group of people, arguing with Kamillus to be let in. “They look like Sages of the Mercurial Robe…and maybe a Shinrai monk.”

Emilie and Zeter perked up at the mention of the Sages and they were all interested when they heard about the Shinrai monk.

Shinrai was a major trading partner. Their nation was north of Yume and ruled over by monasteries of monks. They didn’t do much in the way of farming since their land was mostly rocky mountains that spent the majority of the year beneath snow so they relied heavily on imports from Yume. The collapse of Yume’s export economy would be disastrous for them so it made sense to Kasyn that they’d send a representative as soon as possible to see what the situation was like here. Yomichi was, after all, the main producer of food stuffs since Akumu had blessed the land to be able to produce bountifully year round, growing crops far more quickly than anywhere else in the world by a large margin.

As for the Sages, well, Kasyn figured they were concerned for their fellows inside the city. Their main tower and leadership were here in the city, if they survived the assault. So far, the only members Kasyn had met after the attack were the ones like Emilie who’d either been outside the city or in Autay Wa when the fighting began. No one from Ichiba Wa or Chikara Wa had made it out yet, Sage or otherwise.

By now they were within earshot of the main gate and, sure enough, there were two Sages of the Mercurial Robe and two monks of Shinrai trying to convince Kamillus to let them in. The Sages were a middle aged woman and a young boy who looked to be no older than twelve. He had a strange, amber jewel embedded in his forehead that glowed with a dim light. The monks, both male, looked to be in their late twenties, though that didn’t mean much with the monks since their senior members could control the apparent age of their bodies.

“Look, you see? They are fine without you,” Kamillus was saying.

“Then now that it’s safe will you permit us to enter?” the woman asked.

“The city is in lockdown,” Kamillus sounded as though he was telling them something he’d already told them a dozen times. “No outsiders. No visitors.”

“We would like to help,” one of the monks stated. “If we cannot enter the city, how else may we be of service?”

“Go speak with them if you want to help,” Kamillus pointed off towards the camp.

The four visitors did not look pleased with that reply but kept their complaints to themselves now that Kasyn and the others were drawing near.

“Kamillus,” Kasyn asked as they drew up to the gate, “if visitors and outsiders aren’t allowed in, why can Emilie and I come into the city?”

Damarys almost stamped on his foot and Kasyn had to leap out of the way. Kamillus, though, just laughed.

“You’re part of the soul tithe,” the imp pointed out, “and Emilie was assigned a place inside the Sages tower here prior to her arrival, making her a citizen of the city.”

Damarys breathed out a sigh of relief and Kasyn shot her a reproving look. He’d never doubted for a moment that he and Emilie were alright to be in the city since Kamillus had never stopped them before, he was just curious as to the reason behind it.

“Akumu wouldn’t have placed a guardian at the gate without ensuring it could enforce his will,” Kasyn pointed out.

“I doubt it was Akumu’s will for the army to break in and wreck everything,” Zeter muttered and Damarys punched him in the shoulder.

“You’ve just witnessed a miracle from Akumu, sending Tomodachi to save us, and yet you still doubt.” Kasyn chastised Zeter.

“We got lucky,” Zeter sighed.

Kasyn was about to object when Emilie stepped forward and motioned towards the replacement gate.

“Shouldn’t we see about getting this installed?” she asked.

“Yes,” Tomodachi agreed. “You have the offerings for the ritual I assume?”

“Ritual?” Damarys and Zeter both asked at the same time.

Kamillus was rubbing his hands together in delight and Kasyn, no matter his faith in Akumu, was uncomfortable with the expression on the imp’s face.

“Oh yes,” Kamillus crowed. “These are soul gates, empowered by having a living souls embedded into them.”

Tomodachi walked over to the old gates, ripped from their old mountings and pushed to the side. He ran his hand down the splintered wood and twisted iron, an odd expression on his face as though he were remembering something painful.

“We could try to transfer what’s left of the previous souls,” he said, “but I only sense one of them now.”

“How many do you need?” one of the Shinrai monks asked.

“At least two, depending on the strength of their souls.”

The monk looked to his companion and the two of them nodded.

“I will offer myself to this effort,” he said. “Would that be acceptable?”

They all looked at him in shock at how quickly he’d put himself up for this.

“As I understand it,” he went on, “such a soul would still be aware of the world around itself. I would ask that my companion be allowed access to the city, in particular Kokyo Toshokan. He will read to me every day and we will seek enlightenment here.”

Kamillus looked like he wanted to refuse but Tomodachi clearly outranked him here and he deferred to the satyr.

“I accept,” Tomodachi nodded without looking away from the ruined gate. “You are both accepted citizens of this land, and one member of Shinrai may be selected every generation to continue to read to you.”

With that, he reached up and began tracing runes into the air. Kasyn felt the pull of magic that he was only just beginning to understand. The old gates shivered, along with their mountings, and slowly they began to fade away, leaving only wisps that began to pull together, coalescing into the form of a young girl. It wasn’t lost on any of them that the girl was a satyr and Tomodachi was shedding silent tears while he wove the magic.

He paused in his casting to bend over and lift the young girl into his arms. He carried her to the new gate and laid her on one side, motioning to the monk to lie down on the other side. The girl appeared weak, sickly even, and she hardly seemed aware of what was going on around her.

“Is she alright?” Emilie asked quietly.

“She was dying when she and her mother were sacrificed for the old gate,” Kamillus said without bothering to lower his voice. “She’s been like that for ages.”

Tomodachi pointed at the imp and with a casual flick, disintegrated him. In time the imp would reconstitute but in the mean time Tomodachi returned to the ritual. Magic coursed over and through the gate now, drawing the girl and monk into the gate until they vanished entirely. Then, the gate rotated and lifted up into its place, sealing itself with the wall and repairing the damage around it.

When he was finished, Tomodachi was no longer crying, though he looked drained and tired. He leaned against the stone wall for support a moment and then silently marched off to the small guardhouse where Kamillus usually spent his time when there was nothing for him to do. The remaining monk of Shinrai sat down on the ground beside the gate, pulled a tome out from his pack, and began to read quietly.

The two Sages of the Mercurial Robe looked shocked at what they’d witnessed, but more out of awe for the magic just displayed and the woman was hurriedly writing down notes on what she’d seen. The boy was trying to mimic some of the runes with limited success.

“Well,” the woman said after closing her book, “I’m Ketty Pordis and this is my ward, Armand. Would any of you be able to give us introduction to the leadership of your…camp over there? We’d like to offer you our services.”

“I would also appreciate an introduction,” the monk called over, “to offer the aid of Shinrai.”

“I’m sure Lord Akumu will welcome your aid,” Kasyn said. “Jelvaic and Arjana are the two you’ll need to talk to. You can come with us now if you’d like.”

The monk and Ketty Pordis both nodded and fell in with Kasyn and the others as they began their walk back to the camp.