They had been training for four days now and most of them were showing great improvement, they were no match for Lucy's skills but they were getting the basics down which is all Eli wanted anyways. He had told them to just go over the basics, rhythm, balance, force, etc. They were to come up with their own style of fighting after the basics were taught. They had just finished training for the day and Chris was angry like usual, she was not making any progress towards mastering the basics. She thought the basics were beneath her and that she should be working on more advanced stuff, so she was always trying massively complicated things and failing miserably.
Of course, this didn't stop her from blaming everything on everyone else, especially Tara and Bethany. Beau was excelling and was spending a lot of time with the two women since the first day to train further into the groups fighting dynamic. Chris was furiously jealous and was always trying to undermine the two, trying, but failing. It was so bad that everyone just pitied her which just made her more angry. Bethany, the brothers and Lucy had all asked her separately to leave since she didn't seem to be fitting in and her outbursts often slowed things down for everyone else. But if Tara, who she surmised was in charge, and Beau, who was the current target of her manipulations, didn't ask her to leave, then she wasn't going anywhere.
Tara motioned for everyone to gather back up, "It's time to see who can get in crater town, we are expecting hostile company so tomorrow everyone who cannot get inside should stay inside the safe zone barrier and train on their own."
"If it lets us in, can we stay inside?" one of the brothers asked.
"Yes, if you still want to join, and it lets you in, you can claim one of the huts inside as your own." Tara explained, while intentionally not looking at Chris.
The brothers high fived and the whole group started walking towards Crater Town. The ash cloud was still dumping magic into it and with the sun out it was like the town was at the end of an apocalypse rainbow. It had changed a bit yesterday, but the change was mostly on the volcano end, and not much changed on this end. Crater town was growing, not just with more huts, but the outer wall was spreading out along with the crater itself and Eli's hut was larger with a bigger table that now sat ten people and a curtain down the middle that separated his bed and meditation area from the rest of the place. The total number of huts was 14 plus Eli's hut and the space inside the walls was about 50 feet bigger in every direction.
Tara walked inside and stood next to Bethany and Audrey, "Feel free to come join us if you wish."
Without speaking Lucy walked through and stood next to them.
"Ok then," Tara said, "next!"
The brothers looked at each other, then at the entrance, then back to each other and decided to just head back to the safe zone. Neither of them seemed upset or disappointed in any way, they just weren't in a hurry, for anything, so they didn't want to push it. Chris tried to convince Beau to leave as well but he wanted to try again. He took a deep breath, did his best to clear his mind and started walking forward slowly. Just as he got to the same spot as before, a root shot up, last time it had just been a hand but this time it spun itself into a bush version of Eli.
It grew arms and legs and a ribcage, but the face was a hole. There was a head but it was hollow all the way through letting Beau see the other side where the four women now stood. He smiled understanding the point right away, "I Promise," he said and walked on inside. The four women looked at him in surprise.
"What promise," Tara asked.
"To help protect you, I don't think you need much protection, but you all must mean a great deal to him if the echo of his magic here wouldn't let me in unless I promised."
"Well…" Tara said, but all four of them blushed and couldn't make eye contact.
"Ok Chris, come on in," Beau yelled and waved her in.
"If this place stabs me again, we aren't friends anymore," Said Chris hesitantly while walking up slowly. She made it one step inside and nothing happened. She looked around and smirked with a clear look of disdain on her face. As soon as her foot hit the ground from her next step forward, she and some of the ground underneath her shot into the air leaving behind a coiled root bouncing like a spring. She landed some distance away with a few scratches but not injured.
They all looked at Beau waiting for his reaction, and he exploded into laughter, rolling on the ground crying and yelling laughter. After collecting himself from laughing more than he should have, he got up and dusted off his clothes, stood tall and turned to the women inside the town.
"I'm sorry for laughing so much, but that girl has tormented me for a long time and I only promised to stay with her until our paths diverged."
"That makes sense," Audrey said and the others nodded.
"Welcome to our group you two, let's go get your huts picked out and we can explain everything," Tara said to them with a warm welcoming and motherly smile. Beau's eyes lit up at having his own place to stay and at how immediately welcoming this was, this was the best day he has had since the system came. Lucy followed along but looked troubled, so as they were explaining which ones were empty, Bethany put her arm around her and whispered.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me you want to stay in Lord Ash's home with him and Tara because I tried that already and she still hasn't gotten over it."
Lucy's entire head glowed bright red with embarrassment, "Well, I am to serve him, it is what my family has done for centuries."
Bethany gave her a strange look, "Why are you so sure that Lord Ash is who you are looking for? He has no memories from before he was twelve so there's no way you know him or he knows you."
"I cannot tell you family secrets without the prince's… I mean the Lord's permission."
Bethany smiled at her verbal slip. "Well, for now, you can have the closest hut to him that isn't already taken. If he wants you closer when he gets here he will say so, but I feel like I should warn you before then. Lord Ash will most likely keep you at a distance at first."
"What!? Why?!" Lucy yelled.
"Shhh," Bethany hushed, "Because he is a little vulnerable right now, emotionally. Don't say anything else about it for now, just observe him for a while first and make your own judgments."
Bethany waved her hand toward the doorway to a hut that was two away from the entrance to Eli's. Lucy stepped inside and was in awe at the place she was given. It was a twenty foot circle hut with stone walls and flowering plants for a roof, door, and window coverings. There is a stone bed with moss on it, a table and four chairs, as well as a fireplace with a cooking pot. The stone walls and fireplace were covered in beautiful rune enhancements in white grey and light blue. She sat on the bed and was shocked at how comfortable it was. She laid down and her body immediately wanted to sleep for days, she had not felt this relaxed in years.
She felt like she had just blinked but when she opened her eyes, Tara, Beau and Audrey were sitting at the table in her room drinking some kind of tea drink that they all seemed to be enjoying. She jumped out of her bed and got to her feet, the others just smiled at her.
"You are finally awake," Tara said, "You slept for two hours, we didn't want to wake you."
"I guess this is where we have that meeting," said Lucy.
"Yes, but first I will give you the same information I gave Beau and after that, if you decide to stay, then we can talk about next steps."
"What information?"
"I'll come out and say it, you choose to believe it or not, and you choose to stay or not." Lucy nodded to Tara. "Lord Ash is preposterously strong, he could wipe out the safe zone on his own in minutes without even going inside. If he wanted to rule this world, nothing here could stop him."
"I don't…" Lucy started.
"Let me finish Lucy. He does not wish to rule, he wishes to hold rulers to account. Be the hand of justice to those who think they are out of it's... Oww." Tara said while holding her side where Audrey had elbowed her.
"You are getting overly dramatic again," said Audrey. "Put simply, Lord Ash is very strong, he doesn't want to rule over anyone. But due to certain circumstances, he isn't in complete control of his emotions which makes him… difficult sometimes."
"Yes," Tara interjected, "Which is why we are just as protective of him as he is with us. We won't hesitate to remove things from his life that are causing problems, if you catch my meaning."
There was a pause then Lucy spoke up, "I know some of his power, having been told stories of his mother, and I too wish to protect him."
"Good because we are about to be attacked here tomorrow, and we need you to trust us and how we deal with things. Tara likes to set up dramatic moments for him, but mostly we just try and keep him from getting too upset." Audrey said.
Tara pointed to the purple scar on her cheek, "He got upset with himself because he let Bethany down and I ended up with these scars."
"We just want to let you know what you are getting into and what we, as his followers, expect from you," said Audrey.
"You have only reinforced my choice to join you with this information. I hope we can all be friends," Lucy said with a smile, the first smile any of them had seen on her since they met her.
"So what is the plan for this attack?" Beau asked.
"The plan is we do nothing, we want them to attack, Lord Ash will be back and when he returns we want them to already be attacking us, or failing that for it to be close," Tara explained.
"That's not really a plan though," Beau said confused.
"This is the part where you trust us and Ash, to know what we are doing," Tara said with total confidence. "I doubt any of them besides their lord could get in here anyways."
Lucy creased her brow in concern when Tara didn't use lord in front of Ash's name but decided to ignore it and focus on something else. "The magic of this place is quite remarkable, and I doubt their lord comes personally at first, unless he thinks the prize is worth it or is just really arrogant."
"I would go with both from what Stevens is telling me, apparently the lord and the people that serve him are some kind of vampire that can level by drinking blood. They don't have to kill the person either, so they send people out to level, then steal some of those levels. All in the guise of protection from the monster hordes," Tara explained leaving out one detail that she and Stevens guessed at, that their lord was probably in the high 90's in level and that draining a powerful lord would get him past one hundred. Which made them worry, but they trusted Eli to win.