The group of two humans, a few dozen Beasts, and a single dark elf stood in the street a few hundred meters from the fortress entrance. They stood in silence, listening to the booming sound of the continued assault. Whatever was outside had continued its intense attack against the magically fortified doors for nearly a half hour.
And then, all at once, it was over. The booming came to an end, and the hushed silence of the fortress interior was filled with nothing but the sound of soft breathing. Leor and Alina glanced at each other, each seeing the unease in the other's eyes. It was a stressful thing, to wait and pray that the doors would hold as a terrible Defiled monster lurked just outside.
Drelk seemed to be more accustomed to such events, regaining his composure rather quickly. He walked around the group wearing an encouraging smile as he spoke to the Beasts, "It's gone now. Keep quiet and get to bed, all of you. Nothing good can come from lingering awake in the night, go on now."
After sending the Beasts away, Drelk led Alina and Leor back toward the large manor at the center of the fortress. As they reached the door, Alina tried to restart the conversation that had been interrupted by the chiming of the night time bells, but Drelk was not in the mood for such things now.
"I won't discuss this after dark. I meant what I said to the Beasts. No good will come of staying awake in the night. Not around this mountain. Not after the defilement spread through this realm." Drelk suppressed a slight shudder as he spoke, his gaze lingering in the direction of the fortress gate. "Take Leor with you and set him up for the night in one of the spare rooms. We can discuss everything else in the morning. Don't forget, no wandering around in the night. I… I need to sleep now." Drelk had hardly finished speaking before he rushed into the large manor, swiftly shutting the door behind him and leaving Alina and Leor standing outside alone.
Alina let out a short sigh before turning to Leor with a shrug. "Guess that's it for now, let's go. Drelk gave me the old supply house across the street to use as my own."
Alina led them to a much smaller and less impressive building just across the road from Drelks manor. Stepping inside, it appeared quite empty. The floors were covered in dust and there was barely any furniture, just a few chairs and a small table near the door.
Alina led Leor down the hallway into one of the empty rooms, before stepping out and returning with a handful of folded sheets. Leor accepted the bedding, tossing it into the corner as he lowered himself to the floor, leaning his head and back against the dusty wall.
"Sorry, I know it's not much, but it beats sleeping in the woods, right?" Alina said with a small smile.
Leor stared Alina in the eyes for a few seconds without speaking, then looked away with a frustrated frown.
"Alina. I don't care about sleeping in a dusty room. What I care about is finding Paul and figuring out how we are going to get home. I was sure you'd have some sort of plan, but you haven't spoken a word about what that might be. What's going on with you? I know you haven't given up… Right?"
A moment passed in silence after Leor spoke those words, then, Alina slowly sighed as she turned her back to him, leaning her shoulder against the open doorway as she spoke.
"I haven't found a single clue about Paul's location, and to be quite honest I am not holding out much hope that he has survived this long. The fact that his tablet could not be located is strong evidence that he has met his end. As for getting home, we have two options. The first option is to defeat an Elder-Defiled dragon in combat, and the second is to somehow destroy the mile wide, magically enhanced, solid stone tower at the center of a city crawling with Defiled monsters. Do you have any suggestions for how we might achieve either of those things, Leor?"
Leor's mouth drifted open for a moment as he struggled to respond, then casting his gaze toward the floor he slowly shook his head. "I do not… But I refuse to give in to despair. There must be something we can do, Alina. Don't you have any thoughts at all?"
Alina turned back around to face him after stepping out of the room, nodding her head firmly, "Yes. I have many, but they all have one thing in common. They require us to be much, much stronger. That is what we must focus on for now, Leor. This realm is currently far beyond us, so we must rise up to meet its challenges. Do your meditations and get some sleep, I will see you in the morning."
With that, Alina slowly pulled the door shut, and Leor was left alone in the darkness. The young man rubbed his hands across his tired eyes a few times as the words of his companion sank in. "I don't know what I was expecting. She's just a young girl after all, how can she have a solution for a situation as hopeless as this?" Even as he whispered the words to himself, Leor couldn't help but feel a sense of frustration rising up in his chest. He really had placed high hopes on Alina's abilities, but it seemed that even she could not get them out of trouble this time.
Leor laid out his sheets without bothering to clean the floor, sitting down cross legged on top of them as he did his daily meditation. The sacred symbol of the realm of light felt like his only solace at this time, so Leor was more than glad to spend an hour focusing on nothing but that.
When he finished, he laid down on his back without even removing his clothes, slowly drifting off to sleep for the second time in this cursed realm.
"Wake up Leor." A whisper and a soft nudge on his shoulder woke Leor from his sleep, it felt like no time at all had passed. As he opened his eyes, he saw that it was still the middle of the night, and Alina was standing before him wearing one of the magical cloaks that himself and the Beasts had worn to hide their presence in the forest.
"W-Whats going on?" he asked, blinking the sleep from his eyes.
Alina held one finger to her mouth, gesturing for him to speak quietly as she leaned closer.
"I haven't told you everything, Leor. I couldn't risk exposing to Drelk that I'm poking around after his secrets. The old elf has ears like a Beast, he can hear much more than he lets on. I had to be sure that he was sleeping before we could talk openly." She explained.
Leor nodded firmly, a look of hope beginning to return to his face. This was much more like the Alina he was used to. "I see, but why are you wearing that cloak?" he asked, only to be met with a wide and somewhat mischievous smile.
"Because we are going out for a stroll. I've been wanting to get a look at Drelk's workroom, he hasn't allowed me to step foot in there since I arrived, but I was afraid that he would sense my presence if I tried to sneak in." Alina ran her fingers across the soft fabric of the cloak as she continued, "Thankfully the Beasts forgot to take back their cloak when they dropped you off at Drelks manor, so I stashed it away for us!"
Leor looked up at Alina with a confused expression, "I see… But we only have one cloak, and there are two of us, how are we going to—"
Before he could finish speaking, Alina pulled him to his feet and under her cloak. Thankfully the cloak was sized to be large enough for a Beast, so it easily fit two humans. Especially when one of them was a rather petite female.
They stood side by side in the cloak, each wrapping one arm around the other to stabilize and synchronize their movements. Leor couldn't help but swallow a few times as he felt the warm body pressing against him, but he quickly shook those thoughts from his mind as he followed Alina's lead. Now was not the time to be thinking about how beautiful, smart, and charming Alina was. Did he mention she was beautiful? He couldn't quite remember, but there was no time to think about it any longer, as Alina swiftly led them out the door into the empty street.