The settlement took several hours to recover anything resembling normality. Although the wave had ended, no one seemed willing to trust the silence of the forest. The archers remained on the walls, the defensive symbols stayed active, and small groups patrolled the perimeter looking for damage that might compromise the defenses during the following night.
Lilith watched everything from a wooden crate beside one of the houses while Claire finished wrapping a bandage around her forearm. The wound was not particularly serious, barely a cut caused by the fall after attacking the giant creature, but Claire had decided that it justified treating her as if she were about to lose the entire arm.
"It's too tight," Lilith protested while moving her fingers. Claire pulled the bandage one final time. "Perfect." Lilith looked at her. "I just said it's too tight." Claire put away the remaining bandages without showing any concern. "And I just decided it's perfect." Lilith considered reminding her which of them was technically the princess, but something told her that would only result in the next bandage ending up around her mouth.
Claire sat beside her and began cleaning a small cut on her own hand. Unlike Lilith, she did not seem interested in receiving help. "You used less magic," she commented while examining the wound.
Lilith looked at her right hand. She could still feel some exhaustion after forming the blood blade against the larger creature, but the difference was enormous compared to the exhaustion she had suffered during the attack on the Eternal Bastion.
"I'm learning." Claire raised an eyebrow. "That worries me." Lilith gently bumped her shoulder against hers. "You could try congratulating me once in a while." Claire pretended to think about it for several seconds. "No." Lilith was about to respond when she noticed Claire's expression change.
The knight took her arm more carefully and checked the bandage again. "But you did well." This time, there was no mockery in her voice. Lilith remained silent for a few seconds before smiling. "I knew you could do it." Claire immediately released her arm. "I already regret it."
A few meters away, several inhabitants were carrying the creatures' corpses toward an open area away from the houses. None of them seemed to know what to do with them. Normally, they made use of the meat, hide, bones, and other useful parts of the monsters they hunted, but the black wounds had changed things. No one wanted to consume anything that might be contaminated by unknown magic.
Evelyn was there helping inspect the bodies alongside two hunters. When she finished, she approached Lilith and Claire while wiping her hands with a cloth. "We found seven." Lilith straightened slightly. "Seven with the same wounds?" Evelyn nodded. "Black burns, cuts, and punctures. Some had more than one." Claire finally put away her bandages. "Do any of them look like they were caused by another creature?" Evelyn shook her head. "Not by any we know."
Lilith stood and followed Evelyn toward the corpses. The enormous creature was still where it had fallen, too heavy to move easily. In full daylight, the wounds looked even stranger.
The burn on its leg spread several centimeters around the point of impact and had turned part of the fur into a dark mass. Lilith crouched without touching it. It did not look like an injury caused by fire. She had seen enough burns in her old life to recognize that this was different.
Small black lines spread beneath the skin around the injury. "Magic?" she asked. Evelyn crossed her arms. "Probably." Claire leaned down beside her. "That narrows the possibilities down to practically this entire continent." Lilith pointed toward the cuts on its side. "This is different. They're too straight." Evelyn traced the direction of one through the air without touching it.
"A blade." Lilith thought about the corpse they had found during their first expedition, that enormous creature with a wound across its chest far too clean to have been caused by any of the monsters they had fought. "We've seen something similar before."
Evelyn looked at her. Lilith quickly explained what they had found before meeting her: the gigantic trail, the dead monster, and the piece of metal bearing Oblivion's symbol. She did not claim there was a connection. In fact, she was becoming less convinced that linking every mystery on the continent simply because they were happening at the same time was a good idea.
Evelyn listened until the end and then looked at the wounds again. "Then this started before you reached the ruins." Lilith nodded. "And before you activated the mechanism." Evelyn went completely still.
It took Lilith a moment to understand why that mattered. Ever since Evelyn had awakened in the Eternal Bastion, she had been carrying the belief that she might have caused everything that was happening by activating that machine.
"The migrations started before that too," Lilith continued. "You said yourself that the first creatures appeared weeks ago."
Evelyn lowered her gaze toward the corpse.
"But something answered when I activated the signal."
"Yes."
"Then I got its attention."
Lilith shrugged slightly. "Maybe. But you didn't wake up whatever is causing this. It was already happening."
Evelyn did not respond immediately. The tension did not completely disappear from her face, but Lilith saw her shoulders relax just a little. "That doesn't make me like it any more."
"I wasn't trying to make you like it."
"You're terrible at reassuring people."
Claire approached from behind. "I've been trying to explain that to her for weeks."
Lilith decided to ignore both of them.
When they returned inside, the attitude of the inhabitants had changed. Not completely. Some people still moved away when Lilith passed, and others watched her fangs with obvious discomfort. But now she also received nods and the occasional hesitant greeting.
A man she had helped during the defense offered her a red fruit without saying anything. Lilith accepted it before remembering that she had no idea what it was. Evelyn saw her examining it. "You can eat it." Lilith looked up. "I wasn't worried." Evelyn smiled.
"You've been staring at it for ten seconds like it might poison you." Lilith bit into the fruit to prove her bravery. It was extremely bitter. She had to use all of her self-control to maintain a neutral expression while Evelyn waited. "Delicious." Evelyn watched her for a moment and started laughing. "It's for cooking."
Lilith discreetly spat out the piece when Evelyn turned away.
The situation would have been embarrassing enough if Claire had not been watching her.
The knight was smiling.
"Not a word."
Claire raised both hands. "Princess, never."
Lilith immediately knew she would be hearing about that for months.
However, as they walked through the settlement, she realized that something truly had changed. The previous night, those people had needed Evelyn to stand in front of her before lowering their weapons.
Now several children watched her from a corner with curiosity instead of fear. One small girl even raised her hand when Lilith passed. Lilith waved back, and the girl immediately disappeared behind her mother. It was not trust. Not yet.
But it was a beginning.
An elderly man then appeared from one of the side streets and stopped when he saw them. He carried an enormous bow on his back, several scars crossed his face, and one of his legs seemed to force him to walk with some difficulty. His eyes did not stop on Lilith.
They were fixed on the corpses.
"Where did you find those marks?"
Evelyn stopped smiling.
"On the creatures from last night."
The man went pale.
Lilith felt the newly recovered calm disappear.
"Do you recognize them?" she asked.
The hunter took several seconds to answer.
"Yes."
He looked toward the north.
"I've seen them before."