Chapter 688: Information

Kali gave him a look, but he returned it without saying anything further. Eventually, she lowered her hand and folded her arms instead.

Albert noticed the exchange. His gaze lingered on Elion for a moment before he nodded slowly.

"I would appreciate that."

The conversation eased somewhat after that, though Elion doubted anyone had suddenly become comfortable with Kali’s presence.

At least there was something practical for Albert to consider, and Solara no longer seemed quite so intent on making him explain every possible consequence of their contract.

Princess Isla reached for her cup.

"Well, since we’ve established that we aren’t here to fight," she said, "perhaps we should return to the information Sir Albert was going to share with us."

Elion turned toward her, glad for the change of subject.

"What information were you looking for?"

"Mostly what he knows about this world," she replied. "Its inhabitants, its history, and anything that might help us make sense of the places we’ve found."

"That would certainly be useful," Maya said.

Albert nodded and gestured toward one of the attendants waiting nearby. The man stepped away from the table, disappearing into the building beyond the garden while Albert turned back toward his guests.

"I had prepared a few things before we were interrupted."

His eyes moved briefly toward Kali, who seemed entirely untroubled by the remark.

Elion decided against commenting.

A short while later, the attendant returned carrying several folded sheets and a book with a worn leather cover. Albert accepted them, moving a few dishes aside before setting the book upon the table.

Elion leaned forward slightly.

The cover bore no title he could recognise, though the faded markings impressed into its surface suggested it had been handled for considerably longer than its condition might otherwise imply.

"These contain some of what we’ve managed to preserve," Albert explained. "Though before I begin, it would help to know what you already understand."

He looked between Elion and the princess.

"What exactly have you been told about this world?"

...

Maya began with what they knew, unfolding their maps again and explaining how much of their information had come from the accounts of previous entrants.

Isla added a few details of her own, while Elion mentioned the ruins they had explored and the uncertainty surrounding some of the recorded landmarks.

Albert listened without interrupting. Occasionally, his eyes moved toward the drawings spread across the table, and by the time they finished, it was clear that their knowledge had left him with quite a few things to explain.

"I see," he said, drawing one of his own maps closer. "Then perhaps we should begin with the settlements. This isn’t the only place where people live."

Elion leaned forward slightly.

"There are others?"

"Several," Albert replied. "In various parts of this world. Some are considerably larger than ours, while others are little more than a collection of homes in a defensible location."

Maya glanced at their maps, then back at the one Albert had placed before them. Unlike theirs, it bore several small markings beside rivers, hills and stretches of woodland, with notes written in a neat hand around the edges.

Nothing in the information they had brought suggested that there were so many inhabited places.

"Are they all on this landmass?" she asked.

"Not all of them," Albert said. "Though the ones we know best are. There are places farther away that only people like me have seen, so I wouldn’t advise treating every account as certain."

Elion nodded. They had entered this world expecting monsters, abandoned structures and perhaps the occasional group of fellow entrants.

Discovering one settlement had been surprising enough, but learning that there were others scattered throughout the place changed quite a few things.

Albert moved a finger toward a marking farther east.

"Our people originally came from a much larger settlement in this region. A few centuries ago, there was a falling out, and a small group decided to leave rather than remain there."

"What sort of falling out?" Isla asked.

"There were disagreements that they were no longer willing to live with," he replied. "Whatever the details, the result was that they left. They travelled until they found this place and began building a settlement of their own."

His hand moved back toward the mark representing the town around them.

"The man who led them was my father."

Elion raised a brow.

’His father?’

He looked at Albert’s youthful face again, finding it rather difficult to reconcile the sight with the history being told. The man appeared to be around his age, yet he was speaking of a settlement founded centuries ago by his late father.

Clearly, guessing his age by his appearance wasn’t going to work.

Albert seemed to notice the brief change in their expressions, though he made no comment on it.

Instead, he turned a few pages in the old book, stopping where several closely written entries occupied the yellowed paper.

"They had very little when they arrived," he continued. "Not enough people to do everything that needed doing, and certainly not enough strength to feel secure. But they managed. They cleared land, built homes, and gradually made this place habitable."

His voice remained composed, though something in his expression changed as he glanced toward Kali.

"Then, years later, they encountered her."

Kali was still occupied with the food, finding no reason to interrupt an account she already knew. Elion watched her take another piece from a plate, then returned his attention to Albert.

"They couldn’t stop her with their measly strength," the man said. "And she made it clear what would happen if we refused to give her what she wanted."

He paused briefly, his fingers resting against the edge of the book.

"In the end, we had to surrender almost half our people so the others could live."

Elion looked past the garden toward the rooftops visible beyond its walls.

He had seen the cultivated fields, the guards upon the defences, and the people looking up curiously when Kali announced herself.

It was difficult to imagine a place like this losing nearly half its inhabitants at once, especially when it had been much smaller and more vulnerable.

There would have been no way for such a loss to affect only those who were taken.

Families would have been broken apart. Homes would have stood empty, and the people left behind would still have had to rise the next morning and do everything necessary to survive, knowing what they had traded away to make that possible.

Albert didn’t need to explain all of that.

"It took a long time to recover," he continued. "For a while, they could barely manage the work needed to sustain the people who remained. There were fields they couldn’t properly tend and plans they had to abandon."

He glanced down at the book before closing it gently.

"But the settlement survived. Over time, families grew, children were born, and we were able to begin expanding again. More homes were built, more land was cultivated, and eventually, the population recovered, and perhaps we have her to thank for at least leaving some of the people alive."

Elion followed the movement of his hand as Albert gestured toward the town around them.

"That is how this place became what you see today." Albert drew in a shuddering breath. "Then, a few years ago, she returned; perhaps that had always been her plan: let some of them live, so that they could recover their numbers so that she could take more."

His eyes settled on Kali again, this time with clear resentment.

"Fortunately, I had just become a saint by then."

Kali had already told them that their battle ended without either of them being able to kill the other, but hearing it from Albert was rather different from listening to her complain about a human who had annoyed her.

"She expected to take what she wanted again," Albert said. "This time, I was able to stand against her."

"And that was the battle she told us about?" Maya asked.

He nodded.

"We fought for days. I couldn’t kill her, but she couldn’t get past me either."

Kali shifted in her chair, looking faintly displeased by that description.

"Eventually, I managed to drive her off," Albert continued. "But by the time she left, nearly half the settlement had been destroyed."

"A battle between saints isn’t something a place like this can endure easily," Albert said. "Walls collapsed, homes were ruined, and entire streets were left beneath rubble. Keeping her from taking more people didn’t mean I could keep everything around us standing."

His voice remained calm, but it was obvious that it took him a considerable amount of effort to stay calm.

"We have spent the years since then rebuilding. After the battle, we reached an agreement that she would leave us alone."

He finished speaking, his gaze resting upon Kali with a resentment so fierce that Elion was surprised she continued eating as comfortably as she did.

The woman merely reached for her cup.

Albert clenched his jaw, but he said nothing more. He kept his hands still upon the table, resisting whatever impulse lay behind the blazing look in his eyes.

Elion could understand that hatred.

Kali had terrorised them for a long time; no doubt, the children here would have grown up hearing stories of a ruthless beast that ate their people, having nightmares about her even.

Yet here she was, seated in Albert’s garden, enjoying his food as though their history amounted to nothing more than an inconvenient disagreement.

Whatever else Elion might think of the man, he had to give him credit. That degree of self-control was outstanding.