The afternoon streets of Ravenkeep were bustling with activity, as they were most days. Crowds of people trudged up and down the cobblestone roads, talking and laughing with one another as they lived out their lives without a care. Some of them were dressed in more modern clothes, with jeans and graphic T-shirts, while others dressed in more traditional clothing such as tunics and cloaks.

Some still maintained the habit of wearing their armour around daily, but this was mainly the hunters or guards, the one's who had seen enough action to know to be prepared at a moments notice.

Carts trundled down the roads, the people parting to make away for the vehicles and those that were pulling them. Some carts were dragged by horses with eight legs, while others were pulled by giant wolf's with three heads and others had other varieties of strange animals with various extra limbs and extremities.

There was one particular cart, owned by a somewhat famous hunter, that was dragged by the fabled horse sized duck.

None of the civilians were worried about any of these beasts, and simply went on with their lives. Shopping, chatting, relaxing or going to work.

This type of lackadaisical life, which used to be the norm, was now considered a luxury. A luxury that had been provided to them by the Lord, his minions and all those who served underneath him. A fact they were reminded of daily, and were always happy to show their gratitude to those involved.

Over the last year and a half, the old city of Thraven had been utterly torn down and replaced, building by building, by Ravenkeep. What had started as a humble settlement of hastily built houses huddling around a castle in the middle of the city, had now grown so exponentially that it's borders actually surpassed that of the previous city.

While some of that was thanks to the thriving fields of various crops, both medicinal and nutritional, as well as the fields in which they were attempting to once more domesticate some beasts. It was not all down to that.

Not just the city borders had grown, but the population of the city itself had boomed over the year, mainly thanks to the expansion of what was now commonly known as the 'Black Winged Empire'. Thus much of the city's expanse was now filled with various residencies, as well as businesses.

On many of his train rides through the old city of Thraven, Seth had lamented about the modern style of buildings encroaching onto the old and the classic, yet that is what this city had become. A strange mix of old and new, classic and modern.

The buildings though, when they were being built Seth had made sure that they stayed classic in their styling, causing the city to have a strange aesthetic that mixed Renaissance and medieval to create the stone metropolises one would often see in various fantasy media.

Just like he had hoped it would be. What was the point of having people who could mold stone create your buildings, if you didn't create works of art with every building? Nothing beat old masonry.

The buildings that had once huddled around the castle had been renovated into the bustling market area, where most shopping took place. It was in this area, that a particular stall was selling various wood carved masks. They were intricately designed and quite popular amongst the hunters who liked to hide their faces, or look cool.

They were especially good for children to play with

The owner, a young woman with long brown hair tied back into a messy bun, hummed softly to herself as she chiselled away at the base of a mask. She was simply carving out the shape before she put the design on, when the wood cracked from the edge of the eye socket and up to the top of the forehead.

The owner let out a deep sigh, placing the ruined mask to the side for disposal. It couldn't be helped sometimes.

CAW! CAAWW!

The cries of a crow drew her attention to the side, as the large black bird sat on her windowsill. It stared through the glass, watching her with its creepy black eye. The strangest part about it, however, was that it seemed like a perfectly normal crow.

Something she had not seen in well over a year. A normal crow.. a normal anything was unheard of nowadays.

However, before she could even get a chance to inspect it further, it spread its wings and fluttered off into the skies. She leaned to the side, trying to keep sight of it through the window before slumping back into her chair with a resigned sigh.

Oh well... Maybe it would come back. She should probably set some food out for it. Maybe she could re-purpose a part of the bad mask into a bowl if she just...

The mask carver frowned softly as she glanced to her side, looking to where she had put the mask, only to find the cracked one was missing from the discard pile. She looked around and under the table, wondering if she had somehow dropped it, before letting out another sigh.

This is clearly what happens when you spend too much time working and don't sleep enough. She would definitely get some more sleep tonight. But first...

She reached over, grabbing a different broken mask from her discard pile, and started to work away. Turning the salvageable wood into a nice little bird bowl, humming as she worked once more.

Outside of the shop, a figure wove into existence, a long ragged cloak drapped over their shoulders. The figure lifted his hand, bringing the wooden mask in his grasp up to his head and affixed it to his face.

He pulled up the hood of his ragged cloak, pulling the ends of it together so that it completely concealed his body, before stepping out into the streets once more.

No one looked twice at the oddly dressed man, to the citizens of Ravenkeep this sort of dress was fairly common. To them, he was just another faceless entity filling the crowd. No one cared about him in the slightest as he blended in with the masses and made his way through the streets.

Well... No one, but one.

***

"Cynthia hun, I'm home! And I brought dinner!"

Alexandra's booming voice echoed through the spacious house, almost shaking the heavy stone walls as it reverberated through each and every room. If she had neighbours, they would have complained every single time she came home, as she always made sure to bellow at the top of her lungs.

But her house was separated from others. At her request, Seth had given her some farmland to work, and a rather spacious cottage that sat atop the hill at the edge of that farmland.

Farming was what she had grown up with, she knew farming. She was good at it, even more so than punching stuff.

She grew plenty of food in her vast fields, enough to feed her tenfold, but rarely did she sell much of it. Instead it all went into the house, in the same wicker basket that she was carrying now.

This particular basket was filled to the brim with pungent yellow leaves, with patches of blue around the edges of some. They were cheese plants.

It was still debated whether it was a plant that had taken on the properties of cheese, or if it was cheese that had somehow mutated to grow like a plant. Considering there were reports that a glass of milk had, somehow, developed into a colossal calcium monster that killed over a hundred people before it was finally slain. The cheese theory wasn't too far gone.

But others said the milk monster was actually a man with dairy based powers who went on a rampage, and that inanimate objects couldn't just come to life and kill people. That would simply be ridiculous.

No reply came from the depths of Alexandra's house, despite the fact her mighty bellow would have easily reached every single room and you would have to be deaf not to hear it - and even they would feel the vibrations.

But the lack of response didn't bother Alexandra. Instead she strolled to the kitchen and started to put away the cheese plants.

She stored most of it in the refrigerator, which was powered by a crystal battery and made colder by a chilling rune carved into it, but one large cheesy leaf remained outside of the fridge.

With that leaf, she took some of her other rations and crafted a lovely meal for two. One of them was a huge chunk of meat, slow roasted and before allowing the cheese to melt on top. Two potatoes that could easily be mistaken for geodes, considering that they were in fact just potatoes that had turned into geodes as a defensive mutation, also sat on the plate next to the meat.

The other plate had a similar meal. The geode potatoes were absent. In its place was a diced cheese plant, as well as a few other nutritional plants Alexandra grew herself, all of which were neatly cut up and arranged in their own groups.

The meat too had been sliced up into convenient, bite sized chunks. Making it look like the perfect platter of finger food for entertaining guests.

Alexandra carried the two plates into the dining room, placing the meal with the whole meat in front of her chair, while the other was placed next to a bowl of jelly.

However instead of sitting down to enjoy her meal, she plucked up a few chunks of meat and dropped them into the jelly, watching as they slowly sank into its gelatinous mass before starting to sizzle and dissolve.

"That's it Cynthia... Eat up. You need your strength after all. Don't worry baby, I'm sure one day you'll recover and be back to your old self. I just know you will... I know it..."

Alexandra stifled the tears that wanted to roll down her cheeks, her voice cracking as she spoke. Yet these were the same words she had repeated every single day for a year. But even still, she muttered them again, as she dropped more meat into the bowl of slime, which only shifted ever so slightly with the faintest signs of life.

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