The evacuation of the Frost-hold branch of the Golden Shell Guild was a model of disciplined efficiency. Within minutes of Kui's arrival, Manager Borin and his staff had secured their most important documents, packed their personal belongings into storage rings, and were assembled in the main hall, a silent, disciplined group ready for extraction.
The fear and uncertainty that had plagued them for days was gone, replaced by a profound, palpable sense of relief.
Kui took out his communication talisman. "Wise Host," he reported, "Frost-hold is secure. All personnel accounted for. We are moving on to the next location, the mining town of Silverstream Crossing. Rendezvous at the designated coordinates outside the city."
"Understood," came Li Yu's calm reply. "Continue what you are doing. We are on our way."
With a final, reassuring nod to Borin, Kui and Jian Xuan walked out into the eerily silent street. A moment later, they were gone, a single, brilliant streak of light once more shooting across the northern sky, a comet on a mission of rescue.
Manager Borin led his people out into the street to wait. The sight that greeted them was surreal. The entire district was frozen in a strange, silent tableau. The fierce, arrogant guards and enemy soldiers were slumped in their positions, fast asleep, their weapons held loosely in their hands, completely oblivious. It was a testament to a level of power that the Golden Shell Guild was operating at.
They waited in the cold, tense silence, their eyes scanning the gray, overcast sky. It was not long before they saw it. A dark shape descending from the clouds, growing larger and larger, its form that of a massive, familiar transport ship. The Golden Shell Guild had arrived.
The ship landed with a heavy, reassuring thud in the center of the main street, its ramp lowering to reveal Li Yu and Cyra, their expressions calm and serious. The assembled group did not know them, their faces a mixture of awe and uncertainty.
Cyra stepped forward, her voice calm and clear. "Manager Borin? Guild Leader Kui sent word to us. We are here to pick you up. Get everyone in order and board neatly and calmly."
"Honored emissaries," Borin said, his voice thick with emotion as he gave a deep, grateful bow. He turned and began to usher his people up the ramp. It was not just the Guild workers; it was their families. The guild protects their own, they didn't fully know what it meant when they were joining.
They thought that means they would be protected from thugs and other harms to the business. But what they had witnessed during this time, changed their whole perspective. The guild was protecting not only them but their families.
It wasn't just from thugs and bandits and small forces. It was against a force powerful enough to conquer an empire and here the guild was, saving them from it all. It was an unprecedented benefit, and today, that promise was being honored.
A young merchant named Fen held his small daughter's hand tightly, his other hand gripping his wife's arm. He looked at their pale, terrified faces, and then at the wide, welcoming ramp of the Guild ship. He had taken a risk working for a relatively new guild, drawn by the incredible pay and benefits.
His wife had been skeptical, worried that he was being tricked or swindled. They didn't have the incredible intel of top guilds to hear about all of the guild's exploits. Now, as he led them towards salvation, leaving a city of war and fear behind, he knew he had made the right choice. The Guild hadn't just given him a job; it had given his family a future.
His wife, Anya, looked back at the familiar streets of her home, now patrolled by sleeping enemy soldiers. She had been so scared, trapped in their small home, listening to the sounds of the occupation, praying for a miracle.
She had never truly believed her husband's employer would come for them. Why would a massive, powerful organization from the south care about a simple northern woman and her child? But they had.
They had sent a flying fortress and beings of unimaginable power, not just for their employee, but for them. An overwhelming wave of gratitude washed over her, and she hugged her daughter close, tears of relief streaming down her face.
But the arrival of a vessel of this size had not gone unnoticed. Word spread like wildfire. A ship from the outside world. A chance for escape.
As the Guild families were boarding, a crowd of local citizens and mercahnts began to gather at the edges of the silent, guard-filled streets. They were desperate. They saw not just workers being saved, but their families, their children. They surged forward.
"Please!" a woman cried out, seeing Anya and her daughter being led to safety. "Take us with you! My children deserve to live!"
"Mercy, masters!" an old merchant begged, his clothes ragged. "Get us out of this cursed city! We will pay you anything!"
The crowd grew, their voices a rising tide of desperation. Cyra stepped forward, her presence alone enough to momentarily quiet the crowd. Her gaze was as deep and as cold as the abyssal sea. Her voice, when she spoke, was not cruel, but it was as firm and as absolute as the bedrock of the mountains.
"We are the Golden Shell Guild," she stated, her voice carrying a calm, clear authority that cut through the desperate cries. "We are here for our people. The Guild protects its own."
She looked out at the sea of desperate faces. "Our responsibility extends to our employees and the families they support. This ship does not have the space to take everyone. We cannot extend our protection to this entire city."
"We do not involve ourselves in the politics or wars of this, or any other, region," she continued, her voice leaving no room for argument. "To evacuate citizens would be a direct political act, a declaration of enmity against the ruling authority. We are a neutral commercial entity, and we will remain so."
Her words, as cold and as unyielding as the northern frost, extinguished the frantic hope in the crowd. The ramp of the ship began to rise.
The reaction was a fractured, complex mosaic of human emotion.
On the rising ramp, and then on the deck of the ship, Manager Borin and his people looked down at the city they were leaving behind. A profound, almost overwhelming sense of pride and loyalty washed over them.
Their Guild had not just offered them a job; it had made them a promise. A promise that no matter where they were, no matter how dire the situation, they, and their families, would not be abandoned. They would do what they could to protect their lives. Of course, not everyone would survive all the time, that would be too unreasonable, but at this moment, they were being saved.
In the crowd below, a young, strong-looking man clenched his fists in bitter, jealous regret. He had once been offered a job as a caravan guard for the Guild but had scoffed at it. Now, he watched the ship, that ark of salvation, carrying away not just workers, but their wives and children, and he knew he would give anything to have made a different choice, to be able to offer his own family such security.
Elsewhere in the crowd, an old woman, who had lost her two sons to the princes' conscription, looked up at the rising ship with eyes full of a bitter, resentful hatred. "See?" she spat, her voice a low, venomous whisper to those around her. "The powerful care only for the powerful. They save their own families and leave ours to die. They are no different from the princes or the Queen."
Whatever the case, that was how it was going to be. The policy was as hard and as clear as a diamond. The Guild protects its own.
Li Yu looked down at the crowd, they had discussed this earlier but that didn't make it any harder to see. They couldn't take everyone, that was a hard fact. Even if they could, where would they take them? Would he provide care for them forever? There would be no end to it. He would do what he can, but he wasn't here to save the world. Maybe someone else could figure out how to save everyone, but not him.
The people staying here didn't mean they would surely die either. They were just under lockdown, most conquests wouldn't destroy everything and everyone. What was probably more important was to figure out about the disappearing towns and cities and stop what was probably that ritual Jian had told him.
Different thoughts flickered in and out of his head but he still didn't move.
The ship's ramp closed with a final, heavy thud. Li Yu and Cyra turned away from the viewing port, their expressions firm. The great transport vessel rose into the sky, leaving the desperate crowd, the sleeping soldiers, and the grim, occupied city of Frost-hold behind. It turned and flew on, a self-contained world of salvation, leaving the rest of the north to their fates.