A few moments before, as Jade barged in through the church doors barely balancing her large stack of wobbling books, the mysterious wizard from the orient, Surekote’, rushed over to help her. With the door slamming shut behind her, he took half the stack into his own arms. Almost every witch in the church jumped at the bang of the door slamming, all of them on edge already because of the storm. Most of them had never been through anything like this. But Surekote’ had. And as Jade scanned the room, spotting Orleans further back, stacking books into a room while others carried more of them upstairs, he stepped out in front of her.
“We will not be safe here.” He told her, his accent apparent but hardly noticeable.
“What are you talking about?” Jade asked him, giving him her attention.
“This storm,” he said, looking around, up at the ceiling and over at the walls, “It is a very real monster. We are not safe. No one is.”
Jade tried to laugh away his concerns as she did with everyone else’s. “It is only a little wind and some rain…” She tried to be nonchalant about it, “Nothing to worry about.”
Surekote’ shook his head. “I do not believe you understand me.” He told her. “This storm is going to devastate this settlement. Everything will be gone. And not everyone is equipped to survive it.”
“You sound like Heather.” She scoffed at him.
“That is because she is right.” He spoke warningly. “She saw a wall of water encroaching onto the land from the sea. This is real.”
“Yes, but have you not stopped to think that maybe she was exaggerating just a bit?”
“No.” Surekote’ told her with a straight face. “I know she is not exaggerating.”
“And how can you be so sure of that?” Jade asked him, growing annoyed with him already.
“Because I have seen this myself, before,” he told her, pointing behind him to signify the past, “Long before I came to find this swamp, back in my homeland, before I was cast away, I witnessed such an event, where the seas rose up to swallow the land. It is a very real thing, and it is happening right now, to us.”
Jade let out an aggravated sigh. “So what are you saying?” She asked him, finally giving in to his worries.
“We must seek help from the natives.” He told her. “I have already spoken to Orleans about it.”
“I thought we already had their help.” Jade said to him, casting a stare across the room towards their current king, who had told her before she left to find the vampire that Marigny would take care of it all.
“Well, yes, were supposed to,” Surekote’ acknowledged, “But no one was able to get over there.”
At the same time, King Orleans found Jade’s eyes and smiled.
But Jade simply looked away. “So I guess you want me to go and talk to them.” She presumed.
Surekote’ nodded.
“And why me?” She asked him, clearly annoyed at the request. “I was under the assumption that Marigny had it all under control. And if not him, would it not be better if you or Heather, or even he went and talked to them? They do not even like me.”
“Nonsense,” he told her. “You will have just as much luck as any of us would. And besides, Orleans is busy, Heather has not yet arrived, Marigny has been smoking too much, and I am needed here.”
“Heather is not here yet?” Jade asked curiously. “I wonder where she could be.”
“Many witches are still out there.” Surekote’ made clear. “And not all of them can come here, not that this place would be any better than any other, anyway.”
“I understand that.” She said. “And that is what you want me to go and talk to them about, burdening them with our less fortunate, the ones that we do not have room for. What is that saying about us?”
“It is the only way… for us to survive this.” Surekote’ said regretfully, sorry for leaving the burden of convincing them to do so with her.
“That, my friend, is something I cannot understand.” Jade made clear to him. “We cannot just keep going to them for help. Eventually there will come a day when we do not have such a luxury. And then what will we do?”
Surekote’ bowed and smiled politely to reduce the level of conflict between them. “That, my young lady, is then.” He told her. “But for now… we need their help.”
Jade sighed and brushed her hair from her face before folding her arms just below her breasts. “Whatever,” she said uncaringly with the shrug of her shoulders, “As long as I do not have to carry any more of those damn books.”
She turned to walk away, but then turned right back around and asked him, “So what if they do not wish to help us?”
Surekote’ looked her right in the eyes, the smile now gone from his face, and told her as seriously as he could, “Then there will be far more bodies out in that swamp than we wish to count.”
And with that, he turned, picked up one of the stacks of books and walked away down the center aisle. Jade watched him for a moment and pondered the consequences of her actions before turning around herself and leaving the church. Upon exiting, she noticed that the wind and rain had grown worse in the short time she was inside. But nonetheless she turned sharply away from the eastern swamp without even looking back. She picked up her pace as she headed towards the swamp to the west of the settlement, not looking forward to dealing with the natives at all.