Fire, Destiny and Lucy had overtaken Kay before they left the limits of the town and were now following the road to the Prophet's hill, Fire had no problem keeping up with the horses. His thoughts kept wandering back to the conversation with Kay, he intentionally referred to it as such even though it could have easily been considered an argument or worse.

Kay's anger had come from seemingly nowhere but at the bottom of it was that Fire had misjudged Kay, or more accurately Kay's mental state. In hindsight it made all too much sense. Originally Fire had thought that he might have gotten off on the wrong foot with Kay and that he had perhaps overstepped his boundaries with that drinking contest, he had thought that if he was careful things would work out. What he hadn't considered were Kay's internal conflicts that he only knew very small aspects of. From now on he would have to be especially careful around Kay, however Fire knew enough that he didn't have too high hopes for this working out. If it was as bad as Fire had to assume it was, Kay would find a reason to antagonize him regardless of what he did.

Of course there had been a part in Fire that wanted to directly respond to Kay when he launched his verbal assault, to take every aspect of his argument apart on the spot and then go on to unravel the extent of Kay's mental state and show it to him so that he may see it for himself. Of course that would have only lead to more personal and perhaps even physical attacks and Fire knew it. He had even considered walking away without another word, of course that would have caused other issues. Sometimes there were just simply no positive solutions to a problem.

Fire tore his mind away from the matter, the more he thought about it the more he risked weakening Claw's chains and he would prefer for them to remain intact for the foreseeable future.

It didn't take them much longer to arrive at the dark oak forest, however this time Fire didn't take the beaten path that would lead him directly to the congregation, instead he continued down the road to look for a smaller path that he had noticed when he had spoken with Steve, which would lead to the back of the hill instead. Once they found it, Fire signaled Destiny and Lucy to dismount. Before going deeper into the forest they tied the horses to a tree a small distance away from the road.

While walking Lucy said: "I've only been at the hill once before."

Destiny replied: "Same, but probably for different reasons."

Fire continued along the path and not before long the back of the hill came in sight through the trees. The ever vigilant Steve had already spotted them and was coming down the hill to greet them.

He got straight to the point. "I assume those two will help with the shelter. Neither of them is that sister you talked about, right?"

Fire shook his head. "No, she'll be joining later once the shelter is done. I don't want to unsettle the congregation with someone the prophecies haven't spoken about. I also don't think that they will mention my sister at any time in the future."

Steve sighed. "I don't need two people talking cryptic. What do you mean?"

Fire said: "My sister Shadow is… special in a way. What I mean by that is that she's an immensely powerful, immortal mage with power over reality itself."

"Power over reality itself? I'll believe it when I see it." Those were the words of someone who had seen many things and was difficult to impress.

Fire pointed to his companions. "That's Destiny, she was part of the recent breakout. That's Lucy, child of adventuring parents."

Steve first shook Destiny's hand, then Lucy's. "Good to meet you." He then looked back to Fire. "I assume you'll address the congregation?"

Fire said: "Yes. Destiny, Lucy, stay behind with Steve for the moment. I'll return once I've picked out a few additional people for the expedition."

After those words Fire ascended the hill once more. When he arrived at the top the Prophet halted his sermon without looking at Fire. Fire stepped forward and began speaking: "People of Nexus, I have returned. As I promised, I have knowledge of a place where we can construct a sanctuary, it will be built in the nearby mountains and once it is complete it will be open to anyone who needs it. However to build it in the first place I need a couple of capable people to mount a first expedition. If you volunteer you should also know the risks, it will not be an easy endeavor. If you are nourished, uninjured and well equipped, come to me at the side of the hill."

With that Fire concluded his short speech, it was time to sort through the volunteers to separate the actually useful ones from the overly enthusiastic but less-than-capable ones.

At the side of the hill a small crowd had formed, Fire counted roughly two dozen people. He knew that the congregation was in a bad way but he had honestly expected a couple more, hopefully at least some of them were capable enough. The bare minimum he needed for an expedition were three additional people. Fire began.

The first four people were not satisfactory, three were clearly malnourished and the fourth had a bandaged wound on his upper arm. None of those would be able to survive in the conditions they would have to face.

The fifth person was roughly the same height as Fire, this was because it was an enderman, one of the few in the congregation. He didn't look weak in the slightest, maybe a bit nervous but that was to be expected.

Fire began talking in the language of the End: "Hello, what is your name?"

The enderman seemed surprised but nonetheless answered quickly, his name roughly translated to Voidblade. Evidently a member of one of the more warlike End civilizations.

Fire said: "Tell me a bit about yourself, how you ended up in Nexus."

Seemingly content with not being sent away immediately Voidblade answered: "In my world we were fighting a losing war against humanity, one we started. The last thing I know is that my superior ordered me to hand down the message that we were capitulating but my teleport instead dropped me in this forest. That was… a few months ago I think."

Fire nodded along. Voidblade seemed to be reasonable, judging by the fact alone that he coexisted with the mostly human congregation after having fought humans for what was presumably his whole life. Voidblade didn't look particularly old.

Fire asked: "Do you have any equipment with you?"

Voidblade said: "I do. I hid my battle armor and spear in the forest, didn't make sense to carry them here. I can get them quickly."

Fire said: "Good, get your gear and wait behind the hill, there are two human women there already, they are with me."

Voidblade nodded and teleported away.

Fire first didn't realize that the next candidate was here already, he had quite literally overlooked him. The reason for this was that the next candidate was not much taller than a meter. Before Fire stood a stout man with a fiery-red braided beard, clad in full iron platemail, with a hammer at his side, pickaxe on his back. The man in front of Fire was evidently a dwarf, in fact it was difficult to be more dwarven than this.

The man spoke: "Name's Urist. I'd shake yer hand but..."

Fire went back to correct his last thought, it was absolutely impossible to be more dwarven than this. Fire knelt down to honor the dwarf's request.

Fire asked: "Do you have a second name?"

Urist replied: "Nay, used to have one but now it's just Urist. Don't want to talk about it."

Fire patiently waited for Urist to continue.

"So, an expedition into the mountains, aye? Hopefully won't turn out like the last o' mine did but here's hoping."

Fire said: "I see you're already well equipped, anything else you're bringing to the table?"

Urist said: "Couple o' spores for farms. Also knowledge on how to brew the best ale in the lands."

Fire smiled. "You're accepted. You can wait behind the hill with the others."

The next few people were unsuitable, and then the next few. Only a handful of people remained and Fire was seriously starting to worry. His worry was blown away by the next candidate. A woman dressed in elegant, if slightly dirty, dark clothes. She had shoulder-long black hair and brown eyes. That in itself wasn't remarkable in itself, however in Fire's keen eyes she practically radiated danger, this woman was nothing short of an expert killer. In fact, now that he took a closer look, Fire saw that she had several weapons hidden in her clothes. She stopped in front of Fire and made a suggested bow and smirked, knowing that she had been found out.

Fire asked: "What's your name?"

The woman answered: "Rose."

Fire said: "I think we have an agreement. Wait behind the hill." He mirrored her previous smirk and added: "Save the stabbing for later."

Nobody from the remaining crowd was suitable, however Fire's minimum requirements had been met, three additional people. An enderman, a dwarf and an assassin, certainly not the average people Fire had used in his estimations, this would somewhat compensate for their lacking numbers. In a way Fire preferred a smaller expedition, less people to keep track of and less potential for infighting. Fire was again involuntarily reminded of Kay. He'd deal with that mess when the time came.

The crowd was no more, so Fire finally returned to the back of the hill himself. What he saw there gave him additional hope, the expedition members were already talking amongst themselves. Lucy seemed to be overflowing with anticipation and even Destiny looked somewhat positive.

Steve came to meet Fire. "Quite a group you have there. Are you sure this will work out?"

Fire said: "All I can say is that it will go according to plan, which plan is left to be seen."

Steve looked like he was about to repeat his remark about cryptic statements but then changed his mind. "Good luck out there."