The Primeval Era-Chapter 136: He Is Only Human! II

Damian looked at everyone gathered before him.

His voice carried across the crowd without shouting, Mana amplifying his words so that even those at the edges could hear clearly.

"I am sorry for your losses."

The words were simple and direct.

"I am sorry for what you have gone through over the last day. Many of you have lost family. Many of you have lost homes. Many of you have lost everything you thought you knew about your place in these Lands of Stone."

He paused, letting the acknowledgment settle.

"You are safe here. Within these walls, nothing will harm you. For now, you can be at ease. Rest. Get some food. After that, everyone can work together to build shelters for the night."

His golden-winged pupils moved across the crowd, meeting eyes that desperately needed to believe him.

"Nothing will be harming you within these walls."

...!

Essun was shocked.

The words coming out of his mouth sounded like they belonged to a natural leader, someone born to command others. The cadence! The confidence! The simple directness that made complex promises feel achievable. This wasn’t a farmer speaking to strangers! This was a magisterial ruler addressing his people!

Oh!

Did he truly know what he was doing?

Did he understand the significance of his actions right now? The responsibility he was taking upon himself? What he said may have been nothing to him, simple assurances meant to calm frightened people. But to these fearful thousands before him, his words were everything.

In the coming days, they would be looking up to him for their future.

They would expect him to protect them. To feed them. To give them purpose and direction and hope. They would follow his commands and defer to his judgment and treat his word as law.

She found herself questioning whether he truly knew what he was starting at this point in time.

The weak gathered around the strong.

This was the fundamental truth of the Lands of Stone, the pattern that had repeated since before memory began. Those without power sought those who possessed it, trading service for protection, labor for security. It was how tribes formed. How alliances grew. How empires rose from scattered villages.

And the poor and weak Unbound Tribes nearby, those not flattened by the Primal Surge, would very soon hear about this place.

These would not be the last refugees.

There would be so many more. Word would spread of the tribe protected by strange walls and stranger flames. Word would spread of the young Ancestor who accepted all who came to him. Word would spread, and more would follow, and this place would no longer just be the Purple Stone Tribe.

Did he know?!

As she asked herself this, she saw Damian point to the walls.

The barrier had ridiculously continued to increase in length while he spoke, extending outward until it wrapped around the thousands who had just arrived. The perimeter of the Purple Stone Tribe had effectively tripled or quadrupled, now containing a large stretch of what had been outside territory moments ago.

The walls closed with a sense of strength and safety, and the Tokoloshe spoke again.

"The Primal Beasts you may see outside are not those who will harm you. Leave them be and they won’t do anything. For now, just get acclimated."

...!

The Inkanyamba coiled in the distance seemed almost like a protective guardian now rather than a threat to be feared. Even the massive beast form still hovering in the sky felt less terrifying when framed as an ally rather than a predator.

After he finished these words, he turned around and floated toward her and Uncle Adam.

He looked toward his uncle first, and a smile crossed his features.

The old warrior breathed easier now, tension draining from his shoulders. He didn’t know the worry this man had carried since the Tokoloshe left for battle. He didn’t know the hours Uncle Adam had spent staring at the horizon, waiting for his Young Lugal to return.

But Essun knew.

She had watched!

Then Damian looked at her, those golden-winged pupils meeting her sharp yellow eyes.

"Grandmother Essun, can you oversee everything here and make sure there’s no chaos?"

He asked such a ridiculous thing of her.

She couldn’t help but smile and show her sharp yellow teeth.

She looked at the Holy Daughter standing beside the Tokoloshe, seeing how her eyes had changed since she left here. Something fundamental had shifted within the young woman. Even now, she glanced toward the Tokoloshe multiple times in these last few moments, as if lost in thoughts she couldn’t quite escape.

Essun smiled more brilliantly.

She grasped the crimson-blue spear he had given her before he left, feeling its warmth pulse against her palm.

"We will pull out some food from our storages and have a feast for us and for the Ancestors today."

Her voice crackled with energy she hadn’t felt in years.

"You leave everything else to me, Tokoloshe. I will put the lazy Chieftain and others to work to cut some trees and begin making some temporary homes."

She cackled. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Kaka... leave it to me!"

She moved forward toward the thousands ahead, still cackling as she went.

Nobody knew what she was thinking in her mind. They saw an old woman with a strange spear, moving with purpose toward crowds that needed direction. They saw the Tokoloshe’s designated representative, someone entrusted with authority by the young man who had just promised them safety.

But Essun was thinking larger thoughts.

If he was this grand, if the Tokoloshe was so astonishing, they could make something from these destitute regions of the Lands of Stone. Something more than a tribe. Something more than a collection of Dross. Something that might rival what the Three Pillars had built across generations!

Could she not dream of helping with the rise of an empire?

Huhu.

Haha! Jaja! Kaka!

She would be his backbone to ensure his rule if she had to. Those Anointed fuckers who thought themselves so grand, who wore fancy clothes and pranced around their palaces while people like her scraped survival from unforgiving soil...

She would put on fancy dresses like them and prance around soon enough!