---
Kael wiped his sword clean and walked toward the buildings.
[Aether: 21]
A decent haul.
The lean one gave 7. The younger gave 5. Most of the others gave very little—around 0.3. A few near 1 skewed the average upward.
Including those on the road earlier, twenty-seven in total.
Kael started searching the surrounding structures first.
He kicked open storage chests, overturned crates, and checked the corners for anything worth taking—dried grain, cured meat, spare weapons. Most of it had already been consumed or hidden in haste. What remained, he set aside.
Only one structure remained unsearched—the longhouse.
It was larger than the others, built from thick timber logs darkened by smoke and weather. The roof sagged slightly in the middle, patched with mismatched planks and hides. Crude trophies hung along the outer wall—broken shields, rusted blades, animal skulls nailed in uneven rows. It was meant to look rough. Intimidating.
Kael stepped inside.
