A Fallen Soul

Alleria dreamt of screams.

She could hear them, swirling around her like a hurricane, beating down from above like torrential rain. Their forms, their faces, every shade of colour except that which was natural. When she curled into a ball and put her hands over her ears, that only made them angrier. They cried for release, demanded vengeance, and swore at her. Swore at her for what felt like an eternity.

And in that instance, death seemed all too inviting an alternative.

. . .

She woke with a start, cold sweat running down her back. Her breathing was ragged, and after taking a few moments to steady herself, she looked around. Just her room. Just her small, unsightly room, and just her uncomfortable, hard bed. Any afterimages her mind conjured vanished, and she noticed light streaming in from her window. The sun was already up, by the looks of it. How long had she been sleeping? Even Humans didn't usually need to sleep as long as she had.

Velandus wasn't here. He was probably trying to persuade the captain yet again or look for any alternative methods they might have at their disposal. She couldn't remember Danadrian coming back before she'd drifted off last night. Had he also already left?

As she got herself changed and pulled all her stuff together, she noticed something leaning against one of the walls, definitely not there the last time she'd looked.

The curved sword leaned there, still sheathed, taunting her. Her dreams made more sense now. Her hand shook as she stepped towards it and grasped it in her hand.

She strapped it to her waist, beside her other one. Then, placing her hat firmly over her horns, she stepped out of her room.

And immediately felt something was off.

Oh, the inn seemed fine at first glance. Most people were either sleeping or had already left, so there was no one else standing about her floor that she could see. But then, she realised it was quiet, unnaturally so for an inn in any town. The only sounds she could hear were the creaking wood beneath her and what seemed to be voices downstairs, though they were very quiet.

She crept to the edge of the railing and peered down. There wasn't anyone she could hear, but as she moved towards the edge of the stairs, those aforementioned voices grew loud enough that she could just about catch what they were saying.

"… really am, but are you sure of what you claim? They're a paying customer, and lightskin or not, I'm not in the business of getting myself involved in any customer's business."

"… certain. You are lucky, sir, to have survived even a few nights with its kind. And its companions, they match these descriptions?"

"I mean, yes, they do, but are you quite certain-"

"It's our job to be certain of these things. We've chased them all the way from Fordain, I'm told there have been rumours running about?"

"… There has been recently, yes. What will you do?"

"Deal with it, like we do with all Demons. You should alert the Watch and keep an eye out for others. This might get messy."

There was the sound of shuffling feet, and then metal being drawn. Figures appeared, and she immediately threw herself back and ran for a door.

"Movement upstairs. She must be awake, go now." A voice shouted, and then there was stomping as they began to charge up the stairs.

She flung herself into Danadrian's room, finding it completely empty. Her mind ran a thousand paces a second. She grabbed his backpack, strung it across her chest, and threw open the window. She stared down at the drop, all the way down from the second floor, and gulped. A door was flung open, and now there was shouting. Any second now.

She jumped out the window and, keeping her body as close to the wall as possible, slid down to the ground. It was bumpy, and she cracked a fingernail, but it slowed her fall enough that when she landed, nothing broke. Pain was fine, she could deal with that.

An arrow landed in the dirt beside her, and she bolted, not even bothering to look back at how many Demon Hunters were following. It didn't matter, there were enough that trying to engage them would only end badly for her.

The unfamiliar weight at her side reminded her that with the sword, she could. But that was a step she couldn't take. She cast it out of her mind and focused only on what was in front of her. Locals were staring at her as she ran, out in the open and clear as day.

Damn them and their lack of contained streets.

There weren't any alleys or places for her to hide, only open and wide roads for her to run down. How many minutes had she gained? How many seconds?

She turned a corner, and a familiar cart screeched to a halt, its horse braying.

"Get in."

She didn't even wait for him to ask, already throwing herself into the back of it as they started moving again.

Velandus' face was dark when she'd seen it, and his voice low. "I'm glad you made it out of there in one piece."

"When'd you realise they were here?"

"When I saw the captain talking to a pair of Talradians. I was on my way back to warn you, but it seems you had your own wake-up call."

"Gods only know how many were waiting in that inn. Where's Danadrian?"

"He never came back last night, but the Watch has been running about in circles after they found one man dead, and another beaten within an inch of his life on the same day. He would've died if not for the healer."

"You think Danadrian's still alive?"

"We'd know if he wasn't, but the question is, where is he? I don't know why he wouldn't have come back."

She swore under her breath. "If we have to leave without him-"

"I won't leave him. And where can we go? Who knows how many are watching for us in the forest, and that's excluding the number that are combing through town?"

"Well, we need to find him then, and fast. I don't know how long we'll have before the Watch is-"

Velandus shouted, "Alleria, brace!"

The back of the cart erupted in flames, the tarp bursting away in a flash, and the wood ripping out from beneath her. Her body reacted on its own, pulling her arms up to shield her face. The fire, wood, and cloth exploded around her. For a split second, she saw the world as Danadrian might have once. Bright light, with not a smidge of darkness.

When she pulled herself up again, she was standing amongst a wreckage. Wood and metal pieces surrounded her. The fire was gone, burst into nothing after destroying the cart. She looked around for Velandus but couldn't see him. There weren't any corpses.

Did he and the horse make it out then?

The fireball had had a huge radius, enough that a nearby building had been caught in its inferno. Wood and stone had been blown apart, and she could hear screams coming from inside. Carathiliar were running around, looking in shock at the wreckage. Then they saw her, and each of them recoiled. A girl screamed.

She was so focused on pulling herself to her feet and mending the worst burns that covered her arms that for a second, she didn't realise. Then she felt her head and sighed. The hat had been caught in the fire. Her horns were plain as day.

And there they were, Talradians and Carathiliar. Demon Hunters. Half were armed with swords, spears, and shields, the others held conjured flames in their hands. It wasn't a question of which she would rather tangle with.

She backed away, not willing to look away from any of them. Instead, she glanced around, trying to think of something, anything, that could get her out of this situation.

Swordsman? No use without one of immense skill that can outperform that many mages.

Despite the swords at her side, she was keenly aware of how much use they would be in her hands. They were Carathiliarian and Talradian, what could she use from that?

Carathiliar, grey-skin, dragonslayers, slayers, leaping, leaps-

She backed into a wall.

-high, climbing… Climbing.

She Blinked.

Alleria the expert vaulter spun around. They shouted, but she was already leaping up to the nearest windowsill. Then, from there she threw her body, using momentum to propel herself across the wall and up to the curved edge of the roof that hung over it. From there, it was simply jumping out and grabbing the edge before she pulled herself up.

An arrow pinged against the rooftop beside her, followed in quick succession by a ball of fire that came much closer, and almost singed her already burnt cloak.

Carathiliar, of course, it was simple. What were the Carathiliar better at than any other people besides killing dragons? Well, they were biologically the best at jumping, and with that came an inherent knowledge about anything involving vertical climbing.

She spun around and balanced herself before looking around. She backed her way up to the highest point of the roof. Her goal wasn't to hide up here for long, there wasn't a point. Instead, she looked across to the next rooftop, several metres away.

If she'd just been Alleria, this would have scared the Soul out of her.

But Alleria the vaulter just braced her legs. Then she ran, making her steps wider and wider, until the last one where, after one short step, she pushed herself off her right foot, which was flat against the surface. As her body flew into the air, she kept her torso upright and her hips up.

And after a moment that felt like eternity, she landed on the next roof. After breathing out, steadying herself, and ducking away from yet another arrow heading her way, she prepared to do it again to reach the next roof.

There was certainly something freeing about the experience, and if it weren't for the Demon Hunters following after her, she would have wanted to pause and enjoy this. It almost made her envy the Carathiliar, at least a little, that they could do so much more than this purely by their strength alone. It let them briefly enter a world belonging to only the few mortals who dedicated themselves to achieving its heights, the land of the sky, where only beasts and immortals dared to reside.

And speaking of which. On the fifth roof, she felt the air shake and blow around her, right before a Talradian fell down from the skies, sword aimed straight for her throat. He didn't seem as balanced on the rooftop as she was, but the constant bursts of wind threatened to throw her off all the same. There was also a much more pressing concern, and that was that Alleria the vaulter wasn't a warrior by trade, so it was her skills alone that the Demon Hunters would have to contend with.

She blocked one of his strikes, then parried the next one, but in between, that got cut across her cheek. She backed away, and there she saw him stumble forward, not balanced up here.

And despite his training with Wind Magic.

"How well can you fly?"

The Talradian stared at her, glass eyes widening slightly as she swung her sword in a slash aimed at his head. Naturally, he raised his own blade to deflect it. And that was the exact moment when she kicked him in the stomach. Losing all sense of balance, he fell backwards and disappeared over the side of the roof. She was rewarded with a thump a second later.

She continued running and jumping, making it across to two more buildings before having to pause and catch her breath.

"I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up."

There was a limit to how many buildings she could keep leaping from, and sooner or later, a Carathiliar with actual experience was going to leap up and meet her. What was her end goal? The river? The forest? She didn't know where Velandus or Danadrian was now.

All we're doing is running without direction.

She leapt to the next roof, this one lower than most of the others, and started looking around for where the Talradians inevitably tailing her were, right before the building shook. She frowned, and then it shook again, and again. The entire building shifted, dipping towards the ground gradually, then with force. She gripped onto the roof as it smashed against the ground, sending dirt, earth, and dust flying.

She coughed, waving it away and waiting for it to clear. When it did, a familiar figure was standing in wait for her, their sword already drawn.

Keleiva smirked, face riddled with contempt. "Are you going to keep running, Demon? It would be most entertaining."

"The Talradian wench." She coughed. "An unpleasant surprise, as usual. I'm interested to see why Brakenus let you off your leash. The last time I saw you, you were a little out of sorts."

"My, you are bold, I'll give you that. And you've given us quite the chase as usual." Her smile dropped. "But I'm afraid this is where our little engagement ends. I'd ask you not to take it personally, but… it is personal."

Alleria released the vaulter and drew her sword.

How much time do we have before more arrive? With her skills, how many could we take?

She Blinked.

And immediately recoiled, her horns blazing with heat, one hand grasping her temples.

No, no, no, not now, not now.

She heard the Talradian laugh.

"Ah, overdone it, have we? And here I was expecting a challenge, or at least some practice. Your House could be quite usual at that, you know." She grinned. "Target practice."

She levelled her sword. Alleria cast her eyes around, already searching for an exit strategy, and finding none that were convenient. Her sword was out, held unsteadily in one hand, and her other was drifting to her side. It would be so easy to draw it.

. . .

Minutes after waking up, Danadrian realised something was wrong.

The tree he'd passed out beside wasn't far into the forest, so when he got up and brushed off the leaves and twigs that'd accumulated on him, he had a good view of Tathlani. What he saw was, at first glance, the town as it had been every day, nothing out of the ordinary. But when he got closer, he noticed that the somewhat meagre guard force that would usually be roaming around was nowhere to be seen, and notably not looking for the perpetrator of last night's assault. At least that was how they would see it.

He was on guard, wary of any Demon Hunters that might spot him. If there was one, there would be more, and what he needed now was to find Alleria and Velandus and get them all out of there as soon as possible. The Talradians, if they weren't already here, could arrive at any moment.

He knew Alleria had been trying to secure them a boat south, but now… now he wasn't sure if he could follow along with that. Tandrias City called to him, the Light called to him, and if there was one place on Andwelm that he knew he needed to get to, it was there.

Could I convince them to follow me? If Talradius is right there, I would be putting them in harm's way.

He didn't know what the answer to this conundrum was, but to find it, he would first need to find them. Tathlani wasn't big, and after checking the inn first, there were only so many places you could go. But it was also early morning, the Sun was well away on its ascent, and he knew Alleria would hate that. It meant it was harder to hide, especially here, so if Demon Hunters were following them…

Something shook, and he flinched. He looked around and didn't see anything, but what he felt was a disturbance, a ripple in the natural mana that filled the air. Magic, and either a powerful spell or multiple of them had just been performed. He could feel it, and he could feel where it had come from.

He pulled his hood down over his face and ran, cutting between buildings and startling a few locals, who recoiled a little when they saw his skin. Because, of course, they did. When he came to a stop, he could see a centre point where a couple roads and paths converged. And there he saw the wreckage.

The cart had been blown to pieces, metal, wood and all. Chunks had been flung so far they'd smashed against nearby buildings, and the cloth covering had been practically evaporated. The scattered pieces had been flung so far that most of it was either obscured from his vision by buildings or by the crowd that had formed around them.

His heart was cold. He was about to edge closer and get a better look when a screaming horse bolted past him. It cried and kicked its feet up, stopping a few steps away.

"I… I know you."

A second later and a smoking figure almost ran into him. Velandus' clothes had been singed, and part of his cloak had completely disappeared, but by some miracle, he was unharmed. He had his staff in one hand, and when he saw Danadrian, he smiled. Then coughed up smoke.

"Perfect timing, Danadrian."

"Was that our-"

"Yes, that was mine, and I will mourn it in due time. The Company's coming in, and they're coming in fast."

Velandus and his horse hadn't gone unnoticed, and members of the crowd were starting to turn and point at them, and by proxy, him. Amongst them, he saw the glass-eyed Talradians and their Carathiliarian counterparts advancing forward, having found their quarry.

"Alleria?"

"Somewhere in that wreckage. If I've survived, she has, but she won't be still for long."

The closest Demon Hunter drew his longsword and advanced forward.

"Get on that horse of yours and ride. Now!"

He smacked the strike aside and pommelled the Talradian in the throat, before swiping and tripping the next one. The first one choked, backing up into a wall, and the second fell face-first into the dirt. Then mana broke out, and he shattered a spike of earth aimed at his head. More of them were coming, his only solace being that it meant less would go for Alleria and Velandus, who he'd heard mount the horse and ride off without complaint, thank the Light.

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Faced with mounting odds, an increasing number of enemies, he did the only thing he could think of. And the one thing that might've earned him a lot of respect with a certain Demon, if she were present.

He turned and ran.

Was it cowardly? Maybe in someone else's eyes, but it might as well be the smartest decision he'd ever made, at least in that moment. Fighting against the odds and to the last was very noble and poetic, but only if it really mattered. And if he died back there, he wasn't sure his sacrifice would amount to much, except buying Velandus more time.

So he ran, bursting out onto the road and kicking up a dust storm behind him. Carathiliar stared at him, wide-eyed, as he sprinted past, and they yelped when his pursuers did the same. If they had bows, he might be in a spot of trouble, but then he considered trying to grab an arrow, load it, and draw it back while also keeping up. Magic was going to be more of an issue than that.

He had only the barest feelings of when someone behind him was gathering their mana, at least without turning around to look. He wasn't a mage, but by the Light, he was starting to wish he was.

At this point, he was barrelling forward so fast that when he saw the earth in front of him shift, then rise in a wall of stone, he had to make a split-second decision.

He kept running, holding his sword in front of him as he charged straight through the dirt and stone. His eyes stun, and his sprint slowed to a run for a moment, but when he turned around, he saw the magic collapsing, much to the dismay of the Demon Hunters.

Huh?

He didn't have time to think about it. When he turned a corner, he was met with a group of Carathiliar in armour. The Watch. If he could garner anything from their expressions, it was that they were utterly confused, and when he looked around, he understood.

Houses, workshops, and just random buildings had been hit by mages, mostly Fire Magic, and chunks of them were torn apart or had been partially destroyed. Already, many of their number were trying to get citizens away from the fighting or out of the homes that had been damaged. But they also seemed to have absolutely no idea what was going on.

Putting it into their perspective, they'd had reports of a Demon, or Demons, followed the next day by advancing Demon Hunters that were chasing their targets across town. Even now, he could see a fireball fly off in the distance.

One of them, a young man who didn't even have his helmet on, saw him and shouted, "Hey, you, stop right there."

He ran at him, his stance poor, and Danadrian considered how easily he could end him, right then and there. Without a helmet? It was ridiculous.

But he couldn't, and even if he wanted to, his arms were locked in place. He sighed.

When the guard raised his sword up into the air, he jabbed him hard in the stomach, the least covered part of his chest, and he immediately recoiled and choked, then collapsed to the ground, sword clattering beside him.

He's probably never had someone hit him that hard. What sort of stuff are their Watch made of?

Unfortunately, when he did, his companions noticed and began shouting and drawing their own weapons. So when he started running again, he now had Demon Hunters and a squad from the Watch chasing after him.

When he got a look at the Sun, he figured he was heading roughly north. The giant skeleton was also a big help in getting him a perspective on where he was relative to where he'd been. But his pursuers were persistent.

Not sure how much longer I can keep this up.

He'd already surprised himself by going for this long, but sooner or later, he'd tire, and then they'd be on him like carrion birds. Eventually, he saw the Watch had begun to lag behind, along with one or two Talradians, but the rest didn't look close to stopping. What sort of exercise regime were they used to?

He gripped his brooch. "Light and Mayare, Goddess and Guardian, here my call as an Angelica devoted always to your name. Light, guide me forward and give me passage onto the coming dawns." He raised his hand above him. "Bless it be."

He felt the Light come down to him to meet his mana, and he looked away. There was a flash that, regardless, left him stunned, but when he looked back, the Demon Hunters had stopped or stumbled in their chase. They clutched at their eyes, while others still who tried to keep up came close to falling or hurting themselves without their sight. He relished his small victory for but a moment before he continued running.

Eventually, he had to slow from his sprint, or else risk passing out completely. He could taste blood in his mouth, which was never a good sign, and he'd been taking sips from his water flask intermittently.

Where could Alleria be? If those mage strikes were anything to go by, she's got quite the tail on her.

Maybe how she'd got away and what part of it had led to magic hitting buildings was a better question, but at this point, he doubted it would surprise him. Based on the direction he'd seen members of the Watch running, and the general movement of locals, it seemed she was heading in this direction as well, though he doubted it was on purpose.

He felt another burst of mana and immediately directed himself towards it. He ran around a bakery, startling the owner something fierce, before grinding to a halt along a stretch of road. There again, he found a crowd of people staring at something.

This is starting to get ridiculous.

It didn't make sense. If there were stray spells being thrown, then why was the natural response of these people to group up, stand, and stare?

His point was vindicated when another stray ball flew out and exploded on the street, sending dirt and stones flying. Someone cried, and the crowd quickly began to disperse. A Carathiliar was lying on the ground, his side burned by the attack, and a few others were bent beside him.

"Someone get the healer, quick."

They're going to get someone killed.

He pushed his way through groups of people fleeing the scene and saw what had caught their attention. An entire building had been destroyed, smashed into the ground like a child's toy. Just beyond its ruins were two figures, locked in a clash of blades.

Alleria was on the backfoot, he could immediately tell that she was fighting with her own skill, not her opponents. She'd improved since they'd started, but not enough. He'd bet gold that the only reason she was keeping up was her ability to heal any nonlethal wounds. He wasn't sure what would be considered lethal to her. He recognised Keleiva and her fighting style and knew that she only had so much time.

He pulled his sword out and was about to run forward when an earthen spear rose up and threw itself at him. He smashed it to pieces before it touched him, but in that second delay, a group of Demon Hunters, these ones mages, took position several metres away from him, their staffs and wands raised. They looked to their leader for orders.

Keleiva knocked Alleria aside after cutting across her neck with the thin sword she held. She turned to the mages. "Danadrian. Timing really isn't your forte, is it?"

"You're quite persistent."

"I could say the same."

Distance is too far to make before they cast. Cover? Ruins on one side, building on the other. Long-term sustainability isn't-

"My Lady, there are civilians nearby. Shall we proceed?"

He spun around, and his heart stopped; it skipped a beat. Flugh, the healer they'd called, was kneeling beside the injured man, mana already running over his wounds. He looked up, and their eyes met. He saw the widened and frightful look in his eyes from the night before.

"Proceed. That lightskin has caused us all enough problems." She turned back to Alleria.

One second could go on for eternity.

That was a fact he had learned, or rather relearned, as he rediscovered what it meant to be a warrior. In those crucial moments where even a blink meant life or death, it often felt you had a lifetime to make a decision. Just one. But it was those decisions that meant more than any other before them, that was the conclusion he'd come to.

There was cover beside the buildings, he could make it. He could survive the oncoming blast of whatever they decided to send at him.

Flugh and the injured man were on the ground, in the middle of the road. Two Carathiliar, caught in the crossfire. They were never meant to be there in the first place. Or perhaps they were, and fate was simply crueller than he imagined.

Two Carathiliar. Two Karatinians. Followers of the God of Chaos. Grey-skinned. Dragonslayers. Casualties. Collateral. Derumani. Enemies.

Innocents.

He threw himself at them and braced against the dirt. The mages' mana formed from their bodies in a fiery heat. Balls, streams, thin bursts, and arrows of fire, all coalescing in the air.

"Danadrian-"

"Get behind me."

He stabbed his sword into the dirt.

The magic came as one, a flurry of fire cutting through the air. He didn't know what it looked like to them, or anyone else watching. But to him, he saw a running figure drawing an arrow to their bow, aiming it at his heart. He saw Death in the flames. He reached for the Light. It didn't respond. The heat was upon his skin.

. . .

"And so the Angelica burns."

Keleiva watched the onslaught of flames continue to burn the ground around him. More than deserving of the man who had humiliated her. Not so proud and fierce now in the face of magic. She'd ordered her mages to do their worst, so he should feel honoured in his last moments. Honoured that he'd taken this much of her time.

She turned back to the Demon. Its face was taut, and blue blood covered its arms and legs. And it still had that second sword, which her uncle had insisted was Soul Steel. Yet it hadn't drawn it, though there were many times when she thought it would. How much longer before it fell? It was only time now, and she had an ample supply.

"My Lady."

She turned again. Her mages' expression, once firm and determined, were wavering. They'd stopped conjuring fire.

"What is it?" She snapped.

Wordlessly, the mage who'd got her attention pointed.

. . .

The heat was… bearable, not nearly as hot and uncomfortable as he'd assumed. And then he realised it had been a few seconds, and his skin hadn't burnt away. He opened his eyes, expecting the searing red and orange flames, the arrow of Death arching towards his heart, but instead the flames were dying down, disappearing.

He heard a frantic sob from behind him. The Carathiliar was crying, head pressed against the ground, and it looked as if Flugh was also set to cry if shock were not the only expression he mustered.

"Alive…"

He realised his hand was gripping something unfamiliar. When he turned, he saw why.

His sword had been stuck into the ground. The rusted sword he'd found in a ruin, guarded by blood magic. Only now, when magic had met it, the rust had shattered. He watched as the last remnants of it fell away, revealing a metal unlike any he'd seen before. The blade was silver and white, melding into one another the same way ore did the first time you found it in stone. The crossguard was made of darkened gold, and the hilt a twisting black wood he didn't recognise.

When he pulled it from the ground, something on the blade caught his eye. When he turned it, he saw markings running down it written in script that wasn't Athniuthian.

A voice screamed, "Are you all incompetent? Kill him, now."

There was a crack in the sky, and a bolt of lightning arced down towards him. It made it within about a metre of him before it fizzled out, almost like it was hitting an invisible wall. He could see the mana dissipating.

He turned back to Flugh. "Get out of here, now."

"You could die out there."

He lifted his sword up, no longer a ruined and blunt weapon. "Not yet."

They helped the Carathiliarian man, who was still sobbing, to his feet, before Flugh wrapped his arm around him. Giving him one last look, the healer stumbled away and out of sight.

Danadrian turned back to Keleiva and the gathered Demon Hunter mages. Her attention was fixed on him now, which he hoped with give Alleria a respite. He took a deep breath. Then began walking forward.

An ice shard burst apart in the air around him.

"I am Danadrian, Angelica of Mayare, those who are the foremost beings of the Light."

Two more plumes of fire descended on him, but died before he even felt their heat.

"Lay yourself bare before my fury, defacers of Gods. Murders and disgracers."

The mages were backing away little by little as he approached.

"I am a warrior of the Light." He came to a stop, Keleiva only a few metres away from him. Her face was contorting with rage at both him and the mages who'd backed away. "And I will protect the innocent."

The words were still incomplete, but he felt they were right. A tiny piece of him was complete again.

He raised his sword. "How do you want this to go, Keleiva? I bested you once when this blade was nothing more than a slag of metal. Are you willing to see what it will feel like now?"

If her white face was capable of going red with wrath, it would have right then and there. And he could have fought, maybe even killed her. But he had more important priorities right now. His mind was clearer than it had been for weeks.

When she did nothing and kept her blade lowered at her waist, he quickly turned to Alleria. Despite her healing, her legs and arms were covered with her blood, and he guessed that she'd had to let some of her cuts linger to conserve energy.

"Are you okay?"

Her eyes were slightly unfocused, and she spat blood on the grass before answering. "Do I look okay to you?"

"Good, you've still got your wits about you. We need to go, now. Velandus has already hightailed it out of here, but I don't know how long these lot are going to hesitate."

Keleiva's hand was twitching, and he could see her mind warring between the logical conclusion that if she tried, he would kill her, and the impulsive desire to try, nonetheless. He understood that, though the Talradian would hate him more if he said it. He'd felt it.

The mages were still staring at him in abject horror and muttering amongst themselves, but it was only a matter of time before they came up with another tactic that would break past… whatever that was.

"The sword…"

"What?"

Alleria was muttering to herself, "I couldn't draw the sword. Could've been so much easier, but… I couldn't."

He took her head in his hands and shook it. "Well, you gave it a good effort regardless. 6.5/10, we'll go over what you should have done next time. Now get it together."

Her eyes refocused, and she blinked a few times. Then she nodded.

"Good." He looked around. "Like I said, I don't know how much time we have until-"

Shouts erupted from the road behind them, and he forced down a sigh. His pursuers, whom he'd prayed would just give up, had finally found him, with them a sizable number of additional Demon Hunters. The Watch was nowhere to be seen, but all in all they numbered about two dozen, excluding the mages.

"Right. Alleria, time to go."

She nodded. "Where's Velandus?"

"Who knows at this point. If he's smart, which he is, he should have made it more than a league away."

Keleiva raised her sword. "It's over, Danadrian, Demon, but I commend you on a valiant effort. Let it not be said that struggling in the face of defeat was not-"

He swung his sword at her. When she raised her own and blocked it, his blade shattered hers. When she stumbled back, stunned, Alleria lunged forward and stabbed her in the leg. She screamed, grabbing at the wound.

Without another second of hesitation, they ran, Alleria leading them up the hill and into the forest. The Demon Hunters gave chase, and soon after, arrows began dropping out of the skies.

"How much have we got?" He asked, leaping over a root.

"In total? Whatever you have stored in your backpack. I couldn't grab mine."

"So not a lot then." He instinctively ducked as an arrow thumped into the wood beside him.

"That trick with the magic was that you or the sword?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't me."

She turned her head to look behind them, through the treeline and up at the sky. Her face paled a little before she responded. "How wide do you think its range is?"

"Well, I certainly haven't had time to test it." He half-shouted back.

"Well, there's no better time than the present. Brace yourself."

The first spell fell from the sky, destroying a nearby tree. It was followed by another, then another, and pretty soon all the cover around them was being blown to pieces. Rocks, fire, ice, even lightning strikes were coming down on them. Whenever one came close enough to them, they vanished and dissipated back into mana.

But that meant nothing to their surroundings. The onslaught continued, and the two of them were forced to halt as the forest in front of them became a shower of dirt and grass, the broken trees making it harder and harder to keep moving forward.

"Is she insane? First Tathlani, now this?"

Alleria had been forced to get so close to him to avoid the downpour of spells she was constantly bumping him. He had his sword held above his head, hoping that it would help, even just a little. She grumbled, "She's not insane, just Talradian."

"How much longer do we have until they run out of mana?"

"It won't matter if more and more of their mages are getting there. They almost brought more of them than not."

"Why?" He shouted.

She gritted her teeth and flinched as a bright flash of fire descended only a few metres away from them. "Because you bested them in close quarters. Because there's no better way to beat an Elevari Demon." She tried to take a step forward but stumbled on the breaking earth. "Because it's working."

The next spells to land on them weren't projectiles or elemental explosions. They were just explosions; that was the only way to describe them. The mana took on a reddish tinge, but where they landed, the ground disappeared.

"Wrathius- no, Chaos Magic."

"I'm surprised it took them this long to use it." He steadied himself against a trunk before it would inevitably be ripped to pieces. "All according to plan, right?"

She snorted. "I never had a plan to begin with, just desperate wishes I tried to make a reality." Another explosion went off, and she took a step closer to him. "Also, this may be poor timing, but Tandrias City-"

"I know." He raised his sword a little higher. "Flugh told me about it. I need to go there."

She nodded. "Sorry, I never got round to telling you."

"Think nothing of it."

The ground shook again, but in the brief reprieve between magical strikes, it didn't stop. The shaking continued, and if anything got worse. He saw blown-apart trees starting to sink into the earth, heard the cracking of stone fill the air.

Alleria swore, "Slathir's Soul, Earth Magic? From all the way over there?"

There's no mana in the ground that I can see, only residuals from the spells. What on Andwelm is-

The ground shook hard enough that he had to bury his sword in the ground so he wouldn't fall over. Alleria grabbed his arm. "Is this an earthquake?"

Can't be, the radius is too small. I can see parts of the forest that aren't being affected.

She shook him. "Danadrian, talk to me, what is going on?"

Then it hit. Like a shock through his system, a memory opened up, a new island in the void of emptiness. He took a step onto it, and he understood. Then the beating of his heart was in his ears.

"Sinkhole." He muttered, "Alleria, grab onto me and don't let go."

"What did you-"

"Sinkhole!"

The cracking grew louder and louder, louder than his thoughts, and he watched as the dirt, trees, and earth fell. Slow at first, but then picking up. The forest floor began to rise, left behind as the earth they were standing on descended. They only had a few more seconds before-

A second, a moment of weightlessness.

Then Danadrian and Alleria fell into darkness.

. . .

One day later, a second host of the Company of the Degormanus rode into Tathlani, or rather, they rode up to its border and camped in the surrounding forest. They weren't being barred entry into the town, but the leader of Tathlani, the Arglwyden, had made it clear that, for the time being, they weren't exactly going to be welcomed with open arms.

Brakenus received more than a few raised hands and cheers when he arrived, and while he nodded to them and raised his own hand in recognition, his attention was elsewhere. When he climbed off his mount, his chains shaking as he did, Keleiva was waiting for him, her expression was a mix between rage and triumph.

"They told me you were injured by the Demon, I see you've made a recovery."

She nodded. "Our healers saw to it. One of the townsfolk recommended their own, but he refused to see me."

He started walking, and she followed after. When they'd moved out of the centre of their roughshod encampment, he removed his helmet and relished the feeling of letting his grey hair out again. He'd been riding full speed for a couple days.

Then he turned to his niece and grabbed her by the cuff of her armour. "Tell me, has age done nothing to sharpen your mind? Are you perhaps actually missing one? Because that is the only conclusion I've come to that could justify your lack of foresight."

"What are-" She choked, "I sought after the Demon, just as you instructed. I used our mages on her, and the so-called Angelica, just as you instructed."

"Did my instructions include destroying parts of a Dragonslayer Baile? Did they include putting townsfolk in harm's way, and under spellfire no less? The Arglwyden has already contacted the Tiana of Fordain, and he sent me a raven expressing his disappointment and disapproval of your actions, actions they now pin on me." He tried to reel in his temper. "You put innocent lives at risk, and for what? If the mages' accounts are true, Danadrian now has a weapon granting him immunity to magic."

He let go of her, but her expression didn't improve. "He already had that sword from the beginning."

"And yet when last we met, I could still cast spells within his vicinity." He swore under his breath, "Blood and Chaos, Keleiva, she had a Soul Steel blade, she could have killed you."

She spat on the ground. "And yet here I am. The Demon didn't even draw the damn thing. I'm beginning to doubt that-"

He spun back to face her and fixed her with a look that spoke volumes. "You will doubt nothing when it regards them. This is why we never take you on hunts. Now, what happened to the two of them?"

When they brought Brakenus to the crater of land that had originally been forest, all he did was sigh. Destruction. How much of this would've been necessary if he were here? He was a fool to have sent her ahead.

But when he saw the sinkhole in the earth, he told them immediately that it wasn't natural.

"Unless all of you were using Earth Magic in this one spot in particular, there's no reason a sinkhole would appear under them at that exact moment, bar the worst luck in the world." He raised his hand to cut off the inevitable retort. "The sort of bad luck that doesn't exist."

"We threw torches down, and our mages cast a few spells," Keleiva said, stepping in beside him. "We think there might be a cavern under there, though how big is anyone's guess. But nobody could survive that fall."

He shook his head. "The Demon aside, this is an Angelica of Mayare we are talking about. Do you really think a thing as simple as height would have any standing where he's concerned?"

"We can't even be sure that he spoke true. To me, it sounded like the ravings of a madman, and what sort of Angelica would get as injured as he's been, would defend a Demon of all things."

"You will believe it because I said it's so." His hand unconsciously moved to touch the hole in his armour, a hole given to him by Light Magic more powerful than he'd seen before. "Until I see their bodies, we will conclude that Danadrian and the Demon live."

Murmurs broke out amongst those watching him, but he just turned and raised his voice.

"Continue investigating and assessing a planned expedition to follow them. Gather as much rope as we'll ever need, buy it off the townsfolk if you have to, just see it done."

Keleiva nodded and turned to leave. "I will get on it right away."

He grabbed hold of her shoulder and yanked her back. "Not you. You will see to reconstructing what you destroyed in Tathlani and compensating those who suffered for your actions."

"What, but-" She spluttered, "It was collateral damage incurred in our pursuit of a dangerous foe of all Humans."

He very nearly grabbed her by the throat this time. Why couldn't she see? Had her upbringing truly clouded her mind this much?

When he spoke, his voice was low and controlled. "We are Demon Hunters, but above that, we are Talradians. And to be Talradian is to be refugees and outcasts who live and survive only by the goodwill of others to us and our cause. You will right your wrongs and apologise personally to the Arglwyden."

"Me? Stoop my head to a lowly mayor? Me?"

"That's right, you." He poked her chest. "So go do it, now, before you really start to test my patience."

In a war between her ego and her respect for him, it seemed he once again won out, because she turned without another word and stomped off, muttering under her breath. He then looked back at the hole and wondered if any of his Fleetfooters were proficient enough with their Wind Magic to slow that sort of fall.

"My magic could get me down there easily. The question is if I want to, and what's down there to begin with?" What had they uncovered?

He reached into one of the pouches at his side and drew from it a mirror. It was small, pale gold, and cracked.

He reached out, drawing on his mana, and felt it meet another power, another presence. When it did, the edges of the mirror shone light blue. Cyan. He saw his cracked reflection warp and change before him. Then it was replaced with another face.

The same white face, the same grey hair. But his glass eyes didn't blink, and his features were static. Expressionless. Those eyes stared off into nothing.

It was the face of a dead man.

"Well then? Is this how it's all supposed to play out? Are we playing into your hand just as expected, or have I taken a wrong turn somewhere?"

"Those are questions I cannot answer." "You know this."

"And Keleiva, was she meant to turn out this way? She acts her station when it no longer exists. Was that meant to be as well?"

"She goes down the path ordained." "The path she chose." "The Last Princess of Talradius."

He put the mirror away. "You know, most of us think those are two separate things. Any comment on that?" When he didn't get a response, he grunted. "I thought so."

The Talradian General walked away from the gaping hole in the earth, followed closely after by his retinue of Demon Hunters, most of whom were already theorising ways to get themselves safely down there, or had already left to rejoin the camp that was now a flurry of action.

None of them saw the hooded figure exit the forest to stand beside the hole into darkness, his hand resting on a sheathed sabre at his side. His amber eyes peered into the darkness, searching for a familiar face.