Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

El flew lazily above the slowly moving group of civilians as the escorted group covered the last mile to Fort Bedrock. With the aptly named and towering walls lit by large bonfires ahead of them – the massive cannons, the Screamers, standing ominously atop the walls – safety was finally within reach. After El's, admittedly overdramatic, display to completely seal one of the two ponds – and kill everything within – the remaining Depths had gone into full retreat.

The Firestorm and Pilish soldiers had punished the ambushing monsters for every foot they fled, but almost as many escaped as died from what they could tell. And, as for the civilians they'd all been there to protect? They were so exhausted from the running and stress, the rest of the journey had taken almost twice as long as it should've. Luckily, with the escorting forces, there was little threat of a second attack. That had been reduced even further after the group had crossed the bridge to find a troop of Ashes waiting for them.

It was tough to trust the armor-clad soldiers – or the nobles commanding them – but Laze had assured her the people running Bedrock were the best of the bad. Tas and Macer had friends there, and they'd used those connections to spread word about the terrible truth behind the attacks across the nation.

Bedrock also just so happened to be the location of the gateway.

"… so you didn't find Sol?" Laze was saying, pulling El back out of her thoughts.

"No," El replied, Laze and Nidina flying on either side of her. "By the time I got back to Vestis, he was already gone. Dayne and Bones had some ideas about the location of the island – Bones didn't actually know – and I headed that way. Didn't find it or Sol, though."

"Do you think he's okay?" Nidina asked. "From what you said about the ring he went looking for, if he found it…"

"I'm sure he's fine," El said. "He's no pushover, remember. And if that ring was anything like the ones we found in Wirock, he would've felt the pull on his Storm long before he was close enough for it to actually suck him in."

"But, if the Fathom's avatar was there…" Nidina trailed off, not needing to finish the thought.

El couldn't really argue that.

"It could explain why we haven't seen any sign of it yet," Laze said. "I keep waiting to hear it's shown up. Every report, every battle. And, while I'm glad it hasn't yet, it's making me really nervous. What the Blaze is it doing if it's not here?"

"Sol still wouldn't go down that easy," El reaffirmed. "I know, I know, it took him and Nexin together to hold off the avatar before, but Sol understands his limits. He'd find a way to escape if it looked bad."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Laze said, though it sounded a bit like she was forcing the words out. "And with more Firestorm here now, we'll have better intel. Better communications. Maybe we'll figure out if the Depths are up to something."

"Groundies should be here by now, too," El said. "So, we can start reinforcing some of the forts as well. Make it harder for the Depths to get what they want."

"Some?" Laze asked, latching on to that word.

El grimaced as she remembered her own reaction to the Generals' words when the troops were finally prepared to go through the gateway opened by the Salidians. "With the attack on Salid, the brass is worried the Depths are showing up on our shores. They don't want to leave Pycrin defenseless by deploying most of the army to the other side of the world."

"How many did they send?"

"Not enough, if you ask me," El grumbled. "But, we'll have to make do. Bulk up the forts we can hold – and get as many citizens safely in there as we can – and use the Firestorm to take the fight to the Depths."

"And then what?" Nidina asked. "Do you think they'll actually run out of little monsters to throw our way? Or what about those black-and-white things…"

"Clickers," El interrupted to fill in the name.

"Click…?" Nidina started, then shook her head. "Right. Sure. You and your names. Anyway, if they have more of those clickers that fought Nexin, we haven't even seen their real strength."

"How is he, anyway?" El asked quietly, ignoring the rest of Nidina's statement for the moment as worry for her brother trumped just about everything else. Nexin… hurt? To something less than an avatar, it was nearly unimaginable, but that was what'd happened.

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"He's better," Laze answered. No surprise there she was the one talking to him. "His Spark is healing him up pretty quickly, but he's being stubborn about it. He's still out fighting instead of resting to get back to one hundred percent."

"Is it working? Is he getting stronger?"

"He says he is," Laze admitted. "And from the few reports I've seen where he's made an appearance, well, he's terrifying the locals. I honestly think their fear of him is half the reason they agreed to let me share command of their troops. Before you all got here that is. I'll be back on your wing, of course."

"Afraid not," El said with a grin to her friend. "You're still going to be liaising between the two armies and commanding troops. General Cannon was impressed with your work here so far, so he's going to give you more responsibility. That and you already have the trust of the local troops. Don't worry, you won't be only one leading soldiers, and you'll still be reporting to whoever the generals decide, but you won't be part of a wing. At least, not in the traditional sense you have been."

"I'm… not sure I'm ready for that."

"You are," Nidina and El said at the same time.

"Just go with it," Nidina said after that. "You've already been doing a great job. Give it a try. Besides, what's the worst that can happen – the world can end?"

"Been there, done that," El added with a chuckle. "Saving the world, it's what we do."

"I… guess," Laze said, obviously still processing the sudden change.

"As for what we do about the Depths." El turned to Nidina. "You're right, we can't just hole up here and hope they exhaust themselves crashing against our defenses. Between the weapons the Pilish have, and now our groundie artillery, the forts are going to become meat grinders. If it was just hangnails and seawyrms, maybe I'd have confidence they'd be stupid and keep attacking."

"Speaking of seawyrms," Laze interrupted quietly. "We're going to have to talk to what you did to that big one later."

"And the blue sun," Nidina added. "Let's not forget that."

"Later," El grumbled, though her face heated up a bit. "Back to my point! With the clickers and the avatar, we know the Depths have tactics. Burn it, we just came from an ambush. Their tactics are going to evolve, and we'll need to change right along with them."

"Do you have a plan?" Nidina asked.

"What? Me? No!" El chuckled. "That's up to Laze and the other leadership. I just hit things."

"We need to find a way to destroy the rings," Laze said, tone still serious. "Both of them. It's the only way. As long as they exist, there will always be the chance more Depths will arrive. And, then there's the Fathom. The whole world – nations full of Sparks – are possible fuel to unlock the door to that other world.

"With the Depths attacking Salid, we know they've sent forces to other continents. Since we don't know how fast they actually move underwater, we have to assume they sent those groups out weeks ago. Maybe months. Like they did with Vestis. They could already be coming back with ships full of prisoners they plan to sacrifice.

"We have to destroy the rings, and we have to do it soon," she repeated.

El frowned at the assessment. She didn't like it, but her friend was right. They really didn't have time.

"Dayne and Bones are still scouring the Vestish library for any information on the rings," El said. "They think they may've found a few leads, but nothing solid yet. Once we get things settled here with the Salidian gate and the troops, I'll go back and check on them."

"How are things going with the Salidians anyway? They okay helping move this many troops?" Nidina asked.

"One of them – Jenita – saw some of the attack in Salid, despite me telling her very clearly to stay safely inside," El grumbled. "Anyway, she saw the threat, at least a small part of it. When they saw for themselves what happened in Vestis, and I told them about Wirock, they came around. There are definitely still trust issues, but some of their elders even offered to go looking for help."

"What does that mean?" Nidina asked.

"Going to some of the other nations to rally the troops, I guess," El said. "I say 'I guess' because they refused to take any Firestorm or groundies with them. Just slipped through the gate when nobody was looking."

"Running away?"

"I don't think so," El admitted. "Generals asked me the same thing, but they left their young behind, where it was safe. Relatively. If you ask me – and you did – I think they knew there would be trust issues if anybody they talked to saw a Pycrin uniform."

"Yeah," Nidina said. "Saw that myself when we returned some of those Embers. We're not the most popular nation with the whole history of war and conquering."

"We're trying to do better now, but, yeah, it's hard for others to look past our history and see that," El admitted. "And, who knows if the Salidians will have any success. And, no, before you ask – since the generals brought it up – I don't think they're gathering allies to betray us."

"Well, I hope they find some help then," Nidina said. "Though I still don't know how we're going to deal with the Wirockian rings. If we can't get close to them – or if they suck in our attacks because they're connected to our Sparks – what are we supposed to do? El, could you drop another sun on them?"

"Don't think it would work," El admitted. "Like you said, it still has my Spark in it. Rings would probably suck it right up."

"Which would immediately open the gate, considering how strong that last attack was."

"Pilish cannons," Laze said, and El's eyes went to the Screamers on the fortress walls. "Yes, their weapons use their Sparks to ignite their weapons, but the actual projectiles are just metal. No magic in them… or at least not very much. I bet we could use something like that to bombard the rings."

"Those ships the Pilish have?" El asked.

"Exactly. Though, getting them safely to the island – across the sea filled with the Depths – isn't a problem I have a solution for," Laze said. "Not to mention how far inland the main ring was."

"A siege?" Nidina asked.

El winced at the thought of a protracted battle across the Wirockian landscape. Yes, the groundies could do it – burn it, that's what they were good at – but it would be bloody. And every extra person they put on Wirock was literally that much closer to being possible fuel for the rings. It was risky. Really risky.

But, did they have another choice?