The war has reached a critical point today. Two large contingents of enemy troops are massing at the borders of Shanzon. The only thing in their path is a collection of fifty-six mercenary companies gathered together, surviving troops of the Kolraimen military and a thousand witches who refuse to listen to or follow my direct commands. I am determined to not let the city of Shanzo fall into the hands of the warlocks. I will hold it. The whole war depends upon it as a source of wealth and supplies. I will need to give the council of witches time to assemble a war host sufficient to crush these idealistic fools. The key to victory is destroying the foundation these armies are built upon, the warlocks. Destroy the warlocks, and support for them will vanish. To that end, I have enlisted witches that I can trust and will follow direct orders to begin a new project named Salvation. The aim: Develop a weapon to bring down the warlocks, by finding a discreet way of eliminating them without facing them in open Arcane combat.

Journal Entry 1: Project Salvation, written by Lady Kora of House Firm Arm

Kara lay in the hospice bed thinking about her parents who had abandoned her as a child to live in an orphanage while they went off to go fight in their precious war. She never knew which side and didn’t care. She sometimes wondered if they regretted leaving her behind each day, and why they would punish her like this. Every single day in the orphanage was a struggle, crowded with boys who lost their parents in the Arcane War. They were all treated like feral dogs by the owner of the orphanage: a fat old lady with the nastiest smile. She would chuck leftovers onto the ground for them to eat and cackle with laughter as they fought for the food.

Having a small frame, she often went to sleep hungry, her belly rumbling, as she had no chance of beating the bigger boys in a fight. Luckily for her, she had found an easier way to get food. She pretended to sleep in her thin linen pallet on the cold stone floor and waited till everyone was asleep, before sneaking out at night from the cramped orphanage into the inner city where the witches live in wealth and luxury to steal their food. Over time she became quite good at it, which made the old lady incredibly suspicious. Her sunken cheeks started to disappear and her fair skin was returning to a healthy glow. The old lady knew she was getting food from somewhere and didn’t like it at all, which brought on the daily beatings. The old lady would beat her senseless with her ham-sized fists, asking her where she stole the food. Sick of life in the orphanage and the beatings, she planned her escape.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she remembered the only friend she ever had, an abnormally thin young boy named Louis. She knew he would slow her down, so she had to make her escape without him. Picturing Loius with his thick black hair, fair skin and kind brown eyes offering to help her with the escape, while knowing he would slow her down and was unwilling to drag her down with him, made her cry harder. Sniffing at her weakness, she wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up. She needed that sword; with it she could kill that evil filth and pay for passage for both her and Louis to live in Sky Bastion. She slung the blanket filled with fruit onto her shoulder and ran through the marble hallway, weaving past the servants and out into the streets.

The sun was close to setting, creating a profound apricot-coloured horizon that was gorgeous to look at. Not really noticing it, Kara searched the fast dwindling number of people on the streets, heart pounding with the possibility of losing her moment to save her friend. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to find Raid like this, she made the snap decision to head to the town gates, believing and hoping that at some point these travellers would leave.

The street gradually emptied of people, all leaving for home. The moon rose into the bleeding red sky. The cobble stone street echoed with her footsteps as she walked. Fearing she would be robbed, she slipped off her worn, ragged boots with wooden soles and moved into the maroon shadows. Silently she continued through the streets, slipping from shadow to shadow. Reaching the locked gate, she stood still as she noticed movement at the gates and ducked into the shadow of the overhanging smithy. Hammers hung on the wall, gleaming with the reflected light from the moon, and in the corner of the smithy a large blocky forge slept quietly in the corner, its mouth open with clumps of charcoal inside. She moved further into the smithy, the shadows enclosing her. And quietly she watched as the two men in the Mantrian town guard uniform patrolling on top of the rampart and another two men leaning on the metal gate to the square-shaped barracks.

Crouching down in the smithy she waited and hoped the man with Mantorian blade had not left the town yet. The pain in her left leg reawakened from the pressure placed on it. Wincing, she held her leg, the cotton fabric of the bandage sticking to her skin. Pain stabbed her leg again, and she knew that she needed to stop crouching. Standing up slowly, she massaged her leg, groaning at the pain that continued to erupt from the cut. She was so wrapped up in the pain throbbing in her leg that she didn’t see the small group of travellers openly walking the streets till they were moving past the smithy she was hiding in.

The travellers were cloaked, their footsteps resounding loudly off the cobbled streets. But she knew straight away it was them; the hulking figure of Trogon leading the way was hard to miss, which must mean that the other two in the group that strode confidently through the streets were Lady Mira and Raid. Raid, the man that had saved her life, despite having stolen his sword. She stalked Raid from the shadows with a plan hatching in her mind to steal his sword. She did not know how to feel about that; she was going to rob the man who saved her life, to save her friend Louis and go to Sky Bastion. Guilt and unease churned her insides. Shaking her head, she muttered to herself firmly, “I must do this.”

The party of travellers were now at the town gates. She crept out of the smithy and swiftly crossed the open space between the smithy and lofty town walls. She hid in the shadow cast down upon the earth from the great town walls, the logs that made up the wall sharpened to lethal points. She crept forward, the right side of her white dress grazing the wall as she stayed close to it, stopping only when she overheard voices close by. They must be talking to the guards at the gate, she thought. As they talked she used the time to adjust her eyes to the blazing braziers sitting on the ground to either side of the gate that were casting light into the shadows, then crept closer to hear what was being said.

“Listen, guardsmen, I know your orders were to not let people in, but you’re not letting people in, man, we are leaving,” said an impatient Trogon, his gruff, familiar voice cracking the air.

“Sir, with all respect, even if the orders were to let people out I would not – too much risk involved,” retaliated the soldier on guard duty angrily. “We don’t know how far those creatures fled, they could be waiting outside the gates for all we know wearing those damn black robes,” the soldier huffed.

Another voice entered the conversation. “You had best open the gate, soldier, my blade hasn’t tasted blood in a while.” The quiet voice sounded sharper than a blade and deadly.

“Threatening a guardsman is a serious offence, Raid; you should know that of all people,” replied the guardsman crisply.

Raid grunted angrily in reply. Lady Mira’s feminine voice cut off Raid’s retort. “Is there no other way out of the town?” she enquired softly.

Kara leaned in, not wishing to miss the reply. After a moment’s silence the second guard spoke. “We could drop a rope ladder down the outside of the town walls for you to use,” the first guard reluctantly agreed. “Yeah, at least then we can cut the ladder if enemies try to force their way up.” Having come to an agreement they began moving away from her, the jingle of the heavy chainmail the guardsmen wore chiming in the air.

Her heartbeat began to race; how was she going to get out of town? The guards might try to stop her if they saw her and if she revealed herself to the group, acquiring the sword would be even more difficult with them constantly watching her. Choosing the latter, she walked into the light, taking the guards and group of travellers by complete surprise by her sudden appearance from the shadows.

The guards whipped out their swords, their blades rasping against sheaths as they came free, and seized her by each arm, dragging her closer to the brazier. Raid was the only one not shocked by her appearance like a ghostly apparition. His brown eyes twinkled with amusement and mouth curved in a slight smile. “Thought I might see you again,” he said. Kara felt her blood boiling at the mocking tone of his voice.

The guards holding her turned to Raid. “You know this girl?” asked the guardsmen to the left, his wispy grey hair flying in the gentle breeze and wrinkled face gazing at her as he spoke. “She is part of our group,” replied Raid in a nonchalant voice.

Trogon’s huge form pulled back the hood of his cloak, purple eyes glowing in the darkness. “Is that wise, Raid? Taking a child with us?” asked Trogon with concern.

Lady Mira snapped, “Taking her into danger is completely foolish, Raid.”

Raid’s eyes sparkled with amusement. He walked over to her and planted his knee in the rocky earth as he knelt down and asked her, “Do you want to come with us?” Raid gazed into her eyes. Her heart pounded louder in her ears. Did he know? Did he know she wanted to steal his sword? Surely not. “Yes, I want to go,” she replied breathlessly.

Raid turned his head to Trogon and Lady Mira. “There, you heard for yourself, the girl wants to come with us; why else would she be sneaking around town at night?” finished Raid. Then with a flourish he stood up, took her hand in his, and pulled her towards him. The guardsmen, not wishing to argue with Raid, fearing his anger, released her arms and she went to Raid. Walking hand in hand, they joined Lady Mira and Trogon by the brazier.

Lady Mira’s eyes never left Raid, following his every move, a considering expression on her face, as she was forced yet again to re-evaluate Raid. It seemed at times like these, when Raid acted most unusual and strange, that made her believe there was more to him than the brash, young fool that loved to fight. Raid spoke quietly to the guardsmen who were still on edge from the fright the girl had given them. “Shall we be off? We have a long way to travel.” The taller of the two guardsmen, shaking off his fear, nodded his head, his steel conical helmet shining in the flames, and led the group to the ladder, his mail coat clinking with each step.

Raid, holding hands with the girl, trailed the guardsmen, followed closely by Lady Mira in her fine blue silk dress that shimmered as she moved and Trogon guarding the rear with his imposing figure. The guardsmen led them to the ladder that went up to the rampart and climbed up. Raid let go of the girl’s hand and gestured for Kara to climb up first; her hands grasped the coarse wooden ladder and she clambered up onto the rampart. Her eyes searched the darkness for the guardsmen that were leading them, and found a pair of guardsmen standing off to one side speaking with the other two men on night patrol, securing the rampart.

Kara couldn’t hear a word they were saying since they were speaking quietly, but by the incredulous looks that were delivered their way they were amazed that anyone would want to leave the town. Raid appeared at her side and the feeling of safety she had felt when he carried her in to town returned. Doubling the guilt she felt and the nagging worry of discovery. As if hearing her thoughts, Raid’s hand came to rest on her shoulders. “You don’t have to come; where we go there will be great danger,” he said in a gentle voice. Kara, licking her lips, replied adamantly, “I have to go,” she said.

Raid gazed down at her, the sickly pink full moon shining behind him. He nodded his head in understanding and moved to stand at the edge of the rampart to study the darkness. In those few breaths with his eyes locked on hers, she knew that he knew and yet he was allowing her to come. Breathing fast she tried to slow her beating heart, and turned to watch Lady Mira emerge with a tight expression, probably due to the tear at her waist on her dress showing the white petticoat beneath. Trogon came up next, his weight causing the ladder to squeak with each footfall placed on it.

With all of them on the ramparts, the tall guardsman returned carrying a rope ladder made of hemp in his hands, the two men that had been with him leaving to stroll away into the darkness. The cool night air blew around them as the guardsmen tied the rope ladder to a metal object that made a bump in the surface of the rampart. The guardsman’s voice broke the night’s silence. “We usually used these ladders to sally forth at night, to attack the Supreme army when they besieged us.” Done with tying the ropes he tossed the rope ladder off the side of the rampart. The ladder smacked against the wall. “Guess you must have as good a reason as they did to leave like this; good luck,” said the guardsman kindly. Raid was the first to climb down the rope ladder, his calf skin boots returning to rocky earth with a thump. Kara came after him to stand near Raid, who was analysing the way ahead with his steady brown eyes. His hand stroked his sword with comforting motions.

Looking out into the pitch blackness that encircled them, she felt her guts twist with fear and wondered if she had made the right decision. There were other ways to get the coin. She turned to Raid, opening her mouth to tell him she didn’t want to go when light flooded her line of sight; her eyes watered at the abrupt appearance of the bright light. Eventually able to crack open her watery eyes, she scanned her surroundings for the source of the light. Her eyes came upon Lady Mira enclosed in a ball of pure light that shattered the darkness with its brilliant white light. The dread that had weakened her knees was swept away by the glorious bright light.

In a commanding voice, Mira said, “Come into the light.” Kara walked without any delay, entered the globe of light, eager to be out of the darkness. The soreness in Kara’s eyes evaporated slowly, with the blazing luminesces directed outwards from the globe into the darkness. Trogon and Raid exchanged worried looks, before hurrying into the globe, Raid’s silver shirt and trousers glowing in the darkness, making him appear like an apparition.

“How long will this globe of light hold?” questioned Raid with concern. His eyes studied the globe anxiously; he did not like magic at all and to have it all around him … He swallowed bile rising up from his throat and tried to focus his attention on something else.

Lady Mira replied brusquely, “Long enough to get us where we are going.” Trogon, feeling sick in the stomach, spoke up, his ashen grey face barely concealing his fear of the unexpected light.

“Where are we heading, Raid?” Raid, his face pale, swung his head around to face them.

“Descendent Daok said he will be mustering his men at Galigans farm, which is north east of here,” replied Raid sickly. Kara giggled at the sight of two grown men, afraid of magic. Raid and Trogon, hearing Kara’s tittering laughter, scowled at her weakly. Raid wanted to explain to the girl the dangers of magic, but decided his time was better spent moving.

“Since you’re holding the light, I think you should lead, Mira. Trogon will watch your back and I will guard the rear,” said Raid, attempting to seem casual, all the while giving sideways glances at the sphere encircling them.

Mira nodded her head in assent and brushed her fingers through her hair nervously. Taking a breath, she glided forward with Trogon right behind her. Raid fixed his eyes upon Trogon’s axe, swaying side to side on his friend’s big, broad shoulders. Kara walked along beside Raid, no longer dwelling on the past, but looking forward into the future.

The wind blew gently at them and the sick moon in the blood red sky guided them northward. As they journeyed along the barren stony earth, the ground changed beneath them becoming craggier with small hills appearing more frequently. Kara’s mind wandered to that look that passed between Mira and Raid, the way their eyes had met. His beautiful orange eyes locking into Mira’s mucky brown eyes. His orange-coloured eyes had shown a surprising amount of tenderness, which brought an immediate stab of jealousy that startled her. Quickly she turned her thoughts away to try and concentrate on her target. Her eyes latched onto Raid’s waist where the sheathed sword hung, the ogre pummel hanging its head out. She would have to make her move tonight when they set up camp, otherwise the theft would become more difficult with hundreds of soldiers.

Suddenly Raid halted and called to Mira, “Hold up, think something is tracking us.” Trogon, without question, unslung his large axe and spun on the spot. Trogon knew from personal experience that Raid’s instincts were rarely wrong. Kara peered around her, hoping to catch sight of whatever Raid had seen. All she saw was bare, brown earth too rocky and tough to be used for farming. Then she caught movement at the corner of her eyes and gasped in horror.

The ground around them erupted with humanoids leaping up from the rocky earth where they were camouflaged. The humanoids’ yellow eyes shone like small lamps in the darkness as they ran to slaughter their prey out in the open. Raid seized Kara with his strong, lean arms, moved her behind him and whipped his sword out of its sheath in a blur of movement. The yellow eyes drew closer, closer and closer. Kara’s body quivered with despair at the sea of yellow eyes rushing in to kill them. Her arms and legs froze with unimaginable terror at death’s approach. Black daggers rippled through the air towards the small party of travellers in the globe of white light. Kara closed her eyes. This was the end; tears spilled down her cheeks at her failure.

She heard the clash of metal, heard Lady Mira swearing in exasperation then give a whoop of delight. Seconds passed and she wasn’t dead. She opened her eyes, wondering why she wasn’t dead yet, to see the ball of light replaced with four solid walls of light boxing them in. The black daggers ricocheted off the walls of light, to drop into the dead grass. The humanoids, in their black robes that melded in with the night to give them the appearance of floating red faces, crashed into the walls of light around them and bounced off, squealing with pain.

The walls of light seared their skin and set their black robes aflame, setting them alight like torches. Kara’s ears were assaulted with the creatures’ roars of rage, fury and agony. The creatures continued to howl and throw themselves against the walls of light, only to die with their bodies scorched. The more cunning humanoids held back and slashed away impotently at the walls of light with their obsidian swords hoping to break the wall with force. Kara, able to move at last, turned to see Trogon and Raid gaping in amazement at the walls of pure light. Lady Mira, panting from the effort needed to release the spell, sniffed loudly at them. “If you’re done playing with your friends, we best be going, my cube of light won’t hold forever.” The group wasted no time. They doubled their pace using the cube of light’s power to scorch a path through the humanoids that dared to stay in their path.

The humanoids followed them to either side, howling hungrily in the night, and every so often a creature would attempt to break its way into the cube, leaving a trail of smoking corpses along the trail behind them. Kara, her eyes wide, tried to understand why these creatures were so determined to not let them go. A humanoid slammed into the wall of light to her left, causing her to leap in fright, setting her heart racing with panic. She was given a clear view of its discoloured blood red skin, a scar that looked like an index finger on its right cheek, faint grey eyebrows above savage yellow eyes, grey stubble on its jawline and fat ruby red lips that were open to expose its wickedly hooked teeth to her. Its fingers clawed at the cube, trying to reach her, burning its fingers in the process. The humanoid paused in its futile attempt and cawed softly, “I will enjoy shredding your delicate skin off piece by piece, oooh, I can taste it already,” inducing Kara to scream in terror.

Raid, seeing the humanoid whispering to Kara, sidled up alongside her to block her view of the humanoid. He brushed his fingers through her hair to calm her down. “Best to ignore,” he said kindly, his brown eyes assuring her that they were safe. The humanoid cackling with laughter from behind Raid, making her whimper in fear and bite her lips fretfully. Raid wanted to tear the humanoid that scared the girl limb from limb. Unable to do that he said comfortingly, “Try and distract yourself and don’t worry about these filthy, foolish beasts; they can’t harm you in here,” he said confidently and banged his arm against the wall of light to prove his point.

Kara nodded her head and after a while walking in the darkness beside her Raid returned to guarding the rear. Kara swallowed as Raid left her and tried to keep her mind occupied from thinking about the creatures that were stalking her in the night with those amber-coloured eyes that glared at her with malevolence, waiting for their opportunity to strike. She caught sight of the same humanoid licking its red lips. The humanoid, seeing her looking, gave her an evil smile full of promise that made her grimace. Disturbed by its threatening expression Kara didn’t see the pit in the ground and yelped as she tripped in the small hole. She fell to her knees, breaking eye contact with the creature and jarring her knee into the scarred earth. Raid swiftly took her hand and helped her back up. “You should be more careful watch where you’re going and avoid looking at them,” he said with a meaningful look.

Kara got up, swiftly brushing off the dust on her knees and arms, her heart beating rapidly at the possibility of her falling outside the protection of the cube of light and into the arms of the humanoids. She shook her head, not wanting to see the image of her being torn to pieces by those razor-sharp teeth. Breathing fast, she berated herself for being so foolish as to look at them. Her stomach churned inside of her.

Desperate for a distraction from this nightmarish reality she went to speak with Lady Mira. She caught up with Mira striding proudly at the head of the small party, ignoring the creatures yammering for the sweet taste of marrow to either side of her. “Lady?” she said timidly, still not over her fear of witches. Mira dropped her gaze from the far off horizon to look down into Kara’s beautiful blue eyes shining with unshed tears, her cheeks pale. “Kara,” replied Mira, her face softening with compassion. “Did you want to ask me something?” enquired Mira affectionately. Kara’s breath came fast from having to walk while talking, and misted in the cold night air. “What type of magic is this?” asked Kara curiously.

Mira, misconstruing the true intention behind the question, smiled with appreciation at the girl’s eagerness to learn and replied in a didactic voice, “This is a charm spell, Kara, called cube of light. The cube of light spell was developed near the end of the Arcane War, when we witches were gaining the upper hand in the conflict. Since the warlocks were losing so many members they resorted to necromancy. They flooded the land with the unliving. Whole unliving armies were amassed and launched at the witch forces. Although we witches by that time had grown in considerable number and were destroying the last remaining dissidents, this new development endangered the supremacy. Luckily for us Lady Sandria of House Tooth and Nail came up with a simple solution. A charm purposely designed to utilise light to combat creatures of darkness such as skeletons, zombies, apparitions and hags.” Lady Mira paused in her speech, mouth tightening in disgust.

Kara, listening to Mira’s long-winded explanation of history, smiled to herself as she was finally able to ignore the glimmering yellow pinpricks in the darkness. “Hags are witches that were killed, but were brought back to life by necromancy. They are cruel, cunning creatures without souls and have their own twisted magic. Their only weakness was light. Back at the college, my friends all agreed that if more hags had been created, the outcome of the war would have been different. However, since it takes large amounts of magical energy to imbue a dead witch with life, few were made.” The sound of Mira’s soothing voice soon had her feeling sleepy. Her eyes became heavy, and she let out a yawn. She scrubbed her eyes tiredly to keep awake.

Mira still conversing with herself, saw Kara stumbling along and paused her history lesson to call out to Trogon. “Trogon, would you mind carrying Kara, don’t think she has the energy to continue.” Kara tried to refuse the offer, but her mouth wouldn’t open to form the words. Trogon lumbered over to her and picked her up easily in his thickly muscled arms to cradle her in his arms like a newborn babe. Rocked gently side to side by Trogon’s steady pace, her eyelids slid shut and she went to sleep to the sound of Trogon’s thundering heartbeat.