Another assault came early in the morning, a sudden clanging of metal awakening Stathis from her uneasy doze. She still felt drained after the previous night’s fighting, even before whatever the hell had happened with Parth. Tunera was already on her feet, racing ahead, as Stathis strapped her shield on and followed, dragging a drowsy Hakara from her sanctum.

The sun was barely risen, a dim disc of light beneath the clouds, although at least the rain had let up for the moment. The distant sweet lure of the song of the harpies could be heard, Stathis snapping people out of it as she ran past them. The attackers were more spread out this time, with the perytons flying ahead of the harpies, acting as shields. Parth was on an opposite tower, readying to shoot. Semari jumped into sight, pulling herself onto the battlements.

‘Hakara, can you protect her against lightning? Otherwise, try and stay out of direct fire. Where the hell is Janaxia?’ Semari pointed down to the courtyard, where a red-cloaked figure was making their way towards the stairs. ‘Good, hopefully she can join us soon, one of those spheres of darkness would be really helpful in the air.’ She yelled over to the opposite tower. ‘Brand, keep everyone together! No wandering off!’ He nodded, then stuffed cloth into his ears, hopefully rendering him resistant to their song.

The sky was closing over behind the attackers, darkness returning, and the promise of another storm. A twisting haze raced ahead of the creatures, lightning arcing forward from the welling thunderheads, illuminating a giant shape, roughly humanoid, fists of thick cloud.

‘What the hell is that? Hakara, focus fire on it if you can!’

‘An air elemental, I believe. But a powerful one. I will do what I can, but I fear my spells will be of limited effect against it.’

‘Just do what you can. Semari, you stay high and try and bring the monsters down, break their backs.’

‘You’re the boss. But you still owe me a cow.’ She leapt upwards, aiming for the highest spire, as Stathis yelled after her.

‘This really isn’t the time!’

The air elemental was the first to reach the walls, arrows barely slowing as they passed through its body. The giant face, half the height of a man by itself, seemed to grimace, mouth opening and a bitingly cold wind blowing forth. Hakara finished her spell, swirling blue energy gathering between her hands, before shooting out in a vicious cone of cold, chunks of ice hurtling through the air, buffeting the giant of air. It growled again, a giant hand of swirling air reaching towards Hakara. Stathis dove in their way, swinging her sword, feeling the faintest shock of resistance as she cut through thicker air. Were her attacks doing anything?

Tunera attacked as well, her spear stabbing into an arm, the golden threads within it seeming to catch fire even in the murky sunlight. That definitely had an effect, the creature grimacing and drawing back for a moment, form shrinking to something man-sized, a dense lump of heavy grey clouds hovering in the air, starting to spark with lightning.

Then the main force arrived, perytons and harpies filling the air, a cacophony of screeches and sickly-sweet song. The storm above them opened up with fat, heavy droplets of water falling down, making the footing suddenly treacherous. Through the chaos, Stathis tried to keep an eye on Tunera, her spear flashing as she thrust again, skewering a harpy through the wing. The air elemental charged forward, dark storm enveloping one of the guards, their body smashed by the impact, falling to the floor then knocked off the battlements by a peryton, grabbing him in its claws, already savaging the flesh.

Stathis swung and hacked at the miniature storm, feeling tiny zaps and shocks conduct themselves through her sword, which didn’t seem to achieve much. She sheathed it, drawing the flaming dagger instead, feeling slightly foolish with the tiny weapon. Still, the fire bound around it seemed more effective, cutting away bits of cloud from the body.

Tunera attacked as well, with more obvious effect, shreds of cloud-stuff peeling away from the central mass. Then the cloud suddenly expanded in a tornado, an explosive pressure pushing everyone back and away. Tunera was sent flying, her slight build no protection against the force, propelling her over the courtyard, a long and fatal drop. Stathis stopped resisting, letting the wind pick her up, trying to angle herself towards Tunera, to try and catch her and absorb the impact. In this hurricane, her wings would likely be a hindrance rather than a help, as she tried to twist and turn, seeing the fear and panic in Tunera’s eyes as she left the ground.

She reached out, trying to bridge the gap between them, her hand stretching Tunera’s, as the winds cut out, and they were falling. Something blurred past her, a motion plucking Tunera from the air, as the ground rose up to smash Stathis. Then she was smashed sideways, pain flaring along her flank as her momentum was wrenched in another direction. Another impact, shoving her further to the side, and then she crashed onto a balcony, armour screeching as it rubbed against stone, some part of it snapping off.

It took her a moment to catch her breath, slowly standing up. What the hell had that been? Still, better than crashing to the ground. She shook her head, trying to clear the ringing from her ears and the aching from her body, before running back to the balcony, the guardrail destroyed where she’d smashed through it. Janaxia was stood in the courtyard, a look of relief covering her face when she saw Stathis. It must have been her energy bolts, used to redirect Stathis’ fall. Janaxia flicked her hand, sending more bolts lancing upwards, a harpy squawking before colliding with a wall, unable to regain flight and instead falling to the ground, where it was swiftly torn apart by other fighters.

Stathis glanced up – Tunera could be seen, spear flashing and gleaming as she thrust and stabbed, Semari staying close by and punching and kicking the harpies and perytons. The air elemental was still there, a streaming haze of slate-grey cloud, rushing forward to engulf a fighter, crushing their body and then retreating to a safe distance, steadily working through the defenders, whose own attacks had a limited effect. As Stathis watched, Semari took a running jump, hands somehow latching onto the thing, grappling it as she punched and kicked away.

It was risky, but quicker than getting lost inside; Stathis jumped down from the balcony, feeling the shock of the impact. Just in time, as a peryton dove down, targeting one of the townsfolk, aiming to pluck them from the ground and drop them from up high. Stathis managed to block with her shield, the force of impact pushing her backwards, but giving her the chance to attack, one blow cutting deep into a wing, stopping it flying off. Without being in flight, it was slow and clumsy, barely able to protect itself as she sliced and stabbed. Amidst feathers and screeching, it finally died, death-cry grating her ears painfully.

Thunder boomed, the walls of the courtyard making it resonate and echo. As if in answer, the entire structure rumbled and shook, walls shaking, cracks appearing. With a blinding flash, lightning speared down. It hit the highest tower, the metal flagpole exploding into fragments. When Stathis had cleared the ringing from her ears and the burning afterimages had faded from her vision, she could see that there was a figure hanging there, suspended in the air, as the storm blew around them – the Witch of the Storm’s Eye. This close, Stathis could see that her eyes burnt with an inner power, blue-white lightning tinged with seething, burning black. Her tattoos burnt with the same fierce, crackling energy, the rain not touching her.

Semari crashed against a wall with enough force to leave a dent, blasted away by the air elemental. She managed to regain her balance and fell on her feet, although looked groggy. The ground shook again, mortar starting to turn to dust as stones ground against each other. One fell from above, landing on a slain peryton in an explosion of gore and feathers.

The witch gestured, lightning crackling through her fingertips, a section of wall exploding in a blast of white-hot shrapnel. Stathis raised her shield just in time, stone pinging and bouncing off it.

‘Everyone! Get to the tunnels!’ At least there, some defence might be possible, and the perytons and harpies wouldn’t be able to attack. Arrows shot down from above, most getting deflected by arcs of lightning, one penetrating and scraping her shoulder with a glancing cut. She looked up, Stathis following her gaze to see Parth, readying more arrows. Power crackled around her, before lancing towards Parth. She dodged, leaping from her perch, managing to land atop the battlements with an awkward roll.

She vanished into a sudden sphere of darkness, as Janaxia, wherever she was, cast a spell. The courtyard was starting to empty now, the darkness blocking visibility for long enough to allow them escape. It was only a brief relief, as more lightning blasted forth from with the sphere, a bristling corona of energy appearing out of the top as the witch flew out of it. Her head tilted, seeking a target, before clapping her hands together and blasting out more energy. The sphere of darkness vanished out of existence, as Janaxia screamed in pain, somewhere nearby.

Stathis charged towards the scream, hoping to buy more time. She saw Janaxia, her form shrouded in electricity, clothing starting to smoke and disintegrate from the raw power coursing through her, half-way up a flight of stairs. She grimaced, managing to raise a hold and conjure up bolts of energy, one hitting and knocking the Witch back in the air, the others striking wide. Shards of ice began to impact the air, some knocking into the Witch – Hakara must have had time to cast her own spell. Stathis raised her shield up above her head, ice beating against it, as she ran across the courtyard towards Janaxia. She tried casting another spell, but the pain must have been too much, darkness guttering around her fingers without effect. The Witch was out of reach, but Stathis vaulted up the stairs and grabbed Janaxia, her arm immediately going numb as the lightning arced into her.

Still, at least Janaxia was light and easy to sling over a shoulder as Stathis ran inside, immediately moving to the side, out of sight of the entrance. Not a moment too soon, as a ray of frost shot through where she had been standing. She looked around for other exits, finding herself in, unsurprisingly, yet another room she didn’t recognise. A call came from the other side of the room, through the fireplace – she squatted, to see Tunera in a room on the other hand.

She took a moment to steel herself, speaking to Janaxia. ‘You OK? Sorry about the grab, but it seemed the easiest way to get you out of there.’

‘I do wish you would try and undertake your heroics in a way less distressing to my ensemble. And, in future, if you could try and carry me facing forward, so I can see what is happening?’ Stathis relaxed. She couldn’t be that injured if she was complaining about clothing. ‘Although we do seem quite outmatched, so, yes, a hasty retreat may be advisable. Somewhere that her flying minions cannot reach, I would deem acceptable.’

‘Can you walk?’

Janaxia’s leg moved, before succumbing to spasms and twitches. ‘It seems not, at least for the moment.’

‘Right. This is going to be tight, but it’s better than staying here.’ Part of the wall exploded away, as lightning blasted away the stone. Stathis started to run, aiming for the fireplace, dropping into an awkward, squatting stoop, trying to get through the gap without smashing herself, or Janaxia, against the wall. She just about managed, as a beam of energy shot through the doorway, blowing away even more of the castle wall.

Tunera and Parth were there, along with a group of townsfolk. ‘Follow me, we can get to the catacombs.’ The building shook again, rafters creaking and groaning as something above them broke. Stathis put Janaxia down with as much dignity as could be mustered, trying to not further disrupt her clothing. The lightning had produced rather unfortunate effects on her hair, the usually sleek lines of it now jagged and pointy, even looking singed in places. Before Janaxia could start to groom herself, Tunera spoke. ‘The bedrock should be stable, it’ll be safer down there, at least for a while.’

The room they had just left collapsed, a great rush of dust and grit blowing through the fireplace, as they fled, Tunera guiding them through the rooms, taking a sudden turn down a stairwell that Stathis hadn’t even noticed, hidden in a corner, air turning cool as they descended, carved stone walls turning to curving shapes of bedrock, lit only by gleaming red witch-light.