Scorching fires erupt from everywhere at once, this dark world is nothing but an endless inferno. I scream into the abyss. I cry but there is no one to hear me.

I suffer in the eerie silence until finally my hoarse voice becomes real, the itching in my veins a small distraction from the pain inside.

“Oi,” someone says something.

Hands hold me down firmly, as I try to find my breath. I struggle against them, but I can’t summon any æther through my still burning veins.

“Oi!” She slaps my cheek lightly, her voice more insistent. The cold air stings in my throat, and I kick at the ground throwing myself back from the person above me.

I raise my hands defensively, but without magic, I have nothing to defend myself. I can’t even run fast enough to escape.

“Calm down,” she says, holding her hands open towards me. She’s not in a fighting stance and she doesn’t sound angry or hungry. She’s not like the bears or cats, and she’s not attacking like the bandits.

The woman has rounded ears. She’s a human, but her green eyes shine bright and clear without any hint of the same hatred that I felt from the bandits.

Her sharp features scrunch up as she stands, leaning on a long, gnarled staff and staring down at me.

Her light-brown braid trails over her long cloak, open at the front to show padded leathers accented with bright green frills. Armour like what the bandits wore, but made to look a little less like armour.

“Are you okay?” She asks, “You were screaming and wouldn’t wake up.”

Her voice is clear and beautiful. I slap myself lightly, to try and tell if this is a dream. It’s been so long since I talked with someone properly. The bandits interrogating me and their later cries for mercy don’t count at all.

I nod to her, chewing on my words for a moment before replying, “Syr is well.”

“Syr, huh. I’m Adeleya” She says, quickly glancing back out the door. I pause, at hearing her say my name aloud. “Do you know what happened? We found you unconscious beside the bandits. Did they capture you? Do you know what killed them?”

I nod to her confidently, but then hesitate.

What if she’s a bandit, too?

It’s possible. I mean there have to be pretty bandits, right? And who else but bandits would suddenly appear in the middle of a bandit camp?

I reach out for Midnight… but she’s gone.

“Syr… I… what do I do now?” I ask myself. For now, she’s not attacking me, maybe I can trick her and get a chance to escape.

“What do you mean?”

“I came home,” I say, working through my problem bit by bit. “But there’s no home. Just ashes.”

The town that stands here today isn’t home, and it never will be. I don’t want to stay here and try to rebuild what I lost. What’s ash stays as ash.

The people that made this place home are gone, and even now I can’t bring them back.

“You…” Adeleya’s eyes open wide as she looks around the room. “This… it used to be an elvish village, didn’t it?”

“It used to be home,” I say, nodding.

“I thought… have you been here the whole time? With the bandits?”

I shake my head firmly, edging towards the door.

“Well, it’ll all be okay now,” she says, leaning closer towards me.

I move before the mage can catch me, squeezing around her and out the door. It’s still drizzling outside but it’s bright, probably mid-day.

“Hey, wait!” Adeleya chases after me, her cloak fluttering after her.

There are others here too, a group of people armed and armoured little different from the bandits I’d killed. No, they’re much better equipped. They’re moving the bodies that I didn’t raise, stripping them of armour, weapons, and anything shiny before piling them to the side.

As I thought, they’re bandits too. The only thing that I can’t understand is why they didn’t just kill me in my sleep, they didn’t even tie me up.

It’s like that last bandit was saying. I look young and weak, and that’s the only reason I’m still alive.

There’s no time to worry about that.

Their weakness is my strength.

“Don’t go rushing about,” Adeleya calls to me, standing behind me. “It could still be dangerous out here.”

From amidst the corpses, I sight my sword, the shiny steel washed clean by the rains. I rush forwards and hold it close. The shiny blade is dented and chipped from my fight, but it’s still strong and I can still fight with it.

Do I need to?

These ashes aren’t my home anymore. Mom and dad aren’t here. The annoying older kids from down the road are gone too, and the old granny who used to share the sweet berries she grew. All of it is gone.

There’s nothing here worth fighting for.

My æther channels are only just starting to recover, but I can force some magic if I need to. I can use it to escape.

“Is that yours?” She asks me in confusion, “A little big, isn’t it?”

“It’s Syr’s sword,” I declare firmly, backing away towards the forest. I don’t want to intrude on the wolven again, but I know the forests are safer than the town right now.

“Well… it’s a very nice sword. So, do you know what happened here?” As she asks as the others gather around us. A tall woman circles behind me and she doesn’t look weak. “Did you see where the others went?”

“Are you like them? Are you bandits?” I ask. Walking nearer to where they’d dropped the corpses. I can afford a distraction. A small one.

“Ah…” Adeleya stutters. “Of course not.”

That’s what a bandit would say.

“Adeleya.” One of the other bandits turns towards her, a large man wearing piecemeal plated armour. “Weren’t you supposed to calm her down? Talk to her about these things. As our, self-proclaimed, ‘most beautiful’ team member.”

“I was getting to it. She ran off before I had the chance.” While they argue I move closer to the corpse pile, one of the other bandits watches me closely.

“Can we please stop with the yelling? We still don’t know what did this, or if more bandits aren’t still around.” An older man says, he’s wrapped up in big plates of shiny metal that must weigh much more than my sword.

“Very well,” the bandit man replies.

“Apologies,” Adeleya nods, looking back towards me again.

“In any case, do you know what happened to these bandits?” the older man turns to me, watching more cautiously than the others. I can even see some grey hairs peeking out from his helmet, and he stands ready for anything, like the older and more dangerous wolven.

“Syr…” Adeleya calls out, her sharp green eyes meeting my own. Hearing my own name makes me shudder, but I can’t show weakness.

Finally, I am standing over the bodies of the dead bandits, the few that I killed at the end. The ones yet to become as ash. Carefully channelling my æther, I ready the strings that will raise them as puppets. If I have to, I can force another æther rush, but if I do that then I’ll be knocked out again and I’ll probably die in my sleep.

“Syr killed them all,” I tell the bandits, my eyes drifting from the old man and over to Adeleya. My heart aflutter with anxiety as I meet her eyes, she doesn’t look away from me, it makes me want to back down, but I can’t. I know what happens to animals that stop fighting.

They become food.

I need them to know that I’m dangerous so that they won’t try to fight me. Like how the small spikey bears frighten away the hungry foxes.

“You killed them?” The older man asks, “Where are the rest of the bodies, then?”

“Bullshit,” Adeleya responds, her firm green gaze locked onto my own, “You think some scrawny girl like her could take out these guys. She just grabbed the biggest sword she could find lying around; you think a kid like that could fight off a bandit?”

“She’s an elf, dumbass, don’t you know anything? Shit, I don’t even know how old she could be.” The second man responds, ready for a fight.

“No, she’s still a kid.” The cautious, old man tells them, “But that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have done it. I’ve known more than a couple of elves in my time… she’s… different. Nadia?”

The woman behind me just shakes her head, hesitantly.

“Nadia is different. This girl is feral, look at her hair, her clothes…” The second man says.

“So, you believe her?” Adeleya asks.

“I don’t know…” The old man says, “But we should be careful. Adeleya can you…?” He gave her a look, that I can’t understand.

Adeleya sighs, focusing on me.

“Syr,” she says my name so gently, and I freeze. My heart summersaults in my chest, and I try to keep from trembling. It’s been… years. Now I’ve finally found people again. Why do they have to be bandits?

“Come on inside,” she walks towards me, as the others stand tensely as if trying to look elsewhere. “We can have a chat, just the two of us, and I won’t even bring my staff or any weapons. Does that sound good, Syr?”

I can’t respond, she keeps calling out my name, saying it like she cares. Like she sees me as a person, not as a walking meal, or a trespasser, or a competitor. I… I’m a person.

“Syr, how about you come here, away from the bodies?” Her smile is nearer to a cringe as she looks down at the bodies that I am standing over.

“Guys…” The younger man calls out in concern, “Guys!” He shouts more firmly.

“Shut it, Lothar!” Adeleya calls back without turning from me. “Come with me.”

She gently takes my hand, I pull away, but she insistently takes my hand again. I can feel my grip slipping from my sword.

“Get away from her!” Lothar cries, running at us with his sword drawn.

“Lothar?!”

“What are you doing?!”

“She’s a necromancer!” He shouts.

With a sharp breath, I remember the one lesson pounded into me out into the wild.

Run, fight, or die.

Forcing more æther from myself than I can rightly channel, my magic veins collapse in half an instant, and in the next half I slam an overwhelming current of æther through my exhausted flesh and into the bodies around me.

I slip from Adeleya’s grip, screaming from the pain consuming me as I lift my sword to meet Lothar’s charge.

My cold, dead flesh rises, grabbing Adeleya’s legs and holding her down and out of the fight.

I steal the advantage from Lothar with the length of my blade, screaming my raw throat dry as I strike downwards, strengthening my body with all it can take. My downward strike is met with a deflecting block sliding my attack to the side. It hits the ground and carries me up off the ground, while he stumbles back from the force of my attack.

“Shit!” He swears, as I release my sword and slip over his guard, I sharpen my hand, ready to take his life.

“Syr!”

Adeleya’s scream cuts through my own, and I hesitate. I close my hand and punch him in the back of the head instead. Without my feet on the ground to steady me, my own punch sends me flying back and I try to find my feet again before any of them catch me.

It was stupid. I should’ve killed him. I need to kill them. If I don’t, they’ll kill me when my power runs out.

He stumbles forwards, and I call upon my cold bodies to swarm him.

I retake my sword with my smaller body and face the old man. Another bandit is coming from behind him, and I quickly bring out my spare bodies to attack her. They won’t last long against enemies this strong.

Adeleya is still screaming, distracting me even as my vision dulls and strength fades.

I spin my sword at the old man, he sidesteps my cut, but that’s fine. I throw the sword backwards and leap at him with my strengthened hand. I am on him in a moment, too close for him to hit me with his blade.

My knife hand is strengthened with all the æther it can bear. Everything is numb as the fire spreads through me, but I push through it and prepare for the kill.

The man, instead of reacting in shock as the other bandit had, steps closer to me with a flash of speed. A shock passes through me, pushing me back.

My burning lungs stop working.

He hit me with the pommel of the sword. People do that?

Choking and coughing, I lose control of the æther flow. The man steps back away from me, holding his sword ready to finish me.

The rest of my bodies fall to ash around me as darkness floods my senses. All that remains is fire. An endless blaze that consumes me again.

I scream, waiting for the pain to go away. At least when they kill me it should all be over. When I become ash, the flames won’t hurt anymore.

But I’m not ash.

I’m not dead.

I cry and scream, but nothing can hear me in this darkness.