“I smile to myself knowing that they may be dead.”

- Emilie Autumn

“Alarm!” The ringing of the bell and shouting from outside roused Mireille from deep sleep, and she was disoriented and confused on waking. She nearly fell off the bed she had occupied in spite of Alyssa’s protests. She had been too worried and anxious to sleep alone, covering this up underneath even more mischief than usual.

Alea was struggling into her clothes, Butler One helping while Alyssa still seemed out of it.

Shaking her friend, she, caught up in the moment, whispered, “Hey, wake up. You have to wake up!”

Alyssa’s amethyst eyes focused on her, and for a moment, Mireille saw the darkness devouring her friend's gleaming left eye, leaving a ragged-looking hole before the illusion reasserted itself.

Mireille winced.

“...what…?” Focusing Alyssa tilted her head listening to the alarm bells. “Argh, can’t be helped.” Struggling upright she became aware of someone hogging her blanket. “You had a perfectly fine bed over there, could you not even bring your blanket?”

“It was scratchy.” Mireille mock-pouted.

“Could you hurry up, please? I have a bad feeling about this?” Alea interjected, having finally managed to fit into her robes.

From the chill common room with its slight musty beer smell they strode outside and were greeted by the bite of frost. The night outside was pitch-black and even colder than the day had been.

Surreptitiously Mireille added a pinch of crystal dust to the runic circuits in her coat and sighed at the new warmth suffusing her tired body.

Calvin met them at the door, looking tired. He had his backpack on, and for a moment, she wondered if she should go and retrieve her own.

Anticipating this Calvin shook his head. “No time to go back and pack. If you did as I recommended you will not have much to pack anyway and going into battle burdened is a good way to die. Come on, we have to hurry.”

The direction of the fighting was easy to discern, flashes of light and the rumble of spells going off led them to the western gate, but just as they reached the broader street leading up to it Vanessa jumped down from a building to their right.

“Wait! They have a group readying to assault the eastern gatehouse!”

“Who are you?” Calvin squinted in the unsteady light of his flaming staff and seemed ready for action.

“Stop! She is a dear friend. That is Vanessa.”

“The person who purportedly trained you?” The wizard cocked his head and looked at Alyssa without taking his eyes from the smaller elf.

“Yes, I trained her and accompanied her from Rivenlorn. But could we postpone the greetings and getting-to-know each other for after the assault?” Vanessa spoke up, and her pale green eyes shone briefly like cats-eyes in the dark of her hood.

“She is trustworthy and if she is right we can do nothing much by strengthening the already adequate defenses and can do a lot for the men and women manning the eastern wall!” Alyssa looked at him challengingly.

“I will regret this. Ok, let’s do as she says.”

Together they ran back the way they had come before crossing the central market square and entering the eastern part of the city. The sounds of the commotion behind them soon receded, and the moaning winds brought only fragments of screams and metallic clanging with the occasional explosion in between.

Iseret joined them shortly after the market and without seeming winded in the least kept pace with them while reporting the situation. “They have killed the sentries and are now opening the gate. The only good thing is that because of the siege the mechanism was blocked, and we still have time before the lesser undead stream into the town.”

“Too dumb to climb a wall?” Mireille scoffed.

“Be thankful for that, if they get in here, we might have lost already.” Iseret threw Alyssa an unreadable gaze as she said that.

Alea frowned and, ignoring the byplay, turned to Iseret to ask, “They are all dead?”

Iseret turned her head, glancing at the younger girl, and nodded, “Yes.”

“They only wanted to be left alone, to life.”

Mireille had the good grace to look ashamed as they hastened further down the street and the gate came into view. “I did not mean that it did not matter.”

“I know. You lose your sense of proportion in all this mess.” Alyssa looked uncomfortable.

“I will be going on ahead and try to keep them away from the mechanism. Follow as soon as you can.” Vanessa had kept pace with them and now accelerated, jumping up to a nearby rooftop. Some dislodged snow rained down into the street.

Cyrus eyed Alyssa’s shoulder but was nowhere near small enough to fit. His disappointment seeped through the link and Alyssa grateful for the small distraction gave him a quick smile.

Vanessa soared through the air landing on the gatehouse’s upper platform. To its sides, awnings protected the lower walkways on top of the wall.

A bolt of silvery energy flashed in her direction, and with a word a shield sprang into being before her face just catching the metallic energy. The shield flashed, and she fell backward just as it shattered the bolt- much diminished but not gone- traveling through the space her head had just vacated. Bowing back, her hood came loose, spilling her blue-white hair across the snow-covered bricks.

From the other side, two lanky human men brandishing short swords and attired in dark-grey clothes jumped at her and hacked at her leg and chest, respectively. Their swords impacted only mist, though as Vanessa turned intangible reforming on the battlement. She winced as dark blood oozed from a cut on her chest where she had not been quick enough.

Claws of black ice formed around her hands, and with a gesture the darkness came alive as the shadow demon rose out of the shadows cast by the lost eye, the white moon.

“Nirileth, give me speed.” Mireille quietly prayed as she saw the flash of magic on the platform high above before concentrating and activating her lightning haste. Tendrils of lightning crawled across her form lighting up her eyes and vaporizing the snow around her before she drew her sword infusing it too with the power of the skies. This took less than a second, and then she took off running up the wall of a nearby house before jumping across the alley landing on top of the wall.

“Wait!” Calvin had not finished his shout before the girl was again in motion jumping to the roof of the gatehouse. “Shit! Be careful! After her!” Focusing he pointed at a smaller door leading into the gatehouse before a bolt of incandescent flames formed around the tip of his staff with energy twisting through the runes and carvings coming from the mana-crystals before then shooting forth shattering the lock. White hot metal fragments and splinters burst from the impact, and the wizard looked at a slightly darkened jewel inset in the staff with distaste before hurrying after Alyssa who kicked the remnants of the door open.

On the platform, the two human men attacked Vanessa, who deflected the strikes with her claws before the demon drove his sickle-shaped talons into the lower back of the left one.

Out of the darkness ahead of her two humanoid figures materialized. Eyes glowing a dull green, the skin of their faces drawn tight over sharp bones, wispy hair covered their nearly bald pate crisscrossed with ancient scars. Coarse grey cloth covered rusty but serviceable-looking mail armor. Their hands held a whip and a serrated bone knife. Snarling the one on the left jumped forward covering the meters-long platform in a single bound as the assassin to her left gave a last gurgling gasp before sliding to the ground, blood pooling in the snow. The demon vanished back into the darkness as several bolts of silvery light impacted where he had stood. The wight that had remained behind losing them in a steady stream from the bone blade in his hand.

With a crackle and a hiss, Mireille suddenly stood on the battlement behind the caster, swinging her degen infused with lightning at its back.

Vanessa had to parry a flurry of blows from the whip, which impacted with bone-crushing energy imbued with some form of force magic. The other assassin threw a brace of knives at her, tips glittering with a tarlike fluid. Her right claw danced through the air deflecting most before one cut across her cheek, drawing darkish blood.

Suddenly the night grew even darker, and in the middle of the platform, the snow blew to the sides as a large being crashed into the stone that groaned beneath the weight. Rising from a crouch, a hulking figure clad in heavy plate mail rose, grasping a two-handed sword. “There you are.” A gravelly voice, rumbling like the echoes of an avalanche, sounded into the sudden silence. Dark eyes with a hint of red light shone from the helmet's visor and focused on Vanessa. “I come to take you home.”

Mireille used the distraction to stab her sword deep into the chest of the wight she was facing. Lightning flared, and actinic light blasted from cracks and wounds before the wight stumbled back, severely damaged and smoking.

“Don’t interrupt me.” The two-handed sword was swung with uncaring force, impacting the hastily thrown up lightning barrier in front of Mireille before shattering it and slamming into the young woman. With a cut-off scream, she was launched backward over the crenelations and to the street below.

Eyes blazing angrily Vanessa shifted with the shadows behind the Assassin gutting him with a double sweep of her clawed hands. With a gasping scream, the man collapsed. The wight used the slight distraction to swing his whip just past the head of his fallen comrade, taking off an ear and a generous helping of hair and skin before impacting against Vanessa’s right arm, throwing her heavily to the side.

Crashing into the battlements, she gritted her teeth as the bones in her arm shifted and realigned. Before she could finish, another flurry of blows from the whip made her tumble over the stones just a centimeter ahead of the impacts cracking the brick-floor.

“I am the second to have received the order. What happened to poor Tarus, mh?” The giant took deceptively slow, ponderous steps in her direction. The wind let his cloak billow behind him the edges merging with the darkened sky. “I cannot believe he fell to the likes of you. Binding yourself, limiting your growth. What a waste.” The large sword began to glow as runes activated. “I will simply have to cut you a bit so that you cannot run...again. It will be over soon.”

Several silvery bolts peppered the ground around Vanessa as the damaged wight reentered the fight. Fading into mist, she tried to escape as the large undead, probably a vampire too, shouted a spell disrupting her efforts. The shadow demon materialized behind the damaged wight and, with a scissoring motion of his claws, cut off its head. The skull tumbled through the air trailing fading sparks before falling over the side to the road leading away from the town.

“Hrm.” The giant grumbled and blasted a gout of flames from his left gauntlet, lighting up several runes inscribed on its surface. The houses across the street reflected the sudden illumination, the snow glittering redly. The demon hissed like a steam kettle and vanished again.

Another hit from the whip made her small body tumble as she was folded in half around the metallic strand, but using this as an impulse, Vanessa launched herself over the parapet to the town streets below.

Meanwhile, inside the gatehouse, Butler One hacked into a retreating soldier wearing dark inconspicuous clothing over armor that had been guarding the spiral staircase leading to the room holding the opening mechanism. Scoring across the breastplate and mailed arms, chainrings shattered, and deep cuts appeared on the plate amidst a flurry of sparks. The woman fighting them was attired in coal-blackened armor with a grey hooded cloak thrown across her shoulders, wielding a short sword in one hand.

Alyssa leaned to the side, throwing a small bolt of fire, which sadly missed but caused the soldier to flinch to the side, catching another blow from Butler One, this time to the neck. Gasping while pressing her left hand to the side of her neck, the woman retreated, parrying desperately with her short sword. The eerily cheerful porcelain mask of Butler One glinted in the scarce light.

Inside the chamber, two soldiers were trying to fit a large gear back into place that had probably been dismantled. Three town militia lay still and unmoving on the ground. Their mismatched armor and hardly-athletic physique a sad contrast to the professional soldiers standing above them.

Two dark shapes ghosted across the room, and the soldiers grasped at matte-black blades protruding from their necks and soon, the poison began to take effect, making them shake and twitch. Alyssa just saw a whirl of dark clothes and a single gleaming slit-yellow eye outside an arrow slit toward the town proper before Iseret vanished again.

Then a scream and a thud came from outside, and Alyssa paled as she recognized the voice of Mireille.

“Go!” Calvin gestured back down the stairs. “I will secure the gate-mechanism. Help your friend.” He looked at Alea and made a shooing motion with his chin at her too.

Back on the streets, Vanessa struggled to her feet and saw Mireille groaning in a snowdrift before a general store. An old wooden sign proclaimed, ‘Best prices!’

Before she could orient herself, another deep thud came from her left, and the gigantic figure of her adversary began to walk toward her slowly.

Shaking her right arm, she focused on the ambient void energies, and with a last snap, the broken bone aligned and fused once more.

“I had to leave the battle for Rivenlorn to come get you.” The dark voice rumbled, and a bit of snow shook free of a dark lantern drifting toward the ground.

“Agh.” Mireille bit off a pained scream as she tried to put weight on her left leg. Falling back into the snow, she raised her hand, pointing at the plate-clad monstrosity.

“Sialysalethussar” The lightning gathered in her arm, her hand springing forth from the gate, irising open in her chest to admit a rush of power. The alley was lit bright as day as, with a crackling hiss, a bolt of power lanced across the distance, hitting the protectively held Zweihander and shoving the giant undead back several feet. A crack of thunder drowned them in noise, and with a ringing in her ears, Mireille looked at her handiwork.

An iron grip took hold of the neck of her coat, ripping her to the side while making her scream with fresh pain from her broken leg. Vanessa threw her behind a couple of abandoned crates covered in snow before a wall of fire swallowed her in blistering heat. The roar of the flames drowned the world in heat and light.

The large undead lowered his hand and cracked his neck, grabbing his sword with both gauntleted hands again. “Little insect, do be quiet until I get to you.” He spat. The armor was scorched and burnt, some of the plates still emitted heat, crackling as the metal settled. The ground around him was free of snow in a starburst pattern, with the centermost part covered in steaming water.

Vanessa stumbled, flames licking across her clothes. With a grimace, she ripped her cloak off her neck and threw it to the side. Fading glyphs of broken enchantments sputtering. With a snap, she summoned her claws again and took a fighting stance.

“How you get someone to follow you of all people. The useless princess. The spare. The one that let her family fight by themselves and die.” He spat again. “Doing nothing. Squandering her gifts.”

Alyssa, Butler One, and Alea spilled from the small side gate taking in the situation. Behind them, rapid steps from above made Alea hesitate, gesturing for Butler One to cover their back.

“And more lambs to the slaughter. To me, soldiers of Nordmark!” the vampire bellowed.

Hooks being thrown on top of the wall clattered with metal on stone.

Alyssa formed a spell, glyphs arranging themselves before her as a bolt of fire took form.

Asandria and Cyrus supported her as she commanded the latter to stay away from the large warrior.

Asandria murmured, ‘That is Cereus von Saltmarsh. An old warlord she had preserved for just such a case. Now a vampire. Keep out of his reach!’

The flames hit him on the shoulder, guttering out beneath a wave of countermagic from runes inscribed in the armor. Chuckling darkly, the vampire raised his left fist, and another wall of flames rushed forward. Alea threw herself down, the flames brushing across her back, the heat burning her lungs as she gasped. Alyssa spread her hands, forming a voidblack oval that swallowed the fire without a trace. The spell was near effortless as dark energies streamed into her core, making it more difficult to stop the flow than continue casting. With a groan and a shake of her head, she cut off the energy causing the oval to flicker and vanish.

From inside the gatehouse, a clash of metal could be heard, and then the crack of a whip.

Alea rolled to the side and then rose to her knees before incanting a spell.

“Troublesome.” The vampire, Cereus, muttered before he began to trot toward Vanessa. “But first things, first.”