Arlette Faredin awoke to fire. The north gate of Zrukhora, once a mighty and proud landmark of the fledgling metropolis, now was nothing more than a mass of melting rubble. Flames raged before her, consuming the sprawling mass of wooden buildings near the entrance and spreading inward with devastating quickness. Her people were somewhere in that inferno. She took a step forward as a large, strong hand grabbed her arm.

"Let me go!" she cried, refusing its pull as strongly as she could.

"Letty, we ‘ave ta go!" Jaquet insisted.

Arlette continued to struggle against the large man's grip. "No! They might still be alive in there!" she cried.

"There's na way anybody survived in there. We need ta leave, now!"

"You don't know that! Maybe Akiva or Trip got a shield up! I can't leave while there's still a chance!"

"Don't be a fool, Letty! We ‘ave ta leave now, before it's too-"

A deafening, earth-trembling roar unlike anything Arlette had ever heard shook her to her core. A primal fear surged through her being, any thoughts of rescuing her subordinates drowning in the tsunami of terror. The two shared a look before they both turned and fled for their lives.

With a tremendous crash, something gigantic and terrible landed amidst the burning debris behind them. Arlette risked a look back for just a moment and immediately regretted it. The impossible animal stood more than thirty paces high, and must have been over a hundred paces long from snout to tail. Not a single hair sprouted from its scaly, red and black mottled hide. It had a gaping maw that could easily swallow her whole, and wings sprouting from it back that looked large enough to block out the sun itself, but neither of those things were what unnerved her the most. No, that distinction went to the beast's glowing golden eyes, devoid of iris and pupil. They seemed to take in everything, like they stared directly into her soul.

A second mighty roar emerged from the beast's enormous throat. The initial fireball and its aftermath had attracted a large group of onlookers, wondering what had happened to the nearby gate. The initial roar had stunned and confused many of them, their minds unable to process its significance. It was the appearance of the beast and its second roar that sent the entire crowd into a panic, starting a stampede of terrorized people that threatened to trample Arlette and Jaquet if they were too slow.

"Wait for me!" came a shout from her left. Oh, right. She'd completely forgotten that Basilli was there too. The three sprinted away as fast as they could from the monster and the oncoming stampede.

Without delay, the hulking behemoth began destroying each and every man-made structure in its vicinity before unleashing another ball of flames upon some poor fools who’d thought it a good idea to send some projectiles its way. Then it took flight, heading towards the western side of the city.

“What’s the plan?” panted Basilli as the three of them continued their non-stop sprint southward.

“We’re sitting ducks here,” Arlette said. “We have to get out of the city as fast as possible.”

“Aye,” agreed Jaquet. “But ‘ow should we get there?”

“We have to cut through the citadel. It takes up too much space in the center of the city for us to go all the way around it. We get through there, grab our stuff from the inn, commandeer a cart, and get as far away from this accursed place as possible.”

“Best plan I’ve heard all day,” Basilli said.

By now panic had seized the entire populace, throngs of screaming people moving this way and that. The group's progress suddenly slowed as masses of bodies clogged the streets.

"Jaquet!" Arlette called.

"Aye," he answered. Without another word, the large man stepped forward and began plowing a path through for the trio, using a combination of his large mass and his enhanced strength to bulldoze humanoid obstacles out of the way.

Soon they had arrived at the citadel's northern gate and found it besieged by a crowd of terrified townspeople. The portcullis was down, and guards were pointing spears at anybody in the crazed crowd who got dared get close enough. Arlette spat at the sight. They were a bunch of cowards hiding behind their walls while everybody else died. Though on second thought, there was no guarantee that those walls would make a difference this time.

Still, this presented a problem. It didn't look like they could go take a shortcut through the citadel anymore, and going around was going to take too much time at this point. They needed a way in... After a few moments of contemplation, Arlette headed off to the east, away from the gate and the beast, beckoning her comrades to follow.

"What is it?" Jaquet asked. Arlette did not answer right away, instead walking further down to the point where she couldn't see any more guards atop the wall. All the guards were concentrated up by the gate, keeping out the rabble, or more to the west where the beast was currently rampaging.

"Boost me up," she instructed Jaquet.

"Oh," said Basilli, "are we doing one of these? If you get found out, won't our contract get voided?"

"What contract?" Arlette responded. "This entire city will be in flames in a few minutes. There won't be anything to guard..." Her head dropped. "Or any of us left to guard it, anyway."

"I..." Basilli tried to respond, but couldn't.

"Enough o’ that right now," Jaquet, the eldest of the three, stated. "We'll perform tha rites later, when we're gone from this place. Now ‘re ya goin’ up there ‘r not?" He cupped his hands together in front of his belly, waiting for Arlette to get on.

"Right," she replied. She raised one foot onto the man's hands and then the other so that she was squatting, balancing on his handhold. Jaquet's powerful arms barely moved as she shifted her weight, putting an arm on his shoulder to help herself balance.

"Ready, Letty?"

"Please don't miss this time."

Without another word, Jaquet heaved, launching the smaller woman up and onto the twenty-step-high wall. Arlette thanked her ancestors that she'd made him practice since the last time they'd tried this. She landed rather unsubtly, her arms flailing as her lost balance made her tumble into the side of the path atop the wall, but as planned, nobody was around to notice.

Getting to her feet at once, Arlette began to observe as she rapidly made her way back to the gate. As she had done so many times before, her entire appearance changed as her observed illusion appeared just slightly outside her true body, concealing her true self within. Her face had a different shape, her eyes and hair a different color, her clothes replaced by a standard Zrukhora guard uniform. Such deception was almost as easy as breathing to her at this point. They had made sure of that.

The situation at the gate had only gotten worse in the minutes since they'd left it, the crowd ballooning to nearly twice its previous size. Without a word, she headed down the nearby stairs and walked towards the gate controls as if she had been guarding the castle for years. Nobody batted an eye. Arlette had learned long ago that the real secret to blending in was not in how you dressed or what you said. It was all about body language. Walk and act like you belonged and most people would assume that you did. The whole illusion thing didn’t hurt though.

The gate’s portcullis had one of the new counter-balance systems that made raising the heavy fence easy enough for a single person using a crank. That made her upcoming job much easier. All she needed now was a distraction... but what? What was something that could distract all the guards in the area long enough for her to get the portcullis raised? Suddenly she had an idea. Her concentration increased. Continually observing an illusion around herself was simple, but maintaining that illusion while also observing a second illusion nearby took much more mental effort. Still, it was nothing she couldn't handle.

"What do you peons think you're doing?" snapped a voice that caught the attention of every guard in the area. Just feet away stood Magistrate Cadfael Maddock. Many of the guards withered under his wrathful glare.

"Your Grace!"

"Open the gate! This instant!"

Arlette, who had strategically positioned herself to be the closest to the crank, grabbed the handle and began to turn it. The portcullis began to slowly rise, one finger-width every few seconds.

"Your Grace," protested the guard who seemed to be in charge of the gate, "you gave orders to allow nobody inside!"

"You dare question me?" the magistrate snarled.

"O-of course not, Your Grace!"

"Then get that gate open at once!"

The gap beneath the portcullis was nearly a full pace high by now, high enough for people to begin crawling through.

"Faster!" the Maddock cried. "Lift the gate by hand if you have to!"

Four guards, most likely all Feelers, ran over to the portcullis and began to lift it by hand. The gate's ascent accelerated, and Arlette turned her crank as fast as she could so as not to fall behind. As the gate continued to rise, more and more people began to stream through until finally an unstoppable stream of panicked townspeople rushed into the castle.

Arlette spotted her two companions amidst the crowd and released the crank.

"Let's go," she said as she rejoined them. The other two didn't bat an eye at her appearance, instead simply nodding as they began running south once more. Once they had made it a few paces from the rest of the guards, Arlette ceased her observations. Her disguise vanished in a flash, revealing her true self to the world again. The imposing Magistrate Maddock also disappeared without warning, leading to surprised cries from several of the guards behind them.

"It doesn't matter where you are," Basilli snorted. "All guards are idiots. Show them a figure of authority and you can get them to do anything."

As the three made their way south and away from the growing mass of people trying to enter the castle proper, Arlette decided this had definitely been the proper decision. Even with the delay needed to get into the castle, the direct route and the lack of people on the castle grounds meant that they were precious minutes ahead of where they would have been if they had tried to fight their way through the masses while circling the city center. In just a few scant minutes they reached the southern gate, where they saw a very similar situation to what they had found at the northern one: a large crowd pressing up against the metal portcullis with wild, fear-filled eyes and hard-faced guards keeping them from enterring the castle.

"Intruders!" came a shout before Arlette could even begin to think of how to get through to the other side. Arlette turned to see a woman approaching from the side of the gate, her ornamental armor marking her as some sort of guard commander. "Lord Maddock gave orders to allow nobody inside! Surrender yourselves immediately!"

Driven by the commander's shouts, the group of the guards at the gate began to move in, some of them approaching with weapons ready, while others began to observe their phenomena, ready to strike from a distance.

"Shit," Arlette muttered. She had been hoping it wouldn't have to come to this. "I got right half. Jaquet, you take the left half. Basilli, give me cover. Nobody hold back."

"Aye," they both responded.

Without another word, Arlette unsheathed her longsword and rushed towards the closest guard on her side, a woman of average height wielding a sword. After two steps to build up some momentum, Arlette observed a copy of herself overlapping her real body. Without warning, she took a quick step to her right while her copy took a step to her left, all the while maintaining her dash towards her chosen target. The woman jerked in surprise. Suddenly she had two identical opponents, each coming from a different direction! The fake Arlette swung for the woman's neck, while on the other side the real Arlette went for her exposed knee. Unable to block both, the poor guard was forced to choose which attack to block and chose the one heading for her neck. Arlette's sword carved into the guard's knee, severing tendons and ligaments on its way through. The woman cried out and fell toward her, half of her support suddenly gone. Without blinking, Arlette drew one of her daggers and embedded it into the woman's throat, then pulled the dying guard's body to the side to block an incoming fireball.

This was how Arlette fought. Unlike other Observers, her illusion-based talents couldn't kill from a distance, meaning she had to get up close with Feelers who had massive advantages in strength and speed. In order to survive, she had developed a fighting style that focused on her agility and using non-stop attacks, each attack presenting the opponent with a fifty-fifty choice where the punishment for choosing incorrectly was usually fatal. If the enemy chose correctly, she would simply follow up with a second attack, and then a third, etc. Nobody's coin could come up heads forever. It was a decidedly unfair tactic, which was one of the reasons that she loved it. Fairness on the battlefield only got you killed.

Still using the first guard as a shield, Arlette reached down and pulled out a throwing knife before whipping it at the source of the earlier fireball. The Observer did not react in time, catching the knife in his throat. Arlette's attention turned to a pair of guards, one closing in from each side. "Left!" she called to Basilli, launching herself towards the right guard, a spear-wielding large man. Once more she and her copy split, this time with her copy immediately tossing a throwing knife right at the man's right eye. She smirked as the blade flew straight at the target with deadly accuracy. One of the advantages to illusory weapons is that it was impossible to miss.

The guard twisted out of the way of the fake knife with inhuman speed, an action which forced him to swing his spear towards her copy to maintain his balance, just as she'd hoped. In a flash she was past spearhead and up by his side. The man, realizing his error, tried to ward her off with an unbalanced swing of his left arm. A normal hit such as that would mean little, but even an off-balanced swipe from a Feeler could break bones and send her flying. Should the Feeler's spirit be strong enough, it could even be deadly. Arlette ducked beneath the blow, having expected a reaction somewhat like that. As her second father always said, anticipation was required to survive on the battlefield.

An agonized scream came from behind her as the other guard was hit by a fireball. Basilli was doing his part to cover her, lighting up those who tried to sneak attack her and generally keeping the enemy Observers off her back. This allowed Arlette to concentrate fully on her target, who she immediately dispatched by stabbing her sword into his side between his front and rear plates of armor and slicing down and out through his intestines. The gutted man fell to the ground, desperately trying to keep his organs from spilling out and failing.

Arlette rolled to the side and stood up, her eyes alert for her next target, only to find none remaining. Two Observers stood near the visibly-shaken guard commander, each slowly backing away and ignoring the woman's demands that they continue to fight. Everybody else was already dead. Three corpses lay on the ground, their bodies ruined by her actions. Two other corpses were black and smoking, their skin charred beyond recognition. That was Basilli's handiwork. As for Jaquet...

The remains of seven bodies were strewn about him, all in various states of disrepair. Two had been disemboweled, their guts splayed out on the ground by their corpses. Three had been neatly beheaded, each in a single stroke. The last two looked like they had been literally sliced in twain, their upper and lower halves now lying separated in the grass.

Arlette had not even bothered to worry about Jaquet during the fight, as there was no way some mere guards could pose a threat to him. He was easily one of the strongest Feelers she had ever met, overwhelming opponents with incredible strength and blinding speed, and the only member of the Ivory Tears that she had never been able to defeat in a duel. All the others had fallen to her skill and unique talents, but in over three hundred tries she had never even touched a hair on the older man's body. If he had wanted to, Jaquet could have taken control of the band as the new boss at any point, but such an action would go against his very nature. When the two of them had first formed the band five years ago he'd made it a point to insist that she be the leader, calling it "far too much bloody work". It all worked out for the best, as he'd have gambled away the band's funds years ago if he had the chance.

Arlette turned back to the guard commander to find her running into the castle. She thought about going in after her, but immediately discarded the idea. Getting out as quickly as possible remained their number one priority. A soul-shaking roar sounded nearby as if to confirm her decision. The beast was coming closer.

As the three mercenaries climbed the stairs reached the top of the citadel wall, it became clear that the situation outside the city center was far worse than Arlette had thought. The northern quarter, or what she could see of it, was nothing but a sea of flames. The western quarter was little better, and the blaze looked to have spread into the eastern side of the city as well. She could see a wall of fire slowly moving south from both sides. They were almost out of time before the entire city was engulfed. She could only hope they could make it to their inn before it too became a fiery inferno.

The group opened the gate and fought their way through the stream of incoming townsfolk and out into the southern quarter. Like the north side, a large street led straight from the center area to the gate, allowing for easy travel between the two landmarks when the entire populace wasn't in a state of hysteria. Unfortunately, such wasn't the case today. The combination of the beast and the blaze had effectively herded the entire remaining citizenry into the southern quarter and sent them stampeding for either the central area or the city's southern gate. The group's shortcut had taken them from being at the back of the pack to the middle of it, but that meant there was still half a pack to push through if they wanted to escape with their lives. It was only a matter of time before the beast, attracted by the swarming masses, brought its devastation south. When that time came, they needed to be on a wagon heading out of the city. A wagon... She hadn't thought of that part until just now.

"Jaquet," she commanded, "go ahead and find us a wagon and get our stuff into it. Buy it, steal it, do whatever you have to do, but get us something we can use to get out of here."

"I can't leave ya guys, ya'll never make it through."

"We'll manage. Now go!"

With a grunt of acceptance, Jaquet took off ahead. He had been holding back in order to allow his companions to keep up, but now she knew he'd be able to make it to the inn in time. The remaining two mercenaries looked out at the chaotic swarm of people. Thousands pushed and shoved in the hopes of moving forward just one step faster. Cart accidents and other mishaps clogged the roadway, creating bottlenecks that slowed the entire street to a crawl and ratcheting up the panic for everybody involved. Only a high-level strength-enhancing Feeler like Jaquet would have the power to force his way through. They, on the other hand...

"Cut through the back streets?" Basilli asked.

Arlette just nodded and the two veered into a nearby alleyway. A rank smell that overpowered the smoky air hit her almost immediately, the odors of human feces and rot nearly sending her into a coughing fit. The narrow passage was littered with debris, turning the path into an obstacle course. The two clambered over barrels and splashed through rancid puddles as they worked their way through the maze-like passages. They were making good progress, certainly better than they would have made in the crowd, when suddenly a shadow passed over their heads.

Arlette swore as the beast landed directly in the center of the main southern avenue and set the entire street north of it ablaze with a fiery roar. Screams of anguish followed as thousands burned to death in mere seconds, a large swath of homes and stores going up in flames as well. She couldn't believe their luck. If the three of them hadn't split up, they would have surely died somewhere in that crowd.

With a second roar, the beast took off again, its large scaly wings almost throwing it into the air as it headed east. Though it was not the first time she had witnessed the creature, she still could not wrap her mind around its immense power. It seemed to dominate the world around it with its mere presence, as if reality itself was afraid of it.

"Arlette!" Basilli's voice broke her from her stupor.

"Right," she said as she shook her head. They continued on.

Arlette tried her best to avoid looking north when they finally rejoined the main road. Out of the corner of her eye she caught glimpses of a ferocious inferno, one that was spreading south with disturbing speed. They were close to the inn now. As they approached, a four-wheeled wagon rounded a nearby corner with a visibly frustrated Jaquet doing everything he could to control the frightened garoph that pulled it.

"Just in time," he said. "Get yer things, quickly! I don' know ‘ow long I can keep this fella from runnin’!"

Without even stopping, Arlette sprinted into the now vacant inn and entered her room, quickly packing away what little wasn't already ready to go. Within a few minutes she tottered down again, all her supplies either on her back or packed into the large chest propped up on her shoulder. Normally she would ask for assistance with moving the heavy object, but right now adrenaline was all she had to work with. It was barely enough. The contents of the chest, heavy and unevenly packed in her haste, shifted several times as she stumbled her way through the dining area, even causing her to trip once and falling flat on her face.

A wall of fire was nearly upon them when she made it out, its blaze now only several buildings away. She could feel the heat on her back and the roar of the flames seemed almost deafening. Basilli had beaten her to the wagon, so Jaquet set the vehicle in motion the moment she threw her belongings in and hopped on. As the buildings began to pass by and the distance between them and the fire widened, Arlette reached up and delicately grabbed her father's trinket as she said a prayer for the thousands that had already died in this horrific tragedy.

It was gone. The trinket, the entire necklace, it was gone! Without a second thought, Arlette leaped from the wagon and sprinted back towards the inn with all her might.

"Arlette! What’re ya doin’?!" she heard Jaquet cry, but she paid him no mind. She needed to find the necklace before it became lost forever!

The blaze had already begun to consume The Dancing Jaglioth by the time she made it back, but that didn't stop her as she ran in. She knew she'd had the necklace when she'd left her room, as she'd run down her mental checklist before she left to make sure she didn’t forget anything important. That meant it had to be somewhere in the dining area or on the ground outside. The heat was close to unbearable by now and it was hard to breathe, but Arlette got down on her hands and knees regardless and began to retrace her path. There it was, about a third of the way from the door, caught by a nail sticking out of a support beam. Of course, she realized. That was where she had fallen on her face. It must have caught on the nail and come off during the one time when she was too preoccupied to notice. She hurried back outside. Jaquet was going to kill her for this, but she didn't care as long as she had her trinket back.

Something grabbed her as she sprinted past the entrance to a nearby alley, nearly pulling her to the ground. It clutched at her arm, tugging urgently as Arlette steadied herself and looked over at her assailant. The teary, terrified eyes of a young woman nearly her own age stared back at her. She was barely dressed, wearing little more than a soot-covered skirt and a skimpy top that left little to the imagination. Elegant, ornate cuffs bound her wrists and ankles, connected by chains that limited her movement. They looked prettier than standard shackles, but they served the same purpose. A pleasure slave, Arlette realized — an unfortunate soul forced into a life that would make somebody envy even the lives of normal slaves.

"Please help me!" she girl pleaded as she clung to Arlette's side with the desperation of a drowning man clinging to a nearby floating log. "Please! Don't leave me to die!"

She knew that she shouldn't. Flames licked every building in the area now, and the heat had reached dangerous levels. She had to get out of the city before she succumbed, and before the creature turned its rage in her direction once more. How could she be expected to stop and help a cuffed slave who could barely shuffle along? Doing so would just doom them both.

But she couldn't. Maybe it was the faint glimmer of hope in the slave's eyes. Maybe she saw herself in the girl's struggle. Maybe, after all the horrible events of the last few hours, she simply wanted to reconfirm to herself that good things could still happen in this world. Whatever it was, something deep inside her would not allow her to abandon the young woman. She could only pray that she would not regret her decision in the future.

"Come on," she said, yanking the slave girl to her feet. The girl began to weep, overcome with emotion.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou," she sobbed repeatedly.

"Shut up and move!" Arlette cried, pulling the girl along with all her strength. The girl seemed to get the message, doing her best to shuffle and hop along side her savior as quickly as she could, which was still quite slow. Fortunately, Jaquet had managed to turn the cart around.

"What’re ya doin’!" He yelled over the din of a city in its death throes. "We ‘ave to get out o’ ‘ere! It's comin’!"

Arlette shoved the girl over the wagon's gate and clambered in herself as Jaquet turned the wagon back south and drove it towards the city exit at a furious pace. Only then did Arlette turn and and see the beast as it approached, flying directly over the main road as gouts of flame spewed from its massive maw, roasting everything before it. The beast was getting closer.

Arlette took a peek behind her and then back at the beast and a pang of dread rushed through her as it became clear that they would not be making it in time, and there was nothing she could do. This was a creature that could not be stopped. It feared nothing...

An idea came to her. She had no idea if it would work, and it was going to seriously cost her, but it was the best shot she had. She sighed and concentrated, putting everything she had into one observation.

A cry of challenge echoed off the nearby wall as a second beast, much like the first, swooped down from the east. The first behemoth released an earth-shattering roar of fury in return, suddenly veering towards the newcomer. As they neared, the beast brought all four of its mighty limbs upwards, claws raised, and it collided with the sudden newcomer... only to pass right through its challenger. The second beast vanished as the original fell to the ground in shock and rage.

Arlette felt her body go limp, her mind and spirit filling with a fog of pain as she slumped over onto the lap of the trembling slave girl. She had over-reached, and she would be paying the price for such a massive exertion for at least the next week. Creating an illusion of such magnitude was incredibly taxing normally. To generate one from such a distance had taken everything she'd possessed and then so much more. But it had been worth it. She'd bought them the time they needed to make it through the gate.

The beast rampaged back towards the center of the city as the wagon wheels tumbled over a thousand paces, then two thousand. Arlette fought to keep her eyes open against the strengthening haze inside her mind, watching as the beast for the first time turned its attention on the central citadel. The walls posed little problem as it glided right over them and latched onto the castle itself, wrapping itself around the tallest tower and bellowing its conquest.

Then it roared again, only this time, Arlette could swear it was weaker, or so it seemed in her increasingly cloudy mind. She wasn't sure, given that so much of her willpower was focused on the losing battle to stay conscious, but it almost sounded like the beast was in pain. A bright white glow began to leak from its glowing golden eyes as it cried out again. Yes, that was most definitely pain. The glow surrounded the beast as it hung from the castle, its bulk visible from everywhere around the city, the aura intensifying as the creature continued to bellow in pain.

Suddenly, without warning, the beast gave a final cry. Blinding brightness blotted out Arlette's hazy view of the city and a roar louder and more terrible than anything she could imagine shook her to her soul. The last thing she witnessed through the fog before she collapsed into unconsciousness was a wall of white engulfing the city and gaining on them quickly.