The attacks didn’t stop – each wasn’t very powerful, especially once the Sethans started to organise themselves better and ensure that there were enough people with magical attacks to destroy the wraiths. Zarazonnia was the most skilled at dealing with them, her enchanted blades easily able to destroy the physical body and then the ghostly remnant as well. For anyone else, it took several people working in conjunction, with the danger of getting the timing wrong and the spirit being able to possess someone.

Now it was night-time, the only parts of the castle that were visible were the signal-lanterns on the towers, soldiers just about visible around them. They’d be on split-shifts, some poor sods having to stay up through the night, everyone likely only sleeping lightly in case of attack. Zarazonnia’s encampment wasn’t very well organised, even with the threat of attack, and the barricades were all facing towards the castle.

Stathis was now on one of the surrounding hills, with a small group of Sethans. She had gone out to try and scout for wherever the things were coming from, and a group had decided to follow her. She turned, almost jumping backwards when part of a nearby scrub moved, revealing itself to be one of the Sethans, their cloak blending in with the terrain, especially in the low light, with only one moon anywhere near full.

‘You’d make a good scout! Almost didn’t see you there.’ They didn’t move further, as Stathis looked around, managing to pick up at least two more. ‘You’ve adjusted well to the different terrain, it didn’t look like you had much greenery back home.’

Stathis could just about see his look of surprise. ‘I am impressed you can see me. Most of your kind are virtually blind in the darkness. Although you must be skilled to be allowed to serve the Karhacki. She is most potent! Still far weaker than the Iron Serpent, but her powers, especially in the fighting arena, were most impressive. A shame about her daughter, but I’m sure she will be able to find a strong man to father another.’

‘That wasn’t her daughter! Skotadi was her apprentice. Although I’m not quite sure how they met, that was a bit murky.’

‘A name of power! Few would dare claim such a name for themselves. The girl had pride, if nothing else. A shame she was slain. But for now, we must hunt.’

Another patch of darkness moved, Stathis’ eyes straining until she saw that it was just a bush, moving in the wind.

‘This place is very different than the Ash. A lot more things to hide behind, and less things that try to bite me! No scorpions or…’ He said a long and spiky-sounding word that Stathis didn’t even try to follow, but that was probably the word for something horribly poisonous and lethal.

‘Yeah, there’s some monsters to watch out for, but they’re generally large enough to see, and will attack you, rather than trying to poison you. I’d hope there’s not much around here, but there can be ankhegs or owlbears or other beasties. I’d hope no damn dragons or anything though!’

Another bush rustled, an arm appearing, fingers making movements that Stathis couldn’t make out.

‘It’s safe to continue. There is prey nearby.’

They moved further up the hill, short and scrubby grass giving grip underfoot, although Stathis was acutely aware of how much noise she was making compared to the others, who were able to move with utter silence through the night, while even with her best attempts, she was still making scraping and creaking noises.

When they reached the crest of the hill, Stathis looked back behind herself – the walls of the castle could be seen, and they were high enough that she could see into the walls somewhat. It was far enough away that even an elven archer would struggle to land any shots. Siege weapons, maybe, although the uneven ground wouldn’t be the best place for them. She could see more of the spell-sigil-whatever-it-was in the middle, flaring brightly with clear light. In the darkness, it was easier to see how complicated the shape was, lines weaving around and criss-crossing each other. It was large enough that it must be doing something, a magical glyph like that must be taking power from somewhere and using it for something, beyond the magical protective aura.

A hand tapped against her armour, making it lightly ding from the impact, and she froze, dropping into a half-squat, turning back ahead, away from the castle. Some of the darkness blurred, something moving ahead of them. She tried to make out where the other Sethans were, able to pick out at least three vague shapes.

The darkness shifted again, a sleek shaft of metal suddenly propelling itself forward through the night. As it passed through the blur, it slowed somewhat, the trajectory altering before it vanished from sight. It was followed by a flurry of magical bolts, fire and ice lighting up the night with blue and red, giving a sudden burst of light and colour amongst the blacks and greys.

They slammed into one of the phantom-shadows, the dark form alight with fire. It didn’t seem to care, moving forward with silent grace, arms outstretched. Another volley of bolts struck into it, allowing Stathis to see its shape more clearly. It was quite tough, walking forward through the attacks, arms outstretched.

It managed to touch one of the Sethans, the shadowy form melting from view, fading into them. Stathis managed to jump in the way as a firebolt lanced forward, towards the possessed Sethan. She blocked it with her shield, her armour taking another hit as the Sethan lashed out at her. Their weapons were reinforced metal spikes on their fists – probably very impressive in the arena, but they didn’t have the space to wind up for a proper punch, the strike weak and feeble.

She slammed her shield forward, hitting them squarely in the chest. They stumbled backwards, and she could see their eyes starting to glow red, making them easy to see in the darkness. They punched out at her again, and she didn’t even bother trying to dodge, trusting her breastplate to take the impact, punching them in the head with the pommel of her sword. Their own movements were slower than Stathis expected, but that made it easier just to shove them backwards.

Their feet scrabbled backwards, trying to find purchase on the ground, before Stathis shoved at them again, this time managing to knock them over. She stamped down on them, feeling slightly bad about it, but wanting to make sure they wouldn’t just jump up. Two more of the Sethans jumped onto them, dogpiling them and making sure they stayed down, wrestling them into place, twisting their arms and legs around.

‘Tie them up!’

Rope wrapped and knotted around their limbs, leaving them wriggling and bound. At least the possessing spirit didn’t seem to have the ability to leave the body without being forced, or to speak, although they were trying to break free, and even tried to bite at someone that got too close.

‘Two of you need to take them back to the camp. Tie them down with the others. Everyone else, there’s more of those things out there, we need to keep sweeping.’

The struggling captive was swiftly picked up, two of the Sethans lugging them away.

‘Those things are a nightmare to see in the dark! Shame there’s no fires.’

A firebolt shot out, sparking against a scrubby bush. A few twigs burst into brief and fitful fire, before guttering out.

‘Don’t start a damn bushfire! If it goes up, then the whole countryside goes up. This isn’t a desert, there’s a lot here that’ll catch fire if you’re not careful. And we’re already stuck between two forces, it’ll be even worse if everything is on fire as well. We need to try and find where the hell they’re coming from. They’ve got fresh weapons, so some bastard’s summoning the damn things, and they’re probably not far away.’

‘You speak as one in command. Not what I expected from the toy of a Karhacki.’

‘I’m not her toy! It’s complicated. And she normally takes orders from me.’

‘Hmm, I have heard of some that like to command in public and be commanded in…’

Stathis resisted the urge to groan, before freezing as another one of them moved close. ‘There’s a group of them coming.’

‘We need to try and break them up before they get closer. Those of you with magical attacks, get ready with them. The rest of you, get ready to jump on anybody that gets possessed. And watch out not to get ambushed!’

A snap-burst of fire made the next conflict easy to see, a bolt of fire streaking through the darkness and impacting against another of the possessed zombie-things, illuminating it for just a second. Stathis could see more of the things, their eyes just about visible as red dots.

‘You are an impressive fighter. Although wrapping yourself in steel seems rather cowardly.’

Stathis couldn’t be bothered to respond as she charged, thankful that the ground was relatively clear and open. The creatures were faster and tougher than regular zombies, but not by much, the body giving way under her sword-strike. It looked fresh, or at least well-preserved, without having the pinched-in and dry cheeks of a long-dead body. It made it slightly better that it didn’t have any distinguishing marks, at least that she could see, making it easier to think of it as a “monster” rather than a “dead person”. Hopefully they hadn’t been killed just for this!

Even with her blade stuck into its arm, the creature didn’t stop attack, arms reaching forward, a sword smacking against Stathis’ breastplate. It had enough force that she felt the impact, metal banging against metal and angling off the curved cuirass. She heard a grunt of pain as someone else got sliced. ‘See! That’s why I wear armour!’

An attack swung in from the side, moonlight shining off a blade – they must be fresh, to have new-forged blades – before she deflected it with her shield and counter-attacked. These ones didn’t make any noise, not reacting to the thrust, as she sidestepped a clumsy attack, then sliced out at a throat, a blow that would have been fatal to anyone living, but was little more than an irritation to something already dead.

Sandwiched between the two of them, she had to keep moving, blocking and parrying attacks, a few slipping through and rattling her armour, as she had to wear them both down, moving from correct and targeted strikes to just slicing off hunks of meat and trying to shatter bones through sheer brute force.

One slowed, a thick rime of frost appearing over an arm, the rest of its visible flesh starting to turn blue. Stathis took the opening, raising her sword high and bringing it crashing down, feeling the skull shatter under the impact, before smashing in with another blow from the side, the thick bone giving way and breaking apart, rotted brains oozing out.

It sank to the floor and she slammed her shield at the other one, a bolt of fire flicking into it, burning at tattered clothing. It jolted backwards, giving her an opening to plant her feet solidly and swipe with her sword again, smashing through a ribcage, bone shattering as her blade lodged into the spine. She kicked them off, their body falling backwards, giving her the chance to stamp downwards and hopefully finish it off, bone splintering.

A chill force touched her arm, penetrating through her armour, the shadowy wraith boiling out of the body, red eyes glinting at her. She could hear an ethereal babbling, incoherent and pained sounds. It stared at her, bright crimson filling her vision, a spark of fire streaking through the air and narrowly missing it. Her body slowed to a stop, refusing to obey her commands as it slid into her, icy and cold.

Warm, bright light flared out of her, illuminating the night with warm sunlight, the grass rippling beneath her feet, everything suddenly visible in perfect clarity, the nearby Sethans swearing as they shielded their eyes from the blaze of light. The babbling whimper suddenly stopped, a pained gasp turning to a sound of relief, warmth flooding through her body. The shadow-thing was visible now, like inverted heat-haze of rippling shadow, a face suddenly flashing into clear vision, a tormented expression becoming one at peace.

After it faded, Stathis was still glowing, the solar glow being shed, washing over her armour, lighting up the area. She must be visible for miles around! As the other spectre lunged at her, she swung her sword at it, feeling a slight resistance in their air, the shape fading and disintegrating to nothingness.

Even when they were both defeated, she was still shining brightly. She checked behind herself, awkwardly trying to twist, seeing that at least her wings hadn’t come up. The Sethans were wincing, eyes obviously stung by the sudden light, moving towards her rather than risk being ambushed in the dark.

Another of the creatures shambled forward, sword catching the light. As it entered the glowing area of sunlight, it slowed even further, before falling to its knees, face staring up at her, arms going slack and dropping the weapon. Stathis raised her weapon to attack, but it slumped downwards before she reached it, a shadowy mist appearing, then fading away.

Stathis took a calming breath, trying to will the light to fade, closing her eyes for a second. When she opened them, the light was still there, the grass around her a brilliant and vivid green before falling into darkness.

The Sethans, at least those that had managed to adjust to the blazing light, were looking at her with concern. She must be visible from miles away! If whoever was commanding them was keeping a lookout, then it would be pretty damn obvious where she was.

One of the Sethans made a gesture with his hand, although it didn’t seem to be an attack. Stathis tried to make it look as though this had been planned.

‘I can’t maintain this for long, so we should try and keep attacking, break up any packs. Let’s go!’

‘…Yes, of course. We shall serve as the scouts, and you the blade.’ They started to fade into the shadows, Stathis unable to see them in the darkness, her own night vision obliterated by the light she emitted. ‘This way!’

They weren’t immediately attacking her, which was something. Although this would probably spark a lot of unwanted rumours!