Stathis felt as though she’d barely rested when someone knocked on the door, a fist rattling the wood. With the omnipresent gloom, she had no idea if it was “day” or “night”, at least as much as those terms still applied, but her head felt groggy still, the bruises she’d sustained aching as she levered herself off the crude bed. The door rattled again, before opening, Pajaran stepping through.

‘Armour on, soldier!’

‘Eugh, what’s happening? What time is it?’

‘No idea, actually. You’ve been down for a few hours, and I think it’s actual night now. But Hakara’s found something, and it looks bad.’

Stathis winced as she strapped her armour back on, Pajaran helped her, fingers buckling straps tightly shut, metal plates settling over her body. It protected her well, but it got uncomfortable after a while! Although at least it was a lot easier to get into with Pajaran helping, strapping each piece in, tweaking and tugging them into the proper configuration.

‘She manage to get some magic working?’

‘Through the obelisks. After taking a quick rest! I managed to force her to lay down for a bit, although had to threaten to club her. I wonder if Parth can find some berries to knock her out or something?’

‘I don’t think we’re quite at that point yet, but that might be needed if she keeps working all the time. So what’s going on?’

‘I’m not too sure of the details, but she managed to use the obelisks for divination. There’s a lot of them scattered about! There’s something going on at one of them though. Lots of undead, and that big armoured guy.’

Stathis squared her shoulders, stretching her arms out to make sure everything was properly in place before taking her sword and shield and leaving the room.

It might just have been that she had been sleeping, but it seemed even darker now, vision limited to a few paces. Stathis could hear other people moving around, and the occasional curse as someone stumbled into something. She raised a hand, palm up, then focused, a mote of light flickering into existence, shedding light around her. Seeing everything with actual colour seemed strange, and it cut off abruptly, illuminating no more than a dozen paces around her. Several people cursed again, covering their eyes until their vision adjusted, but at least now she could see well enough not to walk into things.

A dissonant crackle could be heard above the general background noise, and Stathis headed towards that. As she walked, people and buildings emerged from the darkness, the lack of light so utter that, outside of the bubble of light, there was no illumination at all, the sky above solid darkness. Stathis felt a momentary stab of vertigo as she looked up, as though the sky would swallow her up, before looking back down, grounding herself when she could see things again.

The obelisk emerged from the darkness, the gleaming black slab drinking in the light, making it reflect and ripple within itself. The others were already there, Hakara controlling the slow orbits of several crystal clusters – the usual blue ones with darker shards tied to them by bronze wire, spinning and twisting in drunken and unbalanced orbits. Janaxia winced and looked away from the light, her shadow dancing, showing rather more spikes and horns than her own body had.

‘What have you found? Without making my head hurt, please?’

Hakara bent and wriggled her fingers, softly whispering something, one of the crystal clusters coming to rest above her hand.

‘I enlisted Janaxia’s assistance and was able to make a breakthrough! It seems her own essence resonates with that of the obelisks. So I have managed to use her powers and skill to create a divinatory matrix. Although it takes focus, it is possible to view what is occurring at some of the other obelisks. Most seem to be scattered throughout the forest, but one seems to be the focus of quite a lot of activity. Let me see if I can find it.’ She incanted a spell, a blue-tinged slash appearing in the air above her hand. It showed an empty stretch of forest, everything in dull greys, washed of colours. ‘I modified the spell to imbue the portals with some capacity to see without light.’

The image flickered elsewhere, a deer munching grass, eyes shining brightly as it looked up for a moment. It flashed through several stretches of empty forest, without anything more exciting than random forest creatures, before there was sudden movement.

The angle was set high, looking down on an area cleared of trees, ragged stumps and felled logs visible. Zombies and skeletons shambled about the place, working as labourers, dragging a felled tree out of the way and tossing it aside. More of them were digging downwards, using their hands to fling earth away, the stuff piling up into heaps. As Stathis watched, a heap of it started sliding, unable to contain it’s own weight, partially filling in the hole it had been dragged from. Undaunted, the undead within it kept moving, starting to dig themselves out of the pit.

‘That looks like quite a force! Although I can’t see many weapons. Do you know how far away it is?’

It was Kivata’s turn to step forward, her hands covered with ash-inked symbols, nails daubed black, in a way that seemed definitely “functional” rather than “aesthetic”. She let her arms drop limply to her waist, before one slowly came up, pointing upwards and to her side, like a string was attached to her wrist, the ash writhing into mist.

‘It is… close, I think. Less than ten miles?’

‘Very close! If it wasn’t for the damn darkness, we’d be able to see it, maybe. Janaxia, can you see anything over there?’

Janaxia shook her head, horn-medallions tinkling. ‘My vision, potent though it is, does still have some limitations. In that direction, I can see an impressive amount of trees, and some rather dull-looking hills. The terrain here is sufficiently uneven that anything there is likely hidden.’

‘Has anyone seen Parth? She might have scouted over that way.’ She looked around, but there was no sign of the elf. ‘Is she out again? Well, if she’d seen anything like that she would have reported it. Ten miles puts it into attacking range. Can you tell what they’re doing?’

The image rotated a little – it was overlooking everything, presumably peering off an obelisk itself somehow. From the amount of piles of earth, the undead had been doing a lot of digging, breaking through layers of ancient roots, tearing up old trees and dragging them aside.

Hakara uttered a throat-torturing syllable and the image focused, although everything around the edges went blurry, making Stathis’ eyes strain.

‘It looks like there’s something underneath? There, it looks like stone or brick, doesn’t it?’ Hakara pointed to an area of deeper digging, where the grey dirt gave way to darker stone, looking too evenly shaped to be a natural formation. With the undead in the way, it was hard to tell, but it looked like it followed a straight and steady line.

Janaxia pushed her way to the front, squinting as she tried to make out details. ‘Hmmm, it’s a shame it’s a somewhat fuzzy. But I believe those to be warding glyphs? There, where that…’ A skeleton suddenly exploded, bones turning to dust and shrapnel, something flashing for a moment with bright light. ‘Ah, yes. Some form of protection, would you not agree?’

Hakara nodded. ‘Yes. Although discharged upon use, so with sufficient bodies, it will be possible to break through.’ The rest of the creatures continued to work, unperturbed by the explosive removal of one of their companions.

‘Shit. We’ve got no way of knowing how long until they manage to get into there, but it probably won’t be good when they do. Whatever Kinnevar hid down there, he went to quite some lengths to keep it hidden.’

Yes, I do rather think that should be my inheritance. Although perhaps Kita could have a little, to buy some nicer clothing? She is terribly drab.

‘We can sort that out if we ever get in there! But it’s not far away? It might be possible to launch a raid – that place doesn’t look very defensible. That armoured guy is probably around, but will all of us, we can probably deal with him. I hope! Pajaran, you can deal with the undead, can’t you?’

‘Not all of them! But I can drive some of them off, give everyone else a chance to smash them apart and stuff.’ She looked at the image. ‘Where’s whoever raised them all? Someone must have done it, isn’t it meant to be hard to raise and control that many at once?’

Janaxia answered. ‘Likely Peresperan, who is probably somewhere more comfortable. At least relatively – if his energies are focused on controlling and maintaining them, he may be easier to destroy. The armoured figure was his hireling, so it seems likely they are still together. And he was previously tasked with digging up lost treasures, so it is likely that he has a certain amount of knowledge regarding such things.’

‘You up for that, then?’

A momentary look of doubt and fear flashed over Janaxia’s face, before she took a deep breath and calmed herself. She flicked her wrist, a bolt of darkness snapping out and vanishing from view. ‘I imagine he will succumb to a group attack – he has some combat experience, but is ill-practiced to being assaulted from multiple directions at once.’

‘There’s still those vampires though. We out-number them, but we don’t want to leave this place too unprotected.’ Stathis tried to run through the numbers in her head. Even with the Iristari soldiers here, it was still too unprotected against any serious assault – it could turn aside standard zombies or skeletons, but anything more powerful would be able to punch straight through. ‘Any ideas on how we should split our forces?’

Semari shrugged. ‘Hey, that’s, like, your job. You’re the leader, don’t try and put it on us!’

‘For once, I concur with Semari. You have had, by all accounts, the finest and most expensive of educations – were you not trained specifically for such scenarios?’ Janaxia was unsympathetic, as Stathis looked at Pajaran for sympathy, getting none.

‘Yup, they’re right. We’ve not got the forces to go around, so you’re going to have to make the call.’

Stathis sighed. ‘Fine. Pajaran, you have to come, you’re the best at dealing with that number of undead. Janaxia, you can come deal with your brother and any weird magical stuff. Vrintar, you can stay here – if it goes to shit, you can probably hold them off for a bit. Brina, stay here and give any support needed. Hakara, we might need you to deal with magical stuff, and your spells can destroy lots of zombies, which we’ll need.’ Semari was looking at her expectantly, head bobbing from side-to-side. ‘Semari, you’re coming with us, it’ll be good to have a scout. If we find Parth out there, we can bring her along as well. The Iristari can stay here to try and defend the place if anything goes wrong as well – they’re able to hold the line, although I don’t think they’ll do to well against those vampires or anything heavier.’

Masterfully done. Perhaps you should exercise your authority more often? It certainly seems to resolve matters swiftly. Although I can’t help but note you appear to be assuming command of the Iristari detachment with them still being unaware of your right to do so.

Stathis waved Janaxia’s protests away, getting odd looks from the others, presumably not privy to her comments. ‘I’ll have a word with them before we leave. Janaxia, how healed is Ophalissia? I don’t think she can turn undead to stone, but she might be useful if there’s anything more normal that attacks.’

‘She is of hardy stock, and has healed well. Although she prefers a less coordinated form of warfare, she will be able to lead her own followers. And, of course, I have issued orders to Sen to command the Sethans to the defence of this place. Although they may not be the most potent of fighters.’ And have you informed your countrymen of their presence?

‘Not yet! I’ll do it before we go.’

Kindly do. It may cause awkward problems otherwise. Especially with a medusa present as well. ‘Some people will leap to conclusions, and you have quite enough to trouble yourself over without a… “friendly fire incident”, I believe is the phrase?’

‘OK, OK, I’ll go and do it! Everyone else, go and get ready.’

Janaxia nodded, looking annoyingly smug. Excellent. Now, I will meditate in preparation.

‘You don’t have long enough for a nap!’ Janaxia turned around with enough force to make her hair flick outwards, not bothering to respond as she stalked away, her clothing rustling around herself, making her vanish into the darkness. Stathis sighed again. ‘Pajaran, mind coming with me to try and explain this? Just in case I get anything wrong.’

‘Can’t you take Brina? She’s got some formal title or something hasn’t she?’

‘Yeah, but she’s meant to be in Cormontara. And soldiers don’t trust spies. Well, diplomat, technically, but close enough. And you’ve got a rank, don’t you?’

‘Yeah, Private. I went off with you, remember? Didn’t really serve with distinction, because I was too busy protecting the whatever-your-rank-was back then. You could make this a lot easier by just commanding them. Glow up at them, show them you’re not evil. Say that you’ve convinced everyone to fight against the darkness together. Grand alliance or something. That’s going to go down better than all of a sudden them noticing there’s people here with rather more scales and fangs than normal. And there’s a medusa as well, which is really something people should know about in advance.’

‘True.’ Stathis sighed. ‘Can you at least come with me? Make it look like I’ve got some sort of command structure. Although formally speaking, I’m sort of wanted, so this might get complicated.’

‘For someone sworn never to lie, you seem pretty good at it.’

‘It’s not lying! Just… being selective.’

‘Hmm. I still remember you sneaking away all the time from the barracks. Turned out you were flying up to the castle to get food and share it around! Couldn’t believe it the first time I saw you flying in, wings glowing, with bags full of food to hand out. And you let everyone believe you had rich parents.’

‘That wasn’t wrong, was it?’

‘Yeah, but there’s a bit of a difference between “daughter of some merchant that’s sneaking food in because the rations are shit” and “daughter of the commander of the whole damn place”. No wonder everyone was so freaked out when they found out.’

‘Eugh, that was bloody awkward.’

‘Yeah. Because you hadn’t told anyone to start with! Although, admittedly, I can see why. Training with the Iristari heir would have made everyone act up. Half the group would’ve treated you with kid gloves, the other half would have gone all-out to prove themselves against you. Anyway, let’s go before you find an excuse not to do it. Because I know that’s what you want to do.’

Stathis let herself be shoved from behind, Pajaran pushing her towards where the Iristari had camped up, taking over several buildings, even stationing guards, managing to keep their discipline. One of them saluted but didn’t stand down as Stathis approached, Pajaran not seeing and still pushing, before poking her head around and seeing why Stathis had stopped.

‘She needs to speak to the officer in charge. Important business.’ She looked up at Stathis with a smirk. ‘Very important business.’

Stathis rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah. If you could get him. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.’

Fortunately, she wasn’t waiting long, the officer stepping into sight, wincing at the shard of light in Stathis’ hand. She closed her palm, dimming the glow, casting everything into a more comfortable half-light. He didn’t salute, but followed as Stathis walked a short distance away, not wanting to have this discussion where everyone could hear.

‘Um, so…’ She heard Pajaran snicker. ‘I’ll be going out with some of my group, we think there’s enemy movement close by. While I’m gone, you’re probably the person best qualified to lead the defence, so you’ll be in charge. Also, there’s a medusa and her men here, on our side. She’s not an enemy. Although don’t look at her, obviously.’

‘A… medusa? Well, they are intelligent, so I can see why they might ally with the locals, rather than the undead. Are you sure they’re not a turncoat?’

‘They were fighting some vampires when we met her, so it’s possible but unlikely. I’m not sure if her powers work on undead, but she’s good with a bow, and her men can fight as well. They’re not disciplined, but they’re better than the townsfolk. There’s also, um, some Sethans. Very long story, but they’re here now.’

‘Under guard?’

‘They’re refugees. One of my party is acting as the liaison, as she can speak their language. They’re mostly civilians, although have some magical powers that may be useful against ghosts and other creatures that cannot be hit with normal weapons. Their own leader is called Sen – she can speak our language.’

‘This seems…’

‘Yeah, I know, it’s highly irregular. Things just kind of ended up this way – trust me, it wasn’t by design. Lots of magical transportation that went very wrong. But they’re no threat. Well, I think a few of them might be poisonous if they bite you, but that shouldn’t come up. We helped escort them through the hills, which is how we ended up here.’

‘Sethans though? This is a long way from their homeland, and they are ruled by demons. According to intelligence, The Uth Tremari were allied with them. They should be kept under watch, just in case there are any spies amongst them.’

‘Even if there are, there’s no way to get messages any distance. If Hakara can’t, no-one else will be able to, either. I’m pretty sure any alliance they had broke down as well. I’m sure of it, in fact – I saw them fighting before travelling here. This lot were mostly servants and the like. They’d like to get home, but can’t really do that, so they’re sort of stuck here. If you need any runners, they can do that though, to spare your men.’

There was a long pause, a very long pause, before he responded. ‘Very well. If they can aid us, then they should be put to use. We’ll certainly need all the aid we can get.’

Pajaran coughed again, nudging her elbow into Stathis’ flanks hard enough to make armour clang. ‘I think there’s something else, isn’t there?’

Stathis sighed. ‘Yes. Um, so, I’m in charge.’

‘Yes, you certainly seem to be a skilled fighter. Your work here has been commendable, for such a small settlement.’

‘No, I mean…’ She looked at Pajaran, who shrugged her shoulders, gesturing at Stathis to continue. ‘Of you and your men. By rank.’ She opened her hand, letting the light shine out more brightly, letting wings blaze out from her back for a moment. He looked away, dazed by the brightness of the light. ‘You must have come up through the Academy after I left, but I’m Stathis of the Iristari. And I’m not dead or mind-controlled, it’s just… quite complicated. A lot happened and I’ve not had the chance to sort it out with Mother yet.’

His face went through a rapid sequence of emotions, from shock to disbelief, his hand moving towards his sword. ‘There are orders out for your apprehension. And for one of your companions.’

‘Janaxia? Yeah, I know. Given the circumstances, probably best not to follow through on that. Plus she’s been in a pissy mood recently. But she’s turned traitor on the rest of her family. Not that she was very loyal to them to begin with, but I doubt she would have any objections to fighting them. Her siblings she’d probably want to take down.’

He looked her up and down, eyes scanning over her.

‘I’m not sure if there’s much I can do to verify what I say, but it would be a very crazy thing to make up.’

‘I’m Pajaran of the Iron Shield. I’m a private, because I’m really bad at leveraging personal relationships for promotions. You might have heard of me as the one stuck in the goddam ice for several years, because this one was too damn busy to get me out.’ She pointed at Stathis.

‘Hey, that everfrost stuff is hard to escape from! You should thank Janaxia, anyway, she did something to pop you out.’

‘As long as she doesn’t eat my damn soul, then I guess I’ll get her a drink sometime.’ She crossed her arms over her body and shivered. ‘I still dream about that sometimes! Being stuck in there. Although this isn’t really the time or place to discuss it. She’s in charge, if you don’t like it, then, well, tough.’

Stathis smiled, trying to be more reassuring. ‘Given the circumstances, us all fighting would be a complete shitshow. So for now, we all fight the undead, get that sorted, and then we can figure something out? Although I’d appreciate you not telling your men, just tell them to obey me if something needs it.’

‘Stathis!’

‘What? It’s not lying, just convenient!’

Pajaran was shaking her head in disbelief. The captain was looking at her with shock on his face, although he wasn’t going for his sword any more, then looking at the faint traces of the wings behind her. ‘It really is you, isn’t it? I heard that you were seen when Per Tolith was attacked. One of the towers fell, and a figure with wings of light pulled several people to safety.’

‘That was me, yeah. Before going through one of the teleport gates and ending up miles from anywhere and everything got messed up. And that was after getting my body back.’

He dropped to one knee, head bowed.

‘OK, you don’t need to do that. Although it’s better than trying to grab me. And don’t do anything crazy. Keep the place safe, and hopefully I won’t be gone too long. I’m leaving Vrintar behind – she’s quite powerful, but needs to get in close to be useful. Brina as well – she has some magical abilities that might be useful in support. If you could debrief her as well – she’s from the intelligence division, but we’ve been out of touch.’

‘Of course, Lady Stathis.’

‘And you don’t need to use my title! Just Stathis will be fine. Just make sure your men don’t get surprised by any of the more unusual allies. Stick to fighting the undead, and we might get through this. And don’t get all weird and reverent.’ She helped him stand up. ‘Until I’m back, you’re in charge.’

‘Yes, uh… Stathis. I heard the stories about you.’

‘They’re probably exaggerated. But hold the line, good and steady. And then we might get through this.’