XXXIII. The Art of Dying

The impromptu bunker shuddered as the snarling beasts outside hurled their bodies against the door. Fiora glanced around in dismay, most of her men were either being healed or awaiting healing. None were fit to take up position on the wall again. Not that it would matter, it had been overrun almost immediately. She grabbed a passing nun brusquely by the arm, causing her to drop her bundle of bandages.

“I need at least three.”

The nun wearily shook her head. “These men were on the verge of death; I cannot send them out as they are now.”

“I just need them to stand and hold the line. Get them mobile and send them out there!” Fiora hissed as she stormed past the frazzled cleric.

Fiora climbed the rickety stairs up onto the crumbling rampart. Mages flung spells down to the horde of beasts below as wounded soldiers continually knocked over ladders or took potshots at the ballsy beast that attempted to scale the wall with claws alone. The city was overrun, as she had planned for, but they had lost their first two defensive positions and were now holed up in a corner barracks. They were at the last ditch, with enemies on all sides.

Fiora ducked a wild swing from a reanimated soldier and plunged her sword into its chest, kicking her former subordinate off into the frothing sea of dusk borne below. She had started the engagement with about thirty fewer soldiers than expected. Ransom’s disappearance was expected, but Emarosa, Maleah and Senka were particularly troubling. These were people she counted as friends, more or less. With their abandonment, any mage with the ability to teleport did so, and left the camp for god’s knew where. Hopefully they’d die in the wilderness for their cowardice.

Fiora let out a ferocious yell as she dug her blade deep into the torso of a faceless demon with wicked teeth and claws. As black blood gushed from its wound, she placed a boot on its throat and wrenched her blade free. The thud of a ladder hitting the rampart caused her to spin around and decapitate the undead warrior on the top rung before kicking the ladder back down onto the throng.

Most of her rage was not directed at the deserters however, or even the demons for that matter. Rowena had been her staunchest ally, and they had shared something she had thought was special together. Even so, the feckless elf couldn’t even wait till nightfall before abandoning them on the eve of battle.

A terrified scream caught her attention, and Fiora turned just in time to see the young mage- Caroline- dragged over the edge by hungry and rapacious demons. Fiora swore and breathlessly charged over to dispatch three of demons that had mounted the wall and kicked down their ladder. An arrow whizzed by her head, nearly causing her to fall over the rampart into the sea of demons below. An ashen faced private grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

“Sorry major, I was aiming for the –“

“It's fine!” Fiora snapped. “Where is Gunther”

“The first sergeant? He’s dead…”

“Fuck.” Fiora wiped the sweat from her brow, looking in dismay at her hand covered in blood. “Save your arrow for those things climbing the walls, if they get up here, use your blade.”

The gate to the training yard exploded behind them, sending splinters of wood and pig iron raining over them. Fiora ducked and spun around to witness the horde of demons of every class and ilk swarming through the gate, having their way with clerics and wounded men barely able to hold their blade. She leveled her blade and prepared to shout out a command, but was met by the thud of several ladders being raised at once. Armored lizards that walked like men, faceless wraiths and burly headless men with mouths upon their chest leapt onto the wall followed by a swarm of undead and other monstrosities.

Fiora slashed the throat of the nearest lizard as her soldier was dragged screaming to his death. An undead soldier swung its rusted axe, and she effortlessly batted it away, cleaving the corpse at the chest on the backswing. She took off, knocking over ladders and leaping over fallen comrades as she attempted to fight her way down into the bunker. An errant club knocked her from the ramparts down into the melee of the yard. A monk embraced the dawn as he helped her to her feet, but was quickly cut down. Two soldiers, both bloody and one missing an arm, attempted to shield her as they made their way to the bunker. Both men met quick ends.

Fiora raised her sword and let out a wild yell as she thrust it into an attacker, unaware of the lizard on her flank, its jagged blade in mid swing, inches from her throat.

* * *

“It really is in poor taste for the General to be on foot.” Alice tightened her fur hood against a sudden gust.

Most of the snow had melted, leaving frozen mud and dead grass poking up between mounds of hard packed snow. Her horse snorted and shook its mane as Eth walked abreast. He still refused a shirt, despite the freezing temperatures, but had at least opted for an odd rig of pauldrons and splinted armor on his arms.

Eth looked to the mount with distaste. “Jus’ daen’t feel comfortable on the bloody thin’s”

Rémann glanced nervously at the column of soldiers behind them. The only mounted men were himself, and the knights he brought, several members of The Order, and maybe a platoon of elves. Aislyn had been adamant about not giving them a single company. Rémann shook his head and spurred his horse on to meet Alice.

“I must insist you take position towards the center of the column my Lady.”

Alice dismissed him with a flippant wave. “I think my duties are best served in the front.”

“I agree,” Eth grumbled. “I’ll nae be the one tae explain tae Aichlan why his lil’ lass got injured oor killed. Ye should hang back with Clarissa and the healers.”

Alice sighed and took on a more conciliatory tone. “Your concern is touching, but I must lead by example. I am a battle mage after all, I can handle myself.”

“Since when?” Rémann scoffed.

Alice’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the squire for several moments. “That’ll be enough, Master Rémann.”

“Apologies ma’am.” Rémann said with a bow of his head.

As Alice spurred her horse forward with a “humph”, Rémann signaled for three of his mounted men to form up around her. They were deep in enemy territory, and had already passed the sites of two fierce battles. Even so, aside from the occasional demon that amounted to little more than a wild beast, their journey through Sorn had been rather uneventful. The kingdom was sparsely populated to begin with, now, it was as if men had never lived there. Villages and hamlets had long ago been razed or were buried under the snow. The atmosphere was ever tense and most unsettling.

Rémann glanced back over his shoulder. They were roughly five-thousand strong, mostly elves, with a spattering of mages and healers. In any other engagement, he would have felt comfortable with those numbers, even if they were untested soldiers. He couldn’t shake a sense of dread however, that something terrible was on the horizon.

“Oh no…” Alice gasped as they crested a small rise. “Is that…”

Below, in the crater of an ancient quarry, was the still smoking remains of Auld Ferrons. Much of the city walls had been demolished, and the north-western tower was afire, with what appeared to be corpses strewn about.

“My lady, we must proceed cautiously!” Rémann shouted, but it was too late.

Alice spurred her horse on in full gallop towards the city. Rémann whistled for his knights and took off after her. Behind them, Eth mobilized the army in preparation for a highland charge, where several light infantry groups would charge down the embankment to meet the enemy. The rest of the army formed ranks and prepared to follow should things go south. Rémann nodded his approval and urged his steed on.

* * *

Alice leapt from her mount and ran towards the collapsed wall. Several dire wolves looked up from their meal of carrion and turned their attention towards her. With two words and a snap of her fingers, Alice shot two bolts of lightning at the beasts, reducing them to ash and ember. She adjusted her glasses as she frantically searched the piles of corpses. Most were dusk spawn; many others were soldiers of Sorn and mages.

She climbed the rubble and dropped down to the street, slick with snow, blood and entrails. Across from her, a cadre of lizards looked up and hissed at her sudden arrival. Alice clapped her hands together once and slowly pulled them apart, revealing a cat's cradle of electricity and pulsing glyphs. She slowly turned up her hand, clutching balls of lightning in her palms as the glyphs pulsed and flashed in front of her. As the lizards raised their weapons and charged, Alice flattened her palms, releasing a storm of lightning that struck the demons from all directions.

Sparks danced about her as her green eyes radiated energy. The trail of carnage seemed to end at a small gatehouse, and Alice hiked up her skirt as she ran towards it.

“Lady Alice!” Rémann called. “Please, wait for your escort! Lady Alice!”

Half eaten corpses of clerics littered the small courtyard, many of the nuns were naked, and appeared to be the victims of sexual violence. She paused, the smell of death too much for her. Everywhere there were bodies, the pavement glistened red with frozen blood. Alice covered her mouth with her sleeve and continued on, her boots crunching on the ice and squishing the unidentifiable human remains under foot. Several imp like creatures with bulbous heads, bowled legs and comically large phallus’ burst from the shadows in an attempt to waylay her. Alice held up her hand with a breath that carried the incantation, and the sickly yellow creatures bounced off a wall of light with a startled yelp. Alice made a pushing movement with her hand, not breaking stride, and the wall fell over, crushing the creatures as if it were a multi ton stone.

Alice stopped and clutched her cloak at her throat as Rémann breathlessly arrived behind her. He leaned against what remained of the wall to catch his breath before following her into the court. His sword was red with the blood of something, and he wore a nasty gash on his cheek.

“Lady Alice, this place is not secure, we must go!”

“You mean…those things are still here?” Alice was so quiet as to almost be inaudible.

“Yes, now we must-“

Rémann paused as he caught sight of what Alice was looking at. In the corner, by a crumbling stairway was the nearly decapitated body of Fiora. Her lifeless eyes staring blankly at the creature still impaled upon her blade. Rémann placed a gentle hand upon Alice’s shoulder, trying to snap her out of her grief-stricken state.

“We will give her a proper burial my lady, but for now we must leave.” He urged, but to no reply. “Lady Alice, there is no sense in us dying here, we must go.”

The grunts and growls of approaching creatures caused Rémann to jerk around and raise his sword.

“Shit…” He shielded Alice with his body and outstretched arm to usher her into the bunker. “Take cover my lady.”

Alice ducked under Rémann’s outstretched arm and gently pushed him aside as the first demon rounded the corner. Alice snapped her fingers and instantly vaporized it with a bolt of lightning. Rémann leapt back in surprise, his eyes wide with disbelief and awe. As two more humanoid demons charged into the courtyard, Alice weaved an intricate glyph with two fingers and spat out her incantation, vaporizing them both. The air became thick with the smell of ozone and charred flesh.

“Holy dusk…” Rémann breathed as Alice weaved another set of intricate glyphs. “How long have you been able to do that?”

“Those beasts still live here Master Rémann,” Alice flung three glyphs into the air, one at her head and two at her feet, “that is simply unacceptable.”

The three symbols began to spin counterclockwise in front of her as she layered several more. The first set of rotating symbols flashed in blue and white and Alice flung out four more in yellow. Tendrils of electricity connected the glyphs, creating a septagram. Rémann slowly backed away as lightning scoured the ground around her, leaping out to strike anything metal. He dropped his sword with a startled yelp as an errant bolt danced across the weapon.

“Stand well back master Rémann.”

Alice waved her hands gracefully, weaving intricate glyphs and runes in the air with tracers of light streaming from her fingertips. She twirled once in an electrically charged pirouette, and rose up from the ground on magnetic currents. Stray scraps of metal from demolished homes, discarded weapons and ruined armor began to orbit her, connected by tendrils of lightning.

Against his better judgement, Rémann retreated into the ruined barracks. Overhead, storm clouds began to form, and despite the freezing temperatures, they brought rain. Several more creatures of dusk attempted to bum rush her, but were painfully torn apart by lightning rippling from her body. Alice raised her hands to the sky as she chanted her incantation, and when the final word was spoken, she slammed them down to the ground. The rains were stopped for an instant, as every hair on Rémann’s body stood on end. The seconds ticked by like an eternity, and he had thought for a moment her spell had failed, when a blinding flash robbed him of his sight and the ensuing peal of thunder took his hearing.

* * *

“Is it raining?” Clarissa asked, perplexed as she held out her hand. “How odd...”

She glanced back to her attendants as the flash of light briefly bathed the world around them in brilliant white light. The ground trembled violently, knocking her from her horse, and it seemed like a full minute had passed before the deafening crack of thunder ripped across the plains. The formations broke as soldiers and clerics scattered, fearing another devastating beam of light had shot down from the heavens.

“Hold the fuckin’ line!” Eth screamed as he lifted Clarissa to her feet. “If yer gonna die regardless, have the bollocks to face it with eyes front!”

Clarissa embraced the dawn to mend her twisted ankle and shattered coccyx. “Is it zee light again?”

Eth shrugged and shielded his eyes with his hands to scan the horizon. “Fook if I know.”

Where there was once a city, now stood a burnt outline of what once was. Heaps of ash were piled where there were one’s walls, homes and businesses. The air had a sick metallic taste, and Clarissa noticed everyone’s hair was incredibly frizzy. Stones floated above the ground, and metal weapons seemed glued to it. Clarissa looked down to see her pendant had risen out of her cassock and was pointing towards Eth’s armor. She leaned towards him, and the metal pendant stuck like a magnet, snapping the silver chain in the process.

“What zee hell is going on?”

With some difficulty, Eth pried the pendant from his steel manica and handed it back to her. “Could nae be wee lil’ Alice, could it?”