“Shitshow.” Jes mumbled as she sat with a stunned Hadrian on the sofa after dinner watching the television. On it was a talking head speculating about the current situation. In a picture-in-picture square in the upper left was a small image of the baled field the Empire of Azmael had claimed, seen from the top down. Bright klieg lights blasted the area in white light and behind their barricades and fortifications the elves moved about like insects. In the center of the clear space in the middle of their encampment, one woman dressed in elaborate robes stood alone. Her clothing whipped about her, likely in the downdraft from the helicopter that was taking the video. An ever changing aurora of light surrounded her as she moved her hands in an esoteric dance in front of her.

Hadrian grunted, his red brown eyes narrowed as he studied the tiny picture on the small television. “She is weaving a spell of some sort.” He observed, his voice a low growl.

“Who is she?” Jes asked.

“Archmage. I don’t know her name. She’s powerful though.”

“What sort of spell is she weaving?”

Hadrian shrugged in answer and rose to his feet, getting closer to the television. In the kitchen, Gwendy and Rock were having a hushed conversation as they cleaned up. Probably talking about Jes’ sanity or something. She knew they were worried about her, but she wasn’t crazy. It was on the news for god’s sake. She watched, reading the scrolling news along the bottom.

The gist of it was that the National Guard was on its way to put down whatever nonsense was going on in the Middle of Nowhere, Iowa. After devoting only a short time to the strange event in Iowa, the news went on to cover the upcoming election and COVID. There was so much going on in the world that they couldn’t even devote more than a few minutes to an insane cult in Iowa. Which is what they were speculating that it was.

She had pushed herself to her feet and was halfway to the kitchen when there was an enormous explosion. Even miles away from the blast the whole house shook and the blinding light filled every room. There was a secondary pop and the electricity failed. Gwendy screamed from the kitchen and a glass shattered as it hit the floor.

“What was that? Did they bomb the empire?” Jes shouted, her voice muffled by the buzzing in her ears.

Hadrian was crouched on the ground, a long sword in his hand and his red-brown eyes shimmering red in the darkness. She saw him shake his head only because his eyes were glowing. “I believe that the Archmage has completed her spell.” Jes felt the deep rumble of his voice as much as heard it.

“What has she done?” Jes was moving toward the kitchen, “Ma? Ma! Ma, are you okay?”

“We’re fine, sweetie. I just dropped a glass. Be careful.”

From outside Rowdy was howling and the horses were screaming in the barn. “Rock, try to find flashlights. I'm going to let Rowdy in and go check on the horses.”

If she could hear the horses screaming from the barn over the fuzz in her ears, they were beyond panicked.

“Be careful, Jes.” Her mother called.

Jes didn’t answer, but she did gesture for Hadrian to come with her. If nothing else, she had a warrior with her now.

Rowdy didn’t wait for an invitation, as soon as the door opened the old dog scooted inside as though his tail were on fire. Outside, the sky was ablaze with auroras, swirling and changing shape every second. Jes and Hadrian both paused their attention caught by the glory of it. “It’s beautiful.” Jes said at last.

“Your sky does not normally do this?” Hadrian asked, tearing his attention from the sky.

“No, does yours?”

“No. A sudden change like this is not likely a good thing.” He pointed out.

As if to punctuate his comment another shrill scream filled with fear rang out from the barn. They stopped looking at the aurora and hurried for the barn. Inside, the fat little shetland had busted out of his stall and was attempting to open the other stalls with the same trick. Jes clipped a lead on his halter and handed the rope to Hadrian. “Take him out would you? I’ll get Punkin and you can get yours once you put him in the pasture. Then we can tackle the others.”