Chapter: Calie and Dousza kidnap

The village ahead of them was a collection of several small farms in between the Celith Towers and Celith itself. There was no localized government which meant the village lacked a town hall, postal building, and a town watch. The young boys of the town would be easy to steal, but they would be immediately missed. In a town of so few people, their absence would be apparent, and would likely have economic repercussions. That was of no concern to Inella. She planned on resculpting the entirety of the land, and the people who were affected in the process were necessary sacrifices. She had a firm answer to the age old question: do the ends justify the means? Inella would do anything to reach her end goal.

“Do you see him?” Inella asked Dousza, who was crouched underneath foliage looking out at one of the farmhouses where a small blond boy crossed through the grass.

“I see him; I’ll be able to retrieve him without any assistance. Inform Calie that she can go after the other boy now; this is our moment to strike.” Dousza said back to Inella (who was patiently waiting within the forest behind her). Inella was concealed by bushes and a thick treeline just a few paces behind the prone Dousza. Inella could see Dousza’s shoe peeking out the backside of the bush, but it disappeared as Dousza cast an invisibility spell over herself. Dousza Malkel was one of the most promising illusionist’s in Inella’s conclave; she was a master stealth mage. Dousza’s skill was closely followed by Calie’s, which is why Inella had chosen the two for this operation of stealing little boys.

Dousza left the cover of the foliage, but was completely imperceptible to the human eye due to her invisibility spell. She crept toward the naive boy with quieted steps. The poor lad didn’t suspect a thing as Dousza unsheathed a knife at her waist and held the boy’s neck in place to swiftly slit his throat with a single, deft motion; it was a motion that Dousza had practiced to perfection.

No one was outside to see the bloodied boy fall, and Dousza guided his body to the ground as it fell limp. Dousza quickly packed the boy’s body into a sack that she had been carrying over her shoulder and tied it shut with a rope. After the body was properly put away, Dousza cast an invisibility spell over the bag so that no one would see a bag floating around.

During this process, Inella had used druid magic to converse with a brown bird in the forest, convincing it to fly out of the forest and across the sky of the open barley fields. This crested fledgling was the signal for Calie to enact a process similar to Dousza’s- stealthing herself and bagging up a young boy’s body. The two successful women unveiled themselves to Inella, releasing their invisibility spells so that their leader could see them.

“Very good, ladies. Let’s get the two of them back to Leired while they’re still fresh.” Inella said to Dousza and Calie. Inella used an amount of sorcery to fall a tree and carve out its insides. The two body bags were stuffed inside the hollowed trunk, and the three women sat atop it. Inella then used magic to propel the tree forward, hovering above the ground, creating an effect similar to flight; in fact, this was the closest any of the witches in this story would ever get to riding a broom like the old stereotype goes. The three witches would ride the tree-ship to the outskirts of the Celith Towers where they would walk on foot. Once they were out of sight of the tower’s archers, they would repeat the process of riding an inanimate object all the way back to Leired.

Inella unpacked the two boys from the body bags. She propped one of them up against a post and set the other one aside. The ingredients were all prepared: rat heads, pig ash, silver-lace, Inella had told Nehaynosh to have everything ready for her when she got back. Inella was determined to succeed this time, even if only in the worst ways. Inella would be satisfied with making zombies if she could not achieve full reanimation. Making a zombie was a halfway point between full death and full life in respect to the reanimation spell. A zombie was living flesh, but not a living mind. Inella had made zombies on two other occasions, but the flesh of a zombie was quick to rot away, and neither of the previous necromantic subjects had lasted for more than a week.

Concentrating on the work at hand, it was a full hour before the first boy began to stir. When working on reviving someone, you become intune with the body in question. Even though Inella was several feet away, she heard the sound of the beating heart as it sputtered back to life. Next she heard the lungs start with a shallow inhale that evolved into full breathing from which Inella could hear the chest moving in and out. The renewed body was in a gentle state and was not exerting itself in any sense besides recuperating to homeostasis. Inella felt the fog of the brain in the boy, it was cloudy and thoughtless, empty besides small electric pulses. This is where the work lay ahead for Inella. She would need to dedicate her energy to strengthening the body for a small while longer, but after that, all her work would be in the foggy mind. In the blindness of mist, those who get lost find madness.

Inella tried to stimulate the brain with energy, but it did not react to her prodding. Inella didn’t want to frustrate herself with her work, but there was such a long history of failure behind her that she couldn’t help but feel like she was fighting a losing battle already. She had sought the key to success for years, but had not found it yet. The most frustrating aspect of the reanimation spell is that, while Inella had consecutively failed to restore any single person’s mind, each mind was different. Even if Inella was to restore one person back to their former self, she was certain that the process would not be the same for the next person.

“Look at her go.” Moira said, astonished at the focus and power Inella was dedicating to the hardly living body in front of her. It was a young boy she had never seen before, and his hands were tied up to a wooden post.

“It’s really nothing special at this point.” Adda added. “She’s probably done this around a hundred times by now, if I was her I would’ve given up.” The zombified boy opened his eyes, which caused both of the bystanding women to shudder.

“Get along to cleaning, the both of you!” Nehaynosh criticized the idling women, scolding them with her stern voice.

“Yes, Mistress Nehaynosh.” Moira said dutifully. As the two women scurried off to do their chores, a thunderous cackle was let out in the background.

“I’ve done it! I’ve finally done it!” Inella exclaimed. Nehaynosh turned to look at the reanimated boy. He did not appear to look any different than a zombie, but Inella would not be this excited over a zombie. “Look at me, my child.” The boy looked at Inella, his skin a sickly blue, his arms still tied up.

“Mother?” The boy was quiet, but he was speaking. Nehaynosh gasped, for zombies could not speak. “Mother is that you? Won’t you untie me mother?” Nehaynosh looked over to Inella, who had tears in her eyes. This was the most progress she had made in several years of work.

“Oh, my son! First, tell me what you remember?” Inella could feel all the thoughts inside the boy’s brain, but she could not tell what they were. Once Inella was sure that the spell was completed, Inella pulled herself out of the boy’s conscience. The presence of his brain waves were overwhelming, and that could be said about a brain that was barely functioning.

“I remember walking out into the field, and there was this cold tugging on my throat. After that, I can’t remember anything, mother.” Inella smiled, her tears were yet to stop. The boy remembered his death. Inella had not planted that memory; it was the boy’s memory. Inella was curious to see how much of the boy was still intact.

“How much do you remember, my son? Tell me about your childhood… you know that I love to hear about your childhood.”

“I remember everything, mother. Please, won’t you untie me? My wrists itch, and my eyes are sore.” Nehaynosh came over to Inella’s table and began to write notes for her.

“Thank you.” Inella said to Nehaynosh. “What do you suppose we do with the boy? He is going to realize that I am not his mother sooner or later.”

“That’s a tough question. You might as well ask him how he feels. That could be important, we need to know if the reanimation spell renders the subject with any physical weakness.” In the background, the boy began to cry because no one was paying attention to him, and he was uncomfortable hanging up on a pole.

“Do you feel strong, my son? Do you feel like you could run?” Inella asked the boy as she crossed over to him.

“Of course I could run, mother, why do you ask?” As Inella got close, the boy’s face turned into a scowl. “Wait, you're not my moth-.” Inella killed the boy as he began to realize what had happened.

“I hope you wrote that down, Nehaynosh.”

“Of course I did.”

“Do you think that he will remember that I am not his mother the next time that I bring him back?” Inella asked.

“It’s hard to say, but I would assume so. The boy had all his previous memories leading up to his death last time.” Nehaynosh replied.

“I suppose that will make it more difficult to interview him next time.” Inella twirled the dagger in her hands around on its point before cleaning the fresh blood off of it.

“What is it that you will need to ascertain from the boy this next time?” Nehaynosh asked as she finished up the notes and closed the book.

“I’m not entirely sure. I think that I will bring back the other boy before I revisit this one. I need to see how different the process of reanimation can be based on the patient.”

“And you will want to reanimate both of them several times before you try it on one of our own, so that the women might actually volunteer for it, and not devolve into pulling sticks for the burden of you trying to bring them back to life.” Nehaynosh said, adding a touch of wisdom to the situation Inella had already learned so much from.

“Of course.” Inella said weakly. It was clear to Nehaynosh that Inella was focused on something else at this point. Nehaynosh could tell that Inella was going to get right to work on the next boy, even though it was obvious she was exhausted.

The Caves are Attacked

“Perhaps you should rest before you try the next lad, Inella.” Inella looked over to Nehaynosh, indignation burning the tired look out of her eyes. But, before Inella could say anything, one of Dremeira’s girls came running to the both of them with an announcement.

“Dremeira’s eagles have seen a fleet from Ko’fell sailing this way. She suspects an attack.” The girl waited for a message from Inella to take back to Dremeira.

“If they come for a battle,” Inella straightened her posture, twirling the knife on its point again, “then we prepare for battle.” Nehaynosh ran off to the main cave, so that she could spread the news. Inella packed up the bodies back into their bags and picked up the tools and ingredients from the table to store them. Inella was excited for the impending battle, because she knew it would be a one-sided fight despite her exhaustion. The nine kingdoms of Panatea would need more than a small fleet to kill off the witches at Leired.

“Girls, a fleet approaches us, looking for a fight. I need everyone to prepare accordingly.” Nehaynosh said as she walked into the cave. Most of the women were startled by her words, and they became giddy. Nehaynosh grabbed a girl by the collar and asked her, “where is Lyndross?” The girl looked as if she knew, but she struggled to form words for several seconds.

“She is back in the sorcery room with Selena.” Nehaynosh let go of the teenage girl- left her to scurry off. Nehaynosh moved quickly through the dimly lit tunnels to find the sorcery room unperturbed by the news.

“Lyndross, prepare yourself for battle. A small fleet approaches us from the south.” Nehaynosh’s words had interrupted an intense conversation between Lyndross and Selena about pyromancy. Lyndross looked over to Nehaynosh, her eyes became gleeful when she heard the news.

“This conversation will have to continue later, Lyndross.” Selena said, closing a book that she held. A book on the difference between magma and dry fire.

“Oh, but this is the perfect opportunity to prove which version of pyromancy is more effective. We will stick together near enough to see. You will use the magma technique, and I will use the dry fire technique.” Lyndross said. Nehaynosh left the conversation to warn others of the oncoming action. Nehaynosh used a spell to magnify her voice, so that she could yell to each corner of the hollow rock system that was the Caves at Leired, warning everyone simultaneously. The spell was a great substitute to scurrying through the entire cave system.

“Lyndross, you and I both know that you have a greater reservoir of energy for casting spells. It won’t be a fair experiment.” Selena responded. The energy that mage’s use for casting spells is called mana, and mana shows up in different amounts from person to person. Lyndross and Selena both have gained a greater capacity for mana through years of vigorous training, but Lyndross was born with a higher capacity for mana than Selena. Mana functions in a way that is similar to physical endurance. In the same way that one can run up a hill twice in a row, the first time being faster than the second, if a mage casts two consecutive spells, it is likely that the first one will be more powerful. If a witch does not have enough mana, then her spells will come back with diminishing returns.

“You’re right, Selena. I have much more mana, so I will use the magma technique, and you can use the dry fire technique. The magma technique uses more mana, so this will make it a more objective comparison.” Lyndross saw Selena roll her eyes at this. “You do know that I will not accept no as an answer, right?”

“Fine,” Selena said, “but I doubt that this experiment will be conclusive enough to change either of our opinions.”

“Fair enough.” Lyndross said. The two women rushed out of the cave together into the open light. There were ten novice girls huddled in front of Inella. Inella was giving them a speech about what to do in the oncoming fight, but she was almost done speaking.

“Just know that today, on this day, we will prove our strength. We will live, and they will die. We will send the ships back East , gutted, burned, and crewed by spirits; for no man who breaches our shores will survive. Take no prisoners, ladies.” Inella finished triumphantly. The novice girls stood tall, prepared for battle. Many of the girls who were standing tall, swaying with small pangs of anxiety, knew nothing of magic yet, and would help very little on the cliffs in the fight to come.

While the witches hurriedly sorted themselves into positions, the fleet from Ko’fell drew nearer to the shores of Leired. The flagship from Ko’fell held one third of the mages in the royal retainer of King Borundu, but the king was not there himself. Instead, the king waited in his castle in Ko’fell with a diviner at his side. This particular wizard was able to communicate with another wizard aboard the flag ship through a trinket tied to each wizard’s neck. The trinkets were identical: a necklace with an amulet hooked on the end, and on the inside of the amulet was an open eye with a purple eyelid. The amulet allowed the user to see through the eye of the other amulet. The amulet was a reconnaissance insurance policy, if everyone died, it could not truthfully be said that no one lived to tell the tale. King Borundu thought that the insurance policy would be unnecessary, but he implemented it anyway. King Borundu’s perception of the witches hiding at Leired was that they were all weak, small in number, and largely dramatized spinsters whose infamy was due to rumor and suspicion. King Borundu would not think that by the end of the day.

“I’m going to start, Selena. I hope you're ready to see the error of your ways.” Lyndross yelled as she sent a pillar of magma hurtling at the flagship. Several of the mages aboard the flagship responded and dissipated the magma into dull heat that did little more than rock the ship as a small wave would.

“I see you’re off to a strong start, Lyndross.” Selena yelled back sarcastically, although she struggled to keep the sarcasm potent while yelling. The women were on either side of a line of proficient sorcerers: attackers and counter-magicians. Selena sent a spray of dry flame at the flagship, and it was easily relinquished. “How do you think they intend to scale the cliffs?”

“Perhaps they don’t, perhaps they intend to kill us with spells and arrows without ever stepping foot on the shore. Alternatively, they might not have known that there was no beach at Leired, and they came unprepared.” Lyndross answered Selena’s question and sent a ball of magma at the flagship. She was impressed when she saw a mage teleport the ball to the left, letting it drop into the sea with a heavy hiss of evaporating water. A lightning bolt shot towards one of the women on the frontline- the witch with the least experience out of the sorcerers present. Lyndross countered the spell only a brief moment before it would have melted the poor girl. “Get off the frontline! If you can’t protect yourself, you’re a liability to me and everyone else out here!” Lyndross yelled at the woman. She turned and ran along with three other women who were unsure of their skills. One of the girls immediately next to Lyndross had chosen to forfeit her position on the frontline. “Come here,” Lyndross barked at the fleeing witch, “I have a message I want you to give to Dremeira.”

Inella closed her eyes out of exhaustion and thought to herself about her luck. How inopportune it was that the attack was happening now. Happening while Inella’s mana was nearly depleted from her earlier practices. The chair Inella sat in was wooden and rickety, and it creaked as she leaned back into it. She had recently ordered one of the novice girls to find Dousza. Dousza had just come into sight as Inella had closed her eyes. Not eager to wake Inella, Dousza waited patiently before her.

“There you are.” Inella said wearily. “I have a special mission for you. You’re to find June; she's the elementalist teacher. The two of you will infiltrate one of the ships together, and I’ll tell you just how to do it: you’re going to ride in on a hang glider, which you will have to stealth. Once you’re near enough to one of the ships that isn’t the flagship, June will lower you guys down, and she can cut the ship apart with wind magic. It’ll be dangerous, but I have heard rumor that all of the mages are on the enemy flagship. This leaves them open to an attack from the rear.” Dousza had been listening intently to Inella. Once Dousza had heard all of the plan, she ran off to find June.

Inella began working on the hang glider. Unfortunately, there were not any hang gliders in her possession. She intended to magically assemble the frame out of a nearby tree. For the sail, she would fashion it out of an empty burlap sack. The majority of the flying work would be done by June’s manipulation of wind, so Inella was not concerned with making an overly functional hang glider- just something sufficient to transport the two women over open waters.

“This is draining.” Lyndross said to Selena. Over the course of the last hour the two women had gone from shouting at each other to making diminished statements (some of which were too quiet to hear). “I have been doing much more counter magic than I expected. I was certain that my magma would have melted these ships into the sea by now. I hope you’re having more luck down there with your dry fire.”

“I’m not.” Selena said plainly. Frustration was written on her face in permanent marker; her sweat-wiping hands did nothing to brighten her mood. Both women had been pulling more than their own weight. Every witch on the frontline was nearly depleted of mana, as was nearly every mage on the ship. It had been a long and hard fought battle against the flagship. One of the witches on the cliff had fainted as she countered a spell. Lyndross cursed under her breath, praying that word of her plan had gotten to Dremeira.

“Get her away from the battle, someone! She’s dead meat where she lies if we let her lay there any longer.” Lyndross said with a yell bolstered by a small amount of panic. As one of the other witches carried the fainted woman away, Lyndross saw it. Closing in on the furthest ship away, a long shadow swam deeply submerged. In the next moment a massive blue whale breached the water and flopped directly onto the ship. The impact sent splinters of wood and screaming soldiers flying in all directions.

“Finally.” Lyndross whispered to herself. Lyndross was proud of her strategy, although she was doubtful about how a creature that size could swim so close to shore. The mages on the flagship had not paid any attention to the other ships behind them; their attention was drawn towards the catastrophe only once it was too late to help.

The same whale had reached the flagship now and was breaching over top of it. Lyndross could see three of the mages onboard the flagship turn away from their assault on the cliffs, and use magic to suspend the whale over the ship. The wizards tried to push the whale away, but struggled to.

“This is our time ladies! All fire power directed at the flagship!” Lyndross ordered the women with a brief fervor derived from success. Her inspiration was short-lived however.

“They’re coming out of the forest!” A novice witch said as a soldier grabbed her from behind and slit her throat. The young woman dropped to the ground lifeless- a scream prepared went undelivered.

“I’ll take my half of the women to fight them, you keep your half here to continue your battle against the flagship.” Selena said while motioning for her half of the women to follow her into the forest. Selena sent a flame spear at the soldier which instantly killed him. Lyndross sent a wave of magma down at the flagship, but it was countered. Lyndross could feel the mage tweaking with her fingers and making the magma come out as a weakly propelled dust.

“Go tell Inella that a ship has gotten to the Eastern beachhead, and its soldiers are near. And be quick about it, Calaime.” Calamine was being used as a messenger since she wasn’t strong enough to fight on the frontlines. The woman next to Lyndross ran towards the caves to alert Inella. Satisfied, Lyndross turned her attention back to the flagship. The three wizards suspending the whale managed to push it into the water. Just as the splash pelted the side of the flagship, Lyndross killed one of the wizards who had saved the ship from being smashed to pieces by the whale. She had done it with a fire bolt which was small in size but white hot. In the chaos, it had slipped through the defenses of the flagship- it was imperceptible because of its size and speed. Lyndross had drawn first blood after more than two hours of fighting. The bolt hit the man in the chest at an angle so that it went through his lungs and then his shoulder; his dead body and his limp arm fell to the deck separately. Some of the women gave Lyndross words of praise and encouragement, but they were lost on her. She knew that a spell like that would not work again- the wizards would be ready for such an attack the next time it came.

“Inella, Lyndross sent me to inform you that one of the ships has landed at the Eastern beachhead, and soldiers are now near the caves. Selena has taken half the force to fend them off.” Calaime said this out of breath.

“Our women should have detected the ship. Since they didn’t, that means an illusionist was on board with them. Even if the illusionist was on the flagship, we would’ve known he was stealthing something at a distance. Has Lyndross noticed wizards on any of the ships besides the flagship?” Inella asked, her hand was sprawled on her forehead as she thought about tactics.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think she has.” Calaime replied.

“Well, don’t worry about it. Run and tell her that Nehaynosh and I will deal with the men in the forest. I can feel that my mana is replenished.” Inella pointed for Calaime to leave, and she ran back towards the cliffs to notify Lyndross.Using a spell that detected mana, Inella was able to find Nehaynosh’s location. Once Inella knew that Nehaynosh was not far off, she called for her to come towards her.

“What is it, Inella?” Nehaynosh said- her shift was covered in sweat. She had been healing one of the women who had fainted on the cliffs.

“There are raiders in the forest and the two of us are going to stop them. I have reason to believe that they have a skilled illusionist amongst their ranks.” Inella saw an uncertain look in Nehaynosh’s eyes. Nehyanosh was a skilled witch, and indelibly knowledgeable about the techniques of magic, but in her old age her mana capacity was dwindling. “You go on ahead, I will be there in just a moment. Once Dousza and June get back here, I will be able to join you.” Nehaynosh gave a weary nod and walked East towards the forest.

“Calaime, did you find Inella?” Lyndross asked the young woman who was now sprawled on the ground of the cliffs after extensive running back and forth.

“Yes. Inella and Nehaynosh are going to solve the problem.” Calaime panted. Calaime moved some of the hair out of her face which was scattered in sweaty clumps. Now that all the hair was cleared out of her path of sight, she could see the barrage of shrapnel that was headed for everyone on the cliffs. Jagged rocks that were spinning wildly, the amalgamation of projectiles came from several wizards on the flagship. Calaime turned up towards Lyndross to see her counter all of the spells simultaneously. The majority of the rocks fell down into the ocean harmlessly, but a small amount of the rocks continued their flight. Lyndross cursed as the shrapnel tore through three different women.

“Those bastards used the bigger spells as a diversion to hide smaller spells in the same barrage.” Lyndross clenched her fist in frustration. “Calaime, go see if those women are alive; if they are, walk them back to the medical witches. And request more women for the front line while you’re at it. Losing several women at once is going to give our enemy an advantage for the next several minutes at the very least.” Calaime ran over to the nearest woman who was dying; her name was Mantha, and she was in no condition to be saved. She was unconscious- gushing blood at a lethal rate.

“Lyndross, this woman can not be saved, but she could be used for a ritual if you hurry.” Calaime yelled back at Lyndross.

“That might be the perfect way to counterbalance the advantage the flagship has gained. Inade, focus on counter magic for the time being, while I prepare this bloodrite spell.” Lyndross commanded. Inade was one of the most powerful witches on the frontlines now that half the force was gone. Inade had short black hair and Namelian features although she was an orphan who had been rescued at a young age. Namelle is the second greatest of the nine nations. Namelians have brown eyes, black hair, and are very tan. The royalty established power with incredible trading ships, a wealth of rare minerals, and impeccable goods, but the majority of Namelians worked agricultural jobs like farming rice, growing spices, tending to livestock, or cultivating tea.

“What ritual are you going to do?” Calaime asked Lyndross as she reached the dying woman.

“The only one I know.” Lyndross replied dramatically. A bloodrite spell is a classification of a ritual spell. The defining factor of a bloodrite spell is that it requires a human sacrifice. Because of their dangerous and expensive nature, bloodrite spells are rarely practiced. Very few books can be found on bloodrite spells, which is why few of the witches at Leired knew any, and why Lyndross, one of the most accomplished witches at Leired, only knew one. “Now hurry and tend to the other two women who were hit.”

The second woman who Calaime arrived at reached out her hand to be picked up. She had been hit in the arm, and the damage wasn’t serious, it was just the impact that had knocked her down. The third woman Calaime reached was badly injured, but she would be able to walk back to receive medical attention. As Calaime half carried the woman back towards the caves, she heard Lyndross finish the ritual with its foreign words: “Nasta ku nasta.” Which translated to “blood for blood.” Lyndross slit the dying woman’s throat, which caused one of the wizards on the flagship to magically take the same injury. He clutched at his neck as it bled from a wide cut, but it was too late. He fell to the ground. The other wizards on the ship faltered for a moment after they watched their ally drop with a creaking thud.

June and Dousza approached Inella. She was waiting for them next to a wooden structure that looked like a hastily put together hang glider, which it was. Inella gave a rare smile to the women who approached her.

“You came just in time. I’m sure you can assume enough about what you need to do based on the hang glider next to me. June will cast a wind propulsion spell, and Dousza will do an invisibility spell. Hit one of the rear ships that is without any mages then get out. I have business I need to attend to in the forest, ladies. I have faith in you, that you will not fail me.” And without any other explanation, Inella was on her way to the forest to fight alongside Nehyanosh and the rest of the women.

“We will need to coordinate our attack with Lyndross, so that no one on the cliffs accidentally hits us when we fly over the enemy ships.” June said to Dousza; Dousza nodded in agreement. The women’s baggy clothes jumped and shifted as they ran to the cliff.

“We should only be in the line of fire for a little while. Once we are past the flagship I doubt we will get hit.” Dousza replied. The women lifted the hang glider over their shoulders so that they could carry it closer to the coastline. They carefully hid the glider by carrying it lower the further they ran. Once they were close to the coast they set it down, so that they could speak with Lyndross. Dousza looked over to where the soldiers had pushed up, but the witches had fought them back into the heart of the forest by now, so no one was there to see her and June, or the hang glider.

“Ah, it’s good to finally see you.” Lyndross said over her shoulder to June. “At this rate it looks like we are winning the battle against the flagship, so it’s pertinent that you two hit them before they can retreat. Although, a retreat won’t be coming anytime soon knowing how stubborn these men are.”

“Just make sure none of your women hit us with anything on our way over.” Dousza said, placing her hand on Lyndross’ shoulder.

“Oh, they already know the plan. Don’t worry, if anything, you guys are safer than we are. Your attack will provide an excellent distraction. Fly back to the west- away from all of the ships.” Lyndross smiled, and Dousza and June left to go pick up the hang glider.

Inella sent a small lightning bolt at a charging soldier. He was pushed backwards from the impact, his hands still held a sword over his head, but a giant hole was where his chest had been only a second again. Another soldier appeared right next to Inella from behind a tree and swung his sword down at her. Inella dodged it to the side and manifested a sword using necromantic magic. The soldier swung at her again and she blocked his blow with her own sword; the blades grinded against each other until they locked cross-hilts. Once the two swords were immobile, Inella held her hand up to the soldier’s throat and manifested a knife, which slid into him with a gush of blood.

The common stereotype about necromancy is that it is only used for reviving and otherwise interacting with the dead. And while the majority of necromancy is about zombies and such, a large part of necromancy is also dedicated to manifesting things. When a necromancer manifests something, it is always an inanimate object. To manifest something is to pull it out of the realm of the dead and into the realm of the living. Inella had several things stored in the realm of the dead that she could manipulate at any time: weapons, armor, and potions just to name a few. To get something into the realm of the dead, it had to be accepted by someone who had died. When a soldier dies he will often accept his armor and weapons in the afterlife. When an apothecary dies, they will often accept poultices and potions in the afterlife. Using a magical connection to the realm of the dead, something like a sword can be pulled through a shadowy pocket and used in the realm of the living until it is returned back to the realm of the dead. Manifesting is especially efficient for travel, because things can be stored in the oversized pockets of the underworld.

The forest had a strange ambiance to it. It was quiet besides the sound of clanging metal, screams, and falling bodies constantly echoing towards Inella. Inella could see a woman on the ground with a soldier above her who was poised to swing an executioner’s blow. The woman was emaciated and dirty- clumps of soil covered all the wounds on her body. She tried to crawl away backwards, but the man had her pinned with his foot. Inella blew a gust of wind at the soldier that knocked him off balance. As he stumbled, a light of hope was reignited in the woman’s eyes that had not been there before. Running towards the off balance soldier, Inella created a sphere of water in her hand. Once close, the soldier swung at Inella. Inella put her arm in the way of the sword, manifesting a shield on to it. The soldier had overextended his guard because he had not expected a shield to be where there hadn’t been one. With the other hand, Inella brought the globe of water up to the man’s head and slipped it into place so that it surrounded him on all sides. The soldier reflexively dropped his sword and grasped his suffocating neck. Inella swept the man’s legs and pinned him to the ground with his own sword.

“Are you alright?” Inella asked the blood covered woman. Inella recognized her but could not remember her name.

“I’ll be fine, thanks to you, Inella.” The woman had propped herself up against a tree trunk while Inella drowned the solider. She looked tired, and it looked like some of her wounds would scar, but she no longer looked scared. Inella started to walk over to her. “I’m fine, really. Go on ahead and save the other girls, I can do without your healing for now. You’ll need that mana for saving other women like you saved me.” The girl was brave for letting Inella continue on, as the girl had no idea that Inella was a poor healer.

Dousza had stealthed herself more times than she could count. She had stealthed herself carrying something more times than she could count as well. This was the first time she had ever had to stealth herself, a hang glider, and another person while flying though, and it took a great deal of concentration. June was steering with small gusts of wind. They had launched off the cliff to the west- out of sight of the battle between Lyndross and the flag ship, and now they were approaching the ships.

“We are going to hit that one in the back there, so that we have the most room to get away.” June said in a quiet voice. Dousza was focused solely on the illusion spell, because that was really her only task. June would be the one who blasted the ship apart with her elemental magic.

“Keep it low and steady,” Lyndross shouted across the line of witches. “They should be overhead right about now.” The women were all producing a minimalized stream of fire, which was aimed at the hull of the ship in an attempt to set it on fire, but the real purpose of the coordinated attack was to keep the wizards on the flag ship on the defensive while June and Dousza were carrying out their attack. While the flame was small in size, Lyndross managed to get the temperature to be very hot. With a jet of flame ejecting from her conjoined palms, Lyndross looked fierce. Her arms were toned, and a sinister shadow spilled across her pale face. Her long red hair was matted with sweat- stuck between her shoulder blades.

June and Dousza landed on the ship together, Dousza still keeping them invisible. June took a second to compose herself before she cast her spell. She closed her eyes and exhaled. Pressing her palm on the deck of the ship, she created a large disk of wind that immediately tore the railings free. The deck of the ship warped, each wooden plank rose up and down like slamming piano keys. The strength of the elemental magic caused Dousza to break her illusionary spell. The available crew members rushed towards the exposed women with their swords drawn. Looking up at the charge, June was able to give a second wind to her spell, which pushed back all of the assailants. Some fell on their backs, others were blown overboard. June forced her entire body closer down to the deck, and suddenly leaped up. The disc of wind was now a dome shape; full planks and other debris swirled inside of it.

“Let’s go.” June said as she pushed the women off into the sky again. The deck of the ship was sucked up into the vacuum of air. The vulnerable crew members who had been below deck were sucked up into the vacuum as well and cut or impaled by the whirling materials. The hull of the ship was warping now too, the masts had broken off- swung wildly over board. One of the masts crashed straight down through the center of the ship like a spear. The ship broke in two under the pressure, each side somersaulting against each other inside the vacuum of June’s spell until the wind ceased. Everything fell into the water, the debris scattered around the two halves of the ship (one of which was upside down).

Once Lyndross saw the ship rip in half, she stopped her fire spell and switched to an illusion spell. The spell she used was called ‘field of dusk,’ and it was a projection of darkness that gave the appearance of night time. Using this spell would weaken the enemy’s field of vision, but it would weaken her field of vision as well. The main purpose of using it was to create a diversion for June and Dousza to get away, so her field of vision didn’t really matter.

“Keep up the fire, ladies!” Lyndross shouted encouragingly. From within the field of darkness Lyndross channeled a bolt of lightning. The lightning crashed down on the flag ship, creating a fire. The mages on the flag ship quickly put the fire out, but the smoke generated from the fire added to the dimness. Far down the line a woman cried out in pain. “What happened?” Lyndross yelled in the direction of the cry. That’s when she saw it- balls of fire were raining down from the sky. Lyndross knew she had to take care of them, so she switched from the offensive to the defensive and started countering the magic assaulting them. The tricky thing about doing that was that she could not see who was casting the spells, so she had to dissipate the fireballs in form; she was trimming the branches of the spell instead of cutting the trunk.

“Inella, watch out!” Nehaynosh yelled out. A mage had snuck behind Inella and was in the act of casting a spell in her direction. Inella turned around with a hand aflame. Getting a glimpse of the fire, the mage turned himself invisible and ran away.

“Coward.” Inella taunted the fleeing mage. She had little time for satisfaction, as Inella and Nehaynosh were being charged by multiple soldiers. One of them lunged at Nehaynosh with a spear. Nehyanosh reacted by putting her hand directly on the blade and turning her hand to stone. With her other hand Nehaynosh shot a web of electricity at the soldier that killed him. A soldier knocked Nehaynosh in the back with a mace at the same time as the spear thrust. Nehyanosh had turned her back to stone, but she toppled over from the force of the blow.

Inella shot an ice bolt at the soldier who had swung at Nehaynosh. The ice bolt hit him after his swing had left him defenseless. Two soldiers swung at Inella from in front of her. Inella used small explosions discharged from her palms to knock the swords aside. This twisted the men’s arms. Inella jumped towards the men and pressed her explosive palms to their foreheads and discharged them. The invisible mage shot a ball of fire at Nehaynosh before she got on her feet. Inella saw the hot streak of magic and countered it. Inella decided to go on the offensive with the soldiers, so she manifested a spear. With a mighty throw, Inella downed a soldier. She manifested a sword to fight off another soldier, as she moved to retrieve the spear. A fireball flew towards Inella from behind. Not having enough time to counter, she manifested a thick leather cloak. Inella discarded the smoldering cloak on top of a dead soldier after the fire had blown over and behind it.

“Let’s get up, Nehayosh.” Inella reached down to pick up Nehaynosh. “We have more men to kill before this fight is done.” Nehaynosh rose to her feet wearily.

“I’m too old to be fighting these spry soldiers.” Nehyanosh said with disdain. A small giggle followed as she roasted a soldier with a fan of fire.

“It sure doesn’t seem like you’re too old.” Inella said to Nehaynosh, which caused both women to break out into full laughter. The laughter was interrupted when another ball of fire was launched at them by the stealthed mage. Inella countered the spell with a flick of her wrist and turned to fight the soldiers. Manifesting a second blade she easily cut down the remaining soldiers with the help of Nehaynosh’s fire. “Now for that mage.” Inella said to Nehaynosh. The dense forest trapped her words in the pen of pine columns.

“I will cast ‘the spell of revealing’ so that you can locate him, then you can deal with him however you like.” Nehaynosh said.

“Very well.” Inella nodded at Nehaynosh and began scanning the area. The mage was running back to the beach head; Inella began her pursuit. The forest was littered with ferns and the roots of trees. Inella’s black tunic was baggy and easy to run in. While all the women who had fought today were covered in sweat, and their clothes had been burnt and torn, Inella bore no such marks. The arcane power Inella possessed was leagues ahead of any of her contemporaries, and her instincts were impeccable.

“I take it you are the leader of these poor girls.” The wizard said as Inella chased him. He did not look back, instead he let the words stay where he put them, and waited for Inella to run into them.

“I am.” Inella responded by throwing a fireball at the wizard. The wizard pivoted behind a tree at the last second. The wizard had dark brown skin and a short beard. His clothes were beige with lots of straps and pockets- he wore a red hood.

“Let’s see how adept the headmaster is, shall we?” The wizard cast some sort of spell, but Inella could not tell what it was. Whatever it was, it seemed to be a trap, because there was no projectile heading in her direction. “I’ve heard great things about you, witch, grandiose things. I’d like to believe some of them.”

“I’m sure you would rather believe in God at this moment, because you are soon to meet him.” Inella threatened the wizard. He laughed at her, attempting to diminish and insult. Inella threw a fireball at the running wizard. The fireball went straight for him, and this time he didn’t dodge. Before the fireball hit the man it stopped in midair, seeming to plunge into a glossy, vertical pool. The fireball moved slowly through the strange/clear ripples, and suspended in midair. Once it was completely through, it emerged out of another mirror behind her. It was flying fast- shooting straight at her. Inella tried to counter the spell, but it was coated in a glassy skin. Inella had to stop her chase and duck the fireball. It soared past her and into the first mirror again, where it went straight through without pause and emerged out of the second mirror again. It appeared that the fireball would be thrown towards her in an infinite loop. Inella crawled out of the way, since the fireball could only move in a straight line. Once she was out of the way, Inella tried to destroy one of the mirrors with counter magic, but the mirror simply absorbed the counterspell. The blue fragments of light that made up the counter spell were slowly absorbed like the fireball before it. The fireball plunged into the first mirror, contacting the counterspell. The glassy sheen on both spells cracked and splintered off, which led to the counterspell extinguishing the fireball.

“An interesting trick, but it is worthless against me.” Inella said. She continued her chase. Based on the previous run, she was sure that she was faster than her prey. The only issue was that the trap he set had slowed her down dramatically.

“You wouldn’t be saying it was worthless if it actually was. You wouldn’t have said anything if it was worthless. I think you’re trying to intimidate me because that little trick almost killed you. I think you’re trying to intimidate me, and it’s not working.” The mage said as he continued running. This time Inella could see four distinct flashes of light that indicated spells. Based on the sounds and visuals, Inella could tell that the mage was creating more mirrors.

“Your mirrors are a waste of mana until I cast a spell inside of them. If you think I will fall for the same trap twice, you are sorely mistaken.” Inella said with the man in her sight once again.

“You think you’re the only one who can cast a spell into them?” The mage asked mockingly. He lit each of his hands up with fireballs and threw them in distinctly different directions. “How pathetic.”

Inella dodged out of the way as one of them shot towards her, and it was absorbed into the mirror behind her. The other fireball was aimed at her ankles, and she jumped over it. The fireball was absorbed into a different mirror. The mirrors were configured in a diamond shape- each mirror turned inward. Inella calculated what would happen in her head. The wizard had sent a high projectile and a low projectile so that Inella wouldn’t be able to crawl out of the way like she did the last time. The high projectile was timed first so that if she ducked it, she would duck right into the low projectile. Inella thought to herself that it was a clever trick, but it wasn’t clever enough. Inella cast four counterspells, one into each mirror. The counterspells devolved the fire into pockets of hot air that blew away in the breeze.

“Don’t you have anything more original for me?” Inella said to the man in a tone of mock concern. Inella’s cold blue eyes were fixated on the man, who had distanced himself from her once again.

“I can’t show you all of my little tricks. If I do that, then I won’t have any surprises for the next time we meet.” The man said with a wicked laugh. This time Inella could see the man cast a plethora of spells. She could sense that the man had practically exhausted his mana at this point. ‘Casting over twenty spells consecutively will usually do that to you,’ Inella thought to herself. ‘Although, this does confirm that casting a mirror spell is a significant mana sink.’ There was a high pitched ringing sound like a finger tracing around the rim of a glass. Before she could do anything A ring of mirrors was surrounding her. The mirrors were connected by a solid metal ring over ten feet tall. The mirrors appeared by leaking out of the ring from the top down.

“What is your name, wizard?” Inella asked the man, annoyed that he was creating another illusion spell. The man did not respond to her, instead he created a large rock in his hand which he smashed into jagged pieces. Throwing the pieces in every direction, they sunk into the mirrors and began to zoom at Inella. She stood in the center of the reflective coliseum. The wizard casually walked out of one of the mirrors in front of him. Once he was on the other side, he responded to Inella in a coy tone, “I am Dwende, the high court wizard of Ko’fell.”

Inella yelled in frustration- cast a large spell that brought forth four iron walls out of the ground. The stones pelted against the thick iron walls that boxed Inella in. She would have to wait within them for several minutes to be sure that all of the stones had stopped flying through the air. She forced the iron walls back into the ground from where she had summoned them. Inella cast a spell to scale the large mirrors, similar to the iron walls; she pulled an iron staircase from underneath the soil. Both the iron-making spells were under a category of sorcery that was designed to assist in blacksmithing, but they had other applications.

Once Inella was outside of the mirror rink, she began her pursuit of Dwende, but she did not run for long. In the distance Inella could see the coastline where Dwende’s ship had landed. His last spell had taken Inella too long to defeat, and it had allowed Dwende to escape. Inella let out a sigh of frustration and began walking back to the caves. She was sure that her detour to chase Dwende had taken so long that all the other fighting had resolved. Inella felt her leg muscles throbbing for the first time since the chase began. All the adrenaline was wearing off now, and she was left bare- exposed to and unprotected from her own endeavors and efforts. Sitting down on the forest floor to rest, Inella started massaging her temples in an attempt to get rid of her stress.

“What should we do, Lyndross?” Calaime asked as she looked out at the ocean. Over half of the fleet retreated while defended by the flag ship. June and Dousza had sunk one ship, and it triggered the other ships that were lacking the protection of mages to run away.

“We can chase them down easily. They are foolish to retreat, the only protection they have is the flag ship, and once they are separated from it, we become vultures, and they become dead meat.” Lyndross said with a cruel smirk.

“Who should we send to chase them?” Calaime asked inquisitively. She looked over her shoulder to see Dremeira approaching.

“That will be for Inella to decide.” Lyndross had an unbothered tone which was an abnormality. Lyndross was constantly frustrated by the bureaucracy that came with the chain of command amongst the witches- especially when it restricted her from making her own decisions.

“Well, Inella has not returned from the forest.” Calaime bent over, stretching her legs in anticipation of running. “Do you want me to try and find her?”

“I have already sent a messenger bird to her.” Dremeira, having overheard the conversation, chimed in. She appeared out of nowhere as stealthily as the cats she could turn into. “She should be hurrying back by now, so you do not have to tire yourself out anymore, Calaime.” Dremeira walked up towards Lyndross so that she could stand beside her. “You were cunning to think of a plan where a whale sinks their ships. However, it was too extravagant. When up against other magic users, subtlety is more effective.”

“Do you have something in mind?” Lyndross asked, curious about what Dremeira meant by subtle.

“As a matter of fact, I do. The flag ship is like any other ship, in that it is made of wood. I have used my druid abilities to summon a large number of beavers in the area. My plan is to sink their ship by creating a distraction up top while the beavers chew holes into the boat. It’s up to you to create a distraction, so I leave it to your discretion.” Dremeira said with a smile.

“It sounds like a good plan in theory. The only issue is that the best distraction would be a smokescreen. We already tried a smokescreen, and we took heavy losses from using it.” Lyndross looked at Dremeira and tried to think of an answer. Dremeira had dark black skin, brown eyes, and a flat nose. She had a scar on her left cheekbone where a wild mountain cat had slashed her when she was younger. Her long, braided hair, drawn under her brown robes, was full of moss and debris because she spent most of her time in the forest, interacting with the animals. She slept in the forest- even when it rained. She had glowing skin due in part to sleeping in mud occasionally.

“Well, I imagine the sound will be more of a problem than the sight. The wizards have no reason to look down if you are casting spells at them, but they will be able to hear the beavers chewing on the boat.” Dremeira said.

“In that case, we will have to cast a thunderstorm, and proceed with attacking them during the change in weather.” Lyndross immediately began preparing the spell. The sky became grey; clouds that were pregnant with rain formed over the cliffs. The lightning was not focused on striking the flag ship, most of it struck down behind the boats. The thunder started off slow, withbrief pauses of silence, but as the lightning began striking rapidly, the booms of thunder overlapped one another.

Dremeira nodded at Lyndross, and communicated with the beavers to let them know that they could begin their task. As the heavy rain formed puddles on the cliffside, June and Dousza landed the hang glider (a quarter mile away from Lyndross and the other witches).

“Alright, you ready to do it again?” June asked in a joking manner. Dousza was laughing at her- reaching out her hand and giving June a high five. Dousza bent over, still laughing. She put her hands on her knees; her mana was nearly depleted from having to cast her illusion spell for such a prolonged period of time.

A shrill caw above Inella’s head got her attention. A bird dropped down next to her and, upon inspecting it, she found a message tied to its leg. The message read: ‘The Ko’fellian ships are retreating. Come quickly.’ As Inella finished reading, the bird flew away. It jerked its head to look back at Inella over its wing and saw her conjure up a vehicle. Inella rode back on an empty set of horse armor uninhibited by enemy interference. The reason Inella hadn’t been able to chase Dwende on a vehicle was twofold. First, he could have easily cast a spell to make her crash, and secondly the spell requires the use of both hands, so she would not have been able to cast any other spells. The vehicle conjuring spell was only qualified for combat when there was another mage attacking and defending, unless the caster desired to run people over with a speeding tree trunk, or various other vehicles. As Inella raced back to the cliffs, she saw Nehaynosh had barely moved from the position she’d seen her last. Nehyanosh was walking back towards the caves at a tired pace. Hearing Inella hitting through the underbrush, Nehaynosh turned her head. She smiled once she recognized it was Inella.

“Hop on.” Inella said plainly. Inella was tired before she had to fight this battle- at this point she was trembling from exhaustion. Nehaynosh nodded, and grabbed onto Inella’s robes to pull herself up onto the vehicle.

“Thanks for the ride,” Nehaynosh’s voice was quiet under the drone of the passing wind “I was not looking forward to walking all the way back to the caves.” Inella thought for a moment about asking Nehaynosh to cast the driving spell, but her proud determination inhibited her.

“We’re not going to the caves. The ships are retreating, and we have to chase them down. It is in our best interest to make sure everyone who has seen the cliffs is killed, so that they can not proliferate any information about our base of operations. As it stands, the ship that had the Ko’fellian court mage on it is already going to be getting back to Ko’fell with more information than I’d like. We need to make sure we keep their survival to a minimum.” Inella said without turning her head back to see Nehaynosh. Nehaynosh let out a sigh upon learning she would have to wait to rest.

“Ah, there they are.” Lyndross said. Inella and Nehaynosh emerged from the forest on their vehicle and immediately dismounted so that they could approach Lyndross.

“These women look like they’ve been working hard.” Inella said to Lyndross. “The fight is almost over, surely.”

“They have put up a good fight.” Lyndross replied. Aboard the deck of the flagship the mages were panicked. Dremeira’s beavers had gnawed serious holes in the ship, so two of the mages had been forced to go downstairs to deal with the situation. As it stood, the mages were all very tired, and their fight had been a longstanding stalemate. While Dremiera’s covert attack had not directly sunk the ship, it had brought two mages below deck, which swung the fight in favor of the witches. One of the wizards who went below deck was the wizard with the eye amulet that King Borundu was watching the battle through. As the wizard descended the stairs he began to monologue, knowing that someone was watching him.

“This has been a gradual defeat. Our element of surprise was practically irrelevant. My theory is that the witches had some kind of druid relaying them information, because they were prepared to fight by the time we got here. I fear that none of us will make it out alive, these women do not seem the type to let us flee with our tail between our legs. They will certainly give chase. The battle between the flagship and the witches has been a stalemate, but they have reinforcements. After losing several men it is clear to see that we are not going to win the day. We came severely under prepared, and we are paying the price with our lives. The witches have been crafty, and their tricks have outweighed our maneuvers. The forest raid was a failure, I hear. At this point all we can do is retreat and hope for the best, but I think our captain is going to sacrifice us to save the other ships. As noble a sacrifice as that is, it is pointless because the mages are all located on this ship, and we are the only ones who could stop the witch's pursuit.” The amulet around the mage’s neck stared out at the flooding ship. The amulet watched the mage’s hands glow blue as he plugged the ship with barrier magic.

“Braun, get the ship patched up with a permanent seal. We need you up top because we are going to give cover for the escaping boats.” The captain said from halfway down the stairs. The blue light around Braun’s fingers glowed white as he locked the seals into place. Without showing it on his face, Braun knew that this was how he would die- protecting the soldiers.

On top of the deck the mages were all organized in an arrowhead formation, casting spells and countering spells rapidly. The witches had long been on the offensive side, but now that the wizards needed to provide cover, they started casting more aggressive spells. “Fire at will, gentlemen.” The captain said with a grandiose tone, which he had to fake. To his credit, he faked it well for someone whose spirit had broken hours ago during this vicious battle that was near its climax. The mages on board the ship were too tired to yell in agreement with the captain’s morale, but they began to attack at will, adhering to the given command.

Right as the captain turned to begin an attack of his own, a bolt of fire struck him right through the gut and killed him instantly. The mages on board were too focused to notice and too tired to care. A wizard named Riku casually said “chain of command falls to me now.” And that was that. Braun despaired at the captain’s death, but only because Riku did not have the mental capacity to see that the flagship should not be providing cover for the other ships who could not protect themselves. Braun doubted he would be able to escape, because the person who would change the course of action was too far down the chain of command. By the time the ship stopped providing cover, it would be nothing more than a handful of wizards on the boat too scarce to protect themselves.

Embers bounced across the deck of the ship like marbles. “We can’t hold for much longer!” Braun yelled out to the mages on board. He watched them as they cast aggressive, reckless, dangerous spells up towards the cliffs. He watched them as they were picked off one by one. He watched them hit the floor, shuddering into lifelessness. He watched them and realized that these were his only friends in life, the men he had trained with, grown with, and spent all of his time with since he had to leave his family. Braun cast a fireball with all his mana, and watched as it was countered by Lyndross, then he watched her cast a firebolt at him that was too precise for his drained body to dodge.

“All of the mages on the flagship are dead!” Lyndross exclaimed to the slump-shouldered women who half cheered in response; most of them just fell to the ground in exhaustion. “We need to pursue the fleeing ships, gather yourselves, women.”

Dousza and June walked up to Lyndross in disbelief. “Are you saying we have to go back out there again? We just got back, this is ridiculous.” Dousza complained. June gave her a stern look, and the two women set off back towards the hang glider.

Lyndross grabbed Calaime by the shoulder to get her attention. “Go off and tell Inella. The three of us should be enough to take care of the ships, but we can’t be too careful now.” Lyndross ran off towards Dousza and June after she finished her request.

Inella looked up to see Calaime approaching.

“Lyndross has gone off with Dousza and June to destroy the fleeing ships. What will you have us do?” Calaime put her hands on her knees so that she could catch her breath. Inella’s eyes darted to the side for a brief moment of contemplation.

“If you and Calie go with them, the five of you should be more than enough to divebomb a few boats. You’ll have to find Calie of course, but after that, be on your way.” Inella said, turning back to Nehaynosh. “I am going to fish out a couple of bodies from the flagship to reanimate and interrogate. You have my permission to sleep, Nehaynosh. It appears that all of our affairs are in order.”

Inella stood at the cliffside gazing out at the wreckage of the flagship and other boats that had been damaged in the inlet. Instead of using a rope to repel down the steep cliff, Inella jumped down, using a spell to shoot long iron poles into the pockets of the cliffside. The holes that the poles left could be used for handholds on the climb back up, although Inella would likely cast some sort of spell to climb her way back up, just as she had used magic to get herself down. Once she was on the water she transmuted it into glass, so that she could walk upon it. Oddly enough, it was harder to freeze water than change its form, depending on what it was being changed into- glass came naturally, as if water had a second instinct to be glass.

“Thankfully Lyndross did not completely sink the ship.” Inella said to no one in particular as she put her hand on the bow of the ship. It swayed to and fro with the waves, vacant of a living captain. Inella entered the ship by transmuting a patch of wood on the stern into dust, which fell into the ocean like pollen. She walked into the hull with natural but unseen grace.

Transmuting is a branch of illusion magic. Illusion magic typically is used for escaping, manipulating, or creating chaos within situations. Transmuting is the most offensively applicable component of illusion magic; transmuting is more nuanced when compared with the obvious and powerful applications of sorcery. Inella learned transmuting on the basis of its offensive applications, because Inella’s passion for magic prioritized being the aggressor. The only witch at Leired who took more of an interest in offensive spells was Lyndross.

Stepping inside the boat and climbing the stairs to the deck, Inella rummaged through the dead bodies to find the ones she liked most. Inella picked three corpses to pull off to the side. Once they were separated, Inella began lifting planks of the boat apart, which she transformed into a kayak down on the water; Inella threw the three bodies into the kayak once it was prepared, then dove into the water herself. With wet robes and clinging hair, Inella pulled herself up onto the kayak so that she could paddle to the cliff. Inella scaled the cliff after tying a rope around the kayak, which secured the bodies in place. “Now comes the hard part.” Inella said to herself. Casting a strength spell she pulled the kayak up the cliffside by the rope and gave it a great tug as it reached the top and was thrown on land. The momentum that this created would have brought her to the ground had she not cast a gravity spell to stop herself from falling down.

After trying to reanimate one of the corpses for several hours outside of the caves, Inella was approached by Lyndross. “We left no survivors.” Lyndross said in passing, walking herself into the cave so that she could sleep. As Lyndross entered the cave, Nehaynosh came out.

“Shall I take notes for you again, mother?” Nehaynosh said in a caring tone. Inella looked up at her, the bags under her eyes deep and wide.

“I would appreciate it.” Inella grabbed a different corpse to begin working on. She’d decided that her first subject was not the person she wanted to devote her time to. Long hours passed and the second corpse was finally brought back to life. In the moment that the man gained consciousness, he began to cast a spell at Inella. Inella countered the man’s spell with ease, then shot a bolt of lightning of her own at the man. In the brief brilliance, the man’s bewildered eyes could be seen. Their wideness was amplified in shadow and projected above his visage in a picture of fear. Nehaynosh barely had time to stop writing her notes during the interaction.

“Shall we wait until tomorrow to do the next one perhaps?” Nehaynosh asked, knowing that Inella was unlikely to agree.

Inella cleaned up the guts and ashes of the second man and put the third man into place. “No.” Inella gave a succinct answer.

The sun was setting on the caves at Leired. Inella had her hand on a cold, bruised shoulder. The shoulder belonged to a soldier who Inella had recently reanimated for the purpose of interrogation. Inella walked around the man, her hand traced a circle over his plated shoulder in tandem with her stepping feet. She made sure the confused corpse could see who she was before she leaned next to his ear and whispered to him. “Your death here was for a cause that does not benefit you in any way, but your new life, your new life can serve both of us. I am going to ask you some questions to see what you know. Keep in mind that this process will be a lot less painful for you if you cooperate with me.” Inella smiled at the soldier who was listening in the most attentive way a tired, bleeding soldier could. “What was the purpose of attacking us?” Inella’s voice was low and soft, sultry and silky. She was not opposed to taking any advantages she could get.

“We had a directive from Milynine to attack the alleged witches that were at Leired. Based on the information that had been given to us, it was our belief that one third of the wizards from Ko’fell would be able to deal with you and your subordinates. As you know, we failed miserably, but information was collected and reported back to Ko’fell; surely, your forces will not be underestimated again.” Based on the slow, rhythmic beat of the soldier’s speech it was clear that he had been a vigilant soldier in life, one raised with the sole purpose of the occupation. He had greasy brown hair and bloated, purple skin; his facial expressions were minimal.

“You were left to die- protecting those who could not protect themselves. After you were sacrificed by a leader who did not even participate in the battle, where does your allegiance lie?” Inella’s question was imposing on the man, the weight of it was immediate. The tension in the air was only outweighed by the leaden gaze that Inella pressed to the soldier as she awaited his answer.

“I did not wish to die. It is fairly clear to me where my allegiance lies. For you are the only one who may give me life, so you are the only one who I can give my allegiance to. The question is not of my allegiance, it is of your willingness to accept my allegiance.”

Inella smiled at the man. “Perfect logic, very well.” Inella grabbed the man by the hands and picked him up, so that he could walk with her over to the infirmary. “What name suits you?”

“My name is Braun, my lady.” The man answered the question without any expression on his face, but he had been limping the entire time he walked- his right leg was dragging behind, knocking against the ground in an unnatural way.

“Go ahead and tell me about yourself, Braun; Iam curious. After all, you have such a fitting name.” Inella said with a cute laugh. Things were going as well as they could have, and she was in a particularly good mood due to the success of her reanimation spell. This rare instance of Inella’s happiness has sprouted through the weight of exhaustion. It truly was a wonderful moment for a woman who knew nothing but work.

“I was born in a province of Western Luzan and later moved on to Ko’fell with my family. There was a terrible fire in my hometown, so we needed to relocate. My father had been a thatcher for his whole life, and when we went to Ko’fell his labor was taken at lower wages. Due to the decreased income for my family I enrolled in the army. It made sense to me, because it meant one less mouth for my parents to feed. They struggled as it was with my two sisters. Once I was in the army, they tested my magical prowess. Being from Luzan, where magic is widely accepted, gave me the opportunity to practice from a young age. In Ko’fell I was near the top marks for magical skill, which I’m sure was due to the ban on magic outside of the military. Being the prodigy that I was, I was given a position in the wizard’s court of Ko’fell, and I worked within that same court until I died.” Braun laughed bitterly. “I say ‘until I died’ as if it were ages ago, but only a few hours have passed since I went down with the ship.”

“It is ironic, isn’t it? Well, you have a touching story. And I can’t help but be proud of how well your memory has held up under my spell. Now, I’ll see to it that Heather tends to your wounds. She’s just through that door.” Inella’s unusually cheery attitude pointed Braun through the door to the infirmary where Heather was waiting to heal him. Heather is the healing teacher amongst the witches at Leired. Originally from Milynine, she had unusually light skin, brown hair, and brown eyes.

“Come and find me when Heather says that you’re done here.” Inella closed the door to the infirmary after telling Braun that last thing. Inella wanted to speak to Nehaynosh about the reanimation spell, so she cast a spell to locate her and walked off at a fast pace, even though her body was sore and tired.