Nessoly

It sounded wrong.

Wet scraping, strained gurgling and the slick squelch of something almost liquid dragging across the floor. A laugh, multiple voices sounding in a crazed chorus, some of them all too familiar. And then it didn't make any sound at all.

From the moment the day started, it had played with them. At first, including her, there had been eleven.

Something else jumped out. Nessoly squeaked in surprise, then clamped her mouth shut with taloned hands, her wingarms fluttering with her sudden movement. The movement made Nessoly flinch with pain as her ravaged right arm spasmed. That monster had pulled out most of her primary feathers hours ago.

It looked at her with grinning skull, it's head empty but for the glow of the twisted magic that kept it animate.

"NRGH!" The Human grunted as he brought the wooden mace down on the head of the skeleton. The metal flanges bolted to the end of the mace crushed the skull of the Hungry. The nullwood from which the haft had been carved absorbed a portion of the errant magic permeating the wrong thing. The head of the Starved sheared clean off, but the body continued to judder and shake. It moved towards Nessoly like a puppet with all of its strings in the wrong places. The loss of its head hadn't affected its movement.

A second hit, crunching through the ribcage and smashing the spine, finished the task. The sickly shimmering tendons of magic connecting its bones disintegrated, and the skeleton collapsed.

It had been a Siren like her. Stripped of flesh and feather, only fragments of primary wing feathers remained attached to its arms. Now it was nothing but a scattered pile of bones.

The Human, Jact, inspected the head of the mace as Nessoly and the others gathered themselves. Odestolian, an elder Lume, shivered while straining with the effort of hiding his glowing halo. Restraining his natural magic was no easy task for the jeweller. Watching the route from which they had come stood the Kruxt, Tug, wearing layered kilts and vests, his body covered with a natural armour of segmented carapace. Once eleven, now they were four.

Tug turned to her, his eyes glinting red in the light cast by Jact's torch. "Nessoly, We know," Tug spoke, his natural speaking cadence broken as usual, "You aren't. Well skilled, but you must. Must maintain it."

Nessoly flinched at the sound of a scream in the next house, thin walls doing little to muffle the sound.

The voice was just one of many terrified wails piercing the crackling and the smoke of numerous fires. If terror did not fill the voice, in its place, one would only hear pain. In the far distance, faint shouts of anger and loss echoed along with the clangs and impacts of combat. This sound had faded to a bare ghost of the roar of combat from the early morning.

When the gates had opened.

Nessoly shut out the noise and pulled her concentration together. When she had calmed herself enough, she channelled mana for the spell once again. Carefully she built up the casting, piece by piece. Without the freedom to chant, it was harder to reinforce the concept, but there was little choice.

She pictured the range of it, wrapping close around herself and her three companions. Fortunately, her natural mana was wind aspected, suitable for the spell. Nessoly built up her impression of an oppressive, foggy day. The heaviness of the morning mist and muffling of voice and sound that came with it.

She pushed her arms out and exhaled. The crude casting wrapped around Nessoly and her impromptu companions. The world quieted around them.

"Let's go," ordered Jact, words muffled and distant. He sounded as if he was outside the building, not right next to her. For those not a part of her spell, the four of them would be almost entirely silent.

If only it didn't exhaust her to cast and maintain. Her lungs burned with the effort and the searing cold heat of channelled mana. She could only wonder how the other aspects of mana would feel to another, such as Odestolian. Would his light aspected mana feel warm? Or would it sear his back and arms? She'd never thought to ask, but then he'd never had a need to channel such volume.

They hustled from building to building, avoiding the shambling Hungry horde. In one street, the movement of zombies, creatures that still resembled who they had been but for oozing gaps on their bodies where other Starved had fed. In the lead, a ghoul. The ghoul was entirely unrecognizable compared to what it had once been. Only the number of limbs matched. A torso with two legs, two arms and a mound of shimmering flesh where the head should have been. Fortunately, it was looking away. Nessoly didn't want to see what passed for its face.

Nessoly's spell deadened the transfer of sound around the party, so they could barely be heard, so they could scarcely hear. But it didn't block the smell.

It smelled wrong.

It didn't smell like the normal sort of rotten, but it did smell... sick. The sickly sweet scent churned Nessoly's stomach, undertones of sweltering flesh and long turned oil like nothing else Nessoly had ever experienced. The smell stuck to her and she heard Odestolian gag with barely restrained disgust. She had already experienced this smell a couple of times tonight.

There was no wind. It was ahead of them.

Jact shifted their direction, choosing to stay closer to the faint sounds of combat. Not long after, the four of them exited an alleyway only to discover a mess.

Bodies were strewn across the ground and further down the street a mob of skeletons and zombies pushed a ragged line of guardsmen. The men fought with sword, mace and spear, fending off the press of the Hungry. Behind the guards, a small group of women and children. Between the guards and civilians, an old dwarf dropping to kneel on the ground. The strands of roots that made up his beard were burnt, free of whatever plantlife had once grown there.

He pressed four hands to the ground, his arms and shoulders covered with encrusted lacerations that glowed with a green light. Blood leaked from his mouth as he chanted, staining the thick roots of his beard with yet more red. What he said, Nessoly would never know.

Tug and Nessoly stumbled as the ground shook and a fissure opened up between the guards and the Starved. The dwarf stumbled away from the only intact piece of land separating the civilians from combat. Having waited for the spell, the guards retreated over the small patch of stone.

Jact hissed and dragged Nessoly across the street. Tug and Odestolian had already crossed. Tug held a spear snatched up from the ground, taken from the still unmoving hands of a corpse. One last glance and Nessoly could see the guards and civilians running, two of the soldiers staying to guard the gap. That was the last she would ever see any of them as Jact pulled her into another narrow alley.

Even to the very last, the soldiers of fortress city Kountain fought to save every possible life. Even as Nessoly kept her wings folded in while passing through the alley, she couldn't help but think of all those she had lost over the last months. Her friends, her family… her lover. She had to shake her head, maintaining the crude muffling spell was her duty. And upon this duty rested their lives.

There was a gurgling cry and a crunch behind them, then another. The four of them turned in time to witness the source of a third grisly sounding impact. A trio of ghouls, heads fused into their shoulders with grotesquely distended mouths full of jagged teeth. Their eyes glowed with light that constantly shifted in colour. They had fallen from an upper level. Fortunately, that crunching sound had been the breaking of bodies and bones. These ghouls were suddenly not in top shape.

That wouldn't last, many of the Starved regenerated given time.

Tug turned and pushed past Nessoly to impale the only ghoul with working legs. The other two tried to climb to a standing position, but only one had the capability. The one standing shuffled slowly on a twisted and busted leg. The third dragged itself forward, both legs smashed to pieces. As Nessoly watched, those legs bulged, twisted and crackled, slowly pulling themselves into a proper shape.

"It's a narrow alley!" Jact shouted, "jam it into the wall!"

Tug didn't hesitate. He pushed the ghoul back, even as the creature attempted to claw and dig through Tug's armoured carapace. The Kruxt pushed sideways, jamming the spear against the wall with all his strength and locking the impaled ghoul in place. The ghoul groaned and reached, but found itself stuck.

"Let's go!" the big Kruxt said as he turned back to them. As a group, they turned, ran and cleared the alley. Until hands red with gore reached out and snatched Nessoly from the middle of the group.

It felt… incredibly wrong.

She couldn't even shriek as the far too long hands wrapped one of her wingarms tight to her body, crushing the air out of her with monstrous strength. The arm length digits pulsed disgustingly with fluid and blood. Nessoly pushed her free hand out against the middle of the creature. Its flesh twitched and moved, filled with blistering warmth and squirming under her touch. She almost retched at the feel of the oily sheen that caused her hand to squelch and slide.

The grasping claws that surrounded Nessoly left wet smears on her clothes, skin and feathers and pulled the heat from her body. She gasped as it constricted further around her, coiling tighter and tighter. She couldn't bear to look, shutting her eyes and refusing to see it. She heard a slither and then felt something wet and slimy glide, roughly, over her face. The tongue stuck to her skin and pulled, entirely unlike what she would expect the gruesome thing to do.

She whimpered in fear, only clenching her eyes even tighter.

"Nessoly!"

With a sizzle accompanied by a wave of heat, Nessoly dropped to the ground and landed on her back. It shrieked, countless voices sounding pain and anger. She opened her eyes to see her last friend, old Odestolian, standing between her and the Carnifex. The halo he'd been hiding blazed out from his back as he channelled his magic. She had seen him work before, but it was nothing like this. Her memory was that of a bright line of light as fine as a hair, slowly and carefully burning intricate designs into his works. Now, here, it was a blazing beam that scythed into the creature… but not before a rope of flesh lashed out. It caught Odestolian in the stomach, tearing out his side.

The old Lume, his halo coalescing into shards of light hanging about his back, visibly recoiled. And then recovered. He gathered his magic and cast again. The beam flashed out a second time, painting her vision with white. The creature screamed and she could hear it scrabbling away on far more limbs than any living thing should possess.

"You chased it away," Jact spoke.

Nessoly couldn't see anything at first, having been flash blinded by Odestolian's casting. Her vision came back slowly, but she was on her scaled knees and at his side before that. He was bleeding profusely, holding his stomach together. As her vision cleared of light, Nessoly realized not all of that blinding was still in her vision. His face glowed with strings and knots of translucent cracks that had spread up from the old Elf's neck. Much stronger ropes on his hands glowed through the vivid red blood spilling from his stomach. He'd used his seed too much. It was eating him alive. Or at least, it was attempting to, the wound in his gut...

"Yes, I have chased it away," Odestolian agreed, "But that's the last of me…"

"No," Nessoly whispered, "There is no one left…"

"Don't be- cough don't be silly," he replied, his voice faint, blood bubbling from his lips, "You're still here."

"But-"

"I'm done lass, but I can give you one last thing…"

"No you-!" Nessoly's voice cut off as the old Lume did something she'd only heard about before.

"Pity," the Lume whispered, "I will never get to hear you sing again…"

Odestolian cupped his hands before him and channelled as much mana as he could manage, pooling it into a single spot. The Lume cupped his hands and to there it flowed. That mana gathered in place like liquid sun mixed with crawling roots growing inwards around themselves. Those ropes of light on his arms grew further, widening as his light aspected mana poured through his veins. The light congealed, hardening into a small orb that glowed with a soft light. When no more of the liquid remained, he lifted a shaking hand, weakly dropping the last of his life into Nessoly's hand.

"Don't waste it."

And he was gone, leaving a transformed seed of light in her palm. A priceless artifact. A paltry replacement for the last person she'd ever truly known.

"We must go," Tug whispered, his voice rough with sympathy, "The Carnifex. Won't take long. No time."

Before Nessoly could really begin to cry, Tug and Jact lifted her to her feet. Picked her up and dragged her away. She refused to talk to Tug, refused to look at either of them, clenching the marble tight in her hand. She looked back one last time. Odestolian's eyes were closed, almost as if he was sleeping. That was all she could see. His halo had faded to nothing, gone with his life.

Looking back cost her.

Tug yelled, but his voice came from a great distance. Jact shouted as well, yet Nessoly barely realized it was happening, so caught up she was in her grief.

Until she was thrown to the ground.

"Take her!" Tug screamed with desperation.

Nessoly blinked and looked up, once again seeing the world around her. They were on one of the main streets, heading for the mountain walls. Jact ran up and pulled her to her feet, dragging her roughly, angrily, away.

A ghoul hung off Tug's shoulder, its distended jaw latched around a thick piece of shoulder carapace. With a wrench of its body and a disgusting groan, the ghoul ripped the natural armour from Tug's arm, drawing from him a tortured scream. As she watched, another chomped down over the distracted Tug's hand. A pair of still vaguely recognizable zombies hung off his waist and leg.

Jact pulled her around a corner and out of sight. Continued further down a street, through a half-collapsed building and around several torn apart barricades.

Nessoly was exhausted, grieving and alone. Alone but for a person she knew literally nothing about before today. A Human, the last sort of person she would have given her trust, if she’d had the choice.

Her scaled and feathered legs slowed, leather sheathed talons dragging as her steps came to a halt. She covered her mouth and sobbed.

The Human's reaction caught her off guard, seemingly out of proportion.

Jact turned and slapped her across the face. Hard. The action and the physical pain stunned her. "Tug just died because of you, pull yourself together."

"Or what, you'll leave too!?"

His face flickered, for a moment twisting in pain and loss to mirror her own, "I've known Tug all my life lady, I ain't got no one left."

The words struck her with far more force than she'd felt from his hand. Nessoly's stomach twisted further, but it was what she needed. She couldn't answer him, but her return stare seemed to be all the answer the Human needed.

He held out his hand. After a short hesitation, she took it.

"Where are we going?" Nessoly asked.

"The river flows out from the mountain," Jact explained, "If we can get to the wall and jump to the outside of the water drain gate, we can ride the flow away from Kountain."

"You would..." She stopped speaking. That was not a slow river. They might just die trying that. But that was probably their only chance. She lifted her right arm, mourning the rent in her flesh that resulted from the tearing out of her primaries. She was worse than landbound, she was stuck to the ground and slower than most residents of Kountain. Rather than what she'd been about to say, she accepted the idea, "I understand."

She looked over the houses, past columns of smoke, to the wall peeking over the roofs. They were only a couple of blocks away.

So close, yet with all the chaos, the wall was so far. Then Nessoly saw something else.

And it looked so wrong.

It had three legs, long, spindly and bent around the tower it stood upon, as she watched, it grew a fourth for better purchase, the flesh rippling and expanding. Two arms hung from its side, long claws twitching at the behest of the creature's emotions. Its body bubbled and twitched with constant movement, continually changing shape on the spot. Ropes of flesh that moved without restraint hung off its back. It had no mouth that she could see, but countless eyes blinked in and out of existence on its head.

Whatever damage Odestolian had done was long gone.

A crack appeared across what appeared to be its chest, baring countless fangs, crooked and sharp. It laughed with far too many voices, as if showing off its collection. It had added more voices since early in the morning when the Starved had made it into the city.

It skittered down from the tower and out of sight.

She'd never seen a Carnifex before today. Now she could boast having seen one more times than she knew. The creature had looked almost entirely different upon each encounter.

"We're gonna have to deal with that first," Jact noted with a sigh.

Nessoly gulped and nodded. She clutched the warm orb to her chest. Jact took her other hand and dragged her forwards into the darkness.

They moved slowly now, staying to the shadows and giving any noises as wide a berth as possible while still moving towards the wall. They didn't use her muffling spell, Nessoly didn't have the stamina left.

The only movement now was that of the Hungry. While it had been mostly skeletons at first, the invasion into the city had supplied fresh corpses. Now it was zombies and ghouls that survivors had to contend with. Or other creatures like the massive glutton or the bone-eater.

But Jact and Nessoly had attracted the very worst monsters now in Kountain. Having the attention of a Carnifex was still about the worst luck they could have expected.

They ducked past a street full of shambling skeletons. Took a very long way around a square with a lumbering mass of slow-moving flesh. Then slowly crept between two groups of zombies that had set upon each other. The monsters snarled and groaned as they tore each other apart, attempting to gobble up whatever parts they could grab.

"What are they urp doing?" Nessoly whispered in confusion, barely restraining a disgusted gag.

Jact brought them to a stop against the corner of a building, peeking around that corner to look at the tower that would bring them to the upper wall. "It always comes to that," Jact explained vaguely as he looked around.

"They always eat each other?" She asked, confused.

Jact looked at her for a moment. "There's a reason you don't find old zombies. Too much fresh meat." He lifted his mace and inspected the bolted on metal flanges again. One of them wobbled.

"Fresh meat?" Nessoly parroted.

"Yeah, the Hungry prefer living, warm flesh, but they'll eat every bit of flesh that hasn't been, uh, digested." He fiddled with the weapon some more before letting it drop and looking back to the tower. "Once there is no living, zombies are naturally harvested by the more powerful Hungry so the horde can grow more ghouls or worse. When they are done, all the remaining zombies end up mostly reduced to more skeletons. They'll go after each other if one of them is injured badly enough as well."

"Oh," Nessoly didn't push him to move. The day had been utterly exhausting, and it wasn't over yet.

Nessoly looked at the Human. Actually looked for the first time. Instead of feathers, he had a pelt of fur on his head and over his eyes. He also had the stubble of shorn hair on his face. His arms were just plain limbs, unadorned with wings, claws or scales, bare flesh with sparse hair, but a notable ripple of muscle underneath. His legs were straight, and while his feet were hidden by sturdy boots, she was certain he didn't have scaled legs like her, let alone claws or talons for grip.

He was basically a giant gnome, but less charming...

Or at least less cute.

Finally she spoke up, "what are we waiting for?"

Jact looked up at her, his face obscured by the dark of the night. "It knows where we are going. I bet you anything the Carnifex expects we're heading up that tower."

"But we don't have much ch-," Nessoly tried to swallow, but her throat had gone dry. She couldn't argue. It made too much sense. "What do we do?" She asked.

He had pulled his mace out and fiddled with it again. Steady use throughout the last week and especially today had put a deep crack through the middle. The metal flanges bolted to the head kept it together, but the crack ran the length of the wood.

Jact pulled out a dagger and knelt on the ground. He cut the end of the cloth wrap on the handle of the mace open, unravelled the cloth and set the weapon down. He then wedged the blade deep into the wood and twisted. The handle splintered and cracked. Errant magic absorbed by the nullwood flashed and leaked, lashing at his arm with corruscating energy. The flickering mana burnt Jact's flesh, earning a hiss of pain from the normally stoic man.

When he was done, Jact's mace had a slender handle, in his other hand, he held a wooden spike the length of her forearm. He cut the cloth in half, wrapped some about the base of the wooden spike and the rest he wrapped a little higher on his mace. He then handed Nessoly the spike. She could feel the nullwood pull at her slightly. If not for the cloth, it would drain her mana in a slow, exhausting trickle.

"He will probably grab you again," Jact predicted, "it won't hold up long, but this will make for a nasty surprise if you poke him with it. Next we'll need to find or make a torch."

Nessoly accepted the weapon, and Jact climbed back to his feet.

"Let's… no, wait," Jact had started to step forward, but he hesitated and looked to Nessoly, "I have a question. I think I have a bright idea."

"Yes?" Nessoly asked, unsure of whether she would like it.

She was right, she didn't like it.

The Monster

It heard them climbing the stone steps and salivated as the smell of them wafted forwards. The feathered Siren was soft with the taste of the wind. It looked forward to that meal.

The other, the… Human, it hadn't tasted one of those, but this male smelled of exertion and strength. It was curious to smell this one's fear.

The two of them, their number reduced from the initial eleven, climbed silently. Or at least, silently by any reasonable measure. This creature knew all too well how unreasonable it was, and revelled in showing off the truth of that matter. It shifted its body further, pulling mass to its arms, reducing the number of limbs by half. It would not do, to turn itself into a tangle in this confined space. It grew a second set of legs, enlarged its eyes for the darkness and licked its chest wide lips as the smell of them grew closer.

Light flickered, cast up the stairwell by a torch. The two of them could not see in the dark, of course. They were smart enough to realize the light was their friend.

Well, that was a problem it could solve.

The first stepped into view. The male, sturdy, strong with torch held overhead. In the Human's other hand, the painful nullwood mace. Every strike from such weapons would sap its strength and disrupt its control.

Still, there was only two prey left. It reached, ready to snatch the female as soon as she stepped into sight. It could barely restrain its hunger.

Inexplicably, the Human suddenly dived forward, shouting as he went, "Now!"

She had only just come into view, her hand also held high, a glowing orb shining in her grip. As it reached for her, the orb flashed with incandescent light, filling its vision with white. It hissed in annoyance and pain.

But it could still hear, and still smell. It didn't need to see. One of its many limbs snatched the Siren up and dragged her in. Another tentacle reached down, wrapping independently around her torso.

In countless voices it spoke. Countless, but with the voices of his last victims, the Kruxt and the Lume at the forefront. "Aiiiii willll enjoyyyy yyyyouuu."

It wrapped its prehensile tongue around her wingarm and pulled, enjoying the taste of old blood from where it had taken an appetizer earlier. Rather than fight, she jammed her arm into its mouth.

It tasted wrong.

Splinters and wood, a taste that was less than taste. Blood gushed from the back of its throat. Blood gushed and its strength drained even faster. He could feel a spike of something as it sucked his energy away.

Nullwood! That harpy had jammed a piece of nullwood down its throat!

Overwhelmed with pain and rage, it screamed.

Nessoly

How Jact realized the Carnifex was hanging from the ceiling above the door, Nessoly didn't know. But his shout gave her just the time she needed.

It screamed in so many voices, screamed loudest with the voices of those she had started the morning with. Screamed, and released her arm.

Nessoly released the nullwood spike, leaving it inside the creature. The arm-length fingers of the Carnifex's hand spasmed with pain and Nessoly dropped to the ground.

Jact grabbed her and pulled her up and forwards, dragging her, stumbling, to the door opposite the stairwell they had come up.

The Carnifex fell to the ground and turned, countless eyes blinking away the pain of the flash of light as it snarled its rage. Without any knowledge or training, that was the best Nessoly could do with Odestolian's seed of light, but his gift had already proved its worth.

Truthfully, she hadn't known if she could even do that much, but Jact had made her try before climbing the stairs. If only the effort hadn't drained her dry.

Jact pushed the exhausted Nessoly through the door. She stumbled as she went, barely keeping her feet.

The river was no more than ten second away, their goal just a moment out of reach. Nessoly started to run, only for Jact to grunt in surprise and hit the ground. She turned her head to see a long rope of flesh around Jact's ankle. It dragged him back to the doorway. In her surprise and fatigue, Nessoly fell as she turned to grab his hand, her reach falling short.

Tired, shaking and exhausted, she did the only thing she could think of. "Jact!" Nessoly shouted, and he turned his head just as she threw the orb at him.

He caught the seed of light in his right hand, dropped the torch from his left hand and transferred the orb over. His right hand now free, he struggled with the mace in his belt, even as the Carnifex dragged Jact in.

Nessoly's stomach dropped as the Carnifex dragged itself up and stood tall, easily double Nessoly's height. With a thick tentacle that squirmed and bulged with terrible muscle and strength, it held Jact upside down by his feet. Its many eyes glared at Jact hatefully.

"Aiiiii wwwwilllll deeeevourrre yyyyouuuuu, piecccce byyyy piecccce, coommmeee to meeeee."

In a voice so calm and matter-of-fact, Nessoly would never forget the words, Jact replied.

"I refuse."

Until that moment, Jact had struggled with his mace, the weapon seemingly tangled up in Jact's belt. The man grabbed the head of the mace, pulling it free with ease, and jammed it as hard as he could into the closest eye of the Carnifex, handle first.

Even as the creature recoiled, Jact held the orb in his left hand up. It blazed with light, then that light took form. For only an instant, a solid bar of searing white connected Jact's left hand with the mace embedded in the eye of the Carnifex.

Nullwood absorbed mana, and the Starved were creatures animated by mana gone wrong. That was why it worked so well against them. But the wood could only absorb so quickly, and if it was damaged…

The beam of light burned through the mace. A weapon that had seen endless use and absorbed an impressive amount of mana. It exploded, blowing the head of the Carnifex apart.

The monster stumbled back, keening pain from deep within itself, amazingly alive but still terribly wounded.

But it had dropped Jact. Bloodied and half-blind, Jact was back on his feet as quick as his body would allow. He charged the wailing and staggered Carnifex and smashed into the creature with his shoulder. Blinded, pained and unbalanced, the beast was easy to move. It stumbled away… and tipped over the edge of the wall.

It wailed, a horrendous cry of countless voices, all fearful, all angry. Then it cut off, interrupted by a wet, meaty, smack.

Nessoly, shaking and wobbly, joined Jact at the wall and looked down. The fall had done damage. Even so, it writhed and twitched, its body ruptured and devastated by the fall, yet still alive. The flesh of the Carnifex slowly worked and pulsed, attempting to pull itself together.

With horror and nausea, Nessoly spoke, "it's still moving!"

"Good," Jact replied grimly, "it'll be awake for what happens next."

Nessoly didn't have to ask. It was already happening.

Even as they looked, as the Carnifex attempted to pull itself together, the Hungry started to arrive. They came out of ruined buildings, from back alleys and other streets. Countless animate skeletons, badly mauled zombies and a few snarling ghouls. They approached slowly at first, then with more confidence as the devastated monster failed to retaliate. Then they fell upon it. The Carnifex flailed and screamed as the rest of the monsters attacked, rending it to pieces with tooth and nail.

They were, after all, very Hungry.

Jact returned the soft glowing orb that was Odestolian's last gift and he nodded solemnly to her. Nessoly accepted it with relief. That done, they stepped away, turned and walked along the wall. For the moment, the wall was a sanctuary, empty of monsters of any kind. But it wasn't a place they could stay.

Kountain had been a wonderful city, built high with gleaming stone, it had stood as a beacon of civilization, a bastion against the armies of the Giants. Now brought low by the Devourer and its endless Hungry hordes.

Nessoly turned to look at the castle towers one last time, the crenellated walls and high peaked roofs now dimly lit by the fires consuming the city. She had once dreamed of being a princess swept up by a charming prince and bundled off to the castle to live a life of intrigue and nobility. Those dreams lay burnt to ash now. She turned her head to see Jact holding a bronze medallion, the proof of his position as a mercenary employed by Kountain.

"How did you know?" Nessoly had to ask, "how did you know it was there above us?"

She watched from the side and saw his mouth twist. "It drooled on me. I felt it land on my shoulder."

"Oh," she replied, a moment passed, then another question. "I didn't know you could cast."

"I know a little," Jact sighed, "Always holding a piece of nullwood makes it a bit harder though."

It would, a bit.

"I liked this place," Jact said softly, running a thumb over the engraved metal. "But I guess it's time to fight somewhere else.

"You're going to keep fighting?" Nessoly asked in surprise.

Jact turned and walked to the other side of the wall, Nessoly close behind. They looked down into the deep water, flanked by cliffside on one side and rocky shore on the other. Past the shore, meandering Hungry moved listlessly about, currently without task or purpose. It would be cold and quick, this water, jumping in a risk to life and limb. But there was nowhere else to go, and if they remained… well, that Carnifex wasn't the only true monster in the city.

Nessoly looked to Jact and he smiled back, "Yeah, I'll keep fighting," he replied. "My family always seems to flirt with death."

He offered his hand.

Again, but this time without hesitation, she took it. His hand was warm.

Closing their eyes, Nessoly and Jact jumped into the water.

Time passes.

He thumbed the medallion, looking at the worn and beaten image engraved on the metal and comparing it to the collapsed castle in the middle of the ruin. He hummed to himself as he enjoyed the warm sun and cool breeze.

"You carry it well. The tune"

Koren turned his head to see his current companion, the half-Giant, half-Kruxt known as Tosp. The fuzzy man had his advocate's mask off and hanging from his shoulder, much like Koren.

"Pretty sure I've got some Siren in me somewhere," Koren replied with a smile.

The pair of them stood on the battlements above the still-standing gate. It made for a good view, but much of the old fortress city of Konton had crumbled to stone and pebble. It had never recovered from the Devouring War nearly four hundred years ago. Sadly, there was no country left to rebuild it. Konton had been the last bastion of its people. The fall had heralded countless more deaths.

A string of caws signalled the return of Tosp's partner Little and Koren's love Cherise.

Cherise landed on his shoulder and warbled, rubbing her head and beak against his cheek. He reached up to give his beloved raven a scritch around her neck.

"Okay, okay, we got places to be, I know," Koren replied as he tucked away the ancient heirloom that was his medallion. He turned to Tosp, "ready to go?" He knew his large companion wasn't exactly looking forward to this trip.

Tosp turned his furred head to Koren and replied in the slow, halting way that those of Giant's blood tended to speak.

"Aye. A rest is nice but. Life goes on."

End