"A revanant?" Asked deLan, incredulous, and then in a whisper, "Are you sure?"

"I'm not sure about anything," Kanick replied. "But if Edian is indeed the same magister who rose up with Palregon, then I can't think of anything else to explain it."

"What do you think?" deLan turned to his mage.

"He could be... He was insistent that this attack take place at night. Sunlight is the main defence against those... cursed in this way." Valdez offered.

"Edian keeps to a strange schedule, only taking meetings at night," Kanick added.

"But a revenant?" deLan whispered rhetorically.

"More than a few mages who pledged allegiance to Palregon's cause took this bargain, trading their humanity for power in his service," he explained. "Did you ever see one, during the war?"

"No," deLan replied after a moment. "Though I heard the stories, of course. We had a patrol attacked. The wounds we saw... I had never seen the like, flesh torn and split. I never knew if it was a revenant or not, but that was the word."

"They can kill you before you know you're dead," Kanick said, echoing the words of Sayyal, his own master. "I saw one rip through an inn-full of people in the east."

"How did you kill it?"

"My master set the inn on fire," Kanick said, looking directly at deLan, but in his mind he saw the roadside inn, backdropped by black mountains, roaring with flames in the cold, quiet, desert night. Both Master and apprentice had come within a hairs breadth of death that night, Kanick for the first time. A thought brought him back to the present.

"Assuming Edian fought alongside Palregon, he is probably in league with the Sons of the Prince," Kanick added. "And Regius's murderer."

"Perhaps he grows tired of his condition... In Agents of Chaos, revenantism is listed under the blood curses," Valdez offered. "Never feeling the sun on your skin, never being able to eat anything other than human blood... the hunger? I couldn't live like that."

"No," Kanick replied, shaking his head. "Regius would have simply helped him, if asked. There would have been no need to kill him. There is something we are missing."

"What do you propose we do?" deLan asked. "We are obviously being lured into a trap."

The meeting lasted well into the afternoon, while the three men discussed plans. One of them would propose a course of action, and then someone else would point out its fatal flaw. deLan had the notion of storming the Enclave immediately, but Kanick pointed out that would result in much bloodshed at great risk. Valdez suggested that they wait for the opportune moment, and attempt to separate the Magister from his enclave, but that would take too much time. Any delay, deLan felt, would raise suspicion that Edian had been found out. It was better to act, the Governor reasoned, than be acted against.

The evening was pleasantly cool as Kanick walked down the hill of the main street towards the Black Crown. The sky was turning to pink, with blue-grey clouds gathering in the north over the distant mountains, beyond the walls. He could hear laughter and easy chatter as he navigated the busy street. Merchants were shuttering their shops and townsfolk were heading to their homes for an evening meal. Birds chirped tunefully from the eaves and the trees along the avenue.

Kanick sighed, basking in the contentedness of the town, despite the clouds on the horizon. The sounds he could hear were the sounds of peace, he realised. A peace Regius had won with his mind, and a peace Kanick hoped he could keep with his cunning.

At the Crown, Kanick strode up the stairs straight to Bera's rooms. As promised, the apprentice had prepared an arsenal of spells. Lightning, which was always a powerful destructive choice, and, to Kanick's relief, a strong selection of fire-based runes.

"Excellent," Kanick said as he shuffled through the stacks of papers. "These are perfect."

Bera grinned from across the room. He had foregone his robes for a simple shirt and hose, his scabbard hung empty on one bedpost and his sword was laid out on the made bed.

"How was your meeting at the castle?"

Kanick filled Bera in on the meeting with the Magister, for which he had been unconscious, but omitting their latest discovery. "So, I went to discuss strategy with the Governor and his court mage."

"And we will ride for this fort tonight?" Bera asked, sheathing his sword in the scabbard at the end of his bed, leaving them both hanging.

Kanick frowned, unsure of how to tell his apprentice it was too dangerous for him. Sayyal had apologised profusely after exposing him to the revenant at the inn, saying that no master should endanger their apprentice so, not against such an enemy.

Bera seemed to anticipate his master's next words. "You want me to stay here," he said, darkly.

"I do," Kanick replied, bracing himself.

"Because it will be dangerous?" Bera's voice cracked and Kanick nodded. "That's so unfair!" He cried. "I'm your apprentice, not your child!"

"I know," Kanick responded, "But the danger is great. I might not return from the fort," Kanick's eye met his apprentice's. "If that happens, I need you to deliver a message to the Arch-Mage. Tell him, these words; Edian is Gonian. Areonis will understand."

The boy looked confused but repeated the words when asked. "Edian is who?" He asked.

"I owe you an explanation," Kanick said. "And I will pay that debt on my return."

"You just said you might not return," Bera pointed out.

"In that case the full story will rapidly become clear," Kanick assured him. A grim determination had settled in his guts. He had come through the war, stood defiant in front of Palregon's army and handled power that no living mage had. And he might die tonight. He swallowed that fear, willing it away. "Will you help me into my armour?"

An hour later Kanick stood at the north gate. He was dressed in the battle dress of his order; a scaled hauberk of steel scales worn under tight-fitting cotton robes, his halfhelm resting heavily on his head. Two bands of leather crisscrossed his chest; his sword resting on his left hip and his satchel of spells on the right. He was the first to arrive, but it wasn't long before Edian arrived, by horse, with three battlemages in tow. All were men, bearded and dressed similarly to Kanick. Edian simply wore his robes of office and had made no concessions to the occasion.

"Will your apprentice not be joining us, Master Kanick?" Edian said from atop his horse.

I knew they had horses, Kanick thought angrily at the mage, and realised the magister had attempted to frustrate their search of the cave. When that had failed, he must have resorted to more permanent methods.

Kanick struggled to greet the Magister normally, waves of nauseas fear coursing through him, now he knew what he was. Knowing it, he couldn't understand how he had ever missed it. The nocturnalism was one thing – during his studies Kanick had acted similarly – but the smooth, ageless features, the graceful movements. His aged eyes. These were textbook signs.

"He is still recovering from the attack at Regius's cave, Magister," Kanick replied with all the courtesy he could muster. The effort was like casting a spell.

"I thought so. But the young bounce back quickly, eh, Master Kanick?" Edian said with a grin.

Thankfully the cumulative sound of many hooves clopping out of time heralded the Governor's arrival. From the garrison, deLan had turned out his entire compliment of cavalry; twenty-six men, and three women, clad in the standard Union plate pattern – utility over aesthetics. They had foregone lances but still carried the long cavalry swords that Kanick remembered from the war.

The Magister raised an amused eyebrow at the sight of the cavalry troop trotting up to the gate. "Do you think you have enough soldiers, Governor?"

"Against an unknown number of mages? I hope so," deLan replied, not even trying to mask the fear in his voice and Kanick understood how frightening it must be to prepare for a fight against mages, without magic. Generally, people had a poor understanding of its power and limitation. Going into battle against that unknown must be terrifying, he thought. Still, Kanick knew Mages bled like anyone else.

Kanick exchanged pleasantries with deLan and they were quickly underway, riding towards the sawmill where deLan had picked them up just a day before. The small village was deserted now, not even the foreman's cottage appeared occupied; the windows dark.

The way was lit by the torches held by the cavalry and the bright, full moon overhead, casting silvery light over the landscape. For the most part they rode in silence, the sound of their horse's hooves on the cobbled road dull and rhythmic while the plate armour of the soldiers rattled with each step, despite being oiled.

They passed the dirt track to Regius's cave and continued up the north road. Kanick looked up at where his friend had spent his last years, and where Kanick and his apprentice had spent what had almost been their final moments. He eyed it nervously, the summit bisecting the silvery of the moon, and he imagined hordes of black robed mages ready to reign death down upon them.

Kanick glanced at Edian, riding confidently at the head of the group and told himself to relax. While the magister wasn't doing anything, it meant that nothing would happen, Kanick told himself and consciously relaxed his unconscious grip on the sword at his hip. He listened to the sounds of chirping foxes and the rustling in the undergrowth from, what he hoped were, the local deer.

The cliff top sloped back down to fields, overgrown with wild meadow flowers as the road turned around another hill that blocked sight of the moon. The trees and dunes that masked the sea had also fallen away, to reveal a still, placid ocean stretching to the horizon. Kanick tried to focus on the peaceful breathing of the surf lazily rising and falling up the beach.

"The fort is in the next valley," deLan said in a low voice, bringing his spotted brown horse up close. "The road is good, though ill maintained these past decades, but it is a short journey up to the fort."

They rounded the bend and Kanick saw the hill had been eroded into another cliff face, staring at its opponent across wide valley. A small stream passed under the road and down the beach and was where the soldiers extinguished their torches. They were getting close.

The path through the valley followed along the overgrown stream, though judging from the tiered rock above, this choked ribbon of water had once been mighty enough to carve the whole landscape he saw before him.

The roadside was overgrown, with wild grasses, shrubs and spikey gorse forming a dense thicket, rising above their horses flanks and leaving only a narrow track with loose cobbles. The odd tree had even taken root, Kanick could see from his vantage point, rising above the competition for life, packed in by nettles and brambles. The river could be heard as a trickle, in the quieter moments, but Kanick could not see it as they rode single file through the valley.

His nervous thoughts were interrupted by a halt to the procession. Over the shoulders of the other riders he could see the valley begin to widen out into a rolling grassland and, at the end of the road, atop a steep hill stood the fort. The black jagged wall of the Low Ones looked over the valley, marking the boundary between Aaton and Nerrath.

The fort was a simple structure; a central keep poking above a tall stone wall. Even a mile away, Kanick could see it was a ruin. The wall was degraded, with holes and breaks clean through the wall, while the keep was sloping and one corner was missing, as though some giant had come and taken a bite out of the top.

It was dark, with no signs of habitation.

deLan approached from behind on foot.

"We're continuing without the horses to take them by surprise," deLan said, his eyes briefly flickering in Edian's direction.

"It looks abandoned," Kanick said, dismounting with a nervous flutter. The time was drawing close.

"That is my hope," the Governor replied with a grimace.

After a brief discussion, the group split up and entered the undergrowth, beginning their approach towards the fort. deLan, Kanick and Edian went with a group of soldiers, while the battlemages spread themselves out with groups of cavalrymen, at Kanick's suggestion. Edian readily agreed, it was better to spread out the mages as much as possible and the acquiescence made Kanick nervous.

Although it was hot sweaty work, scrambling through the thicket, it was easy to keep the dark ominous figure of the fort in view. As they approached Kanick could see the wall was mainly drystone and was in a greater state of disrepair than even he knew, with loose stone piled around its base, and whole sections scattered. Indefensible, deLan had said, and he was right.

They came to a stop, just before the dense thicket sparsened as it met the steep slopes of the hill. deLan picked out three of his men and indicated that they should scout out the area. They nodded and passed out of the undergrowth, scrambling slowly up the hill.

They were trying to move quietly, but through the clanking of weapons and armour Kanick didn't believe that anyone in the fort could have failed to hear them. The soldiers crested the hill and vanished out of view, leaving Edian, Kanick and four cavalrymen sitting in the bushes.

Kanick glanced at deLan. Now? His eyes asked.

deLan blinked and looked away.

Suddenly the three soldiers slid back down the hill.

"The fort's empty," their leader reported in a whisper.

"Excellent," declared Edian, standing. He dusted his robes down. "Let's take a look, shall we?"

Without waiting for a reply, the Magister began to run from the thicket and up the hill, yelling for everyone to follow.

Kanick exchanged a frantic look with deLan. The chance to take Edian outside of the fort was rapidly turning to mist before their eyes.

"Go," hissed deLan. "Now!"

As one they broke cover, all attempts at stealth forgotten.

On hands and knees, Kanick scrambled up the bank and crested the hill. He was vaguely aware of others around him, and of other groups running out of the dense foliage, but all his focus was reserved for the magister, quickly disappearing from view as he went over the top.

The gates to the fort were hanging off their hinges, huge slabs of wood, casually thrown aside, but this barely registered as he followed Edian through the bare hole that had once been the fort's door.

He could hear the long rasp of steel being drawn from scabbards behind him and confused shouts, while deLan yelled, frantically, "Take them, take them!"