Smelling rock dust, dampness, and nervous sweat from the Dwaris hiding in nearby passages Raelea crouched in the darkness of a hallway near Spaendt’s office. They hadn’t wanted to attack him here because it would have been much easier in the tunnels of the Pit but his habits had changed dramatically. He never went anywhere near the Pit any longer and was never anywhere unless accompanied by a full guard complement and another Fae Chanar.

Rumour was something terrible had befallen a number of Fae Chanar in Valard’s lands, something that had put them on high alert, something that had probably been related to the mass of Fae deaths she’d felt.

It put them in an awkward position, Spaendt had to die before they could start anything so they were going to have to go after him in his office. As risky as that was.

A small ball of fuzzy darkness appeared by her ear and chilled her earlobe, Hilde sending the signal via elemental that it was time to start.

Raelea took a deep breath and blew it out.

Closing her eyes she reached out and found every target that her curses would bite on, carefully choosing which would affect them she inflicted them with blindness, paralysis, and unconsciousness.

Startled shouts echoed through the stone halls amid the clatter of falling armour.

She ‘saw’ a dozen bundles of Realm energy bloom as elementals were summoned, four of which were much stronger than the others.

Tersely she sent, “Krarrnic, they’re yours.”

Abruptly her usual sense of his solid comforting spiritual presence became a beacon tugging at her attention and the attention of every other spirit nearby, she felt majority of the elementals surge toward him. When they got close they simply disappeared, banished back to their Realms.

Touching the small blob of darkness that was still hovering near her ear and feeding it a spark of magic she sent it back to Hilde, the signal for the rebel Dwaris to attack.

Chaos erupted in the hallways, the pounding of feet, the thump and crash of doors being smashed and then screams as the inevitable blood started flowing.

Raelea stayed crouched and still. She was here for one reason and one reason only, that reason was in his office with another Fae Chanar and at least four Chanters, one of whom was also a mage.

A burst of irritation and aggression from the office, some muffled shouts and then the Chanters ran toward the largest groups of Dwaris.

Time to move.

Legs pumping she sprinted flat out toward the office door, barely even slowing as the door shattered into flying splinters of wood when she went through it.

What looked like a section of the rocky wall just inside swung a fist at her head, she blocked and countered without thinking. Her fist crunched into the elemental’s rocky body, with a sharp crack it collapsed into separate pieces that slumped into piles of sand and faded away.

She saw Spaendt and a white haired, startlingly violet eyed Fae Chanar frowning at her, just before darkness stole even her sight.

A faint trembling in the air was the only warning she had and she instinctively moved as she felt something bulky slide just past her with many more on the way.

The next few moments were a frenzy of twisting, spinning, ducking and throwing herself around as she avoided dozens of what felt like spikes of stone while moving closer to Spaendt.

A flare of intolerably bright light drove the darkness back for only a moment but a moment was all it took.

Spaendt shouted, “You fucking fool!” as her fist slammed into his shield. The shield breaker charm she’d spent twenty-two days putting on the gauntlet flashed and it ruptured.

Then the curses struck.

Spaendt fell, rigid, and bleeding from his ears, eyes, nose, even his pores.

She blurred toward him and swung at the other Fae Chanar but just before her fist hit there was a muted crackle and they both disappeared.

Swearing she looked around hoping it had just been a short port, but no they were gone. She sighed, annoying but at least she’d got him. He was dead.

Walking out of the office the smell of bowels and blood hit her as she went looking for Hilde but the actual fighting was over, only the scattered bodies remained.

*******

The city was buzzing as Raelea and her companions followed Keilor through it toward a meeting with the Council of the Seven, as the Dwaris rebel leadership was called. Dwaris rushed every which way on errands, excitement scrawled across their faces because for the first time in two hundred years they didn’t need to hide.

The council chamber building looked like every other building in the city except the colours of the carvings glittered with every colour of the gems and metals the Dwaris mined.

Keilor showed them into the chamber a brightly lit, airy room with a long low table that ran the full length of it.

As they walked in Hilde said, “Thank you for coming. You know Fheargus, Hargreve and General Jhorn, the other three are High Master Akko, Duloff, and Mistress DeSparks. Akko is our Master Mason and head of the Craftsmens Guild.”

The grey haired but very fit older looking Dwaris nodded at them with a twinkling smile.

“Duloff is our Archivist, Librarian, and Historian. Everything we’ve learned is somewhere in his books and scrolls. That reminds me, have you found an apprentice yet? Since Old Grant died you’re the only one who knows where everything is.”

“No I don’t but there are a few promising ones.” turning to Raelea and Krarrnic the young looking Dwaris waved a hand and said energetically, “Hi hi hi. Soon as you can I’d love for you to come in and give me your impressions of, well, absolutely everything. An outsiders eye could be invaluable to us, what do we miss because we’re so used to it?”

With a mildly exasperated expression Hilde said, “Later Duloff, we need to survive the changes before we can study them.”

“Oh, of course Hilde.”

“Speaking of survival, how is the clearance of the captured Brandanbarg going?”

The General said, “Well. Hargreve has almost the entire officer corps cleared and we’ve lost barely a fifth of them, most served out of lack of options rather than desire. Once the officers are done we’ll move onto the rank and file, should be done in about a tenday, right Hargreve?”

Looking surprised Hilde said, “That’s much faster than expected, why?”

He said, “Yes General. As for why, the fates have been exceedingly obliging in my task, far more than is the usual. The Witch knows why.”

Everyone looked at Raelea who started and said, “What? How am I supposed to know why your skills are working better than usual?”

“You have often spoken to your companions about the ‘meddlesome’ I believe their hand is at work here.”

Frowning Raelea said, “That’s a little creepy. Those conversations were turnings ago and far from here, but, yes that does seem like something they would do.”

A bit red faced Hargreve said, “Um, sorry. I get a bit carried away sometimes, I had hoped you might understand how that is.”

She smiled and said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Yes I do. It’s just I’ve never met a seer before and I’m not at all used to someone who might even know anything about the meddlesome. Don’t feel embarrassed for me, I’ll adjust.”

Hargreve smiled widely and said, “Yes, you will.”

Raelea said, “Now you’re doing it deliberately aren’t you?”

Krarrnic barked a laugh and said, “This is going to be fun, I can’t wait for Corvus to meet you.”

Hargreve’s face blanked, his voice became hollow and monotone, “Death stalks the land. Only it’s Father may take it within. Only the Witch can aid him.”

Shaking his head and looking dazed he looked down then back up and in his normal voice said, “Well shit! I guess this Corvus is entwined in our fates. We’ll have to talk about that later, my dear darling sister will slap me if I disrupt her meeting much more.”

Hilde smiled and said, “Yea I will. To finish the introductions, Mistress DeSparks is our quartermaster and chief administrator. Simply put she’s the one who makes sure everyone has what they need to do what is needed, when it’s needed.”

Nodding her head she said, “Pleased ta meetcha.”

Looking around the table Hilde said, “Now to the real meat of why I called for this meeting, we need to consider how we’re going to stop the Fae Chanar hunt when it comes. Because it is coming. Akko, you have the runestones made and placed to block the last few places they could teleport in?”

“Yes.”

“Good, we got that done before they attacked so they’ll have to come in through the main gate on the plateau or the cavern here. Of the two I’d like to think they don’t actually know about this cavern, I’m hoping my wards are strong enough to keep it hidden and realistically? If they do come here, we’re done for anyway. We can’t fight and win against a full hunt with this much open air. So the plan is to drop the plugs sealing us in and kill anyone who tries to remove them, I know I can fight a Fae Chanar and probalby win but a High Fae Chanar is beyond me." Looking at Raelea she said, “I hope you’re still willing to fight for us because you're our only chance if a High Fae Chanar comes. We have one other advantage, thanks to Spaendt oddly enough. He has always been so disagreeable and has been around for so long that Fae Chanar rarely specialise in Earth magic, no one wants to share a specialisation with him. So those that come after the gates won’t be able to simply tear the side of our mountain off.”

Jhorn said, “If we can keep the full hunt from being able to attack at once and if this Witch can handle the High Fae Chanar, we stand a small chance of stopping them getting in. The Brandanbarg are well trained and will be quite willing to smash Fae faces in if they stick them where they aren’t wanted. But those two are big ifs, either of them fail and we’re all dead.”

Raelea said, “I’m confident I can handle a few Fae Chanar with some support and I’m quite willing to as well. Though that does depend on their strength and their skillsets, someone who prefers ranged attacks could be a problem.”

Jhorn said, “We won’t know that until we know which Fae Chanar are coming in the hunt, I’d count on it being a lot of them though. They will not let this attack pass easily.”

Nodding Hilde said, “This looks like a good time to end that part of the meeting. Raelea, Krarrnic I thank you for your presence, I’ll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing. We still have a whole raft of administrative work to get through. I’ll have Keilor keep you appraised of what’s happening.”

*******

Only five days later Krarrnic answered the door to their suite seeing who it was he said, “Morning Keilor, what news?”

He said, “Hilde wants Raelea at the gatehouse. The Fae Chanar showed up late last nigh and set up camp, there’s a mage waiting to take her.”

Krarrnic cocked a brow and said, “That urgent? Isn’t there only one mage other than Hilde herself capable of teleporting another person?”

Keilor’s normally stony face broke into one of his extremely rare grins, he said, “Dunno about urgent I think it’s more Hilde forgets other people can’t teleport. I’ve seen her port across a room when she was in a hurry.”

Krarrnic said, “Oddly not the first time I’ve run into that. Anyway Raelea will be out shortly she’s in the bath, again. I swear that woman is half fish or maybe wants to be.”

Keilor said, “My missus is the same, these Fae baths are great but perhaps they’re a little too great at times if you get my meaning.”

Krarrnic chuckled deep in his chest and said, “I believe I do. I’ll go see if she’s done.”