Jeha woke to the sounds of a bird singing outside his tent. He stretched his arms and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Still, in his dark green trousers from the day before, he slipped on his boots and threw on the customary button-down military jacket over a white shirt. Before exiting the tent he grabbed a bow and quiver which he affixed to his person, putting the strap of the quiver around his left shoulder and over his back while keeping hold of the bow in his left hand.

He threw open the tent flap and nocked the arrow, aiming directly for the sound of the singing avian. The arrow flew straight and true and lodged itself into the branch between the bird’s legs. The creature took flight in a cacophony of what may as well have been profanity. Jeha smiled and walked to the tree where he loosed the arrow from the bark and inspected the head.

“You missed.” Came a gruff voice.

Jeha didn’t turn his head as he spoke. “You assume I was trying to hit it, Guillermo.”

“Why wouldn’t you try to hit it? Spare us all the horrible singing.” Guillermo asked.

Jeha shook his head. Guillermo was not bright, probably why he was drafted by the Republic. Jeha reasoned that the arrowhead did not break and placed it back in his quiver. He walked to where Guillermo sat with a couple of other soldiers, Héctor, a young recruit just out of training, and Magda, a technical expert. Guillermo took his cup and poured the contents into his massive gullet in one swallow. He slammed the now empty drink back down and stood up from the table.

“Are we out of wine already?” Guillermo belched as he spoke.

Magda wiped her hand back and forth in front of her face. “You are a brute, Gui.”

“Only the strongest.” Guillermo replied. He stood up from the table and walked off taking his plate with him. “Could have had bird this morning, if Jeha had woken up sooner.”

“Too gamey.” Jeha said as he took the larger man’s place at the table beside Héctor and across from Magda.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Héctor asked as he inhaled a large helping of scrambled eggs.

Jeha shook his head. “It’s too early.”

“Too early?” Magda smiled. “The sun’s been up for an hour already. Must be nice at the top.”

“What top? I still sleep in the same tent as the rest of you.” Jeha placed his bow on the table.

“Finally going to let me modify that thing?” Magda pawed at the weapon and Jeha pulled it away from her grasp.

“Not a chance. I don’t need your fancy sights to fire a weapon proper.”

Magda pouted. “Please, oh kind and benevolent leader?”

“Where are the eggs?” Jeha ignored her and looked around.

He spotted Guillermo in line behind a few other soldiers. At the front of the line were two different men wearing aprons dishing out the food.

“I knew he was hungry.” Héctor commented

Jeha stood up from the table and walked to the line. Following behind him, Magda continued, “Jeha, I’m not asking because I think you need it, but the other soldiers do. It’s about setting an example to them.”

“I’m not going to add weight to my weapon by adding a sight simply because these verden can’t aim a bow.”

“Once you practice with it, I’m sure you’ll see that it works even better! I can compensate for the weight, look.” Magda produced a bag from off her back where she pulled out papers with drawings of bows and attachments. “By using these fiber thin materials I can make you a new bow that will fire over longer distances and with the stock added it will increase your accuracy.”

Jeha rolled his eyes and took his place in the line behind Guillermo. “Magda, this looks complicated and unnecessary. The soldiers need to learn to be accurate on their own, not because some apparatus helps them.”

“This could change the way we fight, Jeha. All it takes is for you to use it once and the whole army will-“

“That’s enough, Magda.”

“But if you just listen!”

“Soldier, stand down!” Jeha barked.

Magda stood up straight and tall, looking Jeha in the eye. She was resilient, he had to give her that, but Jeha was a traditionalist, and breaking from the usual was difficult for him. He noticed the eyes staring at him as the rest of the soldiers had taken interest in the conversation. Jeha fiddled with the top button of his uniform jacket nervously.

He let out a sigh. “How long would it take you to make this?”

Magda cocked her head in confusion then straighten up. “I would need to request materials from the Republic. Once those arrive I believe I could have this ready in less than a week.”

Jeha nodded and spoke loud enough for the soldiers around to hear. “I’m willing to give this a try, but if this doesn’t meet my needs then I will not hear any more requests from you, do you understand me, soldier?”

Magda nodded with her head down as she suppressed a smile. “Yes, sir.”

“Do you have a pen?” Jeha asked.

Magda retrieved one from her bag and Jeha took it.

“The designs?” He reached out with his hand to her and she handed them to him.

Jeha signed his name over the three sheets of paper and handed them back to Magda. “Send those with the next envoy and you should receive your materials within the week.

Magda beamed, nodded, and walked away from the superior officer. Jeha looked around Guillermo at the food. There were still three people ahead of the larger soldier. Jeha sighed. At this rate, he wouldn’t eat until lunch.

An hour later the camp had packed up their tents and loaded the supplies onto the carts. Jeha inspected the ox at the front of the vehicle and patted it on the head. He turned at projected his voice strong. “Our scouts have informed us that the refugees from Monserrat have taken shelter by the entrance to a nearby cave.”

As he spoke the camp watched him. He looked out and saw Magda still grinning. A runner from the envoy to the Republic had already left camp with her request.

He continued. “Our mission is simple: escort the refugees back to Tolacin where the Republic will offer them shelter and amnesty.”

“Why should we save them, huh?” Guillermo asked. His voice was loud and prideful. “Aren’t they deserters? They don’t deserve our help.”

Jeha noticed that there were some soldiers in his platoon that seemed to agree as they nodded their heads and spoke in hushed tones to one another.

“We will save them because it is the right thing to do. We follow orders, and these came directly from the Republic. To disobey them is treason.” Jeha stared into Guillermo’s eyes and the larger man blinked. The camp was silent for a moment save the sound of the stream nearby.

Jeha did not like making speeches, mostly because he didn’t know how to end them. He always felt that actions made more sense to him, so he turned his back on the group and walked over to the ox-led cart. He slapped the great beast on the backside and the creature walked, pulling the cart behind it. Jeha did not turn back to see if his soldiers followed.

It had been a long fifteen years since Jeha first joined the ranks of the Tolacin army. During that time he had gone from a lowly soldier to one of the greatest leaders the Republic had ever seen since the cataclysm began. To him, following orders was as normal as breathing.

They walked for hours, following the stream that led to Monserrat. Birdsong accompanied them along the way and Jeha contemplated finally putting the thing out of his misery. Jeha sent Héctor ahead as sentry. The boy was not the most talented soldier partially due to his age, but mostly due to his inscription. Like many, Héctor was forced into the Republic Army because he failed his other aptitude tests. There were a few members of Jeha’s band of forty soldiers that were like Héctor. Jeha liked to recruit those from basic who thought themselves unable to add anything to the Republic. A person who feels as though they have nothing to offer to society is a person willing to try anything.

Héctor ran back to Jeha who walked at the front of the group. “I see smoke coming from up ahead. Could be our refugees.”

“Any Verlass?” Jeha asked.

“None that I could see.”

“Seeing them’s not the problem.” Jeha muttered. “Good work, Héctor. Helmets on.”

Jeha looked back at the rest of the group and watched the rest pull out the same helmet he took from his pack; a dark green metal helmet that extended over the ears and tied into a knot under the chin. Jeha signaled for the soldiers to divide into four groups of ten and they all complied. Hand signals were necessary in the war against the Verlass, just as the helmets were. The conflict had gone on long enough that each side adapted to the techniques of the other, the helmets and hand signals were part of that and had served the Tolacin leader well in many situations.

Jeha took out his bow and an arrow which he held in his right hand, playing with the feathers between his fingertips. He had broken down the group of forty into four teams. The first he signaled to cross the stream and approach the camp that Héctor had scouted from the south. The second group, led by Guillermo was to approach from the north while Jeha led the third on the path. Magda’s group was to stay behind and keep scrubbing their trail to ensure they were not being followed.

Jeha crept along the pathway when he heard a noise coming from up ahead. He held his hand up in a fist and stopped his group. He listened intently and considered taking off the helmet to hear better when he felt the ground start to shake slightly with the telltale signs of approaching footfall. He signaled for his group to hide, gesturing to nearby bushes. Jeha jumped out of the way and hid behind a large tree. He felt the vibrations in the ground growing louder and ducked out of the way until they passed.

The group popped out their heads from the bushes like fresh flowers in the spring when more vibrations sounded from the same spot as before. They ducked down again. As the new runners departed Jeha looked up and saw a tall bald person with dark skin run by. Magda scurried across the path to Jeha.

“That didn’t look like a Verlass.” Magda whispered.

Jeha clicked his tongue and the rest of the soldiers appeared from their hiding places. The bird continued to sing nearby despite the disturbance. “They looked like they were running from something.” He said. Pointing at Héctor, he continued, “Follow them. See if there are any Tolacin with them.”

Héctor nodded and ran after the departing group. Jeha crouched and signaled for the rest of the group to follow him. “The camp should be just ahead, we need to meet up with the rest of the platoon.”

Jeha led the way down the path. Just a few steps in and he smelled cooking meat.

“Guillermo’s going to be all over that.” Magda muttered.

Jeha smiled. “I don’t hear any voices up ahead. Let’s check it out.”

He laid down on his stomach and crawled as the group approached the clearing where he could see smoke rising. Something peculiar caught his eye. Floating around the camp was a dense shadowy fog that seemed to move about on its own. As he watched, Jeha thought he saw a glimpse of a tall lean man with dark features wearing a black tank top and short pants in the fog rooting through wicker baskets. As he blinked the figure was gone again, once more replaced by shadows.

“Did you see that?” He whispered to Magda who nodded, her eyes full of fear.

When did the Verlass learn that trick?

Jeha decided to get closer and signaled for the rest to move to him. He looked around to find the other groups and noticed that the rest of the platoon already had the meadow surrounded. Jeha stood up and signaled for the rest to be ready. They nocked their arrows and stayed crouched. The figure once more appeared from the fog, this time holding a fork and stabbing it into the meat spinning over the fire. The man took a bite then looked up at Jeha standing in the clearing above him.

“Please, help yourself.” Jeha stated loud enough to draw the attention of all his soldiers. Jeha snapped his fingers and each of the soldiers appeared with their bows drawn.

The man dropped the fork and Jeha watched in horror as the same shadows he saw before now emanated from the stranger’s chest. Looking around, Jeha noticed most of his platoon dropping their arrows in shock. This man was no Verlass.

“Don’t try it.” The stranger growled.

Jeha looked on intently as a purple glow emanated from the man’s extended right hand. “How are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” The glow from the man’s hand seemed to fuse with the shadows as wisps of purple light combined with the fog.

“Magic without song. We’ve tried for…” Jeha trailed off trying to make sense of the situation. He signaled for the platoon to lower their weapons and they obeyed. “What are you?”

The man in the meadow smiled a wicked smile. Jeha took a step back and studied the face inquisitively. Suddenly, Héctor’s voice sounded from the trail calling out, “They’re here! The Verlass are here!”

Jeha turned back to the trail in time to see the earth shift Héctor rise around the boy. Jagged stone burst in crags toward the sky, keeping him in his place. The tomb became Héctor’s grave as it pulled back down to earth from whence it came taking the soldier with it. Héctor led out a cry and spoke no more.

“Verlass!” Jeha shouted.

The soldiers around the meadow aimed their attention back to the trees along the path. How long had they been followed? The bird, it was the bird, or rather it wasn’t.

“It’s a transmuter!” Jeha bellowed.

The platoon scattered, taking places ten feet apart from each other. He heard the birdsong again and recognized it now. This transmuter was clever, disguising his instrument as an animal. A new tactic that he would have to figure out a way to combat. The bird song then became a duet, became a trio, became a quartet.

“How many are there?” Magda’s voice was shaky with fear.

Jeha didn’t answer. Instead, he looked back over his shoulder and saw the stranger in the meadow, his chest and hands no longer glowing approaching him. Jeha spun on the man drew his weapon. “Stay back. I don’t want any trouble.”

“You’re in a fight with some kind of musical instruments, your kind of trouble is rather amusing.” The stranger spoke. He raised his hands showing that he was not armed, but did not break his stride toward Jeha.

“What do you want?” Jeha asked.

“Those musicians out there, are they the bad guys, or are you?” The man’s voice was low and gravely.

How in the cataclysm is he so calm?

“They’re our enemies. They have been for generations.”

“And they’re not just musicians, they’re practitioners of Bardcraft.” Magda added.

As if on cue more instruments lent themselves to the symphony. A drumbeat began soft and low and the stranger looked confused.

“Lagi?” The man said, tears forming in his eyes. “Lagi, I’m so sorry. It wasn’t my choice.”

“Cover your ears!” Jeha shouted at him. “They’re trying to manipulate you!”

The man glared at Jeha, his eyes turned completely black as shadows emanated once more from his chest. No, not just his chest, from a tattoo?

“Rewi.” The man looked at him as though seeing another. “You dare to tell me what to do, after what you did.”

“Come to, man! Stay sharp!” Jeha trembled.

“I will show you sharp.” The stranger lifted up Jeha off the ground and the soldier immediately felt weak. He dropped his arrow from his left hand which grew limp. Jeha looked and saw the purple glow had returned to the stranger’s right hand.

“I don’t know you.” Jeha’s voice was feeble as he spoke.

“Jeha, they’re coming!” Magda shouted. “Orders?”

Jeha continued, his gaze affixed with the stranger’s empty eyes. “I’m sorry for this.”

Jeha dropped his bow and produced a small dagger from his belt along his right side. He held the dagger in his hand and stabbed it into the stranger’s side. The man’s grip loosened and the color immediately returned to the stranger’s eyes as he gazed upon Jeha with surprise.

“What did you…” He put down Jeha and held his side, his hand now covered in blood.

“I made sure not to pierce any major organs, assuming you are as human as I. I will stop the bleeding, but I need you to concentrate without an illusionist’s grasp on your mind.” As Jeha spoke he pulled out a cloth from his pack and placed it on the wound with medical tape, a new invention from the last few years in Tolacin culture.

“Orders!” Magda shouted again.

“Fire!” Jeha’s voice bellowed.

Arrows flew into the trees from the Tolacin platoon. The stranger watched with confusion. Jeha couldn’t tell through the earplugs of his helmet if any struck the approaching Verlass, so he shouted at his group. “Continue firing!”

The stranger looked with confusion at Jeha. “What happened to me?”

“It’s the Verlass, they used their bardcraft on you. I don’t know who you are or what you are doing here, but if you are not our foe, then be our ally.”

The man gritted his teeth and stood up. “I need to find Aliope before I bleed out.”

One of Jeha’s groups of ten advanced toward the trees with Guillermo at the lead.

“Forward!” Guillermo yelled.

“I don’t know what that is, but I can help you if you help us.” Jeha said, urgently.

The stranger looked at Jeha intently then nodded. “Istyn.” He said.

Jeha didn’t understand at first, then figured that it must be the man’s name. “Jeha, commander in the Tolacin army.”

Istyn nodded again. As he did, smoke emanated from his chest where his tattoo was inked upon his skin. Jeha watched the smoke cover the ground and sweep out from the meadow and toward the trees. Guillermo’s group stopped in their tracks as a large chunk of earth erupted from the ground and surrounded the ten soldiers in a circle.

“No!” Jeha shouted and ran toward the wall of earth. He didn’t know what he would do when he got there, he just knew he had to save his people. The smoke arrived first as it continued to flow from Istyn. The wisps started to solidify before Jeha’s eyes and formed two large obsidian hands that pulled at the risen rocks around the soldiers, ripping away at dirt and grass before it engulfed the Tolacin within.

The music grew louder as drum beats reverberated into the ground while high-voiced woodwinds floated in the air. At the command of the conjurers’ magic, ethereal golden lights emerged from thin air.

“Guardians!” Magda shouted.

Jeha reached into his pack to pull out his goggles. Magda had designed them specifically to combat this approach from the Verlass conjurers, yet they hadn’t been tested yet. He pulled the leather strap around the back of his head and the goggles over his eyes. His eyes adjusted to the lenses which added a blue hue to everything he saw. Looking around he saw that most of the others were also putting on their goggles, then he looked to where the guardians apparated.

Typically the guardians would appear as faint golden shimmers until they would strike, at which point it would be too late. This time, Jeha was able to see the conjuration as three fully realized forms shining in green silhouette before him stood holding weapons.

“Draw your swords, keep your eyes open!” Jeha ordered.

The three guardians turned and looked at him with hollow eyes. They each bore a different visage; the left was that of a small stout man with a long beard carrying a two-handed battle axe, the middle was a tall and lean man with a mustache carrying a longsword and holding a shield, the third was a slender woman holding a bow. The third fired and Jeha dodged out of the way as an arrow flew past his head. He nocked and loosed his own arrow in response which stuck into the guardian’s chest, though the creature didn’t seem to notice.

He drew his sword and charged. Guillermo took his right flank while a female soldier whose name he couldn’t recall took his left. Jeha sliced through the air at the lean man who met blades with the Tolacin commander though no sound was made as the swords touched. Guillermo sliced through the stocky dwarf-like guardian which dissipated in a puff of green smoke only to reappear as Guillermo finished his charge and drive an ethereal axe into the soldier’s back.

Guillermo cried out in pain and fell onto the grass, his body limp as the axe reappeared in the guardian’s hands exposing Guillermo’s seeping wound. Jeha watched the female soldier cut through the third guardian only to see it reappear once more just as the smaller one had. He pushed off the parry of the mustachioed guardian and sliced at the air as the third guardian volleyed a series of arrows at the female Tolacin’s back. He cut threw three of the arrows that spun off in one swing, but the third flew true and struck the soldier in the back. She yelped as she hit the ground, the arrow disappeared leaving a hole in her shoulder.

“Magda, I can see them, but that doesn’t mean I can fight them!” Jeha called out as he blocked an axe swing from the shorter guardian.

“I’m sorry, Jeha, I-“ Her voice was cut short as a green arrow struck her in the gut before disappearing as it did with the other soldier.

“No!” Jeha cried out. He ran to Magda and put pressure on the wound as he laid her down on the grass-covered ground. “You’ll be alright. Hold on, Magda.”

The song was getting louder and he heard strings plucked on guitars joining the symphony.

Malit. Enchanters.

Jeha looked around, seeing a dozen other guardians cutting down his platoon with their ethereal weapons. He looked up into the sky and winced as he looked upon the setting suns. How had it come to this? He had be trained and taught how to fight conjurers his whole life, yet suddenly the guardians had appeared and they had no way to combat them. Their weapons would connect, yet when attacking the guardians’ bodies they would slip right through.

A guardian approached with sword extended. Jeha raised his to deflect but the thrust pierced his side. He cried out and collapsed onto the ground in pain.

Catal. I return.

He looked back down at Magda and saw the peculiar tendrils of smoke that Istyn created engulf him, darkening his vision. Jeha lifted up the goggles and saw that the darkness covered both him and Magda as well as the approaching stranger.

“What are you doing?” Jeha’s voice trembled as he spoke.

Istyn’s face was covered with sweat, his hands trembled and each step looked as though it was causing pain throughout his whole body.

“Not now!” The stranger snapped.

Jeha watched as the swirling smoke solidified slowly around him, his goggles, just a bit too large slipped back down around his eyes and he saw a guardian's hand reach forward, thrusting a spear into the darkness. The weapon snapped and the guardian spirit’s arm was cut off at the elbow. It dissolved into nothingness as the darkness continued to form. The wisps continued their ascent until a perfect cube was created around the three with Jeha and Magda at the center. The guardian with the sword became engulfed by the smoke which solidified around it until it disappeared.

Istyn stood with both hands pushing outward, grunting under the pressure of whatever magic he was summoning to accomplish the task. “I… can’t…”

The man’s right hand glowed a dark purple which shot out of The Tatu on his right hand which looked like a wilting flower. The purple energy mixed with the darkness and the grass where the cube had settled turned black as though the very life of it had been taken.

“What are you doing?!” Jeha cried.

“Aaaagh!” Istyn screamed with guttural fury.

A massive wave of dark purple energy exuded from his hand changing the entirety of the blackness to the new color. The cube exploded into a million fragments which shot out in every direction. Jeha watched the guardians get hit with the shards, each one dissolving as it did. His eyes went wide as he saw the solution to the guardian problem present itself in a brutal frenzy of miasmatic vigor. The symphony stopped.

Jeha watched the trees shake north of his direction and spotted a dozen Verlass bards running away from the meadow. Devoid of his energy, all he could do was note their direction before he collapsed on top of Magda. He opened his eyes and took off the goggles to see Istyn lying motionless on the grass near him. Jeha struggled to his knees and pulled his pack off his back.

“Magda, can you hear me?” He asked.

She grunted and he took that as a response.

“I need you to put your hand here on your wound. I need to cover it until we can get back to the capital.”

He took her hand and placed it over the puncture.

“Keep pressure on it. As much as you can.”

She grunted again. Jeha grabbed bandages and medical tape and placed them on the grass beside Magda. He took out his dagger and cut the fabric around her stomach that was soaked crimson with her blood. In swift and practiced motion he took her hand off the wound and covered it with the bandage before affixing it to the skin with the tape. There was no time to clean it. There may not even be time to make it to the capital before she…

This entire operation was a bust. A group of forty was sent to rescue what they assumed would be at least seven hundred, yet how many people were staying in these tents? A dozen? Maybe less? Istyn stirred next to him and Jeha responded by taking his canteen from out of his pack. He crawled over to the man and placed the bottle to his lips.

“Drink.” Jeha instructed.

The man winced but opened his mouth and let the water flow into it. The meadow was quiet. How many of his soldiers survived? The woman who was shot with the arrow, did the guardians finish the job, or did they presume her dead already? Guillermo was a hearty man, could he have survived that wound?

The suns were setting in the west and Jeha blinked away the tears that welled up in his eyes.

I could go now, Catal. I could surrender. Would you accept me? Would you take me into your frigid embrace?

Jeha saw movement from the trees to the northeast. He turned his body to see what was happening when he saw three tall figures emerge. His vision blurred, he couldn’t make out their features.

The Verlass must be back to finish the job.

He grabbed his sword and thrust it into the ground to steady himself, holding onto his side where he had been stabbed before. He pulled himself up to his knees and looked up to see three unfamiliar faces staring back at him, behind them, two children with fear in their eyes. One of the figures, a tall burly man with a kind smile reached forward and touched Jeha on the shoulder.

“Shhh. It’s alright, ya? I got you.” The man said.

“Sleep.” Came another voice as soothing as a coastal wind.

Jeha closed his eyes and slumped over onto the grass beside Magda.

Sleep. Sleep sounds nice.