When had her body gotten this heavy, she wondered? Violence flashed before her eyes, visions of terror, fire, and blood. She turned left, and her heart stopped. Every muscle in her body lurched against its opposite and she snapped up.

Elvira found herself sitting in a cot, a sheen of cool sweat over her body. The ghost of a moon lit creature floated in her eyes. Hitori said it was a Metzi, although locals called them Moon Cats. The name was too cute.

One of them ambushed her in the middle of a fight, biting her chest and slamming her into the ground. Its jaws were big enough to pierce halfway across her body, and strong enough to crush her breastplate. If that wasn’t bad enough, the damage also triggered a partial Vital Net collapse, costing her regenerative ability. Put another way, she almost died.

She let out a long breath, and examined her surroundings. She was in a small barracks, sitting in a row of beds to the side. Yes, she remembered walking in here. Hitori was at a table a few cots down. He looked up and waved at her.

“Trouble sleeping?” Hitori said “You have about ten minutes if you want to try for more.”

“No thanks,” Elvira said, leaving her bed and taking a seat next to him. There were a few loose sheets of paper on the table, covered in diagrams. Like something a coach used to illustrate different plays. “What’s all this?”

“Brainstorming new formations,” Hitori said. “Are you feeling okay? You’ve had a pretty, uh…”

“Traumatic?” Elvira offered.

“I was leaning towards exciting, but yes, a pretty traumatic day.”

Elvira was silent a moment. “I can’t believe you dragged me into a fight after… after…”

“You almost died?” Hitori said. Elvira nodded. He shrugged. “In the business we’ve found getting back into action quickly prevents anxiety.”

“I don’t know about that.”

Hitori paused, and then nodded. “Well, the normal policy is more gradual. Of course, very little about your training has been normal.”

“I didn’t know something like that could happen. I had most of my Vital Energy one moment, and the next it was like….”

“It happens sometimes when people start training, it’s caused by—“

“Defective restructors,” Elvira said. Hitori looked at her in surprise. “Vinni explained it to me, after she recovered. Said she’d prevented a total collapse too. Apparently your chatty robot jerk saved my life.”

“I’m glad for it.” Hitori grinned. “And to think, you thought it was annoying.”

Elvira smiled weakly and pushed Hitori in the arm. “Yeah, yeah, don’t pat yourself on the back too hard.” She looked around without taking anything in. “What’s next?”

“We have a few minutes,” Hitori said. “Do you want to hunt for Varzhish and grill her about your brother? She knows something.”

Elvira hummed, but otherwise remained silent.

Hitori leaned closer. “Worried about what you’ll learn?”

Elvira shrugged. “I don’t know.” She sighed, closed her eyes, and slumped over. “I… don’t know. There’s so much going on, and my… my life, before, it’s not, I’m not trying to dwell on it.” She looked at Hitori. “What do you think I should do?”

He hummed, looping his hand a moment. “I can’t tell you what to do, but I will say this. We’re in a dangerous situation, and a lot of people are counting on you to stay focused.” He added with a smile, “Including you.”

“So you’re saying I have to decide if knowing the truth will be more distracting than wondering about it?” Elvira said. She pursed her lips. “I’m not sure… though… I mean….”

She clenched her fists and pulled per body taught, hoisting herself to her feet. “Alright, fine!” she said. “I’ll worry about it later. What’s another day.” She held out a hand towards Hitori. “Let’s go. Thinking is exhausting.”

Hitori laughed and stood up. “I’m not sure that’s a healthy attitude, but yes, why fret while there’s work. Can you grab Chandra from the other room and meet me outside?”

Elvira arrived with Chandra a few minutes later. The Paladin’s white coat was stained with blood, in various levels of freshness. Elvira had reequipped her armor, after knocking out a few dents. She tried not to think about the missing myriaite plates.

Elvira took a deep breath, to clear the scent of rust from her lungs. Chandra had been working in a makeshift surgery, tending to town guards and civilians who suffered a total collapse of their Vital Nets.

Before they could start searching for the mission commander, Li materialized from a crowd of villagers and approached Hitori.

“Ah! Ms. A— I mean, Commander Athens,” Hitori said. “We’re looking for Malikah and Varzhish for out next assignment.”

“Commander Malikah is preparing the village for evacuation,” the instructor said. “And Elder Varzhish and the other evaluators have been reassigned.”

“Test’s over?” Gordon said.

“No,” Li replied. “The rest of the evaluation will be based on after action review.” She stared directly at Gordon. “Any slacking will be noted.”

Gordon turned away, blushing and mumbling.

“Do you have a mission for us Commander?” Hitori asked.

“Yes, help the evacuation in the south,” she said. “In particular we need to clear the fields and search for isolated civilians.”

“We’ll take care of it, Commander.”

“There have been a few breaches of the southern wall, so stay alert.”

“Yes Commander Athens, we’ll be careful.” Hitori turned away and motioned for Elvira to follow but stopped while she shared a look with Li.

After a second of silence, her roommate took a few halting steps forward. “Elder Varzhish tells me you’re doing well.” She reached out but quickly pulled back. “Good work.”

“Thanks Li,” Elvira said. She gave her a quick hug then turned to join Hitori. He led the team through the village to the farms in the south. When they arrived he split them into teams of two, sending her with Protius while he went off on his own.

Elvira and the young Arteficer made quick progress on their assigned sector, chatting all the while about a broad range of topics. It seemed no matter the subject, from pop culture to scientific theory, the boy was a boundless well of information.

Halfway into a conversation about Duroterran history, Elvira cut in with, “When did you learn all this stuff? Do you study from dusk till dawn or something?”

“Not exactly.” Protius laughed awkwardly. “To be honest, I don’t study at all.”

“What!”

“I’m just really good at remembering stuff. Always have been.”

“You mean like since birth or something?” Elvira gave half a laugh.

“Well, not quite,” Protius said. “I only remember a few things from back then.” He shrugged. “An angry and sad looking man, some time in a forest, a little bit of my trip to Nova.”

“Really?” Elvira exclaimed. “I was kidding, I didn’t think…” She looked at him in awe. “That’s incredible, I mean, I can barely remember last week sometimes.”

Protius grinned. “I’m not sure that’s normal either. I guess we’re both special in our own way.”

“Har har, you’re—“Elvira shot her gaze at him. “Hey, wait a minute, that memory sounds tragic. What the heck happened when you were born.”

“I’m not sure. All I know from Nova is that a man dropped me off at an orphanage, and a recruiter picked me up later that day.”

Elvira hemmed. “Well, sorry for your, uh, loss, I guess.”

Protius laughed and smiled. “Thanks for your sympathy, but whatever happened never bothered me. By the time I realized there was something odd about my life I’d been with Nova for years.” Protius leaned in and whispered, “And don’t tell Hitori, but to be honest I like it here.”

He laughed and Elvira joined in.

“Now, I believe I pointed out the Legionary only deployed ten of his Sergeants to the conflict on Central,” Protius said, repeating a point he made before Elvira changed the subject. She fell back in, and they resumed their prior meandering conversation.

While they were walking between the last few houses in their area, Elvira stopped and canted her head. They were currently standing in a field of chest high grass, although to Protius it was nearly over his head.

“Do you hear that?” she asked.

Protius stopped talking and listened. “It sounds like a forest in a hurricane.”

“Yeah, or an earthquake.” She pushed onto her toes and looked towards the wall to the south. “You think that means the… uh…”

“Metaflora are approaching?” He said and she nodded. “Yeah, only they sound much closer than I expected.”

“Like they’re speeding up?”

“Or something,” Protius said. “We should hurry.”

“Right.” Elvira started to move, but almost toppled forward on one foot. “What the hell! Something grabbed my leg!”

Protius rushed towards her, but got caught on something and swore. Grass violently wrapped around his arms and legs, and was slithering over the rest of his body. Elvira went for her sword, but the grass went after her too, trapping her hand.

“Hold still!” Protius said. He took a sharp breath with closed eyes, and a bead of red light spiraled down his neck to one of his hands. It unfolded into a pattern focused on the tip of his index finger and vanished. Then a stream of fire erupted where he was pointing.

The grass holding down Elvira’s sword was incinerated, allowing her to draw and then slice the stalks holding Protius. He laid down another wave of fire, making a small clearing in the field.

“What was that!” Elvira said. She was breathing quickly, doing her best to menacingly brandish her sword at the now undulating grass.

“Very bad news, I’d wager,” Protius said. He kept the Flame Thrower Arte in hand, standing back to back with Elvira, pointing at a particularly wavy clump of grass as threateningly as he could manage. “For now, let’s clear our sector, then meet up with the team.”

Protius scorched a path for them out of the field, and they worked as fast as they could to finish. They met with the rest of the team about ten minutes later. Gordon and Chandra looked disheveled, but otherwise in good condition.

“Any problems?” Hitori asked.

“Almost choked out by a rosebush,” Gordon said. “Chandra rescued me.” Chandra gave a playful bow, and Elvira noticed that she got a few fresh splatters of blood on her outfit. “It was incredible. Ripped the thing out and chucked it over a house.”

“Sigils are cool like that,” Chandra said.

“Protius and I were accosted by a wheat farm,” Elvira said.

“That explains the smoke,” Hitori said. “I’m not sure I like what’s happening. Whatever’s animating the vegetation is spreading.”

“Were you attacked by anything?” Elvira asked.

Hitori made an odd face, but then laughed. “No, actually I kept my distance from the shrubberies. I thought I was being paranoid, but….“ He gestured vaguely. “Anyway, let’s head back and brief the Commander on what’s happening.”

Before they could take a single step a scream echoed from the wall to the south, followed by commotion amongst the sentries.

“They’re here,“ Hitori said.

“And it sounds like a there’s a lot more of them too,” Protius said.

“New plan, get everyone off the wall.” Hitori led his team towards the noise. Elvira managed her best mount so far, though she still slammed a leg into the parapet. Hitori quickly issued orders to the guards.

They were surprisingly young, Elvira noted, only one or two were definitely older than her and the rest looked barely into their teens. In spite of being a complete stranger, everyone seemed eager to follow Hitori’s lead. A look south told her why.

The entire forest was crawling over itself to get to them. It was less a rush, and more like the sweep of the tide. Even as she watched more trees came alive, twisting themselves into limbed creatures. Each appendage torn from the body wherever convenient.

The noise grew to deafening levels, and Elvira struggled to breath the pine rich air.

“Hey, eyes on the mission, alright,” Hitori said, turning Elvira away from the forest.

“Right, right,” Elvira said, shaking her head and looking around. The nearby sentries were gone, though she saw one hurrying down the wall towards another group . “What are we doing? Heading into town?”

“Not yet,” Hitori said. “I sent Gordon and Chandra to deliver a message. You and I will cover Protius while he slows the assault.”

“Ah, cool, cool. No pressure,” Elvira said. Her forced smile didn’t even fool herself.

“You’ll do great.” And with that, Hitori and Protius jumped off the wall. Elvira followed close behind. While they were running she noticed Protius was mumbling through a math problem. She supposed he found it calming.

She also noticed he seemed to be getting darker. No, not him, but rather the air around him. Although her training in malhahonic theory was limited, she knew Protius had to be concentrating his malhahonic web. Whatever he was planning, it was going to be big.

They stopped a short distance from the front line, and Hitori motioned for her to take a spot next to Protius. The Arteficer kneeled and closed his eyes, moving his hands around seemingly at random. Elvira wasn’t sure, but it almost looked he was fitting things together.

He finished without fanfare, then placed one hand on the ground in front of him. A black mist materialized around his body, and then turned bright red. It seemed to flow up from his feet to his head, and then down his arms into the ground. A line of pale red light stretched across the path of the oncoming forest.

“Okay, that’s it,” Protius said, turning away as he got to his feet. To Elvira’s surprise his eyes and complexion were changed. The grey fog was gone, and Elvira saw he actually had almond colored irises. His skin was even a shade darker, still pale, but now actually looked Seitojin.

As they started to run, Elvira yelled, “Protius! Ah, I um, don’t mean to alarm you but…“

“My eyes are bleeding?” he offered. She nodded. “Very high malhahon concentrations can cause some, you might say, cellular degeneration. And I put every last malhahon I had into that.”

“And ‘that’ was? It didn’t seem to do anything.”

“Take a look,” Protius said.

Elvira turned her head in time to see the first tree step over the line. Where its misshapen limb crossed the boundary, a plume of red mist erupted from the ground. The fog lit up like a flame and drove into the body of the trespasser. The tree stopped moving, seemingly sensing something amiss. Then exploded into flames.

The rest of the forest lumbered on undaunted. In the span of a few seconds dozens of plants shared its fate. In that time, Hitori and Protius reached the wall, and Elvira hopped up behind them. She finally managed a perfect mount, and was about to give a celebratory whirl when she noticed someone else up there.

“Impressive, I suppose,” the new woman said. It was Bridget, and she was looking towards the burning forest. “Ought to buy a few minutes, though I see the pipsqueak needed a hand up the wall.” She turned to address Protius. “What’s the matter? Forgot your techs?”

“What are you doing here?” Hitori said. “Not enough opportunities to show off in town?”

“I was w—“ She choked the word in her mouth, and then cleared her throat. “I heard what was happening, so I came to make sure you don’t screw anything up.”

“So, yes, showing off then.” Hitori nodded.

Bridget huffed. “Whatever. There’s no word on the airships, but the village is clear so we’re making a stand around the Town Square. The Commander dispatched the wounded by helicopter, so we’re stuck until evac arrives.”

“What’s going on up north?” Hitori asked.

“Metafauna fell back for now, but not before demolishing every building outside the second ring.”

“What’d they do that for?” Elvira asked.

Bridget looked her over, then shrugged. “No idea.”

“I don’t think it matters,” Hitori said. “For now let’s head into town.” He picked up Protius and jumped down.

Bridget gave them a look, then followed, with Elvira joining shortly thereafter. The space was deep in the shadow cast by the burning forest. Elvira almost didn’t see the others waiting nearby.

She couldn’t make out any details, except that one of them was doing handstand pushups. They flipped to their feet at Bridget’s whistle, then the whole squad moved out. Elvira supposed it was her team.

It didn’t take long to reach the village square. Upon arrival they rejoined Gordon and Chandra, and were assigned a front line position to the north, on the other side of the Civic Center. The ground was soft. Sparse patches of grass stood out like skirmishers of an advancing army.

Elvira expected an attack at any minute, her body tense, senses tuned for any sign of action. She waited. Her grip on the hilt of her sword started to hurt. The din to the south grew louder as her heart counted away the moments.

A piercing howl echoed from the north, and moments later the cries of wood being torn asunder filled the air. The humble cabins of the village were being ripped apart by the dozen. As the seconds dragged on, the sky, at last, began to brighten. Elvira spotted a few persistent shadows on the western horizon.

“What are those?” she said.

“Airships,” Gordon answered. “Took their damn time.”

“Should be here in about ten minutes,” Protius said. Elvira noticed he was still his more colorful self. He held a small knife in one hand.

“You sure you know how to use that?” Elvira said with a wry grin.

“Pointy end towards enemy?” Protius made a playful face. Elvira laughed.

“You might want to grab it further up the hilt.” Elvira took his hand and moved it forward. He blushed and nodded. Elvira redrew her sword, and waited.

Time crawled forward. With every fresh crash she would recheck the sky, but the distant specks remained stubbornly tiny. Finally, the monotony was broken by a thunderous roar, like the furious bellow of a cannon. She heard a whoop in the distance, then all distinction was lost in the cacophony of battle.

Elvira shared a look with her teammates. Hitori gave her a reassuring smile, but the others matched her unconvincing grin. There was another pair of Nova teams with them, taking their flanks. She didn’t recognize them from her classes, though judging by the harried mien they were from the first group sent to the village.

She started a conversation with a young man armed with a pair of daggers, but didn’t make it past, “Rough day, huh?” before a horde of metafauna came snarling over a nearby line of houses, Night Howlers and Metzi. The wave of wolf and cougar like beasts crashed into the mercenaries.

When they were assigned this position, Hitori told Elvira to stick with Protius, and that’s exactly what she did. A handful of enemies slipped past the front line, apparently sensing weakness in the pair at the back. Elvira didn’t have time to feel insulted.

Rather than take the offensive, Elvira focused on guarding Protius, working with him to drive back any attacker. At another time she might have found the Arteficer’s clumsy blade-work amusing, but at that moment every missed jab dropped the heart from her chest.

Her opponents rotated out constantly, spreading what little damage she could do between them. Her only sense of progression came from the slowly growing count of blood splatters on her sleeves.

“What’s that?” Elvira said when she found herself plunged into shadow. She looked up to see an airship moored above them, docking with the top floor of the civic center.

“Look out!” She heard Protius yell, but turned only in time to see him collide with a Metzi in mid air. He deflected it just enough for it to catch her in the shoulder, and the trio tumbled to the ground. She felt a claw dig into her chest through the gap between her breast and side plates.

She managed to drag herself out of the tangle of bodies and onto one knee, then grabbed her sword and swiped at the giant cat’s head. It bounded away, joining a pair of Night Howlers as they circled her. Two opponents vanished in the shuffle, a spike of dread pierced her heart as she—

“Ah, Little Vi, I heard you’re doing well,” a voice said behind her. She didn’t dare turn to look, but noticed the metafauna retreat a few paces. A giant of a man with grey hair strolled in front of her, then turned to face her.

“Gustaf?” Elvira said. It was the Headmaster, Gustaf Foster, effectively the leader of the Nova Mercenary Company. “Why are you here?”

Before he could answer the Metzi pounced at him. At the exact moment one of its outstretched claws made contact, the old man vanished with a crack. He reappeared behind the creature, and in the same motion punched it into the ground. It landed with a squelch and remained motionless. The other metafauna backed off.

Gustaf laughed. “Yes, excellent question,” he said. “You see, most students are off campus right now, so I was, uh…. Checking on the field exam?”

“Master Foster, what are you doing here!” Li said after materializing from the wall. That was the last straw for the attacking creatures, who scrambled away.

“I hitched a ride on one of the airships,” Gustaf said.

“I- yes, but-- why?”

Gustaf patted her on the head, and she blushed. “Come now girly, we don’t need a special reason for everything we do.” He smiled, tussling her hair. Then he looked at Protius. “Oi laddie, you’re not a burden on this young lady are ya?”

“N-no,” Protius said.

“That so?” Gustaf said. “Looks like you and that butter knife weren’t much help.”

“I- I’m out of malhahons,” Protius said. “I used my whole reserve on a flame wall, so…”

“Ay, ay, and I’m sure it was a right spectacle,” Gustaf said. “But if artes’re all you’re good for, you might as well board up and warm your bones. Least then you’ll be ready to help on the way home.”

“Ah, I, uh, yes, but I have to…” Protius motioned towards his teammates.

“No time to worry about that now, asides, I can handle the rear flank.” He turned to address Li. “What cha think, lassie? These kids done enough fighting for the test?”

“Yes Master Foster,” Li said. “I have a few non-combat tasks I was going to give the civilians.”

“Good, good,” Gustaf said. “Let these wee ones stretch their wings a little. Don’t want em to start work next month thinking all we do is fight. Can you pass that on to Malikah too? The veterans can handle the lines if ya need it.”

“Right away, sir.” She turned to Elvira and Protius. “Young Protius, join the Sky Guard on the first ship. Please board right away and rest as best you can before departure.”

“But I—” Protius began, but stopped with a look from Li. “Yes Ms. Athens, right away.”

“Elv— I mean, Miss Peri,” Li started. Elvira smiled at her. “Can you help with the boarding process? We don’t want trouble getting the civilians loaded.”

“Of course,” Elvira said, then quickly added. “I mean, right away, Ms. Athens.” She saluted, then rushed after Protius. She met up with him on the stairs to the landing platform.

They had to wiggle through the crowd, half crushed into the wall. There was a dreary and defeated energy in the air, and in spite of the numbers the area was deathly quiet. A lone voice rang from above.

“Hey Protius,” Elvira said. It took him a full second to acknowledge her. “I wanted to say thanks for tackling that giant cat for me.”

“Not that it helped,” he said.

Elvira let that hang in the air a moment, then said, “Well, still.”

He hummed, then remained silent the remainder of the climb. At the top they found their evaluator Rosa Varzhish directing the boarding process. Li was there too, passing instructors to the veteran mercenary.

Li vanished faster than her own echo, leaving Rosa to give Elvira a quick briefing and a handheld radio before jumping from the loading dock.

No one gave her any trouble, but it was still difficult to get people moving. Every dozenth or so person practically needed to be dragged up the ramp, like they couldn’t bear to run away.

Her work continued, the monotony broken only when the ship called to pause the flow. A crewman joined her at the ramp to take back the radio and withdraw the platform. Protius came too, although he did little more than return her wave.

That ship flew away, to make room for another and the whole process repeated. All the while the sounds of battle raged.

Halfway though the third airship she was surprised to find Gordon calling her name.

“Having a gun means I get to play Sky Guard,” Gordon said. “What fun!” He laughed and shrugged. As she was ushering him on he added, “Try not to die, or whatever.”

She laughed and pushed him around a corner. “I’ll do my best.”

“And keep an eye on the lunk,” he called back. Elvira smiled, and gave an affirmative sign before returning to work.

One airship later she found Chandra barreling by, pushing a man on a stretcher. He looked to be an older member of the town guard, and Chandra was pressing a blood soaked rag onto his chest.

It was three more airships before she saw another familiar face. Unfortunately, it was Drake. She clenched her teeth as hard as she could and tried to look away, but when he passed she said, “Running away again.”

He flinched, but didn’t turn to face her, disappearing behind the corner.