“Everyone, go down to the basement,” Agarin hurried their children to stand up and go to the back of the house.

“But we don’t have one,” whined the youngest, too drowsy to register the whole situation.

In one motion Agarin took in a deep breath, crouched slightly and moved his hands vertically, shifting the earth to create a hatch and a sizable area below them. “Now we do, let’s get down there.”

Hurrying with everyone inside in the bunker-like basement, Agarin was about to seal the hatch until he noticed his husband was not there.

“Gitlam, what’s holding you up?”

Stepping back from the dwarf that jumped inside they saw Gitlam with a sizable mass of dough in his arms. “What are you looking at?” he asked as they all looked at him perplexed.

“Dough? Really? From all the things you could bring it’s dough!?” yelled Agarin, closing the hatch and hitting his husband repeatedly.

“Hey now,” Gitlam protested defensively with the dough gently in his arms. “You never know when it will come in handy!”

“Will we live in a basement now and eat father’s bread all the time?” asked the little boy before his older sister began to comfort him.

“Hopefully not,” answered Agarin matter-of-factly. “If a crazed person like before was walking around freely then he will be apprehended quickly. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“That’s right,” answered Gitlam with a brave tear rolling down his cheek. “We need information on what is going on. Agarin, do your thing!”

His partner gave Gitlam a displeased look. “Not funny and I can’t. I don’t have a high sensory ability, you know that.”

“Kiur can do it, can’t he?” said Ninda, startling all three adults. “My fathers once mentioned how amazing you were at communicating with the earth. You could do it easily, can’t you?”

The pair gave each other an uncomfortable look as if they were caught at something. “We don’t know anything.”

“We haven’t talked nothing about you or how you have lost your-”

“It’s alright,” Kiur stopped them, trying his best to seem composed. “There’s nothing wrong with what you were talking about with your children.”

Even after Kiur defused the situation they felt considerably uncomfortable. “I really don’t want to say anything but as it stands, we might be in trouble if that crazy person is dangerous and manages to break in. Do you mind to try and scout out the situation with your magic-”

Upon voicing his opinion the dwarf got an elbow against his stomach. It was true that Kiur is the only one among them to be able to scout the proximity of the house with his magic.

Without trying or lifting a single finger Kiur could see and feel the erratic movement around them. Warning about whoever was up there was not to be trifled with and searching for them. It won’t be much safer here anymore.

Shaking his head, Kiur reputed. “I can’t help scouting but I know that we can’t stay until someone comes for help.”

“Should we risk a breakaway then? Fight off whoever is out there?”.

“Definitely not with the children here. What if there’s more than one psycho?”

And alone they weren’t. Having waited for several more minutes to discuss their options the inevitable happened. A sharp object sliced through the thick stone layer right in front of Kiur’s nose.

It is followed by an axe, then the blade of a sword and finally the tip of a spear. All switching in short intervals to give everyone a great amount of terror.

With no time to spare Agarin prepared to carve an escape way which led right out in front of the house. They crawled out of the cellar and saw three assailants in their home with a cut open entrance.

The second they noticed their presence, Agarin sealed off the entrance with another layer of stone.

“How did they cut through it? Are you getting sluggish?”

Agarin wiped away the sweat on his forehead and huffed at his husband. “I’ve never been much of a magic user, you know that, but I don’t know how-”

“Look, smoke!”

Following the little girl’s finger they saw smoke rising in the distance. Black and red fumes intermingling with one another and covering the elevations of the mountain. It was coming from the market area where the majority of the people are living nearby.

Something was happening but Kiur couldn’t really process what? Outsiders were attacking them but from where could they possibly come from?

The northern part of Idaris possesses a high military presence, protecting them from the beasts beyond the mountains. Southwards is their ally Navarre and in the east is the sea with no way to dock ships outside Navarre’s jurisdiction.

Eliminating all other options only the west was left. Kiur wondered, no one should be able to cross the western mountain ranges without alerting anyone. Besides, the west never attempted to make contact with anyone in all those years.

But here they were, destroying their peaceful lives. “Why does this have to happen?” Kiur anguished himself over this question as he was drawn back to the danger.

The cutting and clanging of metal against stone was getting clearer and much louder. Blades of steel tearing apart the hard stone barrier. It wasn’t elemental magic but plain reinforcement magic.

Only seasoned soldiers or magicians are able to pull it off on this magnitude. Especially three armed stragglers with ripped clothes and scrawny faces who seem to not have eaten properly in forever.

One of the men who came had dark hair with a tint of purple, eyes sharp as they glowed menacingly like sunstones. “Skær dem op, tag børnene,” said the scruffy and tall young man with the axe pointing it at Kiur and the others.

“What did he say?”

“I don’t know but I hope he was not insulting my dough!”

“Cut them up,” answered Kiur with terror in his voice, having understood everything. “They will kill us and take the children!”

Call it instinct or whatever it was but Kiur felt the cutting edge of a blade on his skin when he locked eyes with them. Cold sweat ran down his skin when the man’s pair of piercingly glowing eyes landed right on Kiur.

They were here to murder anyone standing in their way and coming right at them.

“Kiur, we will hold them off. Get the children out of the way!” bellowed the dwarf and ignited flames on his brawly arms. “Give me an opening!”

“Right,” using the last bit of strength, Agarin dug his hands into the earth, turned them and let the ground shake. It took him everything not to keel over from overexerting himself, but the diversion worked as the unknown attackers staggered.

Whatever the dwarf planned next was setting his dough on fire and hurling it at them with the fury of a dwarf.

It wasn’t that effective at first. They dodged most of them until one of them got unlucky and had his entire face covered in dough and struggled to breath as it began expanding.

“My secret mixture, dough to make bappir bread for brewing, don’t try eating it, you will hate the taste!” Gitlam turned his head back to Kiur and his children who were still in place. “What are you standing there twiddling your thumbs? Get going and keep them safe!”

There wasn’t much time to contemplate on a decision. Kiur couldn’t stay and help fighting. He’s not even sure if he will be of any help in his current state.

Especially with the children and the unpredictable and erratic behaviour of the assailants.

So he picked up the protesting sick boy and grabbed the hand of the frozen girl and ran. “I will keep them safe, I promise.”

A smile appeared on the parents’ faces. “Thank you, keep your head up,” was the last thing Kiur would hear from them, he felt it but tried not to dwell on it.

He ran- sprinted down the trail to a safe place he wasn’t sure even existed. His head was throbbing and a sharp pain radiated from his back but he kept running. The ziggurat would be the safest place to go to but that’s where everyone will go.

Especially the attackers and it’s too far away.

Where else would they be safe? Where does Kiur need to escape to?

“I don’t want to, my parents are still there,” Hazir flailed in Kiur’s arms but stopped quickly, his fever preventing him from struggling any further except for sobbing.

“There, there, we will go to the temple and you will see your parents again very soon,” Kiur tried to sooth the child and then looked at the second one holding his hand. Ninda’s face was in utter shock, eyes wide and wet from tears.

How should he protect either of them if he can’t even hold himself together? “Why do I have to be so pathetic?” rumbled Kiur about himself and gritted his teeth.

“Stop med at løbe, gulddreng,” feeling his skin shudder, Kiur dropped down right before the axe swung above his head, lodging itself deeply into the wall.

“One of them caught up to us!”

A kick almost hit the boy in his arms so Kiur had to turn and let himself be kicked against his back instead, hurling him down the path. Pebbles and loose stones pierced into Kiur’s skin but he shrugged it off without batting an eye.

“Who are you?” asked Kiur in their language. The wild man cocked his head. He was dangerously lean but had a trained body underneath his shabby rags for clothes.

It was an odd combination but it was the first one to strike Kiur’s mind. It didn’t feel right.

“Someone here speaks our language? Quite a positive surprise, I didn’t expect that,” he put a hand on Ninda’s shoulder and forced the girl to her knees. “If you want to know, it’s Hessian.”

“What do you want from the children? Why are you here?” exclaimed Kiur, laying down the feverish boy to rest near the trail.

“You expect an answer? I give you one,” Hessian, flexing his arm, dislodged the axe and let it rest against his shoulder. “I don’t know the reason nor do I care either,” his voice was full of anger but directed at what? The more he talked the more Kiur could deduce the dialect.

It was a variation from the western language. He truly was a Reiszer.

“Why are you not trying to get that girl back? Are you a coward?”

Was he a coward? Most likely as Kiur had run away just now and didn’t stay to fight.

Holding his hand at Hessian he took a step back, expecting something to happen but nothing came. No matter how much Kiur willed magic into his palm, nothing happened.

He really was useless.

“Coward,” Hessian shortened the distance between them and lunged with his axe at Kiur which he barely dodged. Trying to hit Hessian back did little more than harming his own hand.

“Was that a punch?” growled Hessian in disappointment and swung his fist at Kiur. The reiszer winced from the pain as Kiur blocked it, veins glowing faintly in a shade of orange. “You didn’t do it consciously, how did you protect yourself?”

“I don’t know!” wanted Kiur to respond but couldn’t in order to avoid the next hit.

Being an earth mage it allowed Kiur to reinforce his body with earth magic to toughen himself to some degree but this was merely luck. It wouldn’t work again.

With Hessian’s swings becoming fiercer, faster and increasingly more dangerous Kiur could only dodge them. One of them cut Kiur’s thigh shallowly and made his body scream from the pain.

Reiszer, Kiur remembered what was so dangerous about them.

They are able to directly get in touch with the flow of magic and inflict intense pain. They are unable to produce elemental magic but their damage control with mana is abnormal. When Hessian injured Kiur’s thigh he also hit the magic channels flowing underneath the skin.

Being the only individuals to be able to inflict so much damage and pain to magic users some referred to them as magic killers. No one right in their heads would willingly want to face a reiszer.

“What is it? Getting tired?”

It couldn’t go on, Hessian was outclassing Kiur in every aspect, physically and magically and Kiur’s only chance of changing the tides didn’t work. He was still self sabotaging himself to use his magic in any way.

“Stop dodging and start fighting properly- Ahhh-” dodging Hessian’s swing by going underneath him Kiur grabbed Hessian’s arm and hip. With his feet planted firmly on the ground Kiur felt a boost of confidence and threw Hessian over his shoulder.

Hessian heaved himself up, his lean knees shaking as he hit the wall with his back. “What was that?” He could see how Kiur was emitting a strange energy pattern although not consciously. “Magic? No, don’t tell me you are- ha, you are an amateur?”

Bobbing himself up, Hessian's muscles tensed, his calves pumping as he closed distance to Kiur again. His frenzied movements and swings became even faster and fiercer for Kiur to handle who could barely move from his place.

“Stop it!” They heard the cry of a little girl as a gust of wind pushed Hessian off the edge.

Hessian was in disbelief as he was falling down the slope, screaming and disappearing from sight below the clouds. “We need to get to the temple… my parents are waiting there,” Ninda cried with shaking hands, unable to process what she just did. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

Looking over the edge where Hessian just fell off and Kiur’s own injuries, Kiur let out a relieved sigh, attempting to smile to comfort the shaking girl.

“N-no, you didn’t,” Kiur removed himself from the edge and tried to console the girl by taking her hand. He didn’t know what to say and didn’t want to think about it except for moving on in their escape. “Thank you, for your help,” he mastered weakly, trying to make her feel better.

While Kiur left alongside the children there was a single man holding on to the very deep side of the cliff he had fallen from. His axe lodged deeply into the wall as he held onto the splintered wooden stick, cutting into his abused hand.

“I deserved this,” laughed Hessian, digging his nails into the cliff to climb back up. “But I will get you for this, coward.”