“Looks like the defenses are a bit sparse today.” Elendria commented. It was around noon on the next day, and we were incredibly high up in the air and looking down on the city.

“I would hope so. It took us five days of fighting just to get this far. I’m dreading actually fighting in the city.” I replied.

“Oh? Why is that?”

I shook my head. “A lot of reasons honestly. The enemy is intimately familiar with the area. They know all the bottlenecks, all the cover areas, and have all the advantages of positioning. They know where the best ambush spots are. Not only that, but the sheer amount of cover available is staggering. Imagine walking down the street, and someone attacks with a spell that is so fast you can’t see the origin. How do you retaliate? Then when you are looking one direction, another sniper sends a spell your way. You know have at least two enemies taking turns shooting at you, and you have no way of tracking them down. The only option is to break into every house on the street and clear it room by room. Of course, you can’t even be sure then, because what’s stopping them from going back to a room you have already cleared and using it against you?”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. I just assumed armies found it easier to lay siege to a city because of the wall defenses.”

“Yeah, that’s another point. But how can you lay siege to a city of undead? They don’t need food.” I said, looking around. I could see limited movement on the street, but the damn shield prevented me from getting anything other than a blurry blob moving around. “Look, let’s just make a ruckus at the city gates. We can fight what we can there, and if it starts to get overwhelming we just pull back. But I would like to at least make sure we take out the vast majority of the combat troops today. We only have a week and 2 days before everything starts coming back.”

“Fine. Try and keep up.” She said, folding her wings and diving toward the city gate. I followed her, angling slightly away from her direct dive so that I wouldn’t be landing right on top of her. When we arrived, it was to see a rag tag group of undead. They had grouped up to try and cover their weaknesses, but anyone could easily read the animosity between the different types. The skeleton mages kept away from the desiccated pugilists, while the few remaining ghouls wandered between groups. Of course, as soon as we landed all undead eyes were immediately on us.

“Try and keep the mana cost low.” I said, sending out exploding bullets. While I was doing that, Elendria conjured several broad swords out of ice and was making them dance through the air. She didn’t bother making them too sharp, instead making them like heavy blunted training swords. Any bone she hit was pulverized, and the desiccated dead didn’t fare any better. The ghouls could shrug off a blow eventually, though it definitely rung their bell. Elendria mercilessly sent an ice lance through their skull to end them before they could rally.

“I didn’t think we would have taken out all of their powerful leaders yet.” She shouted over her shoulder.

“Me either.” I said, keeping an eye on the rapidly thinning crowd. Even the mages that were sending dark missiles our way were easily dealt with, their pathetic shields shattering under one attack. “Keep an eye out, but I think they might have been betting their defense on the giant mech and the liches.” She grunted and kept going, and after an intense twenty minutes we found ourselves in the middle of a bone graveyard.

“Whew.” She grunted, letting her swords fall to the ground and wiping a strand of sweaty hair out of her face. “I need to practice more. It’s been a long time since I’ve held a spell that long, even if it’s a low level one.”

“I give you a six out of ten.” I said, sliding up and wrapping her in a half hug. “You could’ve at least danced a bit. Give a guy a bit of a show.”

“Ass.” She chuckled, slapping my hand away. “Didn’t you warn me to stay on guard? Pay attention yourself, and where to next?”

“Let’s circle around a bit and return to those slums we partially cleared the other day. I’m hoping no more shades moved in, and we can clear out the ones that couldn’t fly.”

“Lead on then.” She said, following me to the wall. It only took a few minutes to arrive, and I spotted a small courtyard with a well in the middle that gave us plenty of space to land in.

“Yeah, this is going to suck.” I groaned when we landed. Looking down on the place was bad enough trying to figure out the way, but being down in it? A hundred times worse.

“Zombies.” Elendria spat as soon as she landed. They had waited just long enough for us to retract our wings before flowing out of the building surrounding us, some of them even leaping from second and third story balconies. Elendria shot those ones out of the air with ice lances, while I kept the rest from us with a ring of antigravity magic.

“Best way to kill them?” I asked, after sending several bullets into the crowd to no effect.

“Generally holy magics, decapitation, and fire if you can get them dry enough.” She answered, and I shuddered. These weren’t the normal, slow zombies from most movies. They were intact, and whatever was reanimating them was preventing them from rotting. Their fingernails were now blackened talons, leaking a liquid I really didn’t want to touch me judging by the sizzling that happened every time it hit the ground. Their teeth were blackened, needlelike, and they had a lot more than a normal human would. I wasn’t close enough to be sure, but they might even be curved slightly backward like a snake’s fang, allowing them to bite and hold on. I could only imagine them as pack hunters, each one disabling a prey’s limb while the others finished it off.

“Well, the curse takes out holy magic, and these guys look like they are going to create a ton of toxic smoke if we can get them on fire. Decapitation it is.” I said, sending out flurries of void blades at neck and shoulder height. That worked for the nearer zombies, but once they figured out my range they stayed outside of it.

“What are they doing?” I asked, as the wall of formerly human flesh parted to reveal an interesting pair.

The first creature was an amorphous humanoid blob, though it’s attention and red eyes immediately locked onto me. It swiftly changed into spitting image of me, though his skin had a gray hue to it. His eyes never left my own, and even more creepily he never blinked. I felt a draw to stare into his eyes, a draw that I fought off with a passion.

The other male was probably six feet two inches and had that perfect balance between muscle and tone. If you didn’t mind the imprint of a six pack, you could probably iron a shirt on his stomach. Dark hair with just a hint of gray at the temples matched his goatee, and his black leather pants could have been painted on. Of course, he went shirtless. He had an odd tattoo. On each shoulder an on his chest was a large black sphere. Moving down each arm and down his chest were black lines that grew thicker the further away from the dots they got. It did contrast rather nicely with his pale white skin.

“The Arwen.” The second male spoke in an Irish brogue and his voice had a musical lilt to it, one I would have sworn couldn’t come from an undead. It was a deep baritone, one that promised you would feel the vibrations if he held you close. “I do find it fits me rather well, not to mention how it draws the eyes to my better aspects.”

“Wh, who are you?” Elendria stuttered, and I looked at her to see her blushing slightly. That started to warn me of something, but He was talking again.

“No need to get all flustered like that lassie.” He said with a grin. “I’m but a simple person with simple tastes.” He hesitated a second on the last word, emphasizing it and taking in both of us with his eyes. Deep green eyes. “Aw, lookee there Fetch! I’ve gone and left them gobsmacked!” He chuckled, and the thing next to him gave a cruel laugh.

“Want….” It spoke, but there were wailing harmonics under its voice. That one word sent a shiver down my spine, and managed to break me away from the strangeness.

“What is your name?” I asked.

“This here is Fetch, as you likely picked up. You can call me Gan.” He said. “Now that we’re all friends, maybe we can-“ He started, but I interrupted. The more I questioned, the easier it was to break out of whatever skill he was using.

“Ah, but what we can call you isn’t a name now, is it?” I asked, gaining confidence. “There might be shenanigans afoot here.”

“Oho! My lad wounds me to the core! Accusing me of shenanigans.” He said.

“It’s been a long while since I’ve heard warnings of people who dance with words. My old gran, God rest her soul, had more than a few warnings against those who wouldn’t ever give a straight answer. Just now, you’ve gone and avoided giving your name again, and trying to claim me as your lad? Nah, not happening.” I replied.

“Your gran sounds like she would have been an interesting companion. My condolences.”

I nodded, wondering if I could bait the trap properly. “Appreciated. And perhaps we got off on the wrong foot. Give me a second to change the spell here, and I’ll let you through so that we don’t have to be yelling at each other with this crowd.”

“Ah, that’s most thoughtful of you.” He said with a grin, taking a step forward only to be repelled by the spell I hadn’t changed. “What’s this friend?”

“Ah, but are we friends? You’ve given us something to call you by, but not your name.” I retorted.

“And do you go about just dropping your Name all over the place?” He asked, and his façade started cracking. It took a bit of looking, but I saw a flash of fangs in his mouth and for a split second he was consumed by rage.

“Gran would have thumped me for such rudeness! Of course I never meant your True Name, but at least which of the fae groups you belong?” I said, wiggling an eyebrow.

“Oh, well that’s a horse of another color! We aren’t a very large clan, but we were a lot of fun. I’m one of the gancanagh.”

“I see. And what makes clan gancanagh match up with The Arwen?” I asked, appealing to his ego.

“A fine question! The Arwen is balance between the sexes. The outer lines are male and female powers, and the middle line is the balance of power between them. Our clan is similar. We don’t prefer male or female, rather a balance of both. You two, you wouldn’t be opposed to that, would you?” He asked, more than a hint of innuendo in that last question. It was a good thing I had taken precautions, as even with the iron nail I had conjured in mine and Elendria’s hands, that innuendo struck like a blacksmith’s hammer. Elendria even stumbled forward a bit, getting a huge smile from the gancanagh.

“So what is the deal with these zombies?” I asked, blatantly changing the topic and getting a flash of annoyance.

“Just relatives that didn’t embrace the change as I did.” He shrugged. “Pay them no mind. I never do.”

“Ah, they are beneath notice. Mere servants?” I asked, getting an excited nod.

“Aye lad! You’ve got the right of it. Servants and possibly guard dogs in one.” He said, getting a smile from me. “Your gran must have raised you right, seeing the Truth of things so swiftly.”

“Aye, she did, and would likely appreciate the sentiment, though not in the way you do.” I said, hoping to buy some time as I formulated a spell, but keeping the entire structure mental. I wouldn’t have much time to do it. “Now, I do suppose I should give you a token for all the information you have given me, and to truly let you know where we stand. Here.” I said, using telekinesis to shoot the iron nail at his heart. Damn, but his reflexes were on point, as an insanely fast flinch left the nail in his shoulder instead.

“GAAAAAAAAHHHHH! YOU DARE!” He screamed, watching in horror as the iron immediately destroyed his glamour. There was now a dark grey elf, with elongated ears and a body covered in lash marks. Red veins were visible just beneath the skin, and they were joined by tendrils of blackness radiating outward from the nail. The Fetch didn’t fare any better, having received its own iron nail in the center of its mass while it was distracted by the horror its friend was going through.

“Now die.” I said, dropping the antigravity field and pulling Elendria close. Around us formed two sets of claymores filled with iron. One at waist height, and one above our heads and angled slightly downward. I set both of them off, and the results were devastating. The iron tore through the creatures, opening up wounds that were then ripe for the iron filings that I had packed in the back of the claymores.

“Come on Elendria, let’s get out of here.” I said, taking us to the skies as the iron did its ghastly work. As we took to the skies, I did see the gancanagh tearing at his shoulder. A parting bullet to the head ended his suffering.