Renica sat up swiftly, cracking her head on the low ceiling above the bed and cursing softly. “What’s going on?” she asked, blinking sleepily.

“I don’t know,” I replied, extricating myself from being entwined with her. “Screaming can’t be good, though.” Screams rang sporadically in the building, high and panicky shrieks of terror. Even as I listened, one of the screams cut off in a choking cry. I echoed Renica’s profanity and slipped out of the bed, dropping lightly to the floor.

“Where are you going?” she asked, her voice concerned as she crawled out behind me.

“To check on Viora.” I couldn’t see much in the darkened room, and I wasn’t 100% sure how to relight the oil lamp without a lighter. I knew how to make fire, of course, but I didn’t have anything to make it with. I began feeling around the room, searching for my knife and hatchet.

“Here, this should help,” Sara said, and suddenly, an image of the room lit up in my vision in perfect detail. “It might not be exact, but it’s the last you saw of it before you turned out the light earlier.”

“Thanks,” I replied, even as I recalled that I could have just cast my light spell, as well. Of course, that also might have brought unwanted attention, so Sara’s method might just have been the better one. I grabbed my belt with my simple knife attached to it and my hatchet. I hesitated, considering pulling the Imperial dagger from my pack, but I left it where it was. If anyone recognized it in the Cathedral, we would likely be in a lot more trouble than whatever was out there.

Vikarik stood at the door, growling at it menacingly, and behind me, I heard the scrape of metal as Renica fumbled with something. A moment later, a spark leapt into the glass-enclosed lamp, and the wick lit with a warm, cheery glow that lasted for all of a second or so before guttering into a dim, scarlet haze that painted the room in crimson. Renica hissed in dismay as she stared at the blood-red flame.

“Darklings,” she said in a horrified voice. “But – how? We’re in the Cathedral!”

“How can wait,” I answered, strapping on my weapons. “Get your crossbow. We need to get to the Sorvaraji ASAP. There’s zero chance that this just happened on the day we arrived in the city.” I waited while she rummaged through her pack, producing a heavy, leather collar that she strapped around Vikarik’s neck before hefting her crossbow and strapping a box of bolts to her right thigh. I looked at the collar curiously, but I assumed it was armor of some kind and let it go. “Ready?”

“Yes, but – do you remember how to get to her room?”

“Yep.” Technically, of course, I didn’t, but Sara did, and she could lead me unerringly back the way we came. I reached out and touched the doorknob, wincing when the ice-cold metal bit my flesh. “This thing is freezing!”

“That’s the sign of the darklings,” Renica half-whispered. “They drain life and warmth from around them – and from you if you’re not careful.”

“I’ll be careful, then.” I turned the knob slowly, ignoring the biting cold, but apparently, I wasn’t careful enough. Something slammed into the door with terrific force the moment it opened, knocking me back into Renica and tumbling us both to the floor. I scrambled to my feet as a lean, dark shape rushed toward me, getting a glimpse of little more than a black-skinned, hairless body and a long, lean face dominated by gleaming white fangs before the monster leaped at me. Its speed caught me totally off guard, and I raised my left arm in a warding gesture even as my right hand fumbled to yank my hatchet free.

Fortunately, Vikarik responded faster than I did. The cairnik snatched the creature from the air and slammed it to the ground, pressing her massive paws on it and shaking her head to the sound of snapping bones. The monster scrabbled and bit at the cairnik, its long, thin claws and sharp teeth scraping harmlessly against the collar on Vikarik’s neck, and I understood why Renica put the armor on the dog.

I hefted my hatchet and lunged forward, burying the gleaming blade in the lean, sinuous neck of the creature and jerking it free. Crimson blood poured from the wound, and the darkling writhed and hissed as its vital fluid spilled out onto the floor. Vikarik shook it one more time, and the creature fell still at last. As it died, I took a good look at the darkling and understood why it inspired such panicked screams.

The darkling looked like it would have stood about three and a half feet tall erect. Its splayed legs looked too short for its twisted, serpentine body covered with glossy, black skin splashed with patches of dark crimson. Its arms stretched almost to its feet, ending in small hands with long, razor-tipped fingers. A hairless, oval head sat atop its overly long neck, dominated by a wide mouth that gave it an ear-to-ear grin filled with jagged, sharklike teeth. Its red eyes looked dull now but gleamed wickedly when it lived, and some sort of thin membrane covered each side of its head.

I stood and looked past the monster into the hallway, stepping forward and slipping my head out slowly, avoiding sudden movements that might draw attention. The hallway looked clear – and slightly resembled a butcher’s shop. Three doors stood open other than ours, and blood flowed from each into the hallway. A limp hand extended from one into the darkened corridor, laying lifelessly in a sticky, red pool that steamed in the chill air.

“Looks clear,” I said quietly. “Unless something’s in the other rooms. We’ll have to check them.”

She nodded, her face pale, and took the oil lamp down. “The darklings hate light,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt them, but they usually avoid it if they can. Plus, this way, we’ll be able to see where we’re going.”

“Good idea.” I stepped into the hallway, moving as quietly as I could, and peered into the first open door. I froze in shock; two bodies lay on the floor, unmoving, their throats ripped completely out. A pair of the darklings crouched on the corpses, one to each, their fanged mouths clamped onto the torn throats and their jaws moving as they apparently drank the thick, red fluid oozing from their victims. Their claws gripped their prey tightly, and their stomachs pulsed obscenely as they took in the fluid.

Neither of the victims looked to be older than twelve. The things literally sucked the life from kids.

One of the darklings looked up as I charged into the room. It hissed and released its prey, flinging itself at me, shrouded in a haze of dark, red power. That same energy wrapped around my body, and I drew it in instinctively, filling my muscles and charging my cells. The power felt cold, almost sickeningly cold, and without thinking about it, I trickled warm energy into my body to offset the chill. The icy ache eased, and my muscles surged with energy.

My left hand snapped out, grabbing the thing’s wrist, and I twisted, feeling the bone pop and shatter beneath my fingers. I slashed out with the hatchet as the monster’s other hand reached toward me, its claws gleaming, and the lean arm spun away, severed at the elbow. I slammed the creature to the ground, smashing my boot onto its head, then brought my hatchet down in a powerful chop that neatly decapitated it. I turned as the other raced for me, using its hands and feet to propel it at a dizzying speed, but it stumbled as a crossbow bolt sank into its bulging stomach. I flung my hatchet, and the gleaming axe caught the thing in its face, nearly bisecting its skull.

I walked over and jerked out the hatchet, wiping it off on one of the bed’s linens and stalking back into the hallway. Two more of the monsters lurked in the next room, feeding off their dead victims, and Renica and I killed them just as swiftly. The things moved fast, but the power flooding me made me faster. Their delicate bodies snapped and crushed easily, and without the advantage of speed, they didn’t stand much of a chance against me.

I heard whimpering from the third room and entered to see one child lying dead on the floor, its shriveled body discarded, while a darkling crouched over a second child. The boy moved weakly, trying to dislodge his attacker, but it clung to him fiercely, draining him of his life. I roared in rage as I entered the room, and the darkling spun with a hiss, flinging itself at me. I snatched it from the air and threw it into the side of one of the beds, where it struck with a loud crack. It lashed at me with its claws, but I blocked the blow and slammed a fist into its face, feeling the bones there crumple beneath my blow. I struck it again, and its head imploded, crushing into a soft, jellied mass. It went limp, and I tossed it to the side contemptuously.

Renica knelt before the boy already, her eyes wide as she examined his wound. She looked at me and shook her head, and all I could do was watch as the boy took two more hitching breaths before falling still. The rose to her feet, her face stricken, and took a deep breath.

“Ionat – how did you do that?” she asked quietly.

“Do what?” I said tersely, my anger obvious in my voice. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes; I had to let the anger go. It would make me stupid. It already made me leap into battles I should have fought smarter, and I couldn’t afford to do that.

I admit, I wasn’t one of the good guys back on Earth. Oh, I could make some sort of noise about only killing marks who deserved it or being careful not to take innocent lives during a hit, but the simple fact was, I killed people for money. I did it because I was good at it and because it paid really, really well. At the end of the day, it was that simple. I made up a code to make myself feel better about what I did for a living, but that was more to quiet what little bit of conscience I had left than because it was the right thing to do. In the course of my jobs, I lied to, cheated, stole from, seduced, and tortured more people than I’d care to imagine. I definitely wasn’t one of the guys with the white hats.

I had one hard line, one line that I wouldn’t cross no matter what, and that was, no kids. If a job involved hurting kids, I wouldn’t take it. If kids might be ancillary victims, I wouldn’t take it. Sure, I left kids without a parent all the time, but I wouldn’t orphan them completely. That was my line, and I didn’t tolerate other people crossing it around me.

Still, I wouldn’t help anyone if I died charging into battle, so I breathed deeply until the initial rage passed, leaving a cold, icy anger in its wake, an emotion easier to control and contain.

“How did you move like that? You moved like – like the man we met on the hilltop,” she said, catching herself at the last.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. I suspected, but I didn’t know. I looked out the hallway, wondering how many of the creatures we faced, and if they’d reached Viora already.

“Try your Sense Undead ability,” Sara suggested, and I almost kicked myself as I activated it. I kept forgetting what powers and abilities I had. I still hadn’t really internalized the whole concept of magic; I needed to work on that, they way I had in Kuan.

I felt the presence of a few darklings nearby, their existence pulsing spots of heat in my senses. Part of me wanted to go after them and hunt them down, but I forced myself to focus. I needed to find Viora first; then, I could go hunt the nasty little bloodsuckers infesting the Cathedral.

“Sara, can we get around them?”

“I think so, yes. It might take a bit longer, though. I’ll be making educated guesses at some of the side passages.”

“Better than the random ones I’d be making,” I replied as a path seemed to light up in my vision. Turning to Renica, I waved my hand forward. “Come on, we need to go this way.”

We moved quickly but quietly through the stone halls of the Cathedral. I kept Sense Undead active, using it to avoid most of the ravening darklings. Sara led us past them, guiding us up and down stairs, through winding passages, and along empty corridors. Twice, though, we couldn’t slip past the creatures, and the black-skinned monstrosities attacked us the moment we drew near. Both times, I pulled in the cold, pulsing red haze surrounding us, warming it with my solar raju and using it to power my muscles. I snatched darklings from the air, cracked their bones and severed their limbs with my hatchet, while Renica pinned others with her crossbow, allowing Vikarik to finish them off.

The scent of rich, coppery blood washed over us as we stepped into Viora’s hallway, and for a moment, I felt my heart sink. Were we too late? Had I wasted time avenging the dead kids below and allowed Viora to fall to the darklings? If I had, I knew I wouldn’t forgive myself any time soon.

A flash of red-orange light lit the passage before me, and the bodes of a pair of darklings sailed down the hall, crashing onto the stones and twitching feebly. Their black skin steamed and smoked, bubbling as if being broiled from within, and a moment later, they erupted in flames that consumed their corpses. I hurried down the hall and turned a corner to see Viora standing in the passageway, her hands raised and her face dark with anger. Fire swirled on her fingertips as another pair of darklings scrambled toward her, their movements swift and their claws skittering on the stone floors. Viora flung out her hands as the creatures leaped, and a pair of flaming, orange lashes whipped out from her, crashing into the darklings and wrapping them in sheaths of fire.

The darklings screeched in pain and a heavy haze of reddish power rolled out of them as the solar raju seared their flesh. As the haze filled the corridor, the coppery tang in the air strengthened, and I realized that somehow, Viora burned the blood magic directly out of the monsters’ bodies. The force of the blast flung them backward, tumbling them down the hall where they thrashed weakly before they erupted in flames and cooked down to ashes.

“Sorvaraji!” Renica called out, and Viora glanced quickly toward us, looking back as she incinerated another pair of darklings.

“Ionat, Renica!” the Sorvaraji called back. “Help me drive them back! We need to check on the Razvaraji!”

I rushed forward, drawing in more of the reddish haze into my body. A dozen of the disgusting monsters filled the passage beyond Viora, some of them attacking her while the rest battled unseen foes in the rooms beyond hers. One of them spotted me and rushed at me, its jaws gaping and its claws reaching, but I twisted out of its path and batted it from the air to the floor blow with the hammer side of my hatchet. I slammed my heel down onto its skull twice, feeling the bones crumple beneath the blow on the second stomp, then slashed at a second monster and severed one of its spindly arms.

Vikarik rushed up and barked, the deep sound rolling across the monsters and scattering them like leaves. A pair of them charged at her, but one took a crossbow bolt in the chest, and she grabbed the other in her jaws and shook her head furiously to the accompaniment of cracking bones. Viora flung more searing bolts of flame at the creatures, while I grabbed a third with my left hand, slammed it against the wall, and neatly beheaded it with a blow from my axe. The monsters charged at us ferociously, most of them trying to get past Vikarik and I to attack Viora, but we held them back and cut them down. Less than a minute later, the hallway stood clear, and I lowered my hatchet, panting slightly from exertion.

“Ionat, Renica, it’s good to see you,” Viora said warmly, reaching out and touching me as she spoke. I felt a surge of warmth roll through my body as her magic healed the tiny cuts and scrapes I’d suffered in the battles so far. She touched Vikarik next, restoring the cairnik as well.

“Sorvaraji, what’s happening?” Renica asked, her face reflecting her fear and anxiety. “How is this happening?”

“I don’t know, child,” the older woman admitted, and I saw the sudden fear flash across her eyes. “Sangue isn’t close tonight – or even remotely near being close. I’m not sure what that means, but I can guess…and it doesn’t bode well.”

I agreed with the woman’s thoughts, personally. I wouldn’t put odds on the chances of these things randomly appearing in the Cathedral. In fact, I felt certain that the building had protections against just such an incursion. That it happened on the first night we arrived – that stretched the idea of coincidence well past the breaking point, and I suspected that Viora knew that.

“In any case, we must find the Razvaraji,” she continued. “Defending the Cathedral is his duty, and we have to support him as much as possible.” She turned and began leading us back the way we’d come, which puzzled me for a moment.

“Um, Sorvaraji,” I said hesitantly, “isn’t his room the other way?”

“Yes, but he’ll be down at the Altar of the Sun, protecting it, as is his primary charge.”

“Will he have been able to reach it?” I asked in concern. “I mean, if these darklings are really all over the Cathedral, and he’s by himself…”

“Don’t worry about the Razvaraji, Ionat,” she said, turning and giving me a smile. “His calling is to battle creatures like this – and far more dangerous ones. The darklings will barely inconvenience him.”

I had my doubts, but I remained silent and followed her through the corridors. I kept my Sense Undead ability active, using it to alert Viora of groups of the monsters. I assumed she’d want to guide us around them, but she insisted on dealing with any of the beasts we found. Fortunately, with the addition of her magic, we had no problem slaughtering the creatures, and we worked our way steadily toward the center of the Cathedral and the Altar of the Sun inside. At last, we stepped through a door into the main chapel area, and I froze in amazement a moment later. I understood why Viora wasn’t worried about her old friend and why she wanted to reach his side.

An older man dressed dressed in a simple white robe that almost looked like a nightgown stood directly before the Altar, facing away from the horde of at least forty or fifty darklings that rushed forward. The man held his arms up over his head in supplication, his head tilted back and his eyes closed. Seven similarly dressed Sorvarajis stood at the edge of the raised dais, using their solar magic to keep the mass of at least forty darklings at bay with a glowing, reddish shield of energy, obviously shielding the old man. The Razvaraji stood in front of all of them, facing the horde alone – and slaughtering it with his magic.

Arcs of brilliant light shot from his outstretched fingers, tearing through a dozen of the monsters and igniting them in bursts of searing flame. He waved his other hand, and spheres of glowing fire streaked into the moon-cursed, exploding in silent gouts of fire that obliterated at least ten more. Four of them charged toward him, and he simply glanced at them; an instant later, glowing red blades appeared in front of the darklings, spinning rapidly and reducing the creatures to shredded meat. He struck at them with blasts of light and fire, cut them in half with thin lashes of flame, and hurled waves of solar magic that reduced the monsters to ashes.

“By the Sun,” Renica breathed, staring at the devastation.

“Indeed,” Viora said with a smile. “This is the power of a Razvaraji unleashed, the vengeance of the Sun visited on the moon-cursed.”

While I appreciated the performance, my eyes tracked to the broken, hanging doors leading into the chapel. Even as the Razvaraji destroyed the creatures, more poured through the doorway into the altar, a seemingly endless wave of the monsters. As I stared at the doorway, my stomach lurched; something about it triggered my Sense Imbalance ability, but I couldn’t tell what. What I did know was that either hundreds or even thousands of the little monsters spawned in the Cathedral – or someone kept sending more of the things into the room.

“How long can he do this?” I asked, still staring at the flood of darklings rushing into the chapel.

“For as long as the Altar of the Sun holds power,” the Sorvaraji replied. “He won’t need long, though. The pretmaraji is invoking the Cathedral’s wards; once they’re active once more, they’ll destroy every darkling inside in an instant.” She frowned. “What I don’t understand is how they fell in the first place.”

I glanced at the old man standing before the Altar, observing him with my Sense Magic ability. Rivers of solar raju flowed from him, wrapping about the Altar and stretching out into the room. The tendrils of raju lashed outward, but as they did, they struck a haze of almost colorless magic that sapped their strength and diverted their energies. I watched in dismay as whatever spell the old man tried to cast fizzled, unbound by whatever force filled the room. The Pretmaraji swayed slightly on the dais as the spell’s backlash hit him, but he seemed to shake it off and gathered power once more to try again.

“He’s never going to do it, is he?” I asked Sara silently.

“He might if he uses enough power. Of course, taking that much raju from the Altar will weaken the Razvaraji significantly and might get everyone on the dais killed, but the Cathedral will survive.”

I tightened my grip on my axe and stepped forward, ready to hurl myself at the horde of darklings, but I stopped as I realized it wouldn’t matter. I couldn’t kill the things as fast as the battle priest, or whatever he was, could, and he hadn’t made a dent in their numbers. My help wouldn’t turn the tide. I needed to find the source of the imbalance; my gut told me that imbalance blocked the Pretmaraji’s spell, and removing it would solve the problem once and for all.

“We need to get around that horde,” I told Viora, gesturing toward the shattered door. “Is there a way past them that doesn’t involve fighting our way through them?”

“We need to stand and help the Razvaraji,” she countered firmly, raising her hands. “If the darklings overrun the Altar, this entire city could become cursed.”

“He can handle himself, Viora.” I gestured as the man fired beams of glowing light from his hands that turned the front three ranks of the darklings into motes of glowing ash. “Something out there is stopping the wards from working, though, and if we don’t fix that, we’ll all die.”

“How do you know that?” she asked me, her face curious but her eyes faintly suspicious.

“I can just feel it. There’s something – wrong out there.” I shook my head. “Look, I get that you want to defend the Altar, and I’m not telling you not to go do that. First, though, tell me how to get around the darklings and into the room past them.”

The faint suspicion grew in her eyes, but she took a deep breath and nodded. “Very well, Ionat. I – I trust that you know what you’re doing. My place, though, is beside the Razvaraji.” She turned and pointed at the door we’d used to enter the chapel. “Go back out, turn right, and take the first stairway. That leads to a long passage running the length of the Altar sanctuary. The second set of stairs will take you down into the vestibule.”

“Thanks,” I nodded, turning toward the door.

“Vikarik and I are coming with you,” Renica said, hefting her crossbow.

“Renica,” Viora protested, but the blonde hunter shook her head.

“If you’d seen Ionat do the things I have, you’d join us too, Sorvaraji. If he says we have to go out there, then we have to go out there.” She looked at me, her eyes confident. “Let’s go.”

I followed Viora’s directions easily enough, although I did have to detour around a section of the passage to avoid a band of darklings feasting on a pair of bodies. I couldn’t make out their features, but they looked to be adults, at least. I wasn’t happy that they died or anything, but their deaths didn’t piss me off the way the bodies of the kids had. We found the stairs and descended slowly and carefully. Considering how many darklings poured into the Altar, the creatures undoubtedly filled the spacious vestibule we’d crossed when entering the Cathedral.

I paused as I pushed open a heavy, wooden door and found the large room almost empty. A handful of darklings fed on the bodies of fallen omeni, four guards judging by their armor and two priests or monks or whatever dressed in robes that looked gray in the weird light of the room. The darklings hissed and abandoned their meals to attack as we entered, and I moved out of the doorway, ready to engage them. Unthinkingly, I drew the odd, colorless haze filling the air in, feeding it into my muscles, then stopped in surprise as the cool, comforting energy rushed through me, refilling my drained raju pools and filling my veins with its familiar power.

“Is that…?” I thought silently.

“Twilight raju, yes,” Sara replied quietly. “Someone’s using it, probably to bring these things here.”

I continued pulling the power into me as the darklings rushed forward, feeding it into my muscles the same way I had the reddish haze from before. As the first creature attacked, I slipped easily aside, slamming it into the nearby wall, then cut the next out of the air with a blow from my hatchet. A crossbow bolt impaled a third, and Vikarik barked, knocking the rest backward before she grabbed a fourth creature and ripped it to shreds with her powerful fangs.

We made short work of the two remaining monsters, and I stepped into the room, staring at the center of it. The mist of twilight magic hung heaviest there, condensed into a tight ball of raju woven so densely I could barely see the strands of it, much less work out what they did. Strands of gray energy swirled out from it, flooding the chapel and filling the doorway with silver mists from which the darklings seemed to pull themselves, appearing as if from thin air.

“What is that, Ionat?” Renica asked in a hushed tone, pointing at the hanging mist.

“It’s what we have to destroy,” I said grimly, looking back at the twilight spell floating in the middle of the room. “Any ideas, Sara?”

The woman’s holographic form appeared beside the ball, examining it carefully. She looked at me helplessly and shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like this, John,” she admitted. “The craftsmanship of it – the power that went into making this – I can’t even work out exactly what it’s doing, much less how to undo it. It’s perfectly balanced, and it seems to use every type of raju. It’s going to take some time to puzzle it out, sorry.”

“Well, it’s not like I have anything better to do.” Even as I sent the thought to her, though, I focused on the spell before me, my thoughts racing. The tangle of raju hung in the air, glowing serenely and feeling incredibly stable. My stomach lurched at the sight of it; this thing was the source of the nearby imbalance, no question about it. I had to destroy it – but how could I do that when even Sara didn’t know how?

My first impulse was to draw the energy into myself, draining it of power, but I guessed that might be pretty stupid. Whoever made this used way more power than I could hold, for sure, and I’d probably just hurt myself. I couldn’t unravel it, either; I didn’t have that kind of power or knowledge. If Sara couldn’t work it out, I never would. A part of me insisted there had to be a way to destroy the spell, but the simple fact was that there didn’t. If the spell’s caster made it strong enough and well enough, it might simply be beyond me, and there was nothing I could do about it. The spell just looked – perfect, a work of art that I couldn’t even hope to replicate.

I frowned as I gazed at the orb. The spell looked perfect, sure – but it didn’t feel perfect. Something felt wrong about it. The energy filling the air around me had what seemed like an odd flavor to it, a weird tang, as if it were too sharp and too strong. The caster balanced the spell immaculately, but even so, I sensed the tiniest wobble in it, something I could feel but couldn’t see. Whoever did this understood twilight magic, to be sure – but somehow, their understanding missed something, a vital piece of the complete raju. If that were true, then that lack presented a weakness, one I could exploit if I could just figure out what it was.

“I don’t sense anything wrong with it, John,” Sara said slowly, obviously picking up my thoughts and feelings. She turned from her examination of the spell and gazed at me. “Are you sure that it’s unbalanced?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how I know – but I know. The spell’s incomplete.”

“Then maybe you just need to do what you did to the Moon’s Truce spell. Don’t overthink it; just picture what you want to happen and let your instincts handle it for you.” She shrugged. “They’ve seemed to work so far.”

That sounded simple enough – but what did I want to do? Untangle the knotted spell? That could take hours – it might even be impossible. Not every knot could be undone. Hell, the Gordion Knot was famous for being unsolvable…at least, it was until Alexander the Great came around. I glanced down at my hatchet and hefted it, then shrugged my shoulders. There was more than one way to undo a knot, after all.

“What are you doing?” Renica asked from behind me.

“Hopefully, ending this,” I replied, then glanced back at her over my shoulder. “You might want to step back, just in case this goes wrong.”

“How far back?” she asked nervously. “What’s happening?”

“I’d say back into the staircase, at least. And I’m hoping to end the spell keeping the wards from working. It might be a bit – explosive.” She looked at me, bit her lip, then nodded and snapped her fingers at Vikarik. The two slipped back into the stairwell and closed the door behind them.

I turned and faced the spell, picturing what I wanted clearly in my mind. The axe would swing, striking the spell. Its strands would sever, and the whole knot would unravel. The energy would dissipate – hopefully, not directly into my face. I poured twilight raju into my hatchet, subtly correcting the imbalanced energy, muting the odd tang of it and leaving it cool and seamless once more. I lifted the hatchet, took a deep breath, and slashed at the spell, holding the image of what I wanted clearly in my head and driving the magic into the spell.

As the hatchet struck, a tiny flash flared around the blade, and the area around it darkened for an instant, as if a shadow passed before the light filling the room. I felt the spell’s resistance as whoever cast it tried to hold it against my blow, but I lifted the axe and struck again, targeting the same place. Once more, the strands held, but I sensed them fraying. I lifted the axe once more and brought it down – but before the blow struck, the ball simply vanished, disappearing as if it had never been. A moment later, a blaze of bright red solar raju rushed through the room, flooding the place with power. The darkling corpses around me burst into flame, swiftly burning to ashes as the wards flared to life, ending the carnage at last.