Yuriko was outside the door in an instant, her eyes zeroed in on the burgeoning fire a few blocks away. The sound, the thud, and then the flame. And then she heard the same high-pitched wail and her head snapped towards the night skies.

The thud and the flare of flames came not a second later, nearly a hundred paces from where the first one landed. And then, there was a third high-pitched wail, but this time, whatever it was hit a dome of bluish-green light that covered the entirety of the town.

A couple of more thuds and flares struck the dome before the bombardment stopped. Yuriko barely paid attention to it though as she was already racing towards the impact zone. The first one was closer to her, and when she came close, she saw the house had its doors flung open and several people staggering outside.

Disoriented and afraid, the men and women, and teenagers, had blank looks in their eyes. They coughed as black smoke poured out of the shattered windows. Orange flames rose up the roof, and Yuriko couldn’t wait for long. She jumped up to the second storey, noted the hole, then proceeded to smother the flames with her kinesis. She spread her perception and returned it to its usual acuity, which also meant she started glowing with golden light. The concrete, stone, and wood hampered her perception range so she jumped into the hole.

She immediately saw a woman…a girl…passed out in the room. Her bed was in shambles and there were burns on her legs. Her pyjamas were smouldering, too, and there was blood coming out of her ears. Thankfully, she was still breathing. The girl was younger than Yuriko by a couple of years and would have been part of the next year’s Atavism Ritual.

Gritting her teeth in fury, she smothered the embers and encased the girl in protective Animus. She couldn’t heal anyone as she didn’t have the techniques or knowledge for it. She wished she’d taken the time to learn.

There was another hole on the bedroom floor, and small flames were licking the wooden boards. She smothered that, too. Except the hole was too small to jump through so Yuriko had to go through the door. Whatever had hit the house was much stronger than she expected and, upon a closer look with her perception, had caused a near deadly spray of shrapnel when it struck. The girl had several such wounds on her legs and one side. Those fragments, Yuriko could extract at will, but the first one she took caused such a spurting of blood that her heart skipped a beat. Now she had to apply pressure through her kinesis to stop the bleeding.

There were a few more injured within the house but at least they weren’t insensate. She helped them head out of the house. As soon as the house was vacated, Yuriko double-checked the unconscious girl, then fabricated an Animus construct to serve as a bandage over the wound that she had inadvertently caused to bleed.

Once she was certain the girl wouldn’t bleed out, she waved to one of the others and said, “Watch over her, she’s wounded.”

With her eyes staring intently at the other, the boy nodded while flushing and Yuriko returned to the house to smother the rest of the flames. By the time she was done, the fire brigade and the emergency healers had arrived and were able to take control of the situation.

Yuriko hurried to the other area, but that one had actually landed inside a small children’s park. Since it was already dark, no one was around to be injured and the only thing needed was to smother the flames. A few others had already done that, but none had investigated the impact zone.

Here, Yuriko’s perceptive aura helped greatly. The artillery shell had sunk several paces into the soft earth and had remained mostly intact. It was a crumpled metal cylinder. She pressed her perception to penetrate the metal. The cylinder had several holes along the side and some kind of liquid leaked from it. It was flammable and almost as soon as it escaped the interior, it burst into flame. The metal itself was hot enough to ignite the liquid.

Frowning in concentration, she tried to pull the heat from the metal as she’s seen Gwendith do, but alas, she didn’t even know where to start. What she could do was encapsulate a small amount of the liquid and prevent it from catching fire. She pulled that bit out of the metal and materialised a small container for it. She debated bringing the metal with her, but it was really too hot. Besides, it won’t go anywhere tonight.

She glanced up at the sky. The Protective Dome was still up, but the bombardment had not continued after the first five or so shots. She sighed and headed towards the town hall.

She found her brother in the conference room, along with a weary-looking Constable Andersen. She saw the town square was filled with worried townsmen. She could feel their anger and fear as she passed through the doors, and she could certainly feel their eyes on her back. She tried to project a sense of calm and reassurance, but her Mien hadn’t switched from Charm to Inspire. She supposed distracting them from the bombardment would do.

“Knight Davar,” Constable Andersen acknowledged.

“Constable,” Yuriko answered as she placed the container on the desk.

“This is?”

“Inside the metal cylinder that the Federation army shot into town.” Yuriko said grimly, “It ignited as soon as the…uh, cannon shell landed. This one landed in the children’s park. Another one landed inside a house a couple of blocks from where we live.”

“Oh.” Constable Andersen gasped. Then her eyes narrowed in anger. “Those filthy savages.”

Marron grunted. “They dared attack civilians. A violation of the rules of engagement.”

Andersen shook her head. “They’ll say it was an accident if we confront them about it. All five attacks landed in the middle of the town. We’ll have to keep the Dome up to prevent this from happening.”

“Won’t that drain our reserves?” Yuriko asked worriedly.

The Protective Dome over the Frozen Camp was powered by an Animus engine. Was there one in town? And would it be able to sustain the Dome for hours at a time? Ah, didn’t the Constable ask the other Knights to contribute Animus before? Did that mean there was no engine?

She didn’t know the answer and she hadn’t asked before. She mentioned it now and Andersen’s eyes flicked judgmentally towards Marron as if saying, you didn’t tell your sister?

Maroon coughed and coloured lightly. “There is an Animus engine, but it isn’t at the same calibre as the one in the Frozen Camp. It can sustain the Dome for an hour or so before its fuel load runs out. Augmenting it with donated Animus is necessary, though a Knight’s isn’t needed. The Dome artefact isn’t very strong or efficient either.”

“How many lumens does it consume?”

“A thousand a minute,” Andersen said grimly, “under heavy use. If it's at an idling state, about ten. The engine can provide a hundred per minute but will consume ten HiJins of Chaos Shard to do so. The jade batteries will hold ten thousand lumens of denatured Animus each, and we have a dozen.”

“Can we even sustain it?” Yuriko asked.

“They’ve stopped bombarding. We dare not lower the Dome, but we can keep it at an underpowered state to conserve Animus. Spellweaver Merill is one of the few who can control the Dome artefact efficiently… Oh wait! You’re a Sorceress too! You should be able to control the artefact, too, can’t you?”

“I haven’t tried such a thing before…” Yuriko shook her head. “Can’t you just…”

“We can keep it underpowered or at full capacity without needing to control it, but changing the settings needs a controller. We'll look for others among the militia or the reserves to take over but for now…”

“I understand.”

Yuriko sighed. She gestured for the woman to precede her while Marron went back to the observation tower.

The chamber Yuriko was led into was within the bowels of the town hall. Spellweaver Merill’s eyes were bloodshot and she was biting her lips hard enough to draw blood.

“Spellweaver.”

Andersen knocked on the doorsill, jolting the other woman out of her reverie. Eilis blinked, nodded at Andersen then perked up when she saw Yuriko.

“You’re going to help with the Dome?”

“For now, I guess,” Yuriko muttered as she looked around the chamber. It was completely enclosed but along the walls, images of the town were projected. There were four screens, north, east, south, and west. The view seemed to be from the centre of town, above the town hall. Ah, the ceiling projected the night skies, as well as the Dome.

At the centre of the room, Spellweaver Merill was seated on a comfy-looking armchair. She could see runescript patterns along the sides and back, too. Er…was that the Dome artefact?

The chair was oriented towards the south, but it was set on a circular base that gleamed with Animus. With Chaos Sight, Yuriko traced the lines and soon realised that the entire room was covered in runescript engraving.

The south panel and the ceiling panel flashed red, and a moment later, the Dome flickered as another shell struck it. It was followed by a couple more before the attack stopped. Eilis’ face relaxed a couple of minutes later and she wiped away the sweat on her forehead.

The armchair rotated to face Yuriko and the Spellweaver vacated it.

“Go and sit in it, I don’t think another bombardment will happen during the next hour. Tara, thank you for bringing her here. I was about to send word actually.”

“My pleasure,” Constable Andersen answered. “Knight Davar and Spellweaver Merill…”

“You can call Yuriko as Sorceress. You have an Implement, don’t you?”

“Huh, oh, uhm, yes. But don't call me Sorceress, I'm not that good.”

Constable Andersen’s face broke into a wide grin. “Then I'll just call you that this once. Sorceress Davar, Spellweaver Merill.” She gave the two of them a low bow, then vacated the chamber.

Eilis gestured to the seat, “I apologise. This might not be the best use of your time, but…”

“It’s urgent. I understand.” Yuriko sighed. “Can Journeymen make use of this as efficiently as you?”

“Only those who have good Animus manipulation skills.”

“Oh, then Gwendith should be able to use this effectively, too.”

“Hmm, you think so?” When Yuriko nodded, Eilis smiled. “I’ll call for her then.”

“Please do.” Yuriko settled on the chair and leaned against the backrest.

“You simply have to send your Animus into the device. Read the instructions in the runescript weaving and then use the switches and levers…” Eilis’ voice faded away as Yuriko sunk in her Anima perception along with her Animus.

The Dome artefact wasn’t a pre-Shattering relic like Fri’Avgi. It was something that the Empire manufactured and used to protect townships and cities, along with military fortifications and encampments. This particular version couldn’t be removed from where it was placed since it made heavy use of the natural flows of the ambient Chaos.

And it wasn’t really just the chair. It was actually the entire chamber, along with the Animus engine next door. That one wasn’t as complex or advanced as a Chaos ship’s engine, but it was much bigger to compensate. It was incredibly easy for Yuriko to activate the device, and the instructions were clear and easy to read.

The easily read runescript lines were as the Constable had said. A simple switch from low power to full. Hmmm, but what’s this? There were more ways to use this than the simple instructions allowed. Complex weaves and multiple inlays. She realised she could shape how the Animus powered the Dome, and adjust its strength and permeability.

By the time she had finished her initial exploration, hours had passed. She hadn’t slept at all since last night, and she had an inkling that midnight had already come and gone. But…she was feeling quite energized.

She saw Eilis napping on a pallet set by the corner, as well as Gwendith. There hadn’t been an attack at all in the intervening hours, and she had a feeling that none were coming soon. Still, the Federation's scheme was quite clear.

They could bombard the town any time they want to, and they could simply wait for the Dome to disappear before they start. That meant that the town couldn’t risk lowering the protection.

Tsk. She knew she should have destroyed all of those siege weapons! But then again, since there were two others who could use the Dome artefact, she would be able to seek out those cannons and destroy them. That was far more urgent than destroying the roads. She only hoped that…

The panels flashed red and she hastily toggled the Dome’s full defences. A bombardment of a dozen shells struck the shield. Then, silence.

Fallen Sun!