The shrill ringing came to a stop as his vision started to blur. His head felt as if it was being repeatedly smashed by a hammer. With a grunt, Erend stood back up on unsteady legs.

Charles sat next to him, curled up into a ball. He was clutching his head, just like how Erend had been.

So it wasn’t just me then.

Erend laid a hand on one of his shoulders, reassuringly, “You alright?” he asked.

“God, what the fuck was that…” muttered Charles as Erend helped him stand. “I’ll manage. You?”

“Same.”

Around them, the city which’d been rumbling with life came to an abrupt halt. The people wore the same confused expressions as Erend and Charles, none seemed the wiser to what had happened, and everyone seemed to have experienced the noise.

In the distance, Erend could hear frantic shouts spreading, accompanied by a clattering of metal.

“You hear that?” Erend asked.

“Yeah, sounds like the guards are on top of things. Wanna go to them? Maybe they know what that cursed noise wa--”

BOOM

An explosion resounded in the distance; it came from the nobles’ district.

With a flinch, Erend blurted out; “Hells!” he grabbed ahold of Charles’s arm and pulled. The ground shook beneath them, and doors and windows rattled.

“To the guards! Go!” Erend shouted as they broke out in a quick jog.

A lot of people seemed to have similar ideas, as the streets took on the form of a flood, with people pushing and shoving their way toward the nearest guardhouse.

As they ran, Erend kept a hold of Charles’s shoulder, making sure they didn’t lose each other in the masses.

One of his steps landed on some poor fellow’s foot, the man sat amidst the flood of people, cowering, muttering about doom. Erend stumbled and staggered for a few steps, he had to let go of Charles’s shoulder. He’d almost regained balance again when he felt a hard shove hit him from behind. He fell.

“Shit!” he exclaimed as he tried to get up but kept getting shoved down as the panicking people rushed by him.

He felt a firm hand wrap around the back of his coat as he was tugged up on his feet again.

Erend turned around, expecting to find Charles behind him, but he was nowhere to be found. His rescuer had been a burly woman he’d never seen before.

“Thank you,” he said, while nervously looking around, hoping to find his friend.

“He was shoved along, just keep moving and you’ll find each other, you’ll see!” the burly woman said and gently pushed Erend along, toward the guardhouse.

Erend kept on jogging for a bit, moving with the flow. He kept an eye open along the way, looking for Charles among the crowd, alas without success.

As he neared the guardhouse, he started being able to make out a few words. Mostly affirmations that everything was alright, and to remain calm.

Easy for them to say when they’re armed to the teeth and are in the know.

On the way, he’d lost sight of even the burly woman. There were just too many people crowding the narrow alleyways.

Outside the guardhouse, the guards had built a primitive overlook using boxes and planks; on top of it stood a well-armored guard wearing the duke’s dragon insignia on his chest.

The crowd had calmed with the presence of the guards, yet he still couldn’t find Charles.

“Remain calm! Do not go home! Keep moving to the docks!” the guard shouted.

Many raised their voices in protest.

“What’s going on?! We deserve to know!” a thin man shouted in indignation.

The guard shot him a look that could kill before repeating; “Remain calm! Do not go home! Keep moving to the docks!”

With a muffled chatter of annoyance, the crowd started moving as one toward the docks.

Before Erend moved along with the crowd he caught a glimpse of a broad-shouldered man with a square face.

“Albert!” he shouted.

Albert perked up, trying to locate who it was that had shouted his name, before long he singled out Erend in the crowd. “Erend!” he exclaimed and beckoned him to come closer.

“Have you seen Charles?” Erend asked as soon as he managed to elbow his way through the crowd. “We got separated on the way here.”

“I haven’t but I’ll keep a lookout for him. You alright?” Albert asked with a gesture toward Erend’s legs. He’d been hurt in the fall, resulting in a nasty, bloodied scrape and torn trousers.

“Yeah, it’s fine. It’s just a scrape is all.” Erend explained. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Can’t say much. But between us, it’s not looking great.” the last part resulted in Albert receiving an elbow in his side from a superior, to which he answered with a sheepish smile. “Stay away from the nobles’ district and just move to the docks. We’ll have you board boats or shelter in the warehouses as we get a better grasp on things.”

“You’re making me nervous, man.”

“Come on rookie, time to go!” a guard barked at Albert who immediately responded with a nod and started to jog away from Erend.

Albert turned around and shouted at Erend; “I’ll keep a lookout for your family if you do the same for mine!”

“Always!” Erend shouted back.

Erend started to once again move with the human current. This time they had guards flanking them, making sure the order was kept. The guards kept barking orders at the crowd, telling them to remain calm and to move in an orderly fashion.

Erend kept desperately looking around, looking for his friend – but most of all he wished he’d see his family somewhere.

The sound of a much smaller explosion than before spread throughout the city. It sounded like fireworks of some kind. Erend moved his watchful gaze toward the sky and saw a red puff of smoke spreading its powder amidst the clouds.

The guards seemed somewhat taken aback by the red flare, but soon they found their wits again.

“Faster! Get a move on!” they ushered the crowd with renewed vigor, the urgency in their voices hard to miss.

As a result, panic spread quickly. The previously orderly line started moving like the tide once more. People shouted and shoved their way through the crowd with fervor. Many fell and had to curl up to best protect themselves from the stampeding horde of people. As Erend picked up his pace, he hastily pulled up an old man on his feet again. Not sparing him any more of his attention, he darted past him.

He’d still not seen any sign of his family, or his friends. A knot in his stomach made itself known as he continued along with the flow. Before long he could hear the sounds of waves crashing into the docks, and shores of Exodus. The morning light danced atop the water’s surface. The never-ending cries of seagulls echoed as loud as ever.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The flood of people finally found its way out of the narrow streets, to the open docks. They slowed their pace, along with the guards. The panic-filled shouting and arguing abruptly came to a stop. Many pointed and whispered. You could hear a pin drop if it weren’t for the damn seagulls. Erend looked to where the people were pointing, out into the bay of Exodus.

In the distance, just above the horizon, he could make out the shapes of ships, dozens of them, sailing into the bay.

He threw a glance at the guards and felt despair take him over. They were practically shaking. Those weren’t friendly ships. They were under attack!

How the hell had enemies managed to get into the city? What was the explosion he’d heard before? Many thoughts occupied his mind, yet most of all he thought: Where the hell are Dad and Elle?!

There was nowhere to run. The steady stream of people kept rushing out from the narrow streets all around him, they would be impossible to get through. The crowd gathering in the harbor grew in size, and the frontrunners were ever so slowly being pushed – much to their despair – closer to the docks and shore.

“Board the ships!” the same thin man from before, shouted.

The desperate people didn’t seem capable of critical thinking anymore, as they surged onto the ships anchored in the harbor.

Erend fought against the tide of people and managed to avoid being pushed out onto the docks. He kept fighting his way through the crowd, receiving hard shoves and curses as a result. As an elbow hit him in the pit of his stomach he knelt and gasped for breath.

“This way, lad!” he heard someone shout from beside the chaos.

Without thinking he moved in the direction of the voice, not even knowing if it had been directed at him. Before long he felt himself being forcefully dragged out of the man-flood, into the eye of the storm. He laid down, exhausted by the effort of pushing through the crowd.

When he found his wits again, he realized he was sitting inside a fishing shack located just to the side of the main harbor area.

God, what the fuck is going on?

Besides Erend, there was an old man, he recognized as the one he’d helped in the streets earlier, a young woman with hair the color of autumn leaves, and a scrawny-looking young man with auburn hair.

“Charles!” Erend exclaimed. “Thank the mother I found you again! Where’d you go?”

“Same as you, just got caught in the flow. Happened to be one of the first people to get to the harbor and was guided to this shack by the guards. There were a lot more of us here before, but they all left when people started boarding the boats.”

“Madness… Madness I tell you! None of them are even sailors!” the old man sensibly spat.

“Beats being stuck in here not knowing what the hell is going on,” the young woman added.

“But we do know, don’t we? We’re under attack,” Erend said, with as much of a ‘matter of factly’ tone he could muster.

“And you’re an expert of some kind I take it?” the woman rebuked. “If we were to be attacked, we nobles would have been evacuated to Genesis by now.”

A noble, huh?

Charles furrowed his brow in thought, “Not if the first target was the anchor hall, you wouldn’t. If the teleportation circle’s been captured, you’d be stranded here with the rest of us.”

“The first explosion did come from that direction, didn’t it?” Erend added.

“But there’s no way that could happen! The duke’s got guards patrolling the anchor hall in both Exodus and Genesis. Nobody would be foolish enough to attack!”

“And yet, here we are,” said Charles with exasperation and a shrug of his shoulders. “So, what now?”

The room fell silent as they all lost themselves in their thoughts.

Erend broke the silence; “I think I’m going into town again. I need to find Dad and Elle.”

“You can’t! If there’s an attack it’d be suicide!” the young woman exclaimed. “I say we should stay here and wait for the guards to solve things.”

“I don’t need your permission,” Erend countered, the coldness in his voice surprised even him. “What about you Charles, you coming?”

“Yeah, I guess. I want to make sure my parents are safe before making any rash decisions.”

“You’ll have to wait anyhow. There’s no getting through the panicking masses as things stand. They’re still pouring in from the streets,” the old man said while looking through a cracked open window. “I’d like to repay you for helping me before, laddie, but I’m afraid an old man like me won’t do much good in times like these. If we make it out of this, ask around for old Bernard, I’ll do what I can to repay the debt.”

“Thanks, but you don’t need to.”

“I do, and I want to,” old Bernard said and held out a hand to Erend, who in turn took it in his, and shook it.

Charles turned to the young woman; “What about you? Will you stay here with Bernard, or do you want to come with us?” the question warranted a glance from Erend, who didn’t want to bring someone he barely knew.

“No, I’ll stay. The first explosion came from the nobles’ quarters, I don’t feel like going back there before things settle. I’m Cordelia, by the way,” she said, she seemed thankful for Charles’s offer.

“A pleasure. I’m Charles, the sullen one is Erend. He’s not always this unfriendly, mind you.”

Erend didn’t fail to notice that Charles was trying his hardest to act accordingly, probably to impress her. She looked about their age, maybe a little younger. It was hard to tell with the nobles, they liked to wear a heavy mask of make-up.

With a gasp old Bernard caught their attention, “Look!” he pointed to the ships.

The group gathered around the old man and looked to the bay – the approaching fleet had turned their broadsides facing the docks.

A flash of light was enough warning of what was to come.

“Get down!” Erend screamed and tackled the group. They complied and fell to the ground with a loud thud. A singular, dull explosion followed, and a second later – a loud crash. The cannonball had hit their refuge, piercing through its roof, and without coming to a stop it had continued onward into the masses pouring out from one of the alleys.

Panic-stricken shrieks rang out as the dust settled.

“On second thought, I think I’ll join you guys,” Cordelia coughed dryly.

“Me too,” approved old Bernard.

Before they had a chance to get up, a series of similar dull explosions rang out, and just a moment later the sound washed over them. It sounded as if a storm had descended, ripping through everything it came across. The water sloshed around violently near the impacts.

“What are you doing?! Stay down!” Charles barked, as Erend moved to crouch by the window. Outside, the ships and the docks lay devastated. The poor sods had never even had time to set sail.

The panic-stricken screams outside the shack grew as the man-flood started to surge backward, fighting desperately to overpower the people still trying to get to the harbor.

Erend suspected that the sound of cannon fire coming from the docks made the panicking crowd’s attempts significantly more successful than they’d have been without the threat of catastrophe lurking in the harbor.

“We should move while they’re reloading,” old Bernard said. “I may be old and decrepit now, but I was once a fine sailor. Come, no time to waste!” he said and barged through the door.

The group was quick to follow.

“Bernard, if you were a sailor, are you a trained fighter?” Charles asked, hoping they’d have someone to count on, should they need to.

“I was a merchant sailor, lad.”

People were trying their best to squeeze their way into the narrow streets, yet they avoided the one that had been hit by the first projectile. Old Bernard led the group there, to the ruined alley, with confident steps.

“This way, quickly!” he barked and waved them inside.

Erend ran first, barreling through a cloud of smoke. What awaited him on the other side, he was oddly used to, thanks to the dreams – that is if they were anything to be thankful for. Mutilated bodies filled the alley, making it hard to walk without stepping on one.

“Oh go–” Cordelia said, she doubled over, dry heaving behind a piece of rubble.

“We can’t afford to stop here, lass. Get a grip and move on if you don’t want to join them.” Old Bernard said. He sounded strangely authoritarian for a merchant sailor.

“Gods, this is terrible,” Charles muttered. “Here, I’ll help you,” he said and offered to support Cordelia. She accepted his offer immediately and wrapped one of her arms around his neck, leaning on him for support.

As Erend turned to keep moving, eyes locked on the ground to not misstep, he cut his movements short, halting his step midair.

No way.

A face peeked up at him, familiar yet strangely different. Her lips were pale, her hair disheveled, eyes blurry and lifeless. It hadn’t been long since he’d spoken to her last, plotting his revenge.

Yet now Sandra was here. Dead.

All of a sudden, it struck him. He’d been strangely calm this whole time, but now he realized. This wasn’t one of his dreams. This was real. People were dying.

His breath became ragged.

They could be dead. Dad and Elle.

The others walked up to him, Charles asked; “Erend? You oka–” his eyes fell upon Sandra’s face. “Ah, fuck…”

“Someone you knew?” asked old Bernard.

“A classmate…” Erend responded, quietly, almost in a whisper.

Old Bernard put a hand atop Erends shoulder; “I understand. But we must keep on moving, we’ve dallied here long enough.”

Erend nodded quietly in affirmation and took a step forward, once again moving confidently in front of the group. They kept walking through the ruined alley, making sure not to step on any cadavers when the sound of another cannon volley crackled behind them.

In the distance, they could hear the splashes of water as the volley continued to wreak havoc on the docks. In the next instant, however, a wall to the left of Erend exploded, sending debris and rubble flying. A large piece of the volcanic brick was sent in a violent arc through the air before it hit Erend.

“Erend!” he could hear Charles shouting from behind as his eyes blurred. He fell.

***

When he opened his eyes, he was standing on a familiar battlefield. This time, however, he did not stand in line with his fellow soldiers, instead, he stood over the corpse of the knight he had slain.

A shiver crawled up his spine, he turned to see the mounted, skeletal figure in the distance. The same threads of blue-white ink that he’d seen last night emanated from the figure. The skeletal knight trembled for an instant before it reached up to its helmet, lowering the mouthguard, and revealing a pair of pale, blue lips. The lips trembled, then moved. The wind carried her whisper across the battlefield.

“Awaken… Child of dusk…”