“Djinn sieges are those times when a settlement is surrounded by a horde of djinn in numbers greater than can be absorbed and purified in one day. Such events are usually the result of Warlocks or Ether Storms, these are the most dangerous times for humanity not just due to the inherent nature of djinn but this the time when the most Warden’s die or worse corrupted into Warlocks. The main issue is time, a Warden must release and purify himself which would take him away from the defense of the wall and his Weaver must purify the corruption which can take up to several hours, again removing herself from the defense of the settlement. If a settlement doesn’t’ have enough Wardens & Weavers to cycle in and out of the defense of the wall they will fall.”
-An Encyclopedia on Ether, by Hernando Vlac
Aranea- Tuesday, October 1st, 564 AB
I fitted the barrel into the stock of another cannon. I wasn’t the only assistant Lady Constence had and together we’d already fitted two more cannons together. I was the youngest of Constence’s assistants and I kept getting strange glances from the other two.
“How did you get this job?” one of the girls named Herra asked.
“Madam Layrora introduced us and Lady Constence had me help with her ether generator,” I said. “Then she asked for me to help her test it yesterday. How did you get chosen?”
“I’m experienced with creating ether weapons,” Harra said. “And Daniela has been top of her class for crafting Wards for the past three years.”
I tightened a screw attaching the trigger guard and passing on the piece to Harra.
“Have you actually seen this thing work?” Daniela asked.
“Yes, I test fired it myself,” I said.
“Lady Constence asked you to test fire this thing?” Harra asked horrified.
“No, I volunteered,” I said.
“Your braver than me,” Daniela said. “You didn’t hear what happened to her last assistant?”
“No,” I said.
“I heard she got burned in an accident,” Harra said.
“I heard she got burned by the Inquisition,” Daniela said. “The rumors I heard said she built an actual generator, djinn started moving in for miles around and destroyed all her research and she’d had to start over from nothing.”
“That’s absurd,” Harra gasped. “If something like that happened, she wouldn’t be allowed to just move and start her experiments again.”
“It’s just the rumor I heard,” Daniela said shrugging. “What do you think about it?”
The girls looked to me and I got very uncomfortable.
“I don’t like talking about people behind their back,” I said.
“Suit yourself,” Harra said shrugging. “Just be careful next time you help with her experiments.”
We took a break for lunch before continuing again. Constence was in and out of the workshop, inspecting our work, leaving to set up the cannons before returning again. The words the girls had said kept going through my mind no matter how much I tried to ignore them. I pushed them aside, these questions wouldn’t help and in a few days she or I might not even be alive.
These cannons would help me and Cain stay alive. He was out brining in more people and supplies again and would be tomorrow as well. I resolved to make as many of these cannons as possible. Anything to keep him alive.
----------------------------------------
Tuesday, October 1st
We had maybe fourteen hours before the ether storm hit the settlement. Sir Valren assembled us all in the great hall for a strategic meeting.
“We need to network your party’s into a raid group,” he said. “Most of you will not have been through this but you are aware of the basics of a party, while in a party you are immune to your party members ether abilities. We can’t have someone panic and kill someone not in their party or restrict our higher tier Wardens from using their abilities around you for feel of accidentally catching you in the crossfire.”
“Each of you can share your party link with up to five others, you are to link with your Weaver or course but only with one other member of your squad, you will all be given lists of who else to link to. Do not differ from this it is crucial the raid network be stable, and its redundancies not compromised. Some of you will die in this fight but the network is configured so that unless an entire squad goes down singular losses won’t affect the raid.”
We went to the assignment board and looked at the lists of names there. We were listed alphabetically by our surnames. I was grouped with Cain, and of the knights in his squad named Ekkel and two Weavers on different parts of the wall and another Warden. Cain had similar assigned Wardens.
He and I were always in the same party so there was no action needed there. We found the people listed for us and sent them a party invite. As I focused on my interface I could see the names of my party members and their HP bars. The more I focused on them the larger they became in my vision but they quickly faded to only a small blip in the lefthand corner of my vision. The list quickly began to grow and expand as my party members linked with other who were linked with others in turn.
There were several hundred Weavers and Wardens in Mistwall and each of their names was popping up in the corner of my vision the details shrinking as they made room for more and more. The number of combatants made me feel better, we weren’t alone and Mistwall wasn’t just an academy, it was a fortress town, there were at least a hundred Exarch rank Weavers and Wardens here on permanent station to guard against threats both etheric and human.
Cain took my hand as we threaded through the crowd up to our apartment, the preparations were done and we needed to rest now because we wouldn’t have a chance for several days and maybe even a week later with the storm and cleanup afterwards.
We took dinner in our quarters. Cain took my hands bowing his head and I copied him.
“Our father in heaven, give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins and bring not your wrath against us just as we forgive those who sin against us, amen,” he said.
“Amen,” I echoed.
We ate and then bathed, I sat next to Cain on the edge of the bed.
“You haven’t said much tonight,” Cain said. “Are you doing ok?”
“I’m…I’m just afraid,” I admitted. “I grew up an orphan, my parents abandoned me and I’ve always been afraid of losing people.”
Cain opened his mouth to speak then closed it.
“I promised your Mother I would always protect you,” he said. “and I always will.”
“What if…what if I can’t give you children?” I asked, this was something every woman not just Weavers were afraid of, we’d only been married for a few months but…
“Children are something God gives us,” I said. “It’s not my place to blame him for what he does or does not give me. You are my wife Aranea, I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
I pushed him back on the bed kissing him and sliding his shirt off.
----------------------------------------
Cain- Wednesday, October 2nd, 564 AB
Aranea screamed as the lightning ripped her apart. I stood frozen unable to do anything as the rain pelted down on me and Storm djinn cut her down with their swords. Again and again, I watched her stabbed and slashed as I screamed voicelessly for my body to move but it refused to obey me.
I woke up my heart pounding. Looking at the glimpse of sky past the curtain over the window I could see the sky was still dark overhead. I pulled Aranea close feeling the comfort of her softness. She stirred and murmured something intelligible but didn’t wake up. I slowly got my breathing and the beating of my heart under control. I kissed her forehead and slipped out of bed. I pulled on my clothes and started oiling my armor. Aranea came out of the bedroom and sat down beside me.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“Fine,” I said. “Just a bit nervous.”
She helped me do the steps on my armor making sure they were all tight. Her hands roamed across my body, her fingers traces along my thighs and feeling up my torso under my chest piece and gambeson. She rose to her feet pressing her lips to my neck running them up to my jawline. Our mouths met and I pulled her tight against me feeling the skin of her back with my hands. Soon her back was against the wall her legs wrapped around my back with her hands latched around my neck and running through my hair. We pulled apart panting for breath.
“Be safe,” she said.
I kissed her on the forehead and mouth softly. “I won’t leave you.”
Tears rolled down Aranea’s face and she buried it in my chest. I held her for a moment, but the ringing of the town bell broke the spell between us. We hurried out to the Academy battlements. To the east a prismatic wall of light come with the rising sun. The shimmering threads of ether were so numerous that even base humans could see them. I couldn’t see the ground the storm was passing over but could imagine the threads tangling and Imps and Beasts spawning in the hundreds. They’d start learning into each other, eating corruption evolving and leveling up.
I took Aranea’s hand as we ran. We moved through the streets, empty of civilians to our station on the wall. The other Wardens I’d been working with and their wives assigned Weavers were there with a few more arriving after me and Aranea. The ether storm moved closer and closer, the nervous tension in the air could have been cut with a knife. Aranea’s hand gripped mine tightly, but she released it as we began brining out our bows. Aranea moved back with the other Weavers to the towers along the wall.
“Wow,” Mormont said. “You must have really impressed her Mother Superior to be given that prize.”
I did smile at that, Aranea’s beauty was something I was greatly proud of.
The moment of levity ended as the prismatic wall of wild ether came closer to the wall with each passing second. Everything was silent as we held our collective breath. The wild ether was silent, there was no great howling winds or rolls of thunder as it approached but it was no less deadly for its lack of fan fair. The storm passed the distant tree line, and we began to see its effects. Djinn pulled themselves out of the dirt as threads of ether tangled with the earth, they appeared out of gusts of wind and Mist djinn emerged from the line of trees. When the storm reached the stream outside the wall Water djinn began piling out of it like freshly metamorphosed frogs.
With a human settlement in their direct line of sight the djinn wasted no time fighting each other. On mass they charged the wall, some flying erratically with basic flight skills and others running along the ground. I nocked an arrow and pulled back the string waiting for the order to attack.
“Fire!” came the call.
The twang of bows and the thunder of muskets rang out and the first line of djinn dropped but more were spawning each second.
4 XP gained
I drew another arrow from the barrel full of them in front of me, nocked it and let it loose.
6 XP gained
The militia continued to use volley fire but my body could move faster than theirs, so it made no sense to limit myself to their speed. The other Wardens did the same, firing muskets or loosing arrows, we barely held back their numbers at all as we fired at the endless horde.
The light of skills activating came from the narrow windows of the towers as Aranea and the other Weavers did their own part to cull the djinn’s numbers. We were able to stall the advance of the djinn forty yards away from the wall. The bodies were piling up and that was the real danger of the ether storm; we couldn’t remove the corruption from the field so that corruption would just consolidate and spawn more higher tiered djinn soon.
After several minutes of fighting in which I leveled up finally a break was called. Me and the team I’d been assigned to were swapped with another group, we’d only been fighting for fifteen minutes but there was already a ache in my arms from pulling back the string of my bow so many times.
I flexed my fingers rubbing them to get some feeling back and Aranea sat down beside me.
“You doing alright?” I asked.
“Yes, I don’t have to pull back a bow or deal with the backlash of a musket,” she said.
I followed her eyes to where Rikard had his shirt and armor off and was applying a cold compress to a dark bruise on his shoulder from where his musket had slammed back into shoulder again and again. I stood up and walked over to him.
“Celestial Healing,” I said laying a hand on his shoulder.
The bruise faded and he nodded to me in thanks. I went back down and sat with Aranea. I opened up my status and spent the stat points I’d just gotten for leveling up. I put eight points into my Agility attribute bringing it up to a hundred and the remaining seven into Endurance bringing it to twenty-five.
Our rest was brief, only fifteen minutes to match the time we had been on the wall and fifteen minutes later we were back on the battlements. The djinn had advanced around ten yards and try as we couldn’t push them back. Our section of the wall wasn’t even the one under the heaviest assault and in some places the djinn had advanced up the wall and the high-level Exarch Wardens had moved there to push back the enemy. Imps and Beasts that could fly were landing on the wall, the barrier used to keep djinn from entering a settlement had been moved back to allow the fighting on the wall and keep the shield from being drained.
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Me and the Wardens and the militia on our section kept firing, a new barrel of arrows were bought up as well as containers of charged Imp cores for the riflemen. The bodies of the djinn continued to pile up. My fingers grew numb as I fired arrow after arrow another break was called. I’d gained over three-hundred XP, that was only about a third of what I needed to level up again.
We sat down and I sagged against the wall, Aranea came and leaned against me.
We didn’t say anything, just leaned into the other. I closed my eyes for a second and was shaken awake the next. We moved back onto the wall replacing the exhausted group up there. The djinn used the brief few moments of us switching to advance gaining five yards. By this time I could aim down at a ninety-five-degree angle and be almost guaranteed to hit them.
We kept shooting I shot normal arrows and arrows infused with ether causing gouts of fire to take out multiple tightly packed Imps and Beasts at once. There were Soldier djinn mixed in with them now as the corrupted corpses of the djinn began to condense and spawn higher tier djinn.
We were steadily losing ground and soon the Imps were at the base of the wall. Those that could fly were moving right to the top of the wall and were falling to the ground as they were shot out of the air. A sword lunged at my throat and I had to doge as the Sun Beast landed on the parapet in front of me. The blast of a musket took it out but more and more djinn were climbing up all along our section of the wall.
I dropped my bow into the barrel of arrows and drew Achlys from its sheath. I only had a quarter of my ether in the tank as I slashed out killing a Mist Imp as it climbed up the wall.
6 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 3 ether regained
A Wind Beast swooped down at me and I sidestepped and cut it down the middle.
11 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 7 ether regained
Quickly my fellow Warden’s abandoned their ranged weapons as a melee battle broke out on our section of the wall. Only the platform behind us continued to fire their muskets, the flash of lighting and fire going over our heads.
An Earth Soldier hurled itself at the wall moving up the stone exterior with difficulty with its club and shield but its feet stuck like glue to the stone surface as it advanced up the wall.
“Lunar Smite,” I said and slashed at the Soldier with my extended blade of light.
The djinn blocked my attack with its shield and swung at me with its club as it swung over the parapet. I dodged and its strike cracked the stone. Rikard brought his halberd down and sliced through its neck from behind.
“Your out of formation Le’meer!” Ekkel shouted at me.
He and the other Wardens in our party had moved into a group to watch each other’s back. I sighed but moved into the group, this formation did not favor me and the short reach of my dagger at all but it was the standard method for parties. This was why Mist Wardens didn’t mix well with most other Wardens. We were scouts, and stealth specialists and did not do well in stand your ground defensives.
The djinn came at us in an endless wave over the wall. I was getting less kills than anyone in my party but I was still overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. I wondered why we’d even bothered to fill those Cores with ether considering how much we were getting now. It wasn’t exactly enough to offset the loss but I wasn’t even down a third yet and I’d already killed over thirty djinn and earned over three-hundred experience. The others were getting tired but I was just getting stronger as the percentage gain to my stats rose by a percent with each kill I made, I just focused on the fight making kill after kill.
So focused was I on the fight I didn’t notice when my party yelled to fall back and suddenly I was surrounded by djinn on all sides.
“Cain!” Ekkel shouted.
My heart started tripping as I panicked but I shoved down that fear, to freeze now would be to die. I ducked the swing of a sword from a Sun Soldier and drove Achlys through its chest.
“Lunar Smite, Cyclone Strike,” I snapped out.
The blade ripped out of the sun soldier as I spun around cutting through five other djinn around me.
63 XP gained, 6 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 36 ether regained
I rolled backwards as two Earth Soldiers swung their clubs their shields raised in front of them. I slashed out at the raised shields.
“Mist Blade, Lunar Smite,” I said.
The blade of light from Lunar Smite combined with Mist Blade passed through the raised shield into the mask of the right djinn.
28 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 14 ether regained
“Fog Form,” I said.
The club of the remaining Earth Soldier and half a dozen other attacks passed through me as I jumped past them. I was to cut off still to rejoin the others as I rematerialized. The spear of a Mist Soldier stabbed towards me, but I blocked it on my targe as I spun to the side lunging forwards.
“Lunar Smite!” I shouted.
My strike took the djinn through the chest.
26 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 13 ether regained
“Cyclone Strike,” I said turning my lunge into a spin.
The djinn that had been rushing me were cut to ribbons as I slashed through them. I dodged and ducked their attacks my Agility pushed higher and higher as the bonus to it grew.
71 XP gained, 9 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 7 ether regained
The djinn fell around me crumpling into piles of corrupted ether. I had a little over a fifty percent increase to my stats now, so my agility was through the roof. I spun, ducked, and dodged every attack that came my way. I stabbed up under the mask of a Water soldier and cut through over a dozen other imps and beasts but they just kept coming and I couldn’t get enough space to make it back to my party.
98 XP gained, 11 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 7 ether regained
They were only six yards away, but they might as well have been across the battlefield. The djinn were to tightly packed for me to try and use Fog Form, if I materialized before I got back behind our lines I wouldn’t even have time to feel it before they ripped me to pieces.
Four Soldiers rushed me together. I ducked under the swing of a club, skidded to the side as a sword scraped against my breastplate. Retaliating I took off the arm of Wind Soldier with the sword then buried my dagger in the back of the Earth Soldier’s head before ducking under the heavy cross strike of another Earth Soldier’s strike as I cut the Wind Soldier in two.
58 XP gained, 2 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 29 ether regained
“Lunar Smite,” I said.
I stabbed around the shield of the other Earth Soldier into its chest, then turned and blocked the lunge of a Water Soldier on my shield before bringing the blade of light down on its mask.
63 XP gained, 2 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 28 ether regained
Level Up! You have reached level 2! 15 Stat points are available to spend, Ether core increased by 5.
“Fog Form,” I said. The djinn flooded the wall as I backed up jumping onto the parapet to get some space. I finally had a second and clear look of my party’s position.
“Hurricane Step,” I said.
I appeared back behind our lines breathing hard my chest hot as my heart tried to escape from my chest.
“Get back in line Le’meer,” Ekkel said. “We’ve been having to fight without you while you tried to play a hero.”
I sighed but stepped back into the formation still not fully recovered. We only held out for a few more minutes before one of the town’s main Wardens had to step in. The Earth Exarch cleared the wall of the imps and Beasts in a few seconds, holding it for a minute as we retreated, and another team moved in to take our place. The Exarchs weren’t fighting yet, they needed to save themselves for emergencies and when the higher tier djinn started to spawn.
I staggered off the wall looking at my stat sheet. My body was so tired that I didn’t have the energy to think about my stat distribution and just dumped them all into Endurance, if I got hit I wanted as many hit points as I could to withstand the damage.
Core Level
15
Experience to Next Level
287/1210
Relic Name
Relic Element
Relic Type
Achlys
Mist
Dagger
Name
Cain Le’meer
Hit Points:
484/484
Hit Point Regen:
15 per minute
Armor Points:
114/114
Armor Point Regen:
15 per minute
Might
Agility
Endurance
Will
Senses
Clarity
37 (48)
100 (124)
25 (27)
13 (19)
12 (18)
12 (18)
Ether
Corruption Level
114/114
93/114
Trait
Tainted Power: Your statistics increase by 1% for every point of Corruption in your Etheric Core.
Primary Passive
Secondary Passive
Mist Sight: You can see through the Mist without impediment, it is visible to you only as vague haze in the air.
Mist Walker: You have immunity to the effects of the Mist able to breathe freely within it with no hindrance.
Mist Skills
Ghost Walk: Masks all noise made for 30 seconds in a 5ft radius around the wielder.
Cost:
3 ether
Mist Blade: For 10 seconds attacks with your Relic pass through 1” of material.
Cost:
7 ether
Fog Form: Body and worn equipment becomes intangible making you Immune to all damage for 2 seconds.
Cost:
5 ether
Moon Skills
Lunar Smite: A sword of silver light extends out from your blade for 1 second dealing Moon damage equal to your current Core’s charge.
Cost:
4 ether
Celestial Healing: Closes wounds across a single creature’s body restoring Hit Points equal to your current Core charge.
Cost:
10 ether
Wind Skills
Hurricane Step II: Move yourself and one other creature up to 200ft in 1 second as your body and all your equipment is turned into wind.
Cost:
6 ether
Cyclone Strike: Deals Wind damage equal to half your Core charge to all creatures within your weapons reach.
Cost:
6 ether
Hurricane Step had advanced to the next tier, it was about time my armor had absorbed enough corruption to advance for awhile now. This wouldn’t be the last ability to advance before the siege was over either.
“You broke formation,” Sir Ekkel said coming up and putting a finger in my chest. “You put all our lives at risk because of your recklessness.”
“I didn’t hear the call to retreat,” I said.
“Bullshit!” Ekkel said. “You just don’t like formation fighting and wanted to play the hero out there.”
“I’m not you!” I shot back. “Maybe next time make sure all your party hears your commands before leaving them behind, you’re the one who was in charge not me.”
“Enough both of you!” Lord Scarisen said. He had his helmet retracted and looked at us both sternly. “Your both correct, Le’meer pay attention to your squad leader, Ekkel never leave a man behind. Now both of you go cleanse yourselves; you’ve got a three-hour break go make love to your Weaver’s and rest after this.”
Ekkel and I cast one more glare at each other before going our separate ways. They had tents set up for us near the walls. Aranea came down and joined me in our tent, her hair was wet with sweat, and she looked as exhausted as I was. Just using her abilities and the stress of combat even in the towers was taking its toll one everyone.
“Were you alright?” she asked sagging down on the bedroll laid out of us.
I collapsed to tired to even take off my armor. “Yeah, I managed, I just didn’t hear the call to retreat.”
Aranea lay back on the bed roll. “I’m so tired,” she said.
“I need to purify myself,” I told her.
“Cain…” Aranea said but nodded.
This was her duty and no matter how tired either of us were risking becoming a Warlock was not something we could afford. She rolled over and pulled up her skirts, I pulled down my trousers. Despite how exhausted my body was the sight of Aranea’s body was something I would never get tired of.
Aranea’s hands dug into the blanket as she breathed out heavily. She whispered something I couldn’t hear, and I bent over her back putting my lips close to hers.
“What?” I asked softly.
“Faster,” she said.
Her hand went back taking hold of my wrist as she arched her back. My other hand went around her waist helping to hold her up. She screamed a sound I’d never heard from her before.
“Harder,” she begged.
I took her hair and pulled back. She gasped her back arched as she pressed against me harder. Her hand released mine as she grabbed the sheets. Our lovemaking was frantic the need to be alive made so necessary by the likelihood of our deaths in the near future. Aranea chest pressed against the bed as her hips met mine with a rhythmic intensity until finally her body surrendered. I released in her feeling her body go totally limp. I collapsed beside her and pulled her close, she was already asleep.
I closed my eyes just for a minute and woke to someone shaking the heavy flap of our tent.
“Three hours are up, get up, make yourselves descent and armored and get to your stations.”
Disentangling myself from Aranea we straightened out our clothes. There was no time for washing up but no one else was going to smell any better. We headed back to the wall and I could see how much the battle had changed. The Imps and Beasts were still there but it had gone from Soldier being a rarity to outnumbering the lesser types. The huge hulks of Jimage [data:image/png;base64,R0lGODlhCAATAHcAMSH+GlNvZnR3YXJlOiBNaWNyb3NvZnQgT2ZmaWNlACH5BAEAAAAALAAABQAIAAoAhAAAAAAAAAAAOgAAZgA6ZgA6kABmtjoAADoAOmYAAGY6AGaQ22a222a2/5A6AJDb/7ZmALbb/7b//9uQZtu2Ztv///+2Zv/bkP//tv//2wECAwECAwECAwECAwECAwECAwUwIABYQ2QJj0iaqOi+wKUEwiJeBwNQg5Q5hhvigUk0VL3LUAQpVIo6SgswOQQIKUAIADs=]tunn could be seen and I even caught sight of several Demons fighting the senior Wardens on the wall.
We were already exhausted, and I saw several other squads short a member showing the casualties we’d taken. It was going to be days more of this, I looked at the tower where Aranea was. I couldn’t see her but I could imagine her looking at me, I wasn’t going to die and leave her. No matter what it took we were going to survive this.