“It’s not going to do you any good to continue pacing like that; conserve your energy.” Strife tries to say it with some certainty and calmness.

However, it doesn’t seem to be working. A very frustrated and doubtful Sweiza continues pacing and walking around their jail cell. This is not how she expected their journey to end. Of all things, what was the point in even getting this far, let alone starting? If Salmira could help them, it would be one thing, but she can’t channel herself this far underground, let alone to individuals whose future she doesn’t know about—or so Sweiza has figured thus far.

She finally stops and lets out a cry in the form of a wail. She turns around and points her finger at Strife. “This is all your fault!”

“I had warned you about getting caught up in my affairs Vera; you chose this path.”

Strife’s arms remain behind her with her elbows pointed at the ceiling. She remains content to lay with her back on the jail cell bed.

The jail cell itself is nothing special. Four walls, an iron door to keep them in, and then iron bars to serve as a window. Strife has already checked the cell with no way of getting out. For some reason, in this area, she is also not able to call anything from within her being; not for lack of trying—she figures the area is enchanted, but that is to be expected with things as they have happened thus far. If only she had been more insightful as to their situation. Now things hinged on their escape. She has a plan, but first she goes over the day’s events. How in Midgard did it ever get this way and why wasn’t she more cautious?

—

The mission had continued easily enough. The Harbor Magistrate wanted them to take care of the Basilisk and Bascilus problem and then restore power to the hydro-electric plant—thereby restoring power to most of Bothnin Harbor. If there were any survivors—which non were expected—they were to help escort them back. So far they had found stone statues of survivors, but something was odd about them. Perhaps it was the fact some of them had weapons and they were attempting to run from something. Basilisk venom takes awhile to take effect and they wouldn’t have turned to stone right away—even if they were running from something. So it had to be something else. The problem is with her short term memory. Strife had heard Basilisk stares were the thing of legend—they could petrify and stone an enemy—but this isn’t true, the stare was simply the way for them to stun their prey before they sank their fangs and in turn, injected their venom into the victim. Thankfully she hadn’t been bitten and was only momentarily stunned, but her short term memory went with it.

Going over the day’s events repeatedly was helping with that.

Originally they managed to make it several miles within the depths of Bothnin’s Seventh Precinct where the hydro-electric plant was located. There was a brief skirmish between herself (Strife) and Sweiza over crossing a river; but Salmira had intervened and prevented a ghastly fate of stone. During their final stretch they crossed the top of the dam’s causeway, but had to fight their way through Basilisk to get to the actual power plant.

Ah! She remembers now. She’s here to harvest Basilisk venom—a very expensive commodity—both for herself to make money, but also to tie in her knowledge of alchemy with the illegal research of Delphis and Alcyon (members of the Cult of Loki). Her concern with them is that they are in fact wooden puppets. Are they perhaps a new variant of golem, but in the form of a plant? But Delphis and Alcyon were both a werewolf and a bat creature, so something else was amiss. They have the ability to enchant themselves. Perhaps it can all be dismissed as a side effect, she doesn’t know. What she does know is their research pointed to Basilisk venom’s use in some of their experiments. The bite of a Basilisk is rumored to cause super natural creatures; some Valkyrie are cautioned about this (she knows it already) in their travels. How it causes it is a bit of a mystery, one she’d like to solve. The amount of money she could make—it could restore her estate and then some; and it would ensure her successor (Valkyrie Vorkera), would be able to follow the path that she (Strife), herself had blazed before hand.

Strife is disturbed from her ruminations as she hears another wail. She looks over at her student. Her eyes widen in disbelief. The girl actually intends to use that unearthly squat toilet (toilet built into the ground).

“Don’t look! I have to go!”

Strife turns her head away in disgust. Dwarven accommodations at their finest. She will get out of this cell, she swears it.

Where was she?

Her husband’s soul would be stuck in Niffleheim or the land of the dead. It is not an area where Valkyrie normally tread. It would require stealing Sleipnir, Odin’s steed. The horse is rumored to have eight legs, but this is a myth. This myth isn’t normally disproven due to the fact the horse is just rarely seen and rarely used. Strife herself has seen it a total of four times. The iconic eight legs are in fact a myth. The horse itself seems to be a combination of living and then metal, not unlike a sentinel. It can simply run in the air by unforeseen force and it’s legs move fast enough that their appear to be eight. Regardless, the horse is said to make it to any region as fast as lightning. She’ll be gambling on this rumor towards fate and let the dice fall where they may. She’s gone too far on this path and doesn’t intend to change now.

Sigurd (her husband), was the victim of poison. Her suspicion was Odin’s doing—the reason she chose this path—but she can’t prove it was one of his machinations, only that it is a hunch. Sigurd’s body had to be buried. She knows it’s approximate location, not too far off from an oasis along the beaten path. She’ll figure out her ways through alchemy; and then fuse his body to his soul. Surely there is a way to do this if Loki can turn—what she suspects to be golems—orcs to stone; and then there is the matter of the Cult of Loki being flesh bound wooden puppets, or perhaps the otherway around. How do they eat? Do they need not bother? Would Sigurd suffer a similar fate if she meddled in what Midgard made highly illegal?

She shakes her mind not to think about such things. She’s in a jail cell and needs to focus.

—

Salmira can’t project herself unless it is an area that is accessible by sunlight or light itself. This means most areas of Bothnin are inaccessible to her—a fatal flaw, but perhaps by Dwarven design.

Salmira had shown herself to the woman (Strife) and her apprentice (Vera); she made it known to them that there was a map that would show them were they needed to be. After the woman disappeared, Sweiza complained that it must be dinner time and that she was hungry. Thankfully she (Strife) has enough ‘stuff’ in her being to accommodate such complaints. (She made a note at the time to help toughen ‘Vera’ up as time went along; this would include not having to eat as much.) Unfortunately the girl had ingested quite a bit of liquid from one of her water skins. It proved to be a problem that the girl would experience later.

Strife looks over at her apprentice once.

“Stop staring!”

Strife looks back up at the ceiling and refrains from shaking her head.

Following the map was an easy affair. It was merely a few hallways and then several sets of stairs and more hallways. They tried most of the doors along the way, but they were all locked. She had a suspicion they might have statues in them. The statues she and Sweiza had seen were perhaps ‘experiments’ that someone had been working on—to what end, she couldn’t say, but she had a suspicion a supernatural creature. They did end up seeing at least three different groups of statues along the way—all stone. When the woman finally finally touched one with her sword (touching it with her gauntlet would be stupid), the statue crumbled. She tested a few more statues and they shattered.

Could it be that a Basilisk injects venom, not unlike a snake and perhaps even a spider, but then like a spider, it sucks up the life out of a statue? That sounds like a probability. Perhaps the ‘wooden puppet’ theory, is that life is transferred from one being and put into another. Would it be possible to transfer memories? The Basilisk could most certainly affect short term memory.

That still doesn’t explain why they would turn to stone. Was the stone just a byproduct after the life force is sucked out of them? That would stand to reason. Perhaps then Loki sucked the life out of the Orcs that tended to the village around his ‘prison’; there is the matter that his wife holds a bowl to stop venom…

Strife stops thinking to herself and looks up. She had collected a vial of venom for a reason with the god’s good graces—a little humor goes a long way to that effect. A simple joke of, “Odin has been conspiring with horses.” Loki knew damn well what she meant. The sad thing is, Odin has been known to transform into different animals—bear, wolf, even horse, among others—and the joke was probably, in fact reality.

Loki was a god and could project his influence across entire continents, the same way Odin could. A god’s being would stand to reason to be much greater than even what a Valkyrie could hold. Therefor, perhaps the venom was collected and then projected into the golems to give them life.

Still just a theory on her part, but she suspects it might be in the right direction. Perhaps that damned magistrate knew. She’ll punish him for his treachery.

He had the ‘Gigas Dura’ impounded, and the experiment survivors—of Delphis and Alcyon—jailed.

If anyone laid a hand on them, she (Strife) would punish them personally—and then double down on punishing magistrate.

When they had finally made it down to the actual room where the power generator was, her mind was blown at how massive it was—it had to take up the entire length of the dam. Inside the room was a long slanted area where water was allowed to flow down from the lake that the dam held back; the water flowed along an open channel and then disappeared underneath what was the floor that was actually accessible. To generate power, there were simple metal water wheels built into the slant—several hundred of them. The map Salmira had shown to them, had indicated there were several rooms like this, each one below each other, down the height of the dam. It would make sense they would need all of this to power an entire city. The wonders of technology.

She still prefers Maria Village.

The problem came when they found all the Basilisk eggs; well, not really ‘eggs’, but more like a cocoon. As part of the metamorphosis of Bascilus, they cocoon and take the form of an egg that they hatch from; the fangs they develop would be used to ‘pick’ through the egg and escape. Bascilus would cocoon anywhere there was a food source. The lake itself was artificial, but was an extension of the river that was part of their migration route. This was probably by design and some machination of some individual. The magistrate? Maybe. She’ll look into it.

Strife’s being is held up and full up from the designs and items from their haul at the lighthouse (Delphis and Alcon’s experiments). She thankfully still had vials and flasks for the tasks. It was handed off to Sweiza—much to the girl’s annoyance. A sword tap to the ‘egg’ husks had them shatter, and in some cases turn to dust—an intriguing discovery.

Strife breaks her train of thought and then looks up at the ceiling. A quick thought of “Damn it all to Muspell!” enters her mind; she doesn’t say it outloud. She forgot to gather any Basilisk venom. She curses her luck again. It couldn’t be helped. She was having memory issues from the Basilisk stare. With any luck—and by her reckoning, the magistrate has some hidden away. She makes a note to gather some before they leave; rather, Sweiza would be the one ‘harboring’ it for the time being. She has a gamble on this that might pay off in the future.

There is so much she has to keep from the girl; she wishes she could observe the rule of ‘no secrets between Valkyrie’, but this is mission critical for their success. She again curses her luck for having so much cloak and dagger variables in her ‘flexible’ plan.

Where was she? Ah yes!

When they had entered the room, they hadn’t noticed the bat creature that had been watching them from the ceiling. This was a mistake. Strife was too busy being an idiot in awe at the technology the dwarves had created—they were much further along than reports in Valhalla had led them (Valkyrie among others) to believe. What she did know about, were the ‘special’ crystals used at the dam. Odin has his ways, and infiltrators had reports about a special lightning crystal being used to store power generated by the water wheels. These crystals are not unique, but they are rather hard to come by—they require several decades inside of a special liquid inside a distillation vat, while being purified by special enchantments.

The crystal in her penchant is one such crystal, but much weaker. It’s design and manufacture alien to her; she made a note to unlock its secrets, but has never had the motivation or the time due to other projects.

Once a crystal is created, it is harder than diamond and must be handled with special tools. Should it ever drop on the ground, it doesn’t shatter, but is known to discharge lightning and will scorch the area as well as kill anyone in the vicinity. For that matter, anyone that makes contact without the proper protection will be electrocuted, possibly killed. Rubber gloves and insulated gauntlets would be an easy remediation.

Strife had an insulated gauntlet, but made Sweiza wear it instead. She (Sweiza) baulked, but she (Strife) rebuked and the girl complied. The crystal was housed on top of a black pedestal inside of a glass case. The crystal itself was violet and radiated what Strife could only describe as transparent rainbow hues of energy. Of interest to Strife was the fact the case could reflect the energy back, while not letting it pass through. Strife had her apprentice take the crystal and case into her (Sweiza’s) being—along with several other crystals and then the gauntlet itself—all for safe keeping.

The pedestal’s contact area for the crystal was also of interest to Strife. If this could be used in a high technology hammer, then it would prove to be a devestating weapon. The function of the technology looked simple enough, wire contacts connected to wires that ran from the water wheels. But could such a thing work in the hammer? The hammer would need to be enchanted to harness that kind of power, but that she (Strife) would worry about then.

By Strife’s reckoning, the bat creature was also after the crystals, but did not have the knowledge or foresight of how to remove them. When they (Strife and Sweiza) went to investigate for some time, the bat creature finally swooped behind them. It had tackled Strife and then bit Sweiza in the ear. Strife had to fight for her freedom, but it was too late. She was also bitten and passed out from whatever was in the creature’s fangs.

—

When she had finally come to, she an Sweiza found themselves in their current jail cell with no foreshadowing of why they were there. It was when they found a dwarven guard at the iron door of the cell that they were told of their ‘predicament’.

-by order of the Harbor Magistrate, they were guilty of multiple counts against the city of Bothnin

-collaborating with the Cult of Loki

-destroying any ‘statues’ in the hydro-electric plant and thereby preventing their cure

-eradicating the Basilisk and Bascilus so no venom could be conjured for an anti-venom

-they were charged with attempting to blow up the power plant

-attempting to turn the Basilisk and Bascilus towards Bothnin Harbor

-their ship (the Gigas Dura) was impounded and their ‘crew’ jailed

-contraband on the Gigas Dura was seized

-Sweiza and Strife would be tortured for any valuable information

-the same would happen to their crew

-they would be sentenced to hard labor for stealing from the hydro-electric dam

-anyone that didn’t cooperating would be executed swiftly and without mercy.

In hindsight, Strife should have knocked out the guard, but it hadn’t occurred to her. She…

Strife’s thoughts are interrupted when Sweiza lets out yet ‘another’ whistle. Strife turns to the girl with her (Strife’s) eyebrows raised.

“You pick an odd way to make light of our situation.” Strife says it with some inquisitive intent.

Sweiza doesn’t turn from the window. She lets out ‘another’ whistle. It takes Strife a moment to realize Sweiza’s method. A ‘chirp’ finally confirms it. Strife stands up and approaches the window. Outside, some four stories below them, just across the harbor lake, a blue light is slowly moving towards them. Sweiza again lets out another chirp. This goes on for a time until the blue light is in range. It finally returns a chirp and darts up towards their cell. Sprite flies in and lands on all-fours into Sweiza’s cupped hands. He is panting something fierce.

“You poor thing, you must be hungry.” Sweiza says it with some sly conviction.

The sprite looks up at her dismayed.

“Sleep first…” is all he says before he finally passes out.

Sweiza looks over to Strife, “We’re getting out of here.”

Strife looks up at the window; the iron bars are probably the target for that poor thing. She would make it a point to give him some honey for his efforts—but much later when they are safe and out of Bothnin.

—

It is some hours into the night when a groggy Strife is shaken from her sleep by Sweiza. She doesn’t have much time to compound the situation when she hears what sounds like thunder in the distance, but it is odd thunder.

“It sounds like they are starting to blast the dam.” Sweiza says it with some monotone seriousness.

Strife has no idea what the girl means and stares blankly. “How do you know this?”

Sprite flitters from the door. He tries to speak but it comes out jumbled. He spits out a piece of metal from his mouth. Strife eyes the small metal bit and then her eyes dart to the door handle—part of the handle is missing and there is a small hole through the handle brace. Strife’s eyes dart to the girl—this was her plan? It would save them from getting wet, that is for sure.

Sprite attempts to speak again, “I heard everything after they caught you!”

He starts fidgeting in random directions; this is his chance to gain some approval for once!

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Strife pulls herself from a sitting, to a standing position and eyes the door with intent; her focus shifts back to Sprite.

“Do tell Sir Herschel.”

“I stayed out of view from the bat-thing; it was scary!.”

“Sir Herschel, with haste. I do not think we have much time.”

Sprite fidgets once. He looks at Sweiza and then to Strife.

“The bat-thing made a comment about not expecting Valkyrie out this far…”

Strife’s mind does a double check at the bat creature’s stupidity.

“…and Odin must be extending his reach. He didn’t say anything else, but carried both of you outside and literally ‘flew’ you back to Bothnin Harbor. He transformed into a man… er… Dwarf. He stands taller as a bat! I followed him out of view to their stupid leader, uh, magistrate. The bat creature’s name is ‘Arkis’ and the Harbor Magistrate’s is ‘Regent’…”

Strife recognizes the name ‘Regent’. One of the Valkyrie office branches—more like a wooden shanty—had his name (among other cult members) on a poster. A few other names also come to mind—Listvian, Steronis, Truline and Maolis. The other names didn’t quite seem that important, but ‘Regent’ is considered a higher ranking member that serves as a middle-man for selling arms in the black market—it would explain the muskets and flintlock pistols appearing in Valhalla’s black market. What next, cannons assaulting Valhalla? That’ll be the day!

“…because you came they’ve sped up…”

There is another sound of thunder in the distance.

“…blowing up the dam…”

Strife’s eyes widen and her eyebrows shoot up.

Strife interrupts him, “Nevermind that, we can talk along the way. Hurry up with the door handle.”

Sprite looks from Strife to Sweiza and back to Strife. He salutes and darts off towards the door handle again.

“He seems to be taking a liking to you.” Sweiza says it non-chalantly, but Strife doesn’t respond.

Strife’s arms remain cradled as deliberates their options as she watches Sprite eat through the door handle. His teeth are either made of ‘sterner stuff’ or his tongue might be enchanted as it makes contact with the metal handle support.

As the hole (where the handle was) gets bigger, Sprite finally flies through it. There is a metal click and then a clang as the support latch for the door unhooks. Strife tries to summon her armor with no luck. She turns around and shoves the door hard. It is heavier than she expects, but it does move. She waves with her hand for Sweiza to quit gawking and to hurry up. Sweiza bows her head once in subservience and ushers herself out of the cell.

However! Just before she is out the door, she stops and her eyes dart behind her back at the squat toilet. She sticks her tongue out and flips it off for good measure. She flips her head up and goes “Hmph!” at it. She lets out an “Eep!” as Strife turns around, makes eye contact with her, and then pulls her by the arm and hard.

—

Inside the jail halls, the trio find themselves checking every single door possible. Most of them are empty, but they find a few with a single or double occupancy. As far as Strife is concerned, they were all jailed under false pretenses by the magistrate—she consequently lets them all out and tells them to leave. A few people that decide to stick around are met with a Valkyrie’s wrath as the woman flares up her red wings. The intimidation is enough and they flee.

Roughly twenty cells per story, and four stories for a total of some eighty cells checked. It is the closest cells to the actual exit that they find their original ‘crew’ of the Gigas Dura. They look worse for wear; maybe from the accommodations by Strife’s reckoning. They don’t run into any guards throughout the cell—an odd occurrence. Instead, what they hear is yelling as they reach the exit. The are some twenty people that were released (not including the Gigas Dura’s crew) and then ten guards blocking the exit. The guards are not equipped as she would expect—instead, they are equipped in an odd type of armor (very thick) and then wielding muskets and flintlock pistols.

Strife motions for everyone from the Gigas Dura to stay behind the adjacent wall. She summons every ounce of her being to summon her armor. Nothing happens. She tries summoning something weaker—a scriving mirror and the insurance of an old friend. Nothing happens. She curses her luck.

As she looks up trying to figure out what to do, her attention focuses on a blue orb.

She raises her voice, “Sir Herschel, how fast can you fly?”

The Sprite looks at her weird.

“I need you to distract the guards.”

Sprite’s aura suddenly changes to a very bright blue and his wings start fluttering rapidly.

Strife raises her hand to the group, “We’re going to charge them bastards. With any luck the ensemble in front of them will get the idea and cause a riot. We’re going to push as hard as we can into them; drop them and grab their weapons, we’re going to need them.”

There seems to be some hesitation from the Gigas Dura crew. Strife shakes her head and closes her eyes. She raises her hand with three fingers and slowly drops them.

Strife nods to Sprite. He flies off.

Sprite jumps to the scene. He darts in front of one of the guards and makes a face. He raises his musket, but Sprite jumps onto it and darts of launching himself in front of another guard.

Strife’s third finger drops.

The original guard raises his musket towards the Sprite. “Don’t shoot you idiot!” is what the second guard says. The Sprite suddenly makes a face at the original guard and jumps in front of a third.

Strife’s second finger drops.

Several of the guards look from the ensemble in confusion at the display by Sprite. He jumps in front of a fourth and fifth guard making a face as at least two of the guards now have their weapons trained on him.

When Strife’s final finger drops, she raises her voice, “GO!”

They charge.

Several guards not distracted by Sprite look from ensemble of the ex-convicted to the new arrivals. Some stand there, one or two panic; several raise their weapons. This is all it takes—the ensemble in front of them charges the guards and a melee ensues. One of the ex-convicted is shot and dropped. One of the guards is tackled and his weapon removed; in turn the firing mechanism is cocked and it is fired at a guard. Sprite dive bombs another guard, this time one of the guards fires at Sprite, but misses and the shot hits the guard. The guard lets out a cry of pain as he is shaken back, but not dropped—his armor has done its job, but not very well.

Strife finally makes contact and kicks the first guard she sees in the groin. He drops his weapon as he instinctively grabs his crotch and drops to the ground.

Torry Enders is directly behind her, “Allow me miss!” He anchors his body weight as he cradles his arm and hopes sideways and rams his shoulder into the guards helmet. The guard is knocked out

“Thanks!” Is all Strife says. She looks up as another guard raises the butt end of his musket at her. She looks up knowing she let her guard down. One of the ex-convicts rams him in the side of the gut and drops him. Strife shakes her head and turns around and attempts to tackle another guard.

…another shot is fired and a guard goes down. Several of the ex-convicts help to control the riot and drop the guards. The Gigas Dura crew barely hold their own; it is mostly the work of Torry, Lock and Esbjorn that moves two of the guards. It takes three of the other crew to take on one guard. Sweiza takes one look at the guard in front of her. She freezes in fear. Suddenly the guard lets out a grunt as Strife’s boot comes up from under his groin; from behind she has a smirk on her face as her head follows his body jerk and drop to the ground. She reaches over to his dropped flintlock pistol.

She looks at him defiantly, “You won’t be needing this.” She raises her foot and smashes it on his face.

One of the guards manages to wrestle free and charges for the doors. One of the ex-convict dwarves raises a confiscated flintlock pistol and shoots him in the back. The guard topples forward from the impact.

It is some four minutes from the start to the end of the skirmish before the guards are subdued.

Strife eyes the group under her command; she looks at the ensemble of ex-convicted ‘assumed’ to be under her command. “We’re going to need more weapons if we’re going to fight our way through to the magistrate.”

Elga, Ull and to a lesser extent Lars, look a little less enthused by this development; Lars goes so far as to shake his head. One of the ex-convicted speaks up, “Why should we fight your war? We’re free now!”

There is thunder in the distance; it sounds more like an explosion and they can feel the vibrations through the ground.

“They’re blowing up your dam because of the magistrate and his ensemble. Do you want his influence to extend further?”

Another ex-convicted shakes his head, “I was just abducted. I want nothing to do with this. I suggest the lot of you steal a ship and leave.” He turns around and breaks for the exit. Torry tries to chase him but Strife stops him. Several other ex-convicted leave, roughly seven of them. This still leaves their numbers over twenty; enough for three to four squads.

Torry speaks up, “We’ll need some of their fancy armor if we’re to avoid their firearms.”

Strife nods, “Where is their armor?”

She looks at several of the ex-convicted. One of them speaks up, “It’s in the office over here.” He motions and starts walking over to it. Strife is a bit concerned that some of these ex-convicts might indeed be actual criminals that might turn on them, but for now it isn’t the time for debate; she needs their assistance and any manpower will do.

Strife takes a silent breath. This is going to be her first ‘real’ command with others under her. She decides to divide them into three squads—center, right and left flanks. They would form one large platoon and make their way towards the magistrate’s office.

“I’m sure some of you have your doubts; but rest assured, if we don’t go out fighting, I doubt we will be allowed to simply leave. I think that fate however, might be on our side. As Strife takes a silent breath, there are no further objections. Strife heads towards the office while mentally banking on the jail being enchanted and the release of any repressed abilities once outside the jail. Should this be true, she and her student would summon their armor and head into battle. Strife will also bank on being able to pull her scriving mirror from her being and then summon her ‘insurance’.

Strife continues her rally, “This needs to end.” She raises her voice into a battle cry, “Whose with me?”

There is a cheer from several of the ex-convicts and from Torry. Sweiza and Sprite look from Strife to each other. They are thinking the same thing—this is the same woman from before? This is the true spirit of a Valkyrie?

—

One of the magistrate’s guards charge into the harbor’s main office. The magistrate’s office guards look at the guard once. The guard is breathing hard; he eyes the magistrate. He is about to say something, but things hard of it. He turns around and slams the door behind him and drops the drawbar behind it.

“Sir!” The guard continues breathing hard.

“What is the meaning of this?” The Harbor Magistrate stands up as he barks at the guard; the guard jumps on instinct.

“Sir! There is a rebellion! They have a dragon! Our weapons don’t kill it!”

The Harbor Magistrate stands up, “Absolutely preposterous.” Unlike the confusion of his office guards, he walks up calmly and approaches one of three windows overlooking the harbor. His eyes widen at the disturbance. He can see small figures running around in the dim (emergency) lightning of the harbor. There are small patches of fire here and there. He doesn’t understand, how could… the dragon. He sees it only as fire coming out of a long black neck. It comes out as a quick fireball as it hits a group of guards. He eyes the windows once. They are triple reinforced crystal, something not easily destroyed by cannonballs and gunpowder based weapons; but dragonfire is an untested variable.

He maintains his calm demeanor and raises a hand to his guard. “Get the escape boat ready…” The guards still seem a bit confused by his command. “Don’t just stand there you twit, do it now!” The guards stand firm and salute.

All of the guards leave, and the magistrate stays behind. He pulls up something hidden behind the books in the bookshelf behind him. It is a large case. He pulls out a strange device; it doesn’t look unlike a musket.

A figure comes out from a door in a dark corner behind the bookcase—opposite the door the guards took for escape procedure. It is the bat creature from the power plant. “You are going to use that thing?”

The Harbor Magistrate clearly has command over him, “I’m not one to sit around and let fate decide for me. Go with the guards. I’ll test the weapon and have a full report for our superior.” The magistrate’s eyes narrow at the thought of his ‘superior’. His contempt for that bastard has no bounds.

The bat creature is about to say something when the magistrate points the weapon at him. The bat creature holds up his hands in submission and backs towards the escape door. “I’m going, I’m going, but Viola will here about this!” He dashes through the door.

The magistrate curses the name of his superior, ‘Viola’. If he could, he would use the weapon on her instead.

He walks up to the door and retracts the drawbar. This is all Viola’s fault for stationing him here; we wanted the Vanir assignment. No doubt Viola was behind the rebellion, he (the magistrate) is sure of it. He silently wishes mercy for his soul for what he is about to do.

—

The first twelve minutes are met with little resistance; two guards attempt to stop them, but quickly surrender when they realize how many people they are up against—others, mostly civilians, either gawk at the sight or run out of the way. She goes straight for contacting her insurance. Strife holds up the lead with an odd type of shield from the jail’s armory; it can project a barrier to either side of itself. It proves useless at first until about seven minutes later and the harbor guard starts to come towards them. She feels every musket bullet as it hits the shield. As each bullet hits, she can feel something in her being literally changing. It’s as if it is wearing her down. She isn’t certain, but it is probably one of many enchantments that uses an item (in this case the shield) to project a being’s soul. Mana as it is called, can actually strip a person and leave them bed ridden if such an enchantment or talisman is used for too long. She feels as if her muscles begin to ache she drops her flintlock pistol and summons with all of her being her scriving mirror.

She can hear what sounds like loud thunder repeatedly on the other end. “Are you there? What are you doing?

She can’t see his face or form, but the mirror glows when his voice speaks, “You didn’t check in, so I decided to play with their cannon guard. Did it work?”

His voice sounds raspy and as hoarse as ever.

Strife thinks thoughtfully about it for a second. Was the blasting she heard earlier not just dynamite, but perhaps a distraction for them while they were in the jail? There were not many guards in the immediate area and they didn’t meet resistance until just a little bit ago—it makes sense.

“Yeah, it works. You should be able to crack through the transparents domes they are using to let in light. I need you down h… ah!”

Strife feels something she can’t quite describe in her being; it feels like a phantom pain that starts as a pin prick but starts to wash over her body. More bullets hit the shield. She starts to hear an odd cracking noise in front of her.

“Surt, I need you!” Strife drops to one knee to steady herself. The shield lets out an odd noise, it is not unlike glass cracking, but it echoes with an odd reverb.

Many shards of the barrier the shield was projecting suddenly break away the the shield itself starts to dull to an odd black. Strife eyes it once.

“Surt!”

She suddenly unfastens the shield from her arms and drops it to the ground. She rolls out of the way just as her armor disappears. She can feel every muscle in her body ache.

“Strife!” Sweiza suddenly breaks formation and begins running over.

Strife cries out, “No!” to her, but Sweiza doesn’t listen. Strife is soon behind her. “Sprite!”

Sprite darts in front of them and creates mid-air the same crystalline substance Strife and Sweiza had encountered in Southerly Village. It appears and grows fast as it hits the ground.

Sweiza gasps, “The door lock! Of course!”

She eyes the crystalline substance once; but turns her back to it and kneels down, using her armor as an extra layer of protection. “Strife, you’re alright?

Strife shakes her head. She looks up as she can hear bullets chipping away at the crystalline tree continuing to grow in front of them. Sprite’s wings flutter once and his aura drops to a lighter color. He drops to the ground on all fours.

“Strife, this isn’t going so well. We need to retreat!” Sweiza says it exasperated trying to put Strife’s arm around her (Sweiza’s shoulder).

Strife pulls her arm away and shakes her head. She attempts to speak, but it comes out weak. “No… we…re so… cl…”

She is interrupted by the sound of something shattering. She looks up at the tree; it still has most of its bulk with many chips in it and bullets flying here and there. She sees the people on the battlefield, but it all feels like a blur. She can feel the life draining from her body. She struggles to keep her vision straight. She looks ahead to the enemy; they have stopped. Something is wrong.

She sees a black form; then a bright red light erupt from it’s mouth. The ground underneath it reverberates as it’s legs and hands pound at the ground. Sweiza sees it quite clearly; it is Surt with his red tipped black scales and that grotesque head with horns. She sees him sink his teeth into one of the guards and flips it up. She knows what happens next and turns her head away. She can hear cries in the distance.

She then suddenly sees it. One of them running through the flame in panic. It is a wooden puppet.

“Strife! They’re from the cult!”

Strife nods and feels the world fading. She wills her arm up and summons it from her being. She feels it pull from her body and it aches. The penchant appears. She holds it up high and there is a bright white light. The crystal inside of it glows blue and the watch hands suddenly all point directly in front of them towards the office. The multiple hands spin in multiple directions at a high speed and then suddenly a blue light erupts from them. Many strange blue fireballs with a white flame jump from the penchant; they fly into the distance and illuminate some guards. Surt sets his sights on them, spitting more fireballs.

Strife sees the dragon attack and maul one of them. Her vision finally goes black.

Sweiza feels her mentor’s body go slack; she shakes her to snap her out of it. “Strife? Strife!”

—

From within his office, the Harbor Magistrate survey’s the harbor. Guards panicking; certain guards have been exposed as cult members due to an unknown magic of foreign science. It is the patch fires that are everywhere that concern him. If the wrong ship gets hit, it can take the whole harbor and its docks with it. He sets his sights on the dragon and its firebreath as the biggest threat; he’ll pick off the others with relative ease (later) with the weapon.

As the dragon makes its way within five hundred feet of the office, the magistrate takes aim. He lets out a grunt as he pulls the trigger of the musket. He can feel the weapon penetrate his being as it harvests part of his ‘mana’. The barrel glows red and a glowing blue projectile launches itself out of the weapon. The projectile misses as it fires overhead the dragon. It is a good test shot, but he can tell the weapon hasn’t been tuned to him due to the way his body ached that first shot. He’ll need to be careful from here on.

Suddenly he freezes. The dragon is looking straight at him. It’s eyes glow red and it launches a fireball at the office. He jumps back through the door and behind the windows. The fireball misses him, but it hits the window in front of him and then also the adjoining window; both flicker a light blue as the fireball is absorbed.

The magistrate stands up and musters his courage. He takes aim again; this time using the spyglass on the weapon. He feels his soul being penetrated as the weapon charges more mana and converts it into another blue projectile. This one also misses. The dragon suddenly takes off running and takes flight straight at him. The magistrate stiffens his body and tries the spyglass again; this time he tries to channel all of his might as he pulls the trigger. He feels his muscles ache after the firing and charging process. This time a giant projectile the size of a cannon ball shoots out of the weapon. It flies forward at great speed. The dragon flies to evade it, but the giant cannon sized bullet hits him in the spread of his wing and he lets out a howl as he drops to the ground.

The magistrate feels the ground shake underneath him. This time he scopes the entourage some distance off, still heading towards him - they are people he had specifically falsely arrested to serve as guinea pigs for his ‘experiments’. He gets an idea, it might hurt a bit, but he’ll be able to hit many targets at once. He tries to concentrate on all targets at once and then fires the trigger of the weapon multiple times. This time he feels multiple simultaneous stabbings in his heart, lungs, gut and spine. There is an eruption from the barrel of the weapon as multiple blue cannonball sized shots fly out. The area in front of the enemy entourage is hailed with many bullets at once. He uses the spyglass to track his enemies. He sees at least three of the shots connect; dropping at least two of the entourage. He can feel his body ache. His feet start to stiffen. He knows it is starting. The barrel of the weapon glows a bright red. He can feel its heat burning his hands. He lets out a cry of pain as he drops it.

He eyes the weapon as the metal of the barrel and firing mechanism start to fade and turn to black. He’s knows he’s done too much. There is still time to fix this. He turns around and heads for the exit. His feet feel heavy. He can feel them stiffening.

His feet hit the ground harder as he gets close to the door.

The door swings open.

“Enders? Report! Who are these people? What do they really want?” His demeanor isn’t changed despite the situation and his predicament.

“They are Valkyrie on an unknown mission my lord.”

The magistrate notices the handle of the large two headed battle axe in Enders’s right arm.

“Enders, I need you to protect me; I’ve used too much of the weapon…”

The magistrate sounds frantic, but his order is firm.

“An excellent appraisal my lord.” A strange smile creeps across Enders’s face as he motions with his head for the magistrate to look down at his (the magistrate’s) own feet.

The Harbor Magistrate’s anxiety forces him to look down in submission. Where his bare feet should be in sandals, he sees his feet and just above the ankle have started turning to stone. He tries to move his toes, but cannot feel them.

“Enders, help me; we can still get to the airship.” His voice has become more frantic as he feels the feeling just below his knee give out.

“I think not my lord. I’ve had a change of heart.” The strange smile on Enders’s face reappears. This time he hoists the axe into the air and flings the upper handle into his other arm. He braces it.

“This is treason! I’ll have you hung!” His voice sounds weak. He attempts to back up, but trips backwards. One of his hands braces him on the ground. The other he holds up for Enders to stop. He suddenly feels that hand turning to stone at the fingers.

“Enders, this isn’t our way!” It comes out pleading, almost begging from the magistrate’s mouth.

“I know. But after seeing those Valkyrie, I know that there are other ways in this world. It’s just a pity you won’t be alive to see it.”

The magistrate’s head hits the ground after one quick swing from Enders’s axe. The head rolls a few times. Enders sees it slowly turning gray. He raises his axe and then smashes it down into the magistrate’s still transforming head. It shatters into many pieces creating dust; the shards that hit the ground finally lose their color and turn black.

The main battle is over; there are a still a few stragglers to clean up. Enders will need to come up with a good cover story for the Valkyrie and their entourage. But for now, there will be some stability in the region, which is all he and fellow dissenters in the cult really wanted.