Firelight spilled from almost every building in the tiny village a few miles away from Greystone Castle as people milled about nervously outside their doors. They crowded the streets, some climbing buildings or trees and shouting what they saw back down to their fellows below on the ground. Dogs howled and bayed incessantly over the sound of panicked livestock and wildlife as the entire countryside had seemingly been awakened by the massive explosion.

Kallio surveyed it all from under the cowl of his cloak in irritation as Mirriana kept pace. She had once again assumed the appearance of wearing a rough spun brown dress, this time covered by a long but simple cloak in dark fabric to match Kallio’s own attire. His staff tapped against the ground with a steady rhythm as he walked, careful to conceal the glow of his eyes from passersby as Mirriana made a brilliant performance of nervously following him.

“Master, why are we walking? Zeptik may be in danger if he was forced to use such a destructive spell so soon.”, Mirriana hissed grumpily while deftly avoiding a cart pulled by a pair of mules rattling down the road towards them.

“If he didn't want a fight there wouldn't have been one. I'm not in any hurry. I have attempted to…be nice, as Leyla put it”, Kallio continued to stride forward almost mechanically, “It failed, as it did the last two times. Regardless, I keep my word.”

“The Pact?”, Mirriana asked curiously.

“No, a verbal request. I thought the poor girl would shake apart with fright. It seemed like a simple thing to grant a diligent student.”, he gave her a steady look as they rounded the corner where the crowd began to thin out.

Together they briskly set out on the road leading to the keep as another explosion shook the branches of the forest around them. Shouting rang out behind them as the crowd reacted to the repeated attacks.

“Why risk them moving the Seed? Or preparing appropriate defenses?”, Mirriana tilted her head questioningly, “Not that it would help them much…you're just humoring her aren't you?”

“Of course. She's bound to us just as we are to her. Even I'm not enough of a bastard to make that worse than it already is.”, Kallio replied with a snort.

Mirriana accepted that though she still seemed as if she wanted to continue to voice her complaints.

Several groups of people passed them, hurrying down the road towards the sleepy village they’d just left. The pair ignored all the well meaning shouts of warning to turn back, pulled up their cowls and continued ahead. The forest began to close in on the road the farther they walked, the moon shedding enough light that midnight shadows spiderwebbed across the dirt.

As they walked in silence the sky suddenly bloomed with violet light in the distance, casting a dim luminescence that mixed with the moonlight to give everything a faded appearance. Kallio gave assent with a flick of will and Mirriana leapt with a crunch of pulverized gravel, the tiny rocks bouncing off her Master harmlessly. She flickered through the branches of the dense old growth and stood above the treeline before the first of the debris hit the ground.

Kallio had only walked a few steps before she landed, feet together, bouncing slightly before resuming her position two steps behind Kallio on his right side. She sighed dramatically before speaking.

“Master, they have enabled the siege barrier you spoke of. You were right, they're powering it with the Seed. The color is truly unmistakable.”

“Likely an attempt to sever the connection between summoner and construct. Zeptik is fine, you see? They don't even understand what he is, much less how to banish him.”, Kallio’s tone was almost proud as two rumbling booms shook the woods almost simultaneously.

“Are you going to make me beg?”, Mirriana pouted suddenly.

“I’m certain there will be plenty left to do when we arrive, Mirri. Sense carefully, more than half of those blasts didn't have a drop of Fel in them. There’s someone in there with some talent keeping Zeptik occupied”, Kallio said blandy, “Besides, I doubt they're going to let us just walk right up to the main gate but I'm going to do it anyway to prove a point. Maybe next time they will take the nice way if we do this more visibly.”

“Nice is exhausting.”, Mirriana said vehemently, falling into a sulk.

The trees began to thin out again after a while as the tapping of Kallio’s staff kept the time. Walls loomed in the distance as suddenly as a rising moon. They were quite tall, obviously constructed by a powerful Earth Mage or perhaps a Golemancer. Sturdy gray stone stood more than a hundred feet at the battlements, the wall deep and thick. The entire fortress rested upon a series of tiered stone slabs with smaller defensive walls and bottlenecks reinforced with bastions and fortified towers.

Above it all loomed an enormous domed barrier that extended another hundred feet into the air. Encompassing the entire ring of the wall, it vibrated with such a tremendous magical force that even those without magical talent would likely be able to feel it plucking at their bones.

Kallio eyed the series of switchback roads leading up the terraces to the keep carefully. Hordes of soldiers were clustered in every position, magelights glittered on the walls as even the moon itself was cast in purples by the sheer power of the barrier.

“Absolutely pathetic.”

“Primitive.”

“Not a single War Golem.”

“I don't see any aerial support units to guard the top of the barrier either.”

“The barrier doesn't even extend all the way down the wall, look, it stops 20 feet down from the top.”

“Maybe they think it's impossible to blow a hole in their gate?”

The two stopped their back and forth momentarily to glance at each other as Mirriana got the last word in, amusement plain in their eyes. Mirriana began to stretch enthusiastically as she abandoned the glamor and the clothes she wore melted into enormous batlike wings. Black scales erupted from her entire body, leaving only her face bare. She dropped down and carefully limbered up each leg one at a time, the motion a bit odd looking with hooves.

Kallio methodically cinched his robes and cloak as he began to walk directly towards the path he had discerned would take them directly to the main gate. Mirriana sprang forward with a dull thump of wings and landed a few steps ahead of him as long vicious looking claws sprouted from her fingers. The dark scales crept upwards over her face, giving her a distinctly snakelike appearance as she laughed with delight.

They broke into a run as they cleared the trees, Mirriana taking flight almost immediately. Her huge wings warped suddenly and she vanished before the air crashed together where she had been with a deafening crack. She reappeared halfway between the treeline and first bastion in the defenses and flared her wings, slowing herself to a near hover.

Kallio began to sprint as he gripped his staff in both hands before springing into the air and slashing downwards with the weapon. A dense wave of emerald flame boiled out and smashed into the ground beneath him before exploding, instantly punching a large crater into the soil as Kallio rode the shockwave into the air like an arrow. In a moment he had drawn level with Mirriana and she lazily wrapped her hand around the staff and spun in the air for a full revolution before heaving him straight towards the redoubt they were aiming for.

“Lance?”, she asked as she released him.

Kallio spun with her, angling his body into the throw as he speared towards the walls of the small garrison that was the first obstacle in their way. A dense bead of fel energy gathered in his left hand as he fell, the smoking orb screeching with almost sentient fury. He landed hard on the first wall, cartwheeling to maintain his balance as he channeled mana through his staff and canceled his momentum with a violent blast of flame that vaporized a man with an expression of disbelief on his face. A crack sounded in the air behind him and he idly held up his left hand, the compressed spell beginning to flicker ominously.

The air thrummed as a blur passed by closely enough to draw his hair along with it in the wind. A heartbeat later after gaining enough distance Mirriana banked hard, hurling the elongated spell she now held in her hand like a javelin at the first of the towers. It glittered prettily in the violet light cast by the siege barrier and sliced through the night air before impacting the base of the tower. Stone shattered like glass as emerald fire carved into the towers guts and exploded out of every opening.

Kallio repeated the same running jump as he turned and flew off the first terrace wall. He aimed a hammerblow of fire into the men surging towards where he had stood and allowed himself to be propelled into the air by the blast once more as Mirriana looped in the air towards him. Seizing the back of his breastplate she nimbly swatted an arrow of blue light out of the air with a wing as it turned sharply to track them when it passed close enough.

His hand locked around his staff and Kalio gritted his teeth as Mirriana's wings warped once more and the world dissolved into a smear of color. Wind slammed into his body like a wall and he reflexively reinforced himself with mana to withstand the acceleration. Without pausing she beat the air again, turning the smear of color into a kaleidoscopic tube.

Kallio was momentarily grateful he couldn't lose consciousness as Mirriana killed their momentum and the world lurched weirdly back into place. They hovered a few hundred yards away from the fortifications outside the main gate.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Your turn?”, Mirriana asked sweetly with a voice that was utterly discordant with her appearance at the moment.

“Certainly, one or two?”, Kallio replied as he counterspelled a few of the more obnoxious attacks barreling towards them from the panicked forces on the ground. He noted with some amusement that the tower struck by his Fel Lance had collapsed entirely.

“Oooooh, two. They really aren't putting up much of a fight, are they? Tearing the wings off flies is boring, lets just get inside.”, she replied with equal parts disappointment and eagerness.

Kallio nodded and released his grip on the staff, willing it to remain close as the tether took effect. He gathered mana in both hands, slowly drawing the symbols in the air as wicked light bled from his fingers, forming a complicated array of sigils that only grew larger by the second. Finally satisfied, Kallio thrust both palms forward into the glow of the spell and triggered the mana woven into it.

The blasts impacted almost at the same time, the second detonating on the tail of the first strike and amplifying the destruction spectacularly. The final redoubt simply vanished as bodies and debris were flung high enough into the air to strike the siege barrier itself before being thrown away by the sheer mana within.

The succubus began to dive as the shockwave rippled towards them, punching through it with little difficulty despite her cargo firing lances of energy with both hands that vaporized oncoming debris. Kallio directed her with a mental nudge that she acknowledged before spiraling down to land in front of the imposing main gates. The armored doors had an unmistakable red sheen to them that was easily noticeable even in the faded light of the barrier.

“What an enormous waste of Orichalcum. The savages ground it down to powder and infused the gates with it.”, Kallio muttered to himself in disgust and he approached the entrance and took up a stance with the staff that looked more suited for a spear.

Green energy began to fill the staff as the myriad arrays and interconnected runes along its length came alive. Kallio fed a greater and greater amount of mana into the weapon as the light began to swell and build dangerously. Spells lobbed down from the wall at the warlock as he prepared to unleash his own attack were intercepted by Mirriana. She darted about with quick flaps of her wings, tumbling, flipping, and spinning like a dancer as she swatted everything away.

The Warlock suddenly planted his back foot and drove the weapon forward with a shout as an almost invisibly thin needle of energy warped the space around itself as air caught fire in a whoosh of consumed oxygen. Kallio traced the beam in a large circle. The door yielded instantly as wood charred and beads of metal were boiled into gas by the heat.

“Mirri, would you be so kind?”, Kallio pitched his voice to carry over the noise as Mirriana oriented herself on the door.

She impacted before the sound of her charge, delivering a devastating double kick to the weakened section of the gates. The large plug of metal Kallio had cut exploded into the courtyard like a bomb as the succubus rebounded off the attack and landed in front of him with wings extended defensively.

The view that greeted them through the makeshift portal was a slaughterhouse. The main keep was gutted, rubble pouring from the left half of the fortification which seemed to have imploded. Charred corpses protruded from the debris, littered the ground, and in some places stacked themselves three deep as formations had been obliterated. Huge roots protruded from the ground everywhere and in some places had broken themselves against the wall in the haste with which they were conjured.

“I forget how similar the destruction both you and Zeptik cause is, Master.”, Mirriana remarked with a sigh.

“He’s been with me since the very beginning, Mirri. He might be a nasty little shit but he pays attention. Some of these techniques are as much his as they are mine, you know.”, Kallio replied as the pair dashed into the courtyard and glanced about.

A few hundred feet away a group of a few dozen haggard looking defenders, including what was clearly the king, were clustered behind an elderly man wearing thick yellow robes. He stood with both hands pressed together, eyes closed and breathing calmly as layer after layer of glittering barriers spun languidly around the group. As they watched, more layers began to fold outwards as if it was reinforcing itself.

“...and don't start crying about it being unfair like the other guy or I'll do the shit with the clones again!”, screeched an outraged voice from near where the final defenders stood.

“Zeptik quit fucking around, I'm running out of patience today.”, Kallio barked loudly as several of the defenders turned and began to alert the rest of the group to arrival.

Within seconds the slightly singed and winded imp skidded to a halt at Kallio’s feet. Zeptik grabbed the hem of his tattered robes excitedly, yanking and pointing him in the direction of the man in yellow without even looking Kallio’s way.

“I’m NOT fucking around! He's got the damn Seed! The old fart’s been the one running their defenses all along, he's a barrier mage! Boss look close!”, Zeptik urged while hopping maniacally with excitement.

Mirriana flared her wings defensively again as exclamations of horror came from the men and women within the barrier at the sight. Kallio briefly noted that both Blackstone and an older man that was likely his father were both among the survivors before expanding his senses into the spellwork of the man wielding the artifact he'd come for.

His senses immediately met a wall, repelled utterly by the near-flawless pattern within the mana. Kallio stood for a moment in thought before planting his staff and gesturing to the elderly man and calling to him as he walked close enough to see him clearly. Zeptik drug him every step of the way as Mirriana kept pace warily.

“I would know your name, Shieldmage, and where you learned the spellwork of Xot-Nep. The man was an acquaintance of mine, you see.”

The man lowered his hands and stroked his white beard, opening his eyes and regarding Kallio with infinite patience.

“I have the very good fortune to be called Archmage Tenebri, of Greystone. I assume you are this creature's master?”, he regarded Mirriana with some interest before turning his gaze back to Kallio, “Ah, a moment if you would.”

Kallio frowned slightly in surprise as Tenebri turned and performed a sweeping motion with his arms as the siege barrier dissipated with a few flickers.

“I told them that it wouldn't do any good but they were quite insistent. I'm quite thankful you never attempted to breach it, I dedicated a token amount of energy only.”, Tenebri continued with poise, “As for my spellwork, it is a loving recreation made possible by the Tear of Life. I confess that in my younger years I drew great inspiration from the legends of Xot-Nep I heard as a child.”

Kallio narrowed his eyes at the mention of the Tear of Life and sent Mirriana a mental command. She sauntered up to him and positioned herself close by his side, wings furled and twitching with anticipation.

“I cannot acquiesce to your request to surrender the Tear. It is critical to properly defend the kingdom and a source of much of our security as a nation. More practically, it's the only thing keeping me alive. I'm quite old you know, and if I'm going to die either way I'd rather not die quietly.”, the Archmage finished with a bit of steel in his eyes.

Blackstone suddenly shoved to the front of the group of defenders, a large gash across his nose that wasn't deemed a critical injury in need of healing. He locked eyes with Kallio fearlessly and nodded once in an effort to draw his attention.

Incredulous, Kallio simply gestures for him to speak with a wave of his hand.

“I respectfully request that the others and myself be allowed to leave peacefully as we are no longer of any interest or threat to you.”, Blackstone stated in a dead voice suggesting he fully expected to be killed for his trouble.

“The balls on that dude, all the time!”, Zeptik muttered in awe at the interruption as the air literally warped in building tension between the two powerful spellcasters.

“Granted. I never cared about you in the first place.”

Tenebri glowered into his bushy beard but allowed the crowd to pour out of his defenses and stream to the gate if the ruined keep. Blackstone stood for a long moment with a dangerously blank stare before joining them, finally breaking eye contact with the warlock.

Mirriana kept her head on a swivel until the last of them had filed out of the hole in the gates and returned her baleful gaze to Tenebri.

“You said you were inspired by the tales and legends of Xot-Nep, Tenebri of Greystone?”

“Yes, my talent has always been with barriers. Who else to idolize but the man who caught a falling star? I must have read it thousands of times as a child.”, Tenebri nodded as he spoke.

“Did those legends ever mention how he died?”

Tenebri paused, genuinely interested despite himself.

“No, there was never any such record that I ever found. I even funded archeological digs through the explorers guild.”

“I like you Tenebri, eldest Blackstone. Of all the people I've met in this era you are the second I believe would have thrived in my world.”, Kallio said with certainty in his voice, “Xot-Nep would have enjoyed your company, and forced you to drink a bunch of shitty barley beer every time he saw you. An honorable man, who’s defense of his people and allies was a shield that his enemies shattered themselves upon for hundreds of years. ”

Teinebri’s eyes widened in shock as he took in the implications of Kallio's words before smiling with something like relief.

“Thank you for sparing my fool grandson and his boy. And for your kind words. But I too meant what I said, and you'll have to kill me. I will die on my feet.”, shield-layers bloomed like a flower as recursive formations reduced the Archmages figure to less than a silhouette before space began to collapse in on itself and he vanished entirely into a solid black dome that not even light could escape.

“Xot-Nep said much the same.”

Kallio saluted with the staff, stomping his weight down onto his back foot and once again gripping the weapon oddly. Mirriana stepped gracefully in front of the weapon, throwing her arms above her head with a flourish as she dissolved into black mist that was sucked into the staff. Darkness flowed out from Kallio as the weapon began to devour even the moonlight.

“Oversoul: Mirriana.”

The words carried weirdly, simultaneously all languages and none.

Large batlike wings erupted from Kallio's back as armored scales crawled down the withered flesh of his body as he rapidly gained muscle mass. The staff in his hands bulged and warped at the top, a long curved blade of darkness extending to form a scythe.

Emerald fire began to bubble under Kallio's feet as he drew the weapon back to strike, enormous wings unfurling and extending fully as the Warlock bunched his legs and leaned forward in preparation.

The wings suddenly warped downwards at precisely the same moment Kallio detonated the fel fire beneath his feet.

_____________________________________

In the perfectly silent blackness within his barrier formation Tenebri had his hands pressed together pleasantly as he maintained the spellwork. He felt the faintest of vibrations through the soles of his feet and briefly smiled as he imagined what it would be like to catch a falling star.

_____________________________________

Kallio sat alone at the table of the little house in the village where Leyla slept, turning a teardrop gemstone over in his hands. It was a pale shade of lavender that almost looked white in the candlelight. He examined it carefully for a few moments before placing it down on the table and picking up a long strip of yellow cloth, lost in thought.

He was still holding it hours later when Leyla woke up.