Reza stared out into the dark world beyond the city with his thoughts on recent events; concern laced his face as he gripped the edge of the wall tightly, feeling the runes carved deeply into the stones beneath. Though it had been only yesterday that one of the towers of the nine great braziers had gone dark for the first time in over a decade, it felt like it had been days. The cold, moonless night had been the longest night of his life; second by second, Reza waited, waited for the enemy to appear, and waited for the fear to stop building within the city.
It had not stopped. As soon as the Arkenites realized what they had seen, chaos erupted around the forum. Citizens screamed and tried to escape from the island, seeking to get away and find safety. Reza, knowing he needed to report to the city guard's main training ground, kept his head. Using his wraith, he had removed himself from the chaos on the island, hoping to find any other military officers or guards to see what plan was to handle the crisis.
Thankfully, the response was swift, and the ten families called up any and all soldiers within the city to guard the wall until answers had been found. And so Reza was pulled from his quiet leave and joined the other soldiers on the wall.
Reza, an Optio and thus an officer, was automatically one of the few given a section of wall to guard and a small group of soldiers to command. Not knowing how long the crisis would continue and unsure how long he would be needed, he found someone willing to get a message to his sisters for a king's ransom. The messenger, several gold ghouls richer, brought Reza word of the events and of his orders to guard the city to Tavia. Reza gave no promises of his return, as there was no certainty when he could.
For the rest of the day, Reza and the other officers found themselves on top of the wall, with their few soldiers waiting for the worst to happen. Horses and men were dispatched, and as the day turned to night, Reza continued to get a semblance of order among his men and rotate them out for brief periods of rest. However, he could not give himself even a moment of rest; not an officer on the wall did.
Fortunately, while he mostly had older men well into retirement, they knew their job well, handled the long stretches with little complaint, and kept their composure well.
Reza nodded to each soldier as he returned to the small fire, hoping to warm his body while they all waited for reinforcements and their time on the wall to end.
Thinking back on the night, Reza remembered the rumors starting to spread among the soldiers and citizens, with multiple Archons named as having died. Namely, Helton and Wholcraft were the most common whispers. Neither was surprising, as both were well over a hundred years in age and the oldest of the Archons. He had tried to keep everyone calm, but only so much could be done, and he could not stop them talking when he was not around.
The rumors, however, were proven to be false. In the early hours of the morning, an official message from the Prefect was sent to every officer to announce that Marcellus Sulli, Archon of the thirteenth, had fallen. The priests of the echoes had finally been able to confirm the death after Sorana, the Echo of Marcellus, had recovered enough to make her presence within her tower known. No other information had been given beyond the confirmation of the death.
Such a good man and soldier. Reza had fought with the Archon when the man led their Legions several years back. The Archonless Seventh Legion had joined the Thirteenth to push back Bastion, a Remnant Kingdom that had threatened Arkhen’s Northwestern province. He'd been a good man, popular with the soldiers, and considered to most in the city the finest fighter and general they had. Marcellus's death would be a blow to the thirteenth if it still survived. And that was the one thing on Reza’s mind that he had to worry about: Did the legion still stand?
Deaths of Archons happened, but another would rise in their place. Echo’s had even fallen in history, the four broken towers evidence of their deaths. But the legions endured. They were the backbone of the strength of Arkhen; the destruction of one left the city weakened and possibly defenseless against an attack. The legions were the men that held back the enemies of the city, and if one was in trouble or gone, everyone should be concerned. This unknown held a fog of fear over the city, one which would be dispelled soon with word from the West.
A shadow cut through the light of his fire, pulling Reza from his thoughts. Turning, he saw the slight outline of a woman standing in the shadows behind him.
"Sabine, why the hell are you stalking my shadow?" Reza asked, holding out his hand. She took his forearm, and they pulled each other in a tight hug. It had been too long since they had seen one another, Sabine having transferred out of the Seventh years ago.
She hadn’t changed much in that time and was still a good half-head shorter than Reza, though her body and muscles were honed tightly like a bowstring. Her blonde, almost white hair, which shone silver in the firelight, was pulled back out of her Amber eyes. Strangely, her eyebrows were a stark contrast to her hair, raven black in color.
She was nearly Reza's opposite in every way. Sabine was much more outgoing than he was, as her personality could fill any room she was in, and no one could miss the bright smile she always had on her face. Meanwhile, he was more likely to keep to the small number of people whom he trusted.
"It's good to see you, too.” She smiled. “I was coming to relieve you of your post. But I can come back later if you'd like to stay."
She turned to go, but Reza grabbed her shoulder, swinging her back to face him. She had a broad smile as she returned to the small fire.
"No, no, you can stay. I'm looking forward to a bed. I haven't been on watch in years. It's weird when you get used to being one of the people issuing the commands." Reza laughed. He'd been an Optio, second in command of a unit of men, in the seventh for a couple of years now, having gained the position despite a lack of powerful allies. Merit, Reza knew, had done it, though merit could only take someone so far. Sabine and her family had been among the few who had helped push for Reza's appointment, though her father would not have done it had he not believed in his skill. Most of the city government and Legion positions were often reserved for members of the ten families. And while Reza could claim to be distantly related to a few of the ten families, he was not included in such an elite group. The Reza Family was considered minor nobility and well below the great houses.
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"We need everyone we can get. The Prefect forced every person who has ever been a soldier, even for a day, to be on these walls. Half the people on the walls aren't even active soldiers." Sabine said, grabbing a flask from her jacket and taking a small sip before handing it over. “With all the chaos and uncertainty, any good soldier was kept on the walls. I only got into the city from the family estate an hour ago with some of the houseguards. They just now were able to start pulling some of the officers off the wall to rest.”
Reza nodded and gratefully took a sip and tasted a lovely red wine. It was likely one from her father’s wineries in the south. This probably cost more than my jacket. Reza kept his thoughts to himself, just pleased to have the warm wine warm his body.
"I saw old man Tiberius an hour back. You know how bad it is if a hundred-and-fifty-year-old soldier is taking his place on the wall." Reza returned the flask, and Sabine took another sip before putting it away. "You'd think the families would keep a legion nearby even if they aren't allowed to be housed in the city or increase the size of the city guard."
"I doubt any of them expected the death of one of the Archons. We haven't been at war with either the empire or the remnants in how many years?" Sabine sat up on the wall, her legs hanging over the edge; she adjusted her bow and quiver to make it more comfortable. "Marcellus was riding for his legion in the west. They have riders looking for what might have happened, and two legions, yours included, are already returning to the city. I think they have done all they can."
No matter her friendship with Reza or the gross miscalculation of sending their armies away from the city, Sabine was part of the ten families and would defend them. Her father was the head of the powerful Rewan family, and his brother was one of the Archons and general of the first legion. It occurred way too late into the conversation to Reza of the frightful thoughts that must have gone through his friend's mind for the morning, waiting to hear if her uncle was alive.
They stayed silent momentarily, Reza looking for a different topic to end the uncomfortable silence.
"Enough of this unpleasant talk. Who do you think will go for the Echo? What is it, four families without one Archon of their own?" Reza asked, changing the topic. The ten great houses of Arkhen always fought each other for the right to have one of the archons be one of their own. Currently, all the archons are part of ten families, with two having multiple. The Sanderns had a father and son as Archons, while the Crichtons had the twins holding another two echoes. It left four families of the ten great houses, including the Sulli, without one.
"Yeah, but all the families, about another fifteen lower houses looking for their chance to take a spot within the ten, and just about any desperate fool will vie for the position. I wonder what the Echo will choose to test the contestants this time?" Sabine looked down over the wall, leaning precariously over the top and looking down towards the flat plains on either side of the Verenik River. Reza wanted to grab her before she fell over, but he knew Sabine was playing with him; she had better balance than him by quite a measure.
The city held little land now; you could ride only a few days from the city and leave its territory. That never changed the Ghost Plains outside of Arkhen. Law and custom would not allow them to be farmed or used to house any of the citizens. Those plains and their ruins were still sacred land, not to be destroyed, and only used for the legions to gather in desperate times. Reza would likely find himself with his returning legion in camp in only a few days.
"You never know with the Echoes. They never stick to the same one. I still can't believe the last contest to choose who held the power of a god was a puzzle." Reza could still remember the contest a little over a decade ago, around the same time he made his first wraith pact. One of the Archons had passed in her sleep peacefully within the city. The echo decided that the first person to complete the puzzle they created would gain their pact. Thousands had attempted it, but Zander of the Aren family was the first to finish the puzzle and take control of the Echo. What would this contest be? Depending on what the echo decided, maybe?
In the back of his mind, the idea of trying for the echo had been forming for the last few hours of silently guarding the walls and likely had been in everyone’s mind. Maybe he would compete in the contest. I could do the impossible and place myself in history. Set my family on a course for generations.
Reza shook his head. It would be wild to attempt such a thing and unlikely to succeed; the great families almost had complete control over who would gain the hallowed position within the city and would do anything to stop any outsider from winning. Though it had happened in the past, the echo decided the winner, not the families. The echo chose who held their power in their hands. However, that didn't stop them from ensuring it stayed within the ten.
Never mind that you have three days before the legion will return to the city, and you'll have to rejoin them—no time for fanciful thoughts.
"Anyway, thanks for the drink. I'm going to go find a bed and sleep as long as they allow me," Reza waved, looking at the rising sun and road following the river to the city gates. He froze, seeing movement in the far reaches of his vision. Riders were moving fast, dust in their wake as they burst onto the plain.
"Sabine, look there; what do you see?" He asked, pointing to the riders.
Sabine turned her attention to where Reza pointed, and a low purple glow appeared to her right. A young man in an ancient military uniform stood with a Spyglass. Sabine moved an eyepatch over her right eye, and keeping her balance, she kept her eye intently on the riders. Her wraith held the spyglass aloft towards the riders.
"Eight riders chasing down a lone soldier. It looks like one of ours from the uniform he wears. I don't recognize the others," she responded, never taking her eye off the horsemen far out in the distance. "The lone rider's horse is faltering; it’s limping pretty badly.”
Even from this distance, Reza knew the rider had no chance of making it to the city before the others caught him. Without more thought, Reza prepared himself. He pulled his black hair out of his face before grabbing his dagger and sword from their sheaths. Drawing on the power within him, he waited for an alarm to blare. When it did not come, he placed one foot on the capstone next to Sabine. She glanced over at him.
"Sound the alarm. It seems no one else has seen this," Reza stepped up on the capstone and let himself drop towards the ground. The air rushed up around him, tugging at his uniform as he fell ever closer to the hard stone of the main road into Arkhen. Reza waited a second longer to summon his wraith, and she appeared on the ground below. Glowing ghostly silver, she was dressed in ethereal, close-fitting military clothes with long laced boots and a long jacket coming down to her knees.
Reza flared his power, and he switched places with the wraith. Just as he felt the stone slabs of the road below him, he started running towards the riders with his wraith gliding ahead. Every time she got well ahead of him, he flared his power, switching places.
It's time to see what we can do, Elana.
Elana glanced at Reza and smiled. They began their dance, switching spots. She flew quickly ahead of Reza every time they switched positions, moving with such speed that he closed in on the riders, coving the miles between them within a minute, ready for the fight.