1:062 on the 80th day of Winter

"How is everyone doing?" I asked loud enough to carry over the wind. All I got in answer was a cheer. "Good. Because I still need your help." I started pacing the triangular wall of the bastian.

"The demon army is occupied fighting the iron skin legion behind us." I said pointing to the back of the city. "We can't help them because the lasers would cut through our soldiers just as quickly as they do the enemy." Everyone knew what the lasers were capable of now so that came as no surprise. "But there is an enemy right in front of us that is not prepared for a fight." I pointed out toward the demon's main encampment. I was starting to get a hang of this public speaking thing.

"We will split into two groups.” I said. “We need at least a full century to stay here and defend this position, preferably more. The rest of us will walk to the enemy camp, burn it to the ground, and walk back."

I looked around for a way to sort people. There needed to be someone I trusted in charge.

"Arin," I said more quietly. "Can you stay here to lead the defense group?"

“I’d prefer to go with you.” she said.

Then she grimaced and twisted her leg back and forth.

“But I have to recognize that I'm nearly at my limit walking on this thing.” she said. “I can keep an eye on the wall for you.”

I gave her one of my radios and turned back to the group.

"Defenders, Mage Arin is in charge here." I said. "Attackers, follow me."

With that I turned and walked toward the siege tower. I probably wasn't thinking straight. All it would take is ten kith or even sekteth to get in among us to kill a lot of these people. I glanced back and saw that everyone following me was determined. The boy I had given a laser to was at the front of the group. He nodded to me as we entered the siege tower. The stairs were not designed for people so I had to help some folks down. At the bottom we exited out onto the earthen bridge that had been constructed across the moat. We crossed it, moving between the bodies of fallen demon soldiers.

I waited for everyone to gather at the other end of the bridge. A quick count told me that a bit under a full century had come with me. How could they trust me like this? I didn't know what I was doing here. But I couldn't think about that right now. I needed to focus.

"Give me two lines across the battlefield. Stand shoulder to shoulder." I yelled. The group managed to get themselves in order. Mostly. I was reminded that almost everyone that grew up in Cinder had gone through some sort of military training.

"Good, now listen." I said. "The most dangerous part of this mission is running out of charge too quickly. For that reason, do not fire at the camp until I say so. Keep an eye out for ambushes and stay close." I turned and started walking again. While we walked I took out my radio to report in.

"Command, this is Theod again. We split the group and I am currently leading a century to assault the enemy camp. We are switching to radio channel 37. Over."

"Theod this is command", came Fresin's voice over the radio. "Bar go with you. Out." I hadn't thought of the god of glorious battle in some time. Instead of Barathold, I sent a prayer to Mez. All of these lasers were made using monster cores after all. If their magic didn't fail us we would make it through this just fine.

Nobody talked as we walked across the killing field. It would be Spring soon and small buds of wildflowers were poking up through the grass. It didn't take long to reach the old treeline. Walking between the dead stumps our pace had to slow but we didn't stop. The demons that fled the wall had reached the camp a while ago and I could see them trying to muster a defense. There were several types of demons I hadn't seen before. There were giant bee people with fluffy blue fur and an orange and black caterpillar with long antennae. I couldn't imagine either kind of demon in a fight and sure enough they were picking up everything they could carry and running. Even still, there were thousands of demons here. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Then I saw something really unexpected. An oralith came out from between the tents, its back a mix of yellow and pink. I thought I recognized the demon as Cedrea-nel. It actually made sense that she was here, now that I thought about it.

"Hold!" I said to my group. We came to a stop about a hundred meters away from the camp. I needed to rethink this. If we just charged in, then there was a distinct chance that they would counter charge and eventually kill us. The camp had an unknown number of flyers and ranged attackers meaning that there would be a high chance of most or all of my group dieing. That said, if they charged first then we would have more time to react. We could also plan for a fighting retreat that would make it hard to overrun us. Then there was Cedrea-nel. She spoke Elementria so perhaps I could talk this out.

"Wait here until I call for you." I yelled and everyone looked at me with incredulity. I walked forward. Luckily, my group seemed to trust me and didn't follow. I got about halfway there before stopping and calling out.

"Cedrea-nel is that you?" I said. She seemed startled at first, a flash of bright yellow rippling across her back.

"Kharon, this is unexpected." she said, a few hints of blues and greens mixing into the tapestry of her carapace. She sounded friendly but if this was going to work then I would need to be decidedly unfriendly back.

"We're here to destroy this camp." I said. "Leave or die." I channeled all my anger, frustration, and grief into the command. Her many legs started twitching and her back turned almost pure yellow. She looked around and I could see the moment when she spotted someone in charge by the purples mixed into her pallet. Two demons came forward that were clearly of a high rank by the chains of gold and silver wrapped around them. One was a kith, but bigger than I had ever seen before. They had an extra set of legs and their claws were already red hot. The other was a sekteth but its body was much larger than normal and it was clearly old as half its eyes were clouded over. The kith, who seemed to be the commander, spoke in the same language I had heard in the mines and Cedrea-nel translated.

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"Hello. My name is Cektrek-mal, this is my second Ponosku-mal. Your weak weapons are no match for the strength of the De-mons. Did you come to surrender?" she said in a flat tone. The guy's speech went on a lot longer than it would take to say that. Either the kith language was really inefficient or Cedra-nel was leaving out some things. Maybe he was grandstanding for his troops and she didn't feel the need to convey that? Whatever.

"Cektrek-mal. Today your siege of Cinder ends." I said, trying to sound as assertive as possible. "Take what you can carry and leave. Or we will kill every demon here." I was only half bluffing. Looking around it was clear that they were afraid of us. At least the soldiers and civilians were. I was growing more confident that we could kill them and burn the camp, just not that we would survive. After Cedra-nel translated the guy stomped and scraped the ground. Someone was angry. He spit and hissed at Cedra-nel.

"No, we will not yield." Cedra-nel said in an even flatter, almost resigned tone. No, I would not let this asshole commander doom both sides. "We will fight you to the . ." her words were cut off by the zap of laser cutting through the commander's head. His body collapsed to the ground. I re-holstered my laser rod and tried again.

"Ponosku-mal. Today your siege of Cinder ends." I said. "Take what you can carry and leave. Or we will kill everyone here." The field was silent. A shiver ran through the sekteth who was now in command. Then they started speaking.

"We will withdraw." said Cedra-nel, now sounding relieved. With that, the demons started leaving. They hurried to pick up supplies and run. Within a measure there was a train of demons exiting the camp north toward the mountain pass. Cedrea-nel turned back to me once the others had left.

"Thank you Kharon.” she said. "You extend us more grace than our armies have extended most of humanity."

I didn't really have anything to say to that. It left a bitter taste in my mouth to let them go. Not killing them was pragmatic. An eye for an eye made the whole world blind was said by a pacifist and ignored the deterrent effect of reciprocal violence. It wasn't like we were torching one of their cities. Still, my goal was to end the siege. If I could do that without killing a camp full of living beings then great. Maybe all these demons would remember my mercy and advocate for peace in the future. Or maybe they would resent me killing their commander and advocate for war. That thought actually made me think of something I wanted to ask Cedrea-nel.

"Last time we spoke you said that the reason for the war was that your leaders believed human manges would destroy the world." I said. "I may have found the source of that idea in the course of my own research. Is there anything else you can tell me about the prevailing theory among the colleges?"

"Yes actually." she said. "Polenda-nel, please bring me the World's End paper and my translation dictionary." From one of the tents came a chirp. Then a measure later Polenda-nel popped his head out with a scroll in one set of arms and a book in the other. He approached me and threw both items at my feet before running back to his mother. I picked up the book and the scroll and gave them both a look.

"That is the original paper that started everything. Transcribed of course. I sent for it after our first conversation as I was curious. Does this mean you have reconsidered my offer?" As soon as she asked the question I could see more green covering her back.

"About that" I said. "How would I be able to work for you? I thought that humans were killed on sight in demon lands."

"Our crusade is against human mages." she said. "Not humanity as a whole. Many humans live in demon lands. Additionally, there are special permits that can be obtained to study magical creatures. We have managed to secure several such permits for human mages that now live at the university. With your rare magic, the permit is a sure thing."

I scowled at that. She would have me live in a cage as a rat for study. Letting out a breath I thought more about her words. It would probably be a gilded cage. She likely thought she was being generous. I shook my head.

"Thank you for these." I said, holding up the book and scroll. Luckily they were both sized for Polenda-nel and not her. "I hope they will help me solve this mystery. And no, I don't intend to come work for you. But, if what you say is true, perhaps I will visit one day. May I send you a letter at the Maxiska-nel-balar?"

"Please do, perhaps you can return my book to me someday." she said. There was a ripple of orange across her that I took for a chuckle. I nodded to Cedrea-nel and turned to walk away. Bode called out to me before I reached the group.

"What happened over there, Mage Aegis?" he asked. "We thought we were going to burn the camp to the ground."

"They are leaving." I said to the incredulous stairs of everyone. "We are going to stay here and make sure they leave. Then we are going to burn their camp to the ground."

"Wait!" yelled the boy. What was his name again? Right, it was Klaas. "Are we just letting them go?"

"Yes" I said. "Right now, every person we lose moves us closer to our defeat in the long run. They are beaten, and they are leaving either way, but they would still probably kill half of us or more if we tried to attack now." His face paled at that. Then he clenched his fists.

"No! They killed my mom and dad. They don't get to just walk away." he said. I stood in front of him.

"We already killed the demons that killed your parents." I said, holding up my hands to try and calm him. "And I just shot their commander. Attacking now will just get you killed."

He was still marching toward the camp, trying to move around me. I got in front of him again and put a hand on his shoulder. At that moment I regretted giving him such a dangerous weapon. He jerked away from me and I grabbed the hand holding the laser. He struggled to pull his hand free and we swung around. Then it went off. For a split second I knew I was dead. My armor let out a crackling and hissing sound that split the air. Klaas and the others behind me screamed. Then I yanked his wrist and the laser fell to the ground. I looked down to see a line of molten metal dripping off my breast plate. The layer of aerogel insulation had held and my chest only felt a little warm. Funny enough, the darkness spell saved me because otherwise the aerogel would have been clear enough to let the laser pass right through it and kill me.

“What in the name of Mez was that?” I said coldly. I turned around to check if anyone was hurt only to see a line of burning grass just in front of the group. I let out a long sigh. That was close. Klaas was just sitting there stunned. I bent down to pick up the laser from the ground.

“Kid, you just about killed me and a lot of people here.” I said. He didn't react. Probably already figured it out then. It was my own damn fault for giving a weapon more dangerous than a machine gun to a pre-teen. I wondered then just how many people would manage to accidentally kill themselves or others. I'd better make sure that they were all empty after this. I retrieved the artificial core and covered it with a sack while waiting for the camp to empty.

It took only a score of measures for the last demon to leave the camp. They were stretched out in a long line walking up the mountain pass away from Cinder. After waiting another measure to be sure I nodded to Bode and he started firing. After him, everyone else, save myself and Klaas, stepped up to stoke the flames. From this distance, the cutting beams were less focused and so the lasers left lines of open flame wherever they passed. Fire tore through the camp like it was drenched in gasoline. Within five measures everyone had fully discharged their lasers and nothing was left standing in the camp.

We walked back to the city in triumph. Someone took Klaas aside to talk with him. Everyone's mood had lifted since the incident and someone even started a song. It was one of those songs everybody knew how to sing about adventure and lost love. I smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. We had made it.