The distant howling of the wind echoed over the mesa. Cold and fast it carried a scent of rot. It felt wrong. And not only to the shaman.

Mara was running up the path of the cliffs again. She had rushed for their tent to get some salves and stitches while the druids were preparing mender tents at the top of the cliff. They would need to move back once the Ogres would start to come up. Yet should they reach that far there wouldn’t be much hope in healing any longer. The attack had not begun yet, and every orc of every tribe was running, gathering their weapons, their totems, their mounts or just their strength.

Thickskin stood at the edge of the cliff and shouted orders. Chieftain Scale-Eye did the same to the Bristle-Pine warriors. Rika and Branak had become messengers, galloping around and giving the chieftains words to warriors at different edges of the cliffs. Kazzok was with the druids for now and prepared the tents. But like almost all of them he would join the warriors until healing was needed.

Now that she had to run and gather, to see and learn the structure of their defence, Mara finally realised the true grandeur of the mesa. It had six entrances. One for every wind and one between each of them. All of them had simple wooden gates that could be closed, but were far more decorative than protective. The cliffs behind the gates circled in different ways. There were those that carried open spaces for tribes to linger, others were nothing but a twisting path between caves and cliffs. But all of them led to the dolmen in its centre. Most had a second gate all the way back, but those were even more for tradition rather than protection. Some of them didn’t even have the means to close them but were but simple wooden ways hung with totems, trophies and dreamcatchers.

The night was slowly conquering the sky and the stars drowned by the accursed storm that was cast by the creature leading the ogres. It was still floating between sky and earth and dressed in black clouds. The closer she came, the louder the twisted song that forced the storm was heard. Lightning cracked around her, yet it seemed unnatural almost as if the flashes themselve were made of darkness, yet still they were able to cast more shadows.

Far behind that being and the Ogre legions, a hint of the sun pierced the clouds and coloured what remained unconquered of the sky in red. A certain promise for the night to come.

Mara arrived at the mender tents that were built. She saw Kazzok argue with the old woman draped in bat remains and left him be. She knew enough about healing places like this to find her own way. Back in the Frostsong Valley they had used the mines for the healers when an attack happened. And it was not that different here. Leather sheets were lying around, some to make the wounded comfortable, others to make quick bandages. Salves and tinctures, thick stitches and old iron needles to close the wounds. Water and bowls, and totems. Either to ask the ancestors for their aid in the healing to be done, or to guide a lost wounded toward them.

In the valley they could count on the riders to save them, no matter the threat. And despite his absence she could always count on her brother to come and end the battle. Her heart was aching and her hands twitching as she thought about him. Now that she knew she might never see him again, she wanted nothing more than to hold him one last time. To tell him how sorry she was, how she deserved all the horrors that would be thrown at her for taking Kara along on her journey. Once she questioned if he would hear any of it, tears started to force their way into her eyes. Yet she covered them in her arm and continued. The battle couldn’t start soon enough. At least it would occupy her mind, and maybe even grant her the end she deserved.

Finally she was dragged out of her mind when Rika jumped down from Branak and approached her. She squatted before sitting Mara and held a hand on her shoulder. “Do you have all you need?” Her tone was cold yet the care was warm.

Mara nodded “I will manage.”

Their eyes locked for a moment and Mara felt her heart and tears swell. Yet neither was bursting out. She wanted to say so much, but knew she had done so many times. Instead Rika smiled and spoke first. “Thank you.” She said with all the honesty the world had to offer.

Mara couldn’t help but echo her smile. “Thank you too.” She managed to say, as her voice was brought down to a whisper.

Rika squeezed her shoulder, smirked and huffed away any hint of tears. Branak came by and nudged her face before he sat down. Rika was about to say more when Kazzok came by as well. He gave Rika’s shoulder a friendly punch and nodded at Mara. “Are you two ready?”

Mara nodded while Rika proudly stated “Always!”

“Ha! Of course you are!” He answered loud and with pride. “Have you seen those lazy weaklings?! They might be plenty but they are fat!”

Rika raised a brow, looked down at his belly and back up to his eyes.

“What?!” He asked. They made Mara chuckle. Her chuckle was echoed by their smiles and Kazzok slowly turned to a more serious tone. “Don’t let them take you.” For the first time Mara saw his eyes become a plea. He looked over to Rika. She huffed, as she always did when fighting her heart. “Never.” She stated.

Then he looked at Mara. “Never.” Mara echoed. They made him smile. “Never.” He grunted. And was about to stand up when Rika brought her one arm around him and into a hug. She whispered something into his ear that Mara couldn’t hear. Finally she saw his eyes swell and their foreheads locked together. “I will.” He answered the whisper. After a long moment Rika released him again and then shifted closer to Mara. She brought her into a long warm hug as well, her one arm around her. “Ancestors watch you, Mara” she whispered in her ear. The sound of her whispered name made Mara hug her tighter for a moment before they as well locked their foreheads for a second that lasted forever. “She does..” Mara whispered back “May they watch you as well.” It was all she could say, yet once again a smile told her that it was enough. Rika rose again and moved back to Kazzok who stood next to Branak stroking his ear.

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Mara looked at Kazzok for a moment and could see how he fought with emotions. Once he had gathered his composure again he moved towards her. “Come here!” he said and hugged her tight as well. There was no word he could speak, yet his embrace gave her strength. Then he just nodded at her. She nodded back and slowly he and Rika moved to the edge of the cliff. They had known for such a short while, but she loved them.

For a moment Mara’s thoughts shifted to her brother once more. She wondered how their words and embrace would be in a moment like this. With an impending doom and battle upon them. Would he scream? Would he whisper? Would he cry? She didn’t know anymore. And the more she thought about how much the Khan had his fingers in his mind the more fire started to burn inside her. And what use was it to spend your last thoughts on what could be, when the embrace of Kazzok and Rika still lingered on her skin.

Shouts brought her out of her mind again and once she saw other healers walk to the edge for battle, she did the same. As she came close she could see the legions below. Bigger than any orc and armed with axes even bigger as her fathers. Only few of them were clad in much armour while the rest only had their head and weapon arm truly protected. Those that carried more, often carried helmets with a coloured feather on their head and she could see how one quite in front of them all carried what must have been the most decorated armour she had ever seen. Yet like all the others it was old and showed the green rust of bronze. They had stopped and nothing but the twisted storm above the creature in the clouds made a sound. Unlike the army it still floated closer and soon was ahead of them.

The orcs had their weapons drawn and spears were thrown at the thing inside the twirling black storm. None of them hit as the entire cloud of spears was shoved away. First by wind, then by lightning. But the tribes wouldn’t stop until a terrible voice echoed from the clouds. “Enough!!”

Both Mara and the Druids cowered down in pain by her voice. It was wrong, even worse than the storm she forced to her will.

Slowly the clouds shifted and showed a pigskinned creature. It was small and thin and wore nothing but the clouds and black cloth that seemed to become one with them. It smiled at its own display.

“By the oak..” Mara heard Kazzok nearby. “Ugly as dung..”

The sorceress smiled down at the many teeth baring, snarling and grunting orcs, all of them gathered at the mesa’s edge.

“You are honoured to have me deliver you the choice that you are granted.” She said with the most wicked grin Mara any creature had ever cast. While her voice remained utter pain to all in touch with the spirits.

“I offer to become part of my boys, part of my children, of my army first and my very world next.” “Ascension..” Mara whispered with wide eyes as they were forced to listen.

Once the Sorceress continued she only proved her fears. “I will ascend you. I will make you strong enough that death cannot touch you, and together we will spend our eternity with nothing but conquest!!” Lightning answered the sorceress’ call as if it was waiting to applaud her.

For a moment Mara feared the tribes to accept. They wouldn’t have laid down their weapons but the promise of conquest could have been well enough to lure any orc.

“Go away!!” Someone simply shouted back. It made the sorceress lose her smile, and slowly formed one on Mara. “You are ugly!” Shouted Kazzok.

“Your truths are as twisted as your tongue!” Mara joined the choir and soon all of the orcs shouted their mind at the floating human before them.

The sorceress’ eyes grew wild with anger and her smirk deformed into a shuttering display of disbelief. Finally she screamed and moved her hands forward. Lightning followed from the black clouds above and struck behind the orcs. With blinding light and deafening thunder the healer tents were turned to burning ashes. The many scents of the burning herbs and salves started to rise from them and fought the smell of rot that came from the sorceress and her legions. “I ask you again!!!” She shouted with the purest wildest fury in her voice while thunder echoed her threat above.

Silence was the answer. Mara could hear how someone tried to talk yet was cut by whoever stood next to them. She looked up at the sorceress’ angry gaze and quickly darted around the mesa. She found a boulder not far and rushed through the cloud to it. Many angry eyes followed her and some whispered that the darkling was about to flee. Yet when Rika caught her eye she knew there was more plan behind it.

“You won’t even grant us a fight?!” She heard Thick-Skin’s voice shout at the wicked witch.

“I am granting you all the fights if you join me!” Her voice echoed back through the thunder of the clouds and over them.

Kazzok was next to take word. “Then there will be none!” He said with all the rugged defiance his dark gurgling voice could muster.

Mara approached the boulder and started to climb it. She had never been a climber.

“So be it!” The sorceress said and Mara started to lose hope she could make it in time when she felt Rikas arm behind her. Quickly she aided her up Branak and from there up the boulder just as lightning cracked in the clouds above.

Mara raised her hand, closed her eyes and sang in the ancient tongue. Wind was rising and circling around her and gathered the hot ash of the burning tents and herbs. As the lightning crashed down some of them dispersed in the air while those that came were caught by her raised hand and finger. Her song was true and deep from her throat. It was about the ancient past, the ancestors and the untouched lands of fury.

The sorceress’s eyes grew wide. “A shaman?! You have the dragons spawn among you?!”

Mara’s voice and song was full of pain and the lightning about to burst right through her. Yet with her final strength she slowly lowered her hand and pointed right at the sorceress. Burning memories of her heart, of master Cra’Gal, of her home, her father, her niece and her brother coursed through her as both the lightning and part of the hot ashen wind shot guided by her finger at the sorceress. It hit her with the proud drum of thunder, not the unnatural song of pain they had carried when forced by her, but a true drum of the land and the elements. The sorceress wailed in pain and was shot back out of her black clouds.

Mara fell to her knees and felt some lightning still running through her veins. She saw Rika raising a hand at her. “Don’t..” Mara whispered with her remaining strength. “I’m not sure if it might still hurt you.” Slowly the huntress removed her hand again and looked back at the falling sorceress. She smiled brightly until a sudden song echoed from the legions below. Mara winced in pain and was forced to almost lay on the ground. Between her gasps of pain she told Rika. “Their casters…those that sing. They need to be stopped!” Rika looked at her with concerned eyes but soon nodded and rode Branak to Thick-Skin and the Chieftains. More thunder was coursing the clouds above and the black dress of black clouds was moving like tendrils once more. It caught the sorceress and slowly brought her down. Mara could feel she was alive. All the rot and wrongness in the wind still lingered and she was the heart of it. She huffed a few times, like her brother did when fighting pain, and did so herself. Slowly and with pain she stood up and raised her hands once more. A few steady breaths caught the herb filled wind around her and finally with newfound heart she sang from her throat and chest once more. Her voice echoed into the sky and started to battle the dark sorcery ahead, while the battle for ascension began.