The Last Defender

— Southern Dace —

All across southern Dace that night, in pubs and bars and mid-week temple services, in wealthy homes and healers' offices, the sounding boards came alive and worked their miracles of music. The devices had been distributed for free, and the people who received them had been told "the church" (the merchant did not say which one) was spreading them all over Tenobre, starting in Dace. Those who gathered on the first night had little in the way of expectations. They were more curious than excited. More skeptical than hopeful. But when a strange merchant hands you a weird bowl and says that it will make noise at sundown, one must discover if the merchant's claim is scrap-loaf.

When the songs began, the little groups were astonished and enthusiastically called out to anyone near. You have to hear this! It's a miracle from the church! Even the sermon was captivating, far better than the dulling recitations of the local priest. The name of Nexus wasn't said until the sermon and the closing songs were done. Then came the notices, Nexus News, about all the work they were doing to save the people Enclave had abandoned. Revelations of Enclave's sins were part of that.

Some of the sounding boards were summarily destroyed moments after their true origin was revealed. But many people, especially those who'd lost someone to 'purifying fire', listened avidly: The victims hadn't died for heresy but to protect Enclave's dogma of heritage. The so-called church would rather let the world suffer than admit the First Families weren't special.

In closing, the audience was told the schedule for future broadcasts, followed by a short selection of secular songs. Champions of Love was the last to play, followed by silence.

In the hours and days that followed, church officials banned the sounding boards and mapped their known distribution. It didn't go unnoticed that a certain group of hills lay in the middle of the zone of interest, and small groups of appalons had been seen around the area several times.

A message was dispatched to Kashpam, and the forces there broke camp the same day.

— Harrence —

With all the transactions cleared, appalons loaded and hooked into a line, merchant and guards mounted, and the sun dipping towards the west horizon, the dilettante merchant and her caravan departed Kashpam by the south gate. When one guard, the youngest and least experienced of six at the gate, noted the odd time of their departure, Hushang scowled at him.

"We are desert travelers. We plod at night and sleep in our saddles. How new are you, not to know the things that everyone knows?" The other guardsmen laughed at the youth's red face and waved the caravan through. Harrence, who took up the rear, could hear them laughing still, until the guard who'd been singled out, snapped at them.

"Why do we have to put up with those savages?"

"They're always like that," said their leader, "it's how they say hello. As long as weapons don't come out, they're just messing with you."

"If they're too polite, they're insulting you," said another. There was more talk about Calique as the experienced hands attempted to educate the newcomer, but the caravan left their doubtfully informed conversation behind.

Ma'Tocha's line plodded into twilight until the city was out of sight and no other travelers could be seen, and then she used the arts to hide them and drove off the road, circling back around and passing into farmland that surrounded the city. Then Harrence took the lead. They shot along lanes intended for two-wheeled carts. They dove through gaps in hedges made by children as their shortcuts. They wove their way through a wooded border along a muddy stream. Harrence's crooked path ended at the best hiding place that his insubstantial friends could find: a mostly empty space between two rows of thorny blackberries.

They had to cut the bushes back to make room enough for appalons to turn around but otherwise, it was an excellent spot. It was off the beaten path, nobody was around at the moment, it shielded them from view, and was practically a stone's throw from Kashpam. (An enhanced disciple certainly could throw a rock that far.) The entrance to their hide-out was disguised with the cut canes, then sealed with a weak version of Sanctuary. Hushang received an ear cuff link and was instructed not to follow any orders unless the password was given, and told what to do if the mission went poorly.

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

When darkness was well settled, Ma'Tocha and her bulwark ran the short distance to the city, climbed the walls with some help from the arts, and flowed along the streets toward the parsonage where the last Defender of Pure Faith was preparing for bed. They had traded in Calique disguises for their customary clothes and armor in hopes that, should they be seen, no one would connect them to the merchants they'd played that morning.

The team came up to the parsonage carefully, avoiding groups of people on the streets so Overlook would not be accidentally pierced by strangers wandering too close.

"Harrence," whispered Ma'Tocha.

She didn't need to say more than that. He focused on his ghosts, flush with spirit, filling his awareness with what they knew. The building had two stories with ten rooms, and a little garden in the back between the parsonage and the temple. The reeve of Harrence's village could fit three of his houses into that manse.

"Two at the front door. Four in the room beyond. The defender is alone in an office at the back, and he's wearing the fragment on a chain around his neck. Don't stumble at the entrance: there's a huge pile of dishes, all the food they've ordered. I guess they didn't bring a cook with them. Don't fall all over them. There's no one else in the house."

"We'll go around," decided Ma'Tocha. "In and out. Get the fragment, kill the defender, and leave."

She led them to the other side of the building until they could see the man himself through the open window. The shutters were thrown wide to let in the cooling evening air. It was weird, observing him so closely without being seen. Harrence had heard the man bragging about the heretics he'd found and killed but from this angle, he was a simple churchman reading scripture peacefully in his spare time.

What do you find in scripture that justifies your actions? wondered Harrence.

It was Marlowe who took up her spear, overhand, aimed it carefully, then thrust it through the window with both hands. She pierced the defender's skull and killed him instantly. She held his body up while Harrence climbed inside through the window, as silent as he knew how, and let the corpse down off her weapon and silently to the ground. He took the chain from around the man's neck and touched the wooden capsule dangling from it. It was warm, with a heat that pushed against his new spirit senses. Harrence yanked the fragment off the chain and put it in his pocket.

The room was filled with armed men! He didn't know how it happened, where they had come from, or how they'd been hiding, but they were everywhere! He fled instead of fighting, dove out the window to tumble on the cobbles outside, only to find himself immobilized. There had to be dozens of them, arms and legs and torsos everywhere, grabbing and pulling and pinning him down, too many even for Ma'Tocha's enhancements to overcome. He tried to twist out of their grips and speed away, but they were just as fast as him, just as strong as him, and there were so many more of them. Invulnerable armor didn't help him, not with ten men piled on top of him. He couldn't even draw his weapon. Before Harrence could form a coherent thought about his situation, he was face-down on the ground with his arms tied behind him. He tried to break the bonds, but the leather thongs cut cruelly into his flesh.

"Bind the disciple with these!" It was a woman's voice, followed by the sound of heavy chains of metal. Harrence couldn't see Ma'Tocha, but he heard her struggling, then groan as the metal restraints took hold of her. It was a noise like Harrence never thought to hear from her: pain, horror, and despair.

Harrence longed to see his fellow bulwarks, to see if they still lived, to see what harm had come to Ma'Tocha, but he couldn't see anything with his face shoved in the ground. Slowly, he realized that these people who came from nowhere could have killed his party, but they hadn't. They had other plans for Ma'Tocha and her bulwark. He wasn't sure if that was a bad omen or a good one, but he stopped his struggling so he could listen and think. They weren't dead yet.

Harrence felt all his enhancements fade away. The men on top of him grew heavier and heavier until he couldn't breathe. He tensed his core and took shallow breaths, but it still wasn't enough. He couldn't get enough air. He felt his face turning colors as he slowly suffocated. His sight darkened around the edges.

I'm going to die here, with men's knees on my back, he thought. Suddenly, they hauled him upright and let him breathe. He gasped and silently begged for his vision to clear. After several breaths, breaths which shamed him with gratitude towards his captors, he could make out shapes around him, darker shadows against the night. Rough hands searched him everywhere, took things from him, but Harrence didn't care.

He couldn't see Ma'Tocah! What had they done to her? Where were Marlowe, Dash, and Callie?

"Let me see her!" It was the woman's voice again, excited, hopeful. "Ma'Tocha, Scourge of Bandits! We've captured Heretic Ma'Tocha!" She laughed, exalting in her achievement with joy and cruelty all at once. "I've done it! Oh, this is sweet! A thousand pirates couldn't do it, but I have Ma'Tocha in chains!"

The voice giggled, followed by a sigh of deepest satisfaction. "It's been a long time, Auntie Ma."