Katrin howled, and I grabbed her to keep her from running to the edge. "No! No, he did it on purpose! He's got a plan, just run! He wants you to run!"

She flailed at me, ineffectually. "I can't!"

"You can't help him from here either!" I yelled, forcing her to look at me. "Jump, he cleared the way. Then we can come back for him. I won't leave without you, and Betrad won't leave without me. You need to do this."

She looked at me with tears in her eyes, and maybe a little hatred. But she ran. She leapt at the edge and just barely made it, then turned to look down as I hurried after her. "They're not there! Where did they go?"

Betrad landed right behind me, and we both grabbed Katrin and forced her to come with us. This roof was closer to the river but still not next to it, and the only building we could possibly jump to was just one story so we'd be likely to get hurt when we landed. I was willing to risk it, but Betrad apparently wasn't because he hauled me down the steps towards the street. They were on the outside of the building, and we were spotted before we got all the way down, but at least we had a chance.

We circled around buildings, looking for anywhere to hide - but with the soldiers so close behind there was no good opportunity. While the streets themselves had cleared out somewhat, people were still watching from the upper floors of buildings and shouting insults at the invaders. I had hoped that people would charge out and fight alongside us to defend their city, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. Presumably at least a few people were fighting back, but so close to the fortress they probably assumed it would be cleaned up by actual trained soldiers.

Halenvar troops popped out of an alley just one street down from us, and we stumbled to a halt. For a moment, nobody moved. The ones behind us slowed to a crawl, the ones ahead of us waited. They knew they had us, and were being cautious. One started to float slightly, and another's hair stood on end as electricity began to crackle over his sword. Of course. A small strike team going behind enemy lines, they wouldn't send just normal soldiers. At least some of these people would have magic.

Katrin stepped in front of me, and I could see the terror in her eyes. Her jaw was set, though, and her hands were frantically sliding little the little hexagonal tiles in the cover of her spellbook "Not a sphere... height of... where's the zero? Ah! Callie, I've... I've got an idea. But it's going to use all my mana and it might not work and... I don't know."

"I don't have a plan," I muttered, "So give it a shot I guess. Which side?"

She nodded towards the newer group of soldiers, and I turned to face the others. There was the lightning guy, and some sort of visual distortion around another one although I didn't know what that meant. Heat? A force shield? Light magic?

I felt something happen next to me, and Katrin let out a breath. "C-C-Callie... I did it." Her teeth were chattering and she was clutching her arms. "Charge the others. We need them to run at us."

Betrad nodded and then yelled as he began to sprint forward. I was just a few steps behind. Lightning arced towards us and slammed directly into Betrad's sword, but it didn't slow him down at all for some reason. There were four of them in front of us and five behind, which meant we were outnumbered three to one even if you didn't take into consideration the fact that two of us were untrained. I was sure the end was here, and we were all about to die. Any second now.

Someone screamed behind us, and then another. And another. I turned and saw something horrific - one of the soldiers was stumbling back with his arm removed at the elbow, and another was clutching his chest. A third was slumped forward, propped up impossibly on nothing but air. Catching myself, I spun to face the people in front of me rather than wasting time trying to figure out what had happened.

Betrad was a whirlwind, blocking strikes and swinging out faster than I would have thought possible. He was hit with another lightning strike, and again it did nothing. That was the last thing the lightning guy ever did, and he joined another soldier in the gutter. Now it was two on one, though Betrad was looking exhausted. I threw my knife at the one with the strange distortion around him and this time hit blade first, but there was a blue flicker and the knife bounced away.

A wordless battle cry sounded behind me, and I turned to see Errod running towards the ones behind us. He was trailing a long string of those colorful flags that were everywhere in Theramas, presumably having gotten all tangled up in them after falling off the roof, and there was a fair amount of blood on the lower half of his face as if he'd gotten the mother of all nosebleeds. Whatever spell Katrin had cast - considering she only knew a few it had to have been the shield - must have failed because the soldier that had been hanging in the air had dropped. The two that looked injured but not dead had collapsed on the side of the road and were trying to bandage their wounds, but the two that were still up casually turned to face Errod who was holding, of all things, a plank of wood. I sprinted towards them, knowing that if he reached them before I did they would kill him easily. I'd seen Errod fight, and his bravery in no way made up for his lack of skill.

My feet slammed down on the cobblestones in total silence, the vibration magic preventing any sound. At the last second one of them turned towards me, somehow sensing me as I reached him, but it was too late. I hit him knife-first and bowled him over, both of us ending up on the ground. The other turned to swing at me, but immediately had to redirect to knock Errod's plank aside. In a mirror of my own maneuver, Errod tackled the soldier and rolled clumsily into a rain barrel. I pulled my knife free and slammed it down into the one Errod had hit with every ounce of my weight, feeling the thin blade pierce his leather armor. He turned, pulling the knife out of my hand, but before he could do anything else Katrin's boot swung into his face.

Errod and I quickly stood, unsure as to which soldiers were still a threat. We turned towards the other group, hoping Betrad had had time to clear them out - but instead saw General Telen standing there. Betrad was impaled on his blade. Telen causally tilted the sword downwards and the body slid off the end, crumpling into a heap.

"No," I whispered. "No, fuck. Fuck."

Katrin whispered next to me. "Callie, run. Let's go."

One of the injured soldiers right next to us tried to lunge for me, jarring me out of my momentary paralysis. Katrin was right. There was nothing anyone could do for Betrad, and we only had a second before this group killed us, injured or not. We ran, and made it maybe twenty feet before Telen appeared in front of us. There was an alley between us but we'd have to charge towards him, and behind us the few remaining solders were limping into formation to block our way back.

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Telen hesitated at the sound of footsteps, and Connie came bursting out of the alley. She stood there between us and Telen, knives out like she was going to take him on all by herself. That stupid bitch. She could have stayed in the fort. She could have run. Telen looked at her, then at me. "Interesting. Just how many of you are there?"

Before he could get an answer, Hammersmith leapt from the roof above him. He vanished before she hit, appearing a split second later behind Connie with his sword already swinging. The world seemed to slow down, and I watched as Telen's blade sliced cleanly through Errod and Katrin in one horrible arc. Blood flew everywhere as Connie turned to look behind her with eyes wide in terror. She shifted her grip on the knives, but didn't swing - instead she seemed to be sizing him up, examining him up close. Telen didn't attack her or me, and Hammersmith was only inching closer - presumably looking for some perfect moment.

"And now," he said, looking at Connie, "you will come with me."

I stepped backwards, trying to think. They were dead. Just like that. What could I do? How could I possibly...

Hammersmith leapt from the roof above General Telen. He vanished, appearing behind Connie who had already thrust her long dagger backwards - his sword faltered as he howled in anguish, and it barely clipped Errod. The knife looked like it was somehow melded into Telen's plate mail armor, and by looking at it at least two inches would also be in his flesh. He turned and grabbed Connie by the throat, lifting her from the ground effortlessly. "You will -"

But whatever he thought she would do, Hammersmith had other plans. She was there impossibly fast, and crushed his wrist in her hand. Telen dropped Connie and pulled away, swinging his sword at Hammersmith who let it strike her in the neck so that she could get right up to Telen and slam her fists on either side of his helm. The blade that had cut right through both of my friends without stopping failed to sever Hammersmith's head from her body, whereas the sides of Telen's helmet dented dramatically inwards with the force of her blow. He managed to kick Hammersmith hard enough to make her take a step back, and then he vanished - I spun wildly looking for where he would appear, but there was no sign of him.

"Let's go," Hammersmith said, "back to the fort immediately." There was a line of blood on her neck, but as I watched metal coated over it. The other enemy soldiers were running, clearly not wanting to take on anyone that made Telen retreat. I broke from the group and sprinted to Betrad's body, but when I reached it I could see I was too late - his eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Some tiny motion or sound caused me to look to my right, and I saw the masked woman perched in a second story window. One hand was clutched to her chest and wrapped in a bandage, but the other was crackling with red lightning. She reached out, pointing at me, and I felt my blood run with ice as I stared at the spell that was about to take my life.

The window exploded with lightning, but it was aimless. The woman shrieked as it struck her, the building behind me, the dead soldiers. I took cover inside the nearest doorway and a moment later Hammersmith stepped in beside me.

Shielding me with her body, she scanned every window. "Seems clear now. What happened?"

"A spellcaster," I said, unsure what information was important. "Uh. She lost her staff, and hurt her hand, and I think that made it so she couldn't aim properly."

Hammersmith looked thoughtful. "Not a spellcaster, then. A wild mage. It's unreliable, dangerous. We'll keep an eye out."

She yelled orders to some of her men that had only just arrived, and then got us moving. Remembering Connie's desire for me to stay out of the fortress, I started trying to come up with an argument for going back to the apartment despite the attack. The attack had been desperate, and had failed. Surely they wouldn't have the resources to keep throwing at Theramas. And while obviously it was tragic and horrible it hadn't been... oh.

There were so many bodies. Almost all were from the Empire, with only a few in Halenvar uniforms. It wasn't just that, there was... well, gore. Someone was smeared all down the wall of the fort. Others were in pieces. The hairy guy, the one that had grown so huge and started to climb the wall, was nowhere to be seen. I heard Katrin throwing up somewhere behind me, but Hammersmith didn't even slow down or make an effort to go around the bodies - she just stepped over them, dragging Connie along as Kern dragged me.

"Calliope - Constance, whatever - I cannot begin to tell you how stupid, how insane that was," she said, "You put everyone's lives at risk."

Connie rolled her eyes. "I had to save my sister."

"You have to save all of us," Hammersmith countered, "I can't allow this to happen again."

I looked over at Connie, and she looked back and nodded. She'd stretched Hammersmith's promise too far - she was going to be kept under guard at the fortress all the time now. Same for me. Logically I knew my feeble attempts at coming up with a reason to get to stay at the apartment were not just bad but embarrassing, and I should be glad to be in the fort; this attack showed that Halenvar was after us specifically, and would take serious risks to get to us. Locked up in the fortress we would be safe. My mind flashed to Betrad, impaled on that sword. What if it was safer for everyone else to not be near me? It wasn't a rational thought - it was more that despite everything I was still trying to justify an escape, and I knew Connie was doing the same.

Bill had sat me down at one point, to talk to me about running away. He'd asked why I did it, and he was so infuriatingly genuine about it that I even really tried to answer. But like so many things in my fucked up brain I wasn't entirely sure. Maybe I didn't like being told what to do, and wanted to be in control. Maybe it was some stupid emotional thing and I was trying to reject others before they could reject me. But probably, even if it was a little of those other things, I just thought it was fun and I had shitty impulse control.

He'd given me his card, and just said "this whole system stinks, I know. But it's dangerous to run around on the streets, sleep in abandoned buildings, eat out of dumpsters. You're too clever for me, Calliope, even if I were there with you the whole time. I could never stop you from running off and doing something stupid. So the best I can do is ask you to think about it, do some risk assessment first, and to be willing to call me if you get into trouble. That's my personal cell phone on the back - I don't care if it's one in the morning or if they've reassigned me or whatever, if you call I'll come and get you. I'd rather you just stay put at the group home, but I'll settle for a promise that you'll call if you need it."

I had thought about calling him, when I was in the police station after Universal Servicing Systems. I almost did. Instead I waited it out, and eventually someone came and took me to... whatever shitty group home was after that. Somewhere forgettable. I had the insane thought for a moment that I should call him and ask him to take me away from Hammersmith, then wondered if there was anywhere on this world where my cell phone would magically get service if I somehow got it working. Almost certainly not.

But one part of Bill's talk did still apply. If I was going to sneak away and go on an adventure, I needed to acknowledge that it was a stupid and bad idea and I needed to do some risk assessment. In that moment I was sore, cold, tired, and emotionally drained. Katrin was out of mana after making what was, in retrospect, probably a razor-thin shield strong enough for those soldiers to cut themselves apart on. Connie would be out of mana too, given that she'd said rewinding time used basically everything she had. Errod had probably completely used up the charge on Betrad's shield pin when he fell off the roof, in addition to losing his sword. That last part possibly made Errod safer, if I was honest, but otherwise it was a bad situation. Whatever we decided to do next, right now was the worst possible moment to run away.

Knowing that didn't make it easier to hear the door slam shut behind us.