Cheryl was having the most boring day in the world, it felt like. Tola had sent her a text message that he was “in town” earlier, now she just had to suffer through a completely mundane shift at Ida Grove Emergency Vet Clinic. At least it was a nice day out, which she got to enjoy for a little bit as she took her break up on the building’s roof.
A group of deep voices caught her attention, since they were strangely loud. She was not prepared for the sight of green-skinned giants emerging from the woods along the road. They seemed puzzled by the sight of the buildings, and they stopped to poke with confusion at a car in the parking lot. One punched it in the front grill, causing it to chirp its alarm and honk its horn. That made the ogre jump in surprise, and earned him derisive laughter from the others. One hit him for his cowardice, and he hit back, and then others joined in. But before it could really escalate into a full brawl, one caught sight of her atop the roof and shouted for the others’ attention. “Uhn! Idiots! Human!” Any hope that this could be a peaceful greeting was lost when they started arguing over who’d get to kill this one first.
Running quickly down the stairs, she burst into the lobby. The others were already staring in confusion out the windows and didn’t even notice her arrival. “Quick! Barricades! We need to block them! Don’t let them in!” While people were dragging desks over, she pulled out her phone and called the mage.
Glass cracked and buckled, but the shards sliced at green arms that tried to reach through. Techs were adding more furniture, but they were running out. Screams filled the air, human terror and ogre bloodlust.
“Hey, Cheryl, what’s up?” The pleasant greeting was out of place, but she was glad to hear the voice at all.
“Tola! Holy shit, ogres! Like Hamfist! A bunch of ‘em, they’re trying to break in! You gotta get here!” Glass shattered again, and one of the techs swore as pieces rained down on them, but they managed to only be scratched a little.
Her coworker on the front desk backed away. “I think it’s holding, but I don’t– What if it breaks, what do we do?”
The mage’s voice called out from the speaker. “What?! Uh, if you can be safe, good, but if you have to evacuate, get to downtown. Uh, the Courthouse building. I’ll try to get there, can you keep this line open and update me?”
Someone had the idea to throw cleaning chemicals in the ogre’s faces, which slowed their assault and added more screams to the air. Another was jabbing with a broom handle through the barricade. Cheryl tried to make sense of the chaos surrounding her, but there was so much motion all around her. Tola was barking information as best he could to someone in the background.
The tone had changed, the defenders growing more bold and taunting the monsters. The ogres were getting frustrated with their lack of progress. They wanted to kill some humans, they didn’t want to have to struggle this much. There’d be easier ones elsewhere. A bellowed roar came from the back of their group, ordering them to move on.
It had only been ten minutes at the most, but it had felt like an eternity to the crew of the vet clinic. Almost as suddenly as it had begun, silence fell, leaving only ragged breathing as they surveyed the wreckage of the front lobby.
“Okay, we’re on our way! Hang tight, we’ll be there as fast as we can!” Tola shouted over the sounds of doors slamming.
Cheryl, stunned, had to catch her breath. “They… They ran? They’re gone. What just happened? What’s going on?” The others started to ask themselves that same question.
Around that same time, in a park to the north, Mandy and her parents were enjoying the nice day to have a picnic lunch. Mandy had planned to head over to see Ro and Tola, so she had her duffel bag with her armor in the trunk of her parents’ car. The whole time she was trying to have a nice talk, her mind kept drifting back to it and the life she shared with Ro on Terra.
“I can’t believe that school of yours won’t let you have any communication. What if something happens out there?”
“Mom, I’m sure that if there’s an emergency, calls will get made. The policy is just to keep people focused on their studies, after all. I’m fine, trust me!” Mandy took another bite of her sandwich. The green surrounding her was nice, but she was still surrounded by technology and houses in the distance. It was nice to be back home, but at the same time, she wished her parents would stop harassing her so much.
Her dad spoke up. He usually kept quiet, letting his wife do most of the speaking, and it reminded her of those sitcoms of the 50’s. “You can’t blame us for worrying, Amanda. You’ll always be our little girl. Some day you’ll have kids of your own, and you’ll know what it’s like.”
Eesh, that was not a conversation she was ready to get into. “It’ll probably be a while, I’ve got… a lot going on, you know that. Maybe after Ro and I graduate?” Maybe they’d adopt. They’d have to pick a spot to settle down, and they hadn’t even discussed that. Would it be Earth or Terra, even?
“What does Ro have to do with it? Wait, you’re not in one of those… polycule things I’ve read about online, with that man with the dog, are you? What was his name again?” Her mother waved her sandwich at Mandy for emphasis. “He better not be filling your head with that sort of garbage, you should be working on finding a nice man that’ll treat you right.”
Mandy let out an exasperated sigh. “No, mom, it’s not like that at all. He’s nice, but we’re not–” The sound of screaming cut her off, and someone else from the park came running past her table. Quickly, she stood up to get in front of him. “You there, what’s happening?”
The panicked man blinked at the commanding tone, pausing a moment to answer the question. “Monsters! Huge ones, green, two of them! Oh God, they– they caught someone, there was so much blood… A-and they just laughed, while he screamed!” He pointed in the direction he came from, before screaming and running again.
Her parents went pale, with her mother putting a hand to her chest and whispering “My word! Do… Should we be running too?”
Mandy snatched the car keys off the picnic table. “You two get downtown, Tola said they’d be setting up something in the Courthouse for emergencies.” Without another word, she took off running towards the car, slowing down only enough to look for the button that opened the trunk.
Instead of listening, her parents hurried after her, though they couldn’t keep up very well. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Opening the duffel bag, she frowned. She didn’t have time to get her armor on, but she could at least strap her shield to her arm. With that and her sword, she looked in the direction that had been pointed earlier. “I’m going to stop the monsters. People are in danger! Get to safety, and gather anyone else you find!”
It wasn’t long before she found the two ogres. The pair had split off from the main troop, but she didn’t know about that, just that she had a fight on her hands. Each one stood close to ten feet tall, but their movements were slow and lumbering. Seeing her, they recognized her as a threat to deal with before they could go back to having their fun. Behind them, a bloody, ragged corpse lay on the ground in an expanding pool of blood, an arm and a leg torn off and laying nearby.
The first charged in, swinging his fist in a heavy strike. She dodged most of it, and used her shield to deflect the rest of the momentum. Retaliating, she thrust the sword into the gut of the beast. While it hollered in pain, it didn’t really react beyond that. She pulled back and it readed another punch, swinging in the same manner as before, despite the dark purple blood oozing from its wound.
She dodged, and did the same with another identical punch. This time, she swung the blade down, severing the arm just above the elbow with surprising ease. There wasn’t even a bone showing from the stump. That was strange, wasn’t it? But the only ogre she’d fought before was Hamfist, and that was just a human using a pendant.
The second had tried to flank her, throwing the same punch as the first. They were slow and clumsy, but she couldn’t let herself get caught by underestimating them. But then the first did something she didn’t expect, he tried to throw a punch with the severed arm. It was so strange that she almost forgot to pay attention to the other ogre as the first whiffed, dripping purple ooze everywhere.
Every single time they attacked, they were throwing the same punch, like a cheap video game with only one attack animation. That couldn’t be normal! But it did make things easier. Using her shield to block a hit, she ignored the stinging in her arm. Her sword danced, slicing upwards across the ogre’s front, and then downwards across his back as she let the momentum guide her footwork. The beast stumbled, and she drove her blade up into his chest, again not finding things like bones to impede her strike.
The ogre fell, collapsing to the ground as she pulled her sword free. The first one with the missing arm seemed to finally realize he needed to change his movements, swinging his intact arm in a wide swing that she ducked under just in time. On the return, it slammed again into her shield, and her arm was getting dangerously heavy.
With a step back, she bought herself room to leap forward, the purple-coated steel flashing as it severed the ogre’s neck completely, her feet hitting the ground just before the creature’s head, followed by its body.
The threat was over. Catching her breath, she surveyed the field. The green-skinned bodies were starting to evaporate, purple mist rising from them, leaving behind only a splattering of purple sludge. She drove the sword’s point into the dirt so she could take out her phone, dialing her girlfriend. “Ro! We’ve got a big one. Two ogres just attacked Pin Oak Park. We’ve got at least one dead, possibly more. Where are you?”
“There’s more! They’ve been spotted heading up 5th, I’m on my way to stop them! Police are trying to evacuate, Miss Hearthbloom is trying to get the siren going but they’re like, complaining that it’s only for tornadoes or something.”
“I’ll try to catch up and help. My parents should be– …Right here, staring at me. Hold on.” The older couple was watching their daughter casually report on slaying the pair of monsters in shock. “I told you guys to get to safety! What are you doing?”
Her mom took a couple tries to actually get words out. “W-we couldn’t just leave you! But you… You just… Is this what you’re learning at that school? How to… fight with that thing?”
If she was going to have to talk, she’d at least get some armor on. Strapping pieces onto her body, she let irritation come through her voice. “Among other things, but yes! You didn’t think this stuff was just decoration, did you?”
“Don’t talk to your mother like that, young lady!” The response was snapped without thinking. “But… What were those things?”
“Don’t know. Ogres? They weren’t like the other one we fought. I’ll have to ask Tola, he’s the mage with the training. Ro’s getting pretty good at magic, though. Gotta run.” With her helmet on, she grabbed the hilt of her sword and ran to the east. Only a few months ago, this would’ve slowed her down and wore her out, but all the exercises and training made it feel like a second skin.
Sirens blared in the distance as the town’s few police cars and ambulances did their best to clear the roads. At the intersection of 5th and Quimby, Ro stood, watching down the street. Janice arrived and started directing townsfolk towards the Courthouse, and a nervous-looking Roffil got out of the car.
The robed mage stood beside the blonde woman. “So you’re the Mirror Magus I’ve heard mentioned? I think I’ve seen you around the Guild.”
Ro nodded without taking her eyes off the road. “Yeah, I guess that’s me? I don’t get what, like, the big deal is? But then again, I’m pretty new to this whole magic junk.”
“Hmph.” Roffil snorted derisively. “Mage Tola said something similar, that he’s ‘new’ to practicing. What is it about Earth and powerful mages?”
“Dunno. Mandy couldn’t wrap her head around it, and she was at the Guild with me. So, like, not ALL us Earth people are gonna… step on your toes or whatever.”
The Terra native watched the people running, wanting to join them. Monsters were for the battle mages to fight, or the knights, or hired swords. People as great as him shouldn’t have to be here where there’s danger! He was just about to complain when Ro raised her arm and pointed. A group of figures were marching up the road towards them. Green-skinned giants, heading towards the main part of the town. “What do we do…? There’s… so many of them!”
Ro pursed her lips in a grim stare. “We do our best. Janice will tell the police to come here, Tola is on his way, we just need to stop these ogres from getting past here and hurting anyone else.” The sound of the tornado siren, the steady rising and falling, echoed but everyone was already too busy to pay attention to it.
At the sight of some targets, the ogres broke into a run as excited warcries rang through the air. Suddenly, a three-foot wide wall of stone burst up from the ground as Ro raised both hands, the lead ogre slamming face-first into it. The group halted, pausing to laugh at the misfortune of the one rubbing at his face, before they went around the wall. Roffil watched in amazement as another burst from the ground, the first falling apart without magic to hold it together. Every time they took another step, another wall would burst up. The road was a mess, but they were still coming closer, and Ro was starting to show exhaustion.
She was breathing heavily, sweat dripping from her face. Her teeth gritted, she spared a moment to glare at the mage next to her. “Any time you want to help would be great, you know!”
Roffil turned red at that. “I-I don’t… know that spell you’re using! I only know one combat spell, and… and I have to wait until they’re closer.”
One split off from the group and tried to circle around towards Ro’s right. Her body burned, her very soul ached, but she formed a block of ice around the creature’s head. Bringing her hands together, she made the frozen cube shatter, including the frozen flesh trapped inside. With the catastrophic damage, the body fell to the ground, oozing thick purple ichor.
But the walls were coming slower, and the remaining ogres were advancing faster.
Tires screeched as a car pulled up behind them. Alice the intern gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, and Tola barely hesitated before leaping out the back, stopping only to open the back door for me. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he gave her a light squeeze. “You’re doing great, Ro.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I stood at his side as he surveyed the battlefield. Ro had switched tactics to try to squeeze them together with her walls, pin them in place to make them easier to hit. I was still disguised as a dog, we didn’t need panicked people taking shots at me and we might not have time to explain that the dragon is friendly.
Tola raised his arm, creating three lances of ice that glinted in the sun, and fired them at the lead ogre that charged forward. One thunked into its stomach, another into its chest, and the third into its face. Down, the ogre went, ice crunching under the weight of its corpse. The rest still advanced.
One ogre, the furthest from the group, broke and ran to the south, perhaps showing an uncharacteristic spark of intelligence. I thought it might be the fear of watching its allies being mowed down, but then I heard the scream of a human, one of the townsfolk that was watching from a distance instead of following the directions to safety. “I got that one, keep the group under control!” I shouted for the others to hear, taking off running to chase the ogre chasing a civilian.
The remaining beasts were nearly on top of the group, the mages backing up to keep out of reach. Ro was too worn out, and Alice was ushering her into the car. Sirens got louder as one of the police cars arrived, the officers aghast at the sight in front of them. They watched just in time as Tola speared a third, but there were too many to take down before the others would reach him.
The officers were firing at the green brutes, but handguns simply pierced through, barely slowing them down. The ogres didn’t do more than flinch, the holes left behind too small to stop them. One ducked into the car, pulling out the shotgun from the center, and got in closer to get a clear shot. That had a much greater effect, blasting a chunk out of the creature’s midsection. Another shot, and it fell backwards and stopped moving. The purple mass oozed that same ichor-like blood, a thick sludge that pooled on the ground.
One bore down on Roffil, the freshly-graduated mage stumbling backwards, falling onto his rear. In a panic, he flung his arms out, forming the runes into the formation drilled into him during his studies. Glowing red blades of energy lashed out, slicing through green and purple flesh, severing limbs, and causing chunks of ogre to collapse down on top of him in a pile. He scrambled from the front line, only getting a few steps before retching onto the pavement. The pieces didn’t have any structure within them, the creatures were without bones or organs.
There were only two left. Tola barely had time to take one down with lances of ice while the officer was frantically reloading his shotgun. Just as the last one was about to land a hit, the roaring of a car engine and squealing tires distracted it, as Alice slammed the front of her car into the monster. When it tried to get to its feet, it met its end with the thunderclap of the firearm.
The silence was deafening, idling engines and heavy breathing the only sounds for the moment, each survivor hearing their own heartbeat thudding in their ears. From each of the bodies, a purple smoke-like mist started to rise, as the bodies broke apart into dust.
Janice trembled, leaning against Alice’s car. “Is… Is it over?”
Tola breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “It looks like it. They don’t seem to be getting back up. I think we might have won.”
Roffil was shuddering at the purple mess coating his clothes. “It… It really tried to kill me… I-I’ve never been in… in real combat before.”
The clanking of armor signaled Mandy’s arrival, panting after her run. Surveying the carnage, she shook her head. “Sorry I… couldn’t get here… sooner… Ro?” Tola gestured at the car, and Mandy rushed to it, the relief clear on her face as she saw the resting girl.
“She’ll be fine, she’s just going to be very tired for a few days, I think.” Tola patted her on the shoulder. “Any word on other sightings?”
Roffil looked around. “Where did that… dog of yours go?” He glanced to the officers during his pause, deciding to go with what the disguise showed while speaking in their presence.
While the battle raged behind me, I was running. Digging claws into the ground, pulling myself forward, nearly flying across the ground like a dog-disguised missile. I was closing in on the ogre, but it was closing in on the poor man. The creature seemed to not even notice my chase, though it was hard to tell. Away from the battle, I realized something. My “magic sense” was reacting to these ogres the way it would an active spell. What did that mean?
We rounded one corner, entering the residential area instead of only skirting the edge. The man tried banging on a door, but if anyone was home, they were hiding. His pleading cries were met only with the highs and lows of the tornado siren, costing him valuable distance. After the second door, he tried ducking into a narrow opening between two houses, but he couldn’t climb the tall wooden fence between them. The ogre grinned as the man cowered in fear, turning to block the opening.
But that pause to gloat let me catch up. With a growling roar, I launched myself through the air. Coming from its side, my front claws dug into its chest. My back half swung through the air with momentum to make it spin three quarters around, stumbling the few steps needed to pull it out of sight of its intended victim and landing on its back. Huge meaty hands tried to swat at me as it flailed about, but I unleashed a blast of fire directly into its face until it laid still. Surprisingly, the entire head was gone with nothing left behind, just a large area of blackened grass. Come to think of it, my claws should probably have found ribs when they sliced through green skin, but they hadn’t. I took a moment to inspect it closer, still feeling the almost electrical feel of raw magic in the air, coming from the body. The purple flesh wasn’t even muscle, it was just… a spongy sort of texture that oozed some sort of thick substance instead of blood?
The feeling of “leaky magic” only got worse as it started to dissolve in front of me, making me jump back. Even the smell was wrong, it didn’t smell like a living creature at all. Like a parody of one, a leather bag of congealed pudding that stank of dirt and rot, but not sweat or anything else.
Footsteps on grass behind me snapped me out of my distraction, and I turned to face the scared and confused man I’d just rescued. “Uh… good dog? Thanks?”
I stared back at him with my draconic eyes. How was I going to get across what I needed to? Well, heck with it, he’d already seen ogres and magic. “Thank goodness you’re not hurt. Follow me, I’ll take you back to the others, and they can help get you to the Courthouse, okay?”
“You can talk.” The shock he was already in wasn’t really letting him formulate a question, all he could do was state it while he tried to process it.
“Yes, yes I can. Now let’s hurry, the others might still need me.” I started to walk back the way we’d come, stopping to look back and make sure he was following me.
To his credit, he did. He looked back at the body, but it was already hard to even recognize, the purple mist that rose from it disappeared as the magic that held it together was fading fast. I started to speed up into a jog, urging him to hurry and keep up. “Hey, uh, talking dog? What’s… going on?”
“Short answer? Don’t know. The town was attacked, but… I don’t know what those were. Something feels really wrong about this whole thing.” We were back on Quimby, just a couple more blocks to get back to the main fight.
“I’m following a talking dog that just saved me from some kind of… orc? Like from a video game? And something ‘feels wrong’?” Great, he was slowing down, reaching either his physical limit or his mental one.
I stopped and turned around. “Look, I don’t really have a lot of time to explain, but those ogres– No, those… things were made by magic. Which means they might have been made BY someone. We don’t have details yet, right now we need to focus on the safety of everyone in town. We have to keep moving, all right? Once we get back to the others, someone can take you to shelter.” I turned to move forward again, sorely tempted to leave him behind.
He was following, but not as fast as I’d like. “Magic. What do you mean, ‘magic’?”
“You were watching the fight. You saw wizards using magic to fight ogres. Magic is real, and now it’s in the open, because of those monsters.” The crack of a shotgun echoed through the air, sending a chill down my spine at the memory, but it was followed by silence. The last ogre dropped as we approached. I figured I’d done enough leading, it was time to make sure everyone was okay.
Master knelt down as I came back, and I pushed my head into his hands, tail wagging. “Good to see you, girl.”
The man I brought back was looking around in horror, but the bodies were already fading. The scars of the battle were still present, however. The road was torn up, purple stains were everywhere, and most of the participants were still in shock. Alice’s car had a huge dent in the front of it. The two officers were driving off in the direction the ogres had come from, to try to gather information.
There was no point keeping quiet anymore. “Everyone all right here?” Master nodded, so I continued. “I’m sure you noticed, but these weren’t… regular living beings. The magic involved in making them, it’s… overpowering, how strong it was.”
“We got a bit of an… impromptu autopsy, thanks to Roffil.” He nodded over at the mage who was leaning on Alice’s trunk, talking with Janice who was also on her phone. “We’ve got a lot of questions, and we don’t have answers. And we have about two thousand people who are going to want answers.”
Janice came over, apparently done talking with Roffil. “Good news, there’s no other reports of these things. Bad news, we’ve found six dead so far. Still, it could have been much, much worse without you guys, so you have my thanks. Just… please tell me you have something I can tell everyone.”
Master shook his head. “We don’t have much. It’s possible they came through a Storm somehow, but there’s no telling where they arrived on Earth or why they came here. And there’s quite a lot about them that’s just… odd.”
Roffil made his way over, still looking pretty pale, but he seemed to have mostly recovered. It probably helped that there was little left of the carnage. “I’m afraid I’m no expert. I’ve only heard stories about them in other lands. I never thought I’d fight a real ogre myself.”
“I’m not sure you have.” Mandy was cleaning her sword with a cloth. “The way they moved, the way they were built… They felt, I dunno, fake? Can magic make fake ogres? I mean, not fake like Hamfist was, but… I mean, things don’t usually dissolve like that, right?”
At that, Roffil nodded. “That is true. That’s usually what a summoned creature does. Well, it’s called ‘summoned’, but that’s not completely accurate. But to be able to summon so many at once? Who could do such a thing? And why?”
Before anyone could ask more questions, something happened. The air felt heavy and Wrong in a way that defied explanation. Master seemed to feel it too, as he was looking around for the source. It was like a thick, oppressive blanket was laid on top of everything, but it was coming in waves.
Janice shuddered as well, but the others looked puzzled. “You… You guys feel that too? What is that?”
“Feel what?” Roffil raised a hand, palm up, as if checking for rain.
Master was holding a hand to his head, trying to push past a headache. “It’s… I don’t know… It’s like there’s something in the air.”
I hadn’t wanted to believe it, but there was no denying it. It was energy. Raw magic, not even a spell. It was a Storm, except it wasn’t just from one direction. “It’s… everywhere! It’s all around us! How…? Oh no, look, the sky!”
In horror, we all watched as the gray void rose from above the horizon, circling the town in all directions, rising up and coming together in a dome that surrounded the city. It was like an overcast day, except the “clouds” had that subtle shifting haze like television static and there was the nauseating sensation that the world beyond them was gone.
Screams rose up from the distance.
We were encased.
At the Courthouse, a huge crowd was gathered, a sea of people that spread out for blocks. Janice, standing on the steps, was speaking into a megaphone to address the crowd. “Everyone, please! Do not panic! The situation is dire, but we can only get through this if we can remain calm!” The tornado siren that continued to wail undercut those words.
The crowd was hardly calm, shouting questions, but it was clear that many of them were the same ones over and over. Janice was flanked by the rest of us. Ro and Mandy on one side, Tola, myself, and Roffil on the other. The town’s meager police presence was trying to keep the crowd orderly, or at least prevent them from rushing the steps, but if panic erupted, they wouldn’t be enough.
Janice continued, trying to address the people. “We don’t know exactly what is happening. As far as we can tell, an Unmaker Storm is surrounding the entire town, BUT we are not inside the phenomenon itself! We still have hope! We have been working with the world’s foremost experts on the Storms to create a device that can protect us!” She gestured at Tola and Roffil. “These men have been hard at work for months already. Now, whatever you do, do NOT try to make your way through the Storm! It is not simply rain, and anything that passes through that Storm Wall WILL be lost! That includes people! For your own safety, stay away from the Storm, stay within the town!
“To address concerns: Yes, communication is down. Cell phones are not working, land-based phone lines outside of town aren’t working. We can’t access the internet. As long as that Storm is present, we are cut off from the rest of the world. But the Storm will pass! It might be hours, it might be days, but it will pass! Once it does, we can repair any damage and life will return to normal!
“Second: The local power station has enough fuel to keep power on. However! Please try to avoid using unnecessary power, we don’t know how long we’ll need to keep our reserves going. That means keeping air conditioners and other high-powered devices off as much as possible to reduce consumption.
“Third: Regarding the attackers earlier. We… do not have much information about them. They have been stopped, the danger is over! But we do not yet know where they came from, or if they are related to the Storm around us. We are investigating the theory that they were artificially created and sent by an unknown person. We will mourn the six lives that were lost, but we cannot let that interfere with ensuring safety and survival right now. We’ll hold a service after the emergency is over.
“Finally: We will be giving an announcement every day at seven PM for the duration of the emergency, with any new details and updates on the situation. Also, if you have emergency radios, we can transmit on them, and on KKIA 92.9 FM. All other stations are broadcast from outside the town and thus blocked by the Storm. We’ll be turning off the siren soon, but if it comes on again, everyone is urged to head here to the Courthouse immediately.
“Thank you for your understanding. Remember, we can get through this if we work together! We are a community, we are here for one another, and we will make it if we all help each other! Now, please return to your homes and your daily life as much as possible.”
The crowd didn’t sound happy as they slowly began to disperse. Janice slumped, sighing heavily as she watched. “So much for keeping the secret of magic. I’ve probably only got a couple days before I have to admit everything. Mr. Roffil, please tell me that prototype of yours is viable. In the meantime, I want to talk to Mr. Korrigan about evacuation plans. This Storm, it… I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels… malevolent. I want people out of harm’s way as soon as possible.”
Roffil shifted his weight uneasily from one leg to another. “It’s never been tested, of course, but the theory should be sound. With one main device and six ‘echo crystals’ enhancing its range, it should be able to cover the town. There might be some outlying areas that won’t be covered, but we can evacuate those. I have all the materials for the device, but the crystals… They’ll have to be large, and cut very specifically. We’ll probably have to get those through the Guild.”
“Hopefully this doesn’t interfere with the Mirror.” Tola scowled at the sky, or lack thereof. “I also don’t know how we’re going to handle two thousand refugees on Terra. Shelter, food, water, hygiene… These people aren’t exactly used to going without plumbing, and while I’ve got some designs for magic replacements, it’s going to take time to set that up. And that’s not even counting the materials. I’m not gonna lie, this is not a good situation.”
Shaking her head, Janice sighed again. “So much for being ‘Protector of Ida Grove’. Less than a year, and there’s a good chance it’ll be destroyed. Well, at least I don’t have to worry about a re-election campaign, right?” She gave a weak chuckle, but seeing nobody else laughing, she just shook her head again.
“Speaking of secrets being revealed.” Roffil eyed me with a suspicious glare. “Mage Tola, I hate to ask, but… Did I hear your pet talk, back during the battle against those creatures?”
Oh, oops. Well, what's done is done. “Yes, Roffil, you did hear me talk.”
“And none of you were going to tell me about this?” His tone was that of someone utterly hurt and offended.
It got under my skin more than it should've. I let the anger creep into my voice with a hiss. “We have much more important things to worry about than, say, the time you paralyzed me and used me as bait to lay a trap for my Master. Or the other ways you've treated me horribly every time we've met. So yes, I wasn't going to tell you, because I don't like you.”
“For the record, I'm not thrilled with you either, but you've come a long way from the child who demanded I give him my partner simply because he thought he'd look good with a dragon as a fashion accessory.” Master was being more cordial than I was willing to be, so I stayed quiet. “And I must admit that your knowledge and skill have been invaluable with Project Stormshield. So even if I'm still not a fan of your personality, I'm grateful to have you working with us and am willing to show you the respect you deserve.”
The younger mage seemed to be placated by the words, though he was still a little huffy as he made his way off the steps. I put a paw on Master's foot, my voice low as he bent down. “Did you really mean all that about respecting him?”
He smirked lightly at me. “To be honest, it made me want to throw up a little. But you'll notice I didn't exactly say how much respect he deserves. That said, I'll suck up to his ego if it means helping the people of the town.”