The Tursken Tavern was off limits to children but that never stopped Lucy and her friends. There wasn’t usually much there besides boring adults doing boring adult things like drinking and fighting but sometimes, very occasionally, Ben Rosk, the Old Storyteller, would go in there for a drink. It was on those days that Lucy would send Little Scrag to watch the tavern all night and make sure Ben didn’t come out. Then, in the early hours of the morning, she’d go and wake everyone else up. They’d all creep to Little Scrag’s hiding place and he’d assure them that Ben was still in there. Their little group, gathered outside the tavern, would venture in, catching a glare from the owner, to find Ben sitting at his table, empty tankards all around him, waiting for them.

When Ben saw them a smile would crack his old bearded face and a twinkle would light his eye as they all piled in next to him, waiting for his latest story. As the tavern owner cleaned up after all the other patrons, and as their parents all slept silently in their beds back home, Lucy and her gang would listen to a story.

Today Ben leaned back and with a knowing grin he sipped the last dregs from a tankard. He set it down and said. “Well children, have I got a story for you today. This one’s got it all, magic, monsters, a cunning tricketty villain. It is, if I do say so myself, quite possibly the best story I know. And it’s all true, every last word of it.”

He winked his twinkling eyes and the children leaned in in excitement. Lucy was skeptical that it would be all true, she was getting a bit old to believe everything Ben said. But the younger kids would believe him and that was good enough for him, so he began.

“This story is about demons, specifically one rather tricky demon called Malthrys. And it is about sorcerers, a very important story for sorcerers. And it is also,” he said, pausing for effect. “About elementals.”

A boy sat in the great barrack of Castle Elkring looking over his mother who lay asleep in one of the many beds that now filled it. She was sick, dying he suspected, just like everyone else. The boy had a sickness too, fits of nausea that swept through his body, taking away his sight, his feelings, his thoughts. They would pass and he would be left dazed and confused, sometimes for hours. But his sickness wasn’t visual, it was something he could hide. So hide it he did, for there were others who needed the help more.

His mother, for example. She had the purple plague as they called it. Her limbs were turning purple and swollen and slowly rotting away. She was kept sedated, the pain was too great they said. The boy did not think she would ever wake up.

Beside his mother was an old woman, one of the mysterious witches of the Oaken Court. The nice witch, the one who had been helping so much in the hospital before she too had fallen sick. Even with all the patients from the whole city she had still found time to talk to him and his mother. To whisper in her kindly way with her big watery eyes. She hadn’t told them anything good, everything seemed to be going wrong. But she had made them feel safer anyway. They were in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing.

The boy looked at the sleeping old woman. They were no longer in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing.

The boy sat there for hours, relishing the time he had before another bout of nausea swept him. People moved in and out of the hospital visiting loved ones. Some stayed like him, others moved through checking different beds, looking for people, hoping those they looked for hadn’t been moved off to the great pyre out from the city where they burned the dead. One figure moving through the beds caught the boy’s eye. She was not like the other figures, sunken in sorrow and dread, and often their own sicknesses. She moved quickly and with a spring in her step, each step bouncing the large floppy hat that sat on her head.

She moved through the beds, checking each one. As she drew closer the boy saw she held a bowl of something and she cradled it dearly as she fretted over each bed. Eventually she reached him and smiled down at him from beneath her large floppy hat. It was difficult to see in the dark but her smile looked kind, a bit like the kindly witch who lay beside him.

She reached the witch and jumped in surprise, almost spilling whatever was in her bowl. The boy watched as she calmed herself and hoisted the woman’s head beneath some pillows before carefully pouring whatever was in the bowl down her throat.

The boy stood up, desperately praying no bouts of nausea would take him now.

“What are you doing?” he whispered. This woman looked nothing like the nurses and physicians that frequented the hospital. Perhaps she was a witch but she was like no witch he’d ever seen.

The woman turned to him and her face broke out in a big smile. She stepped up to him, bringing the bowl with her. “What am I doing? Well that would take a lot of explaining and we don’t have long.”

The boy frowned. “Why don’t we have long?”

The woman’s grin faded a bit and she looked down at what was left in her bowl, a small amount of broth, the rest poured down the old witch’s throat. She looked back at him and smiled some more. “We don’t have long because an old friend of mine doesn’t want us to be here. And they are going to make sure that we aren’t here very soon. So it’d be best if we leave now.”

“Leave? The hospital?”

“No no no,” the woman said, shaking her head and by extension her floppy hat. “Leaving the hospital won’t do at all, we have to leave the city.”

“Leave the city?”

“Yes, you and your mother here, and everyone else, needs to leave the city. I’m putting you in charge of organising it, think you can handle that?”

“Um...”

“Here, have some of this to help.” She shoved the bowl in his face and before he knew it he was drinking it. It was warm and soothing and gone far too quickly. She took the bowl away and he wanted to ask for more.

“What... what was that?” he asked.

“That,” the woman said slowly, rolling up one of her sleeves to reveal a thin arm underneath. “Was blood,” she held out her arm to reveal a scar, freshly stitched up. The boy almost gagged. “Along with some other things to make it actually work. Frighteningly difficult to make that stuff. Should help though.”

“I... I’m not sick...” the boy lied.

The woman narrowed her eyes and brought her face down to his. She lifted up his eyelids and then opened his mouth to look at his teeth. Then she went cross eyed and stuck out her tongue. He recoiled in surprise. “Definitely sick,” she said sadly. “I have no idea what you’re sick with. You’d have to ask my grandmother, she knows a lot more about these things. But you’ll be sick. Everyone here will be,” she seemed to get a bit more sad, more genuine this time. “Everyone, apart from me.”

“Malthrys was a trickster demon you see,” Ben Rosk continued. “A liar and a con artist made out of masks, hundreds of masks, and he could take the form of any of those masks. He could be anyone, anything, he was the master of lies and deceit. But after tricking other gods and demons as well as plenty of humans he grew bored and decided to try something new. Something that would cause havoc and strife for centuries, perhaps for all of time. He decided to create, a sorcerer.”

Roony, the leader of the Company of Silence and conqueror of Castle Elkring sat on his new throne, looking up at the great Oak Tree before him. The Oaken Court was dissolved, the different witches and rangers and other strange folk dead or scattered to the corners of the world. He’d been expecting to have to fight a sorceress but she’d already been locked up, it seemed all too easy. He liked it when things were easy, that left more time to enjoy the finer rewards. He looked around at the throne room, and what rewards those were.

Embridge lumbered into the throne room, his hulking frame almost as tall as Roony was up on the throne. Embridge had been an excellent addition to the Company of Silence. Brutish as he was he got things done. When Roony had no need for subtlety, Embridge was who he went to. He was a conqueror now, he had no need for subtlety.

Embridge looked up at the throne and Roony could see the faint flicker of firelight, far far behind his eyes. The firelight they all had, that blessing from Raqos that burned away the diseases of this place. The firelight that kept them safe while all around them people died. Never had conquering a city been easier. Embridge began to speak.

“People’re leaving,” he said with that permanent slur he’d picked up on the streets. Roony had hoped the fire would burn that away but alas. “They’re evacuating the barrack and leaving the city. Some girl wiff a staff’s helping ‘em out.”

“What girl with a staff?” Roony asked, intrigued. Was this some member of the Oaken Court? None of them used staffs though, he was sure of it.

“Nossure, we ‘aven’t had a good look at ‘er. What’s left o’ the guard are working for ‘er though. We captured one and he told us what he knew.”

“They’re based at the barrack?” Roony asked.

“Yea.”

“Clear it out, and bring this girl to me.”

Embridge nodded and started to lumber off. He stopped and turned around, holding up a huge hand. “One o’er fing boss.”

Roony grunted in acknowledgement.

“You said we can’t get sick eh?”

Roony nodded slowly, a faint glimmer of panic rising in him.

“Wha’s this then?” Embridge asked pointing to a few black spots on his hand. Roony’s eyes went wide but he calmed himself. Embridge wasn’t a particularly clean fellow, it could be dirt for all he knew.

“It’ll be nothing,” he said confidently. “As I said, we can’t get sick.”

Embridge nodded and lumbered off. Roony sat on his throne and resisted the urge to frantically check his body for black spots. How could they get sick? Everything they had to host a sickness had been burned away, they were sustained by magic now. Creatures sustained by magic couldn’t get sick. Could they?

“You see, Malthrys was a bad demon, a monstrous demon, and he wanted to cause as much strife as possible as much as possible. So he set to work on making sorcerers.”

Lucy coughed in annoyance.

“And sorceresses,” Ben corrected himself, smiling. “But he didn’t want them to be able to use their powers for good. So he decided to give them powers that could only be used for evil. Powers over the elements but only to destroy them. Powers over diseases but no direct power to heal them. And some powers,” he went quiet and the children all leaned in. “That required sex with humans,” he said the children all giggled. Some of the younger children didn’t know what that meant but they giggled anyway along with the older ones. Lucy stayed quiet and stared at Ben, she wanted to know the rest of the story.

“But Malthrys made it so that sex with a sorcerer will destroy a human’s body and sex with a sorceress will destroy a human’s mind,” Ben continued, ignoring the bouts of giggling that sprung up at his words. “So Malthrys had a perfect plan. Creatures that would be born into humans and inevitably destroy them, causing havoc and pain wherever they went, whether they wanted to or not. And that, for Malthrys, made it all the more beautiful.

“But how was he going to create these sorcerers and sorceresses, he wondered. For all of those powers were powers Malthrys himself did not have. For that, he would need, elementals.”

The sorceress languished in her cell thinking about things as the rash spread up her body. She was in agony now, everything itched and when she scratched it too much her skin started to come away. She stopped scratching it, she was a magic creature and who knew if her fingernails counted as a magic weapon. It would be just her luck for it to work that way and wind up with her scratching herself to death in this prison cell.

So instead she entertained herself with her thoughts. Thinking of all the horrible things she could do to Gushkabel for putting her here when she could have helped. She was a sorceress, surely she should be able to help.

But as she imagined herself hurting Gushkabel other thoughts began to creep in. Other thoughts about her and what she could and couldn’t do, what she would and wouldn’t do, what she had and hadn’t done.

It dawned on her that maybe she deserved to be in here. That maybe it was time to accept who she really was. And when it came down to it she knew one thing she definitely was. A serial rapist.

The thought sickened her but she couldn’t deny it was true. Back before she’d met Gushkabel she’d needed to birth monsters and she’d taken whatever men she’d wanted to do it with. She liked to think that because she was a beautiful sorceress they had enjoyed it but she knew that that wasn’t an excuse. How could they enjoy it when they were in her power, under her control?

After meeting Gushkabel she’d gone on to become a courtesan at a brothel. That had given her a supply of men to birth her monsters and she could almost make herself believe they had liked it, they had wanted it. But there were still problems, she knew. Being with a sorceress like that put them completely in her power and that was an effect that never really wore off. None of them would ever be the same people again.

She couldn’t birth monsters, she knew that now. She could never justify doing what she did. And perhaps after doing it for so long she deserved to rot in this prison for a while. She looked at the rash on her arm. She hoped she would be here for a while.

There were footsteps in the prison and she stood up to look, trying to take her mind off that incessant itching. Someone was dragging someone else down to the prison. She narrowed her eyes, she recognised that woman.

Gushkabel was rudely tossed into the cell next to hers and the man dragging her locked her in then sauntered off. The old woman groaned on the other side of the wall.

“What are you in for?” the sorceress asked. After she said it she realised she should probably have tried to keep the hatred and loathing out of her voice.

Gushkabel just groaned for a bit in response. “The Castle has been taken over by the Company of Silence. The king is dead.”

The sorceress’s heart sank. The king was dead! What was going to happen now?

“Can you get us out of here?” Gushkabel asked.

The sorceress thought for a minute and looked around at the cell. It was half stone, half roots of the oak tree that ran through the castle. Roots that were now infested with rot.

“I’m sorry for locking you up in here, and for everything else I’ve done to you” Gushkabel said. “I don’t know what caused this but it wasn’t you. I’m not sure if you can do something like this but I know that you wouldn’t, now.”

The sorceress looked down at her arm. It was awfully convenient that now Gushkabel needed her help, she believed her and was sorry. She hadn’t been sorry when she’d saved the entire city from an invading army. She hadn’t been sorry when she’d told her that the tree was sick. She hadn’t even been sorry when she’d told her that she, the sorceress, was sick! But she was sorry now, now that she needed her help all of a sudden. How awfully convenient.

But the sorceress pushed it all down, all the anger and frustration and dreams of one day taking her revenge. She was sorry, that was all that mattered.

“I can cause an earthquake,” she said, touching the rotting tree roots. “But I’m not sure the tree will survive. I’m not sure the castle will survive.”

“Will I survive?” Gushkabel asked.

“Well...” the sorceress realised she hadn’t really thought about that.

Gushkabel laughed. “Oh don’t worry about me. There’s not a lot I can do anymore, I’m learning that rather quickly now, although still a lot slower than perhaps I should have. The other witches know a lot more than me. I just inherited an incredibly powerful artifact from my mother.”

The sorceress’s eyes narrowed, she didn’t know about this. “What artifact?”

Gushkabel chuckled some more from the other side of the wall. “The Bones of Hahkenata. Some knucklebones that answer any question you’d like. I used them to fight you you know. I asked where you’d stand, I asked what you’d do. So I could set up all my traps and chop you up to put in jars.

I did the same thing to old Ceros, the sorcerer king of Karasar. Everyone thought Randolph killed him with his magic sword but it was really me. Chopping him up like I did you.”

“I killed Ceros in the end,” the sorceress said. “When your house burned down we both crawled out and I killed him.”

“Yes that fire burned up the Bones of Hahkenata, without them I’m not really worth very much as it turns out.”

“Without you Ceros would’ve ruled over Karasar for at least another fifty years.”

Gushkabel grunted. “Without you he would’ve ruled over it for potentially hundreds more. It’s no secret I hate sorcerers, and sorceresses too. I still think that most of you are monsters looking to either dominate or destroy much of humanity and I disagree with a lot of what you’ve done.”

The sorceress nodded to herself sadly, she disagreed with a lot of it too.

“But I think you should destroy this castle right now with me in it. Then you should go out and kill the Company of Silence and take this city back for the people of Castle Elkring. Then I think you should go and fuck yourself.”

The sorceress felt a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “I hate the person that I was. I know now that all the things I thought were justified, weren’t. And you’re right I deserve some form of punishment. But you’re also right that I can’t stay in this castle feeling sorry for myself forever. You may not think you’re worth much but you were worth enough to change me. I think that’s a considerable achievement for an old woman with no magic.”

Gushkabel began to laugh properly now, a good witch’s cackle that echoed through the dungeons as slowly the whole castle began to shake.

“First Malthrys visited all the elementals in charge of the elements. You might think that was all the elementals but you’d be wrong, we’ll be getting to the other ones in a moment. Most of them ignored him completely, for to an elemental a demon or a god is little more than an annoyance, but some, some of them listened. For elementals are complicated creatures, they are vast and unknowable and difficult to talk to. But Malthrys was very good at talking. He spoke to each of them in different ways, trying out a different tactic until he found one that worked. Although each tactic would usually only work once.

“For Eckorunda, the earth elemental, living deep underground he promised jewels and gems of a thousand different kinds if it agreed to give him its power over earthquakes.

“For Shaltharazyx, the storm elemental, living high in the sky he played a game where he danced atop bolts of lightning and after dancing for long enough with none of the bolts hitting him Shaltharazyx agreed to grant him its power over storms.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“For Pyreinhime, the fire elemental, living within the depths of the greatest volcano he promised sacrifices, hundreds and hundreds of them to feed the flames and in exchange it gave him its power over wildfire.

“The other elementals of this kind he spoke to refused to listen no matter what was promised them, so he turned to other, darker elementals. Elementals of blood, and vermin, and plagues.”

Magda awoke to a sickening swaying and jostling as her bed was carried out of the city. She waited for the sickness and nausea to set in and drag her back under but it didn’t. She was awake, she was fine.

“Let me up,” she squawked, waving her skinny arms in the air. The soldiers carrying her dropped her bed in surprise and it jolted painfully to the ground. She muttered at them as she climbed onto unsteady feet. She could feel the little things crawling and wriggling all through her bed, all through her clothes, all over her skin. She knew there would be hundreds of them, thousands, already inside her, in her throat, in her eyes, in her heart. Numbers beyond reason she knew, numbers that could never be counted. Such was the nature of Venesstrifect.

With all those small things inside her causing sickness there was no way she could be healthy. No way, except one.

“Where’s Maeggy,” she demanded of one of the soldiers who had dropped her.

“Uh... uh...” he replied.

“Floppy hat, big staff!” Magda demanded channelling her inner Gushkabel, there was no time to mess around, she had to make things happen. There was nothing quite like a near death experience to make someone more assertive.

“She’s in the barrack still, helping the sick,” the soldier said pointing toward the barrack as though Magda didn’t know where it was.

“Thank you. I’d better be helping her. Give this bed to someone who needs it and carry on soldier.” Magda began to hobble as fast as her old tired legs could carry her back into the city and toward the barrack that had been converted into a hospital. Here and there soldiers were carrying beds like hers out of the city to a large tent that had been set up. That was good, getting them all away from Venesstrifect, it was possible they’d actually live out there. Not likely, but possible, to really ensure that they’d need Maeggy’s blood and she did not have enough blood to go around. Although Magda knew her granddaughter wouldn’t have the heart to not try. She just hoped she wouldn’t be too late to stop her from cutting herself to shreds to save all these people.

Maeggy was feeling quite sick herself back in the barrack. Not from any form of disease, her old friend wouldn’t infect her, but from blood loss. It was so hard to see all this suffering and death and not prevent it when she knew how. She did have to stop herself though, she needed to be fully functioning if she was going to help anyone.

People moved through the hospital, carrying beds and she stood there leaning on her staff, examining people one by one to check and see if they were fit to help or needed to be carried out themselves. She didn’t know all the diseases, it had been a long time since she’d had contact with Venesstrifect and there were a lot of new ones. But she knew far far more than anyone else could possibly know. Because everyone else who had any contact with it died.

Her grandmother hobbled up beside her and Maeggy beamed with joy. “Grandma, you’re alive!” she said happily, throwing her arms around her, her long staff clattering to the ground.

Magda hugged her back, her big watery eyes keenly noticing the many cuts on her arms no matter how much she tried to hide them. “I’ve missed you Maeggy,” she said happily, letting the moment linger for a second. But in truth there was no time to lose. “There are dark forces at work in this city,” she said, breaking away.

“Oh I’ve noticed,” Maeggy replied. “That is why I’m here after all.”

“More than just Venesstrifect,” Magda continued. “You,” she said to a guard who was overseeing the line of patients. “Fetch me as many mugs of water as you can.”

The guard looked confused but Maeggy glared at him with her cartoonish expression of annoyance and he rushed off.

“I admire your control over all these soldiers. People didn’t use to take you seriously.” Magda said.

Maeggy sighed. “I used to have a big strong friend to make people take me seriously but I had to leave her behind when I came here. Luckily when I started fixing people they started listening to me.”

“You haven’t been fixing too many people I hope,” Magda said looking down at Maeggy’s arms which she was quickly brushing sleeves over.

“Not too many, only those who have a chance.”

“Do I have a chance?”

“If you stay here, no. If you leave, maybe.”

The guard came back, his hands interwoven through the handles of an impressive amount of mugs. Each one sloshing with water.

“Excellent work,” Magda congratulated. “Put them down just here,” she patted a bed.

“What’s the water for?” Maeggy asked.

Magda shook her head. “Silly girl, what have I told you about asking questions when around other people? If you assume you know everything I’m doing you’ll look much wiser when I actually do it.”

Maeggy nodded, she was not convinced.

“Do you have a long term plan? I see you’ve relocated everyone to a tent away from the city.”

“That tent is temporary, the people there are being sent off to farmsteads and barns out across the countryside, we need to get everyone as far away as possible, as fast as possible.”

“How large will Venesstrifect grow? This will destroy the Hallowed Realm, you will be needed to-”

“Venesstrifect will not be growing any larger,” Maeggy said sadly, actual sadness this time, not the feigned mock sadness she so often put on.

Magda looked up at her granddaughter with her watery eyes. “But... no... you can’t...”

The door to the barrack burst open and mercenaries from the Company of Silence poured in, swords drawn. People began to scream and run which conveniently meant they all got out of the way.

Magda picked up a mug of water and hobbled forward slowly. A mercenary rushed up to her and began to shout something at her. He barely finished the first syllable before she threw the water all over him and he collapsed in a screaming pile of ash and steam. The other mercenaries stopped in their tracks as Magda picked up another mug and looked at them.

“I am a witch,” she said and sipped her mug of water. They all looked at their fallen comrade on the floor and ran.

“What-” Maeggy asked as the screaming rapidly died down.

Magda hissed at her, interrupting. “What did I tell you about asking questions?”

“These elementals were all too happy to help with Malthrys’s evil plan, for they were all as cruel and sinister as he was. Golgorach, the blood elemental gave him all the powers he wanted and more, powers over minds, powers over bodies, and all these powers he wrapped up in sex just the way Malthrys wanted.”

Ben paused for the giggling but there was less of it this time, they were all too wrapped up in the story, so he continued.

“Zayferalix, the vermin elemental, happily gave Malthrys the power over bugs and spiders and rats and bats and all those other foul creatures that stalk the shadows. For Zayferalix was cruel and petty but also weak of mind and easily bent to the lies of Malthrys.

“Venesstrifect, the plague elemental, was the cruelest and darkest of them all. Malthrys had trouble communicating with it in the first place without becoming afflicted with a horrible plague himself but he was clever and he managed it. Venesstrifect gave him power over plagues for it is a horrible and vile elemental and it wanted these sorcerous creations to be as horrible and vile as possible but there is another side to Venesstrifect, another side we shall get to in just a moment.

“Anyhow, now that Malthrys had gathered up all the powers he wanted he birthed the first of the sorcerers and sorceresses, sending them into the wombs of humans to cause trouble and strife throughout the world.

Malthrys would have kept causing trouble too but he went on to anger the wrong demon. A demon by the name of Qaan, who grew enraged at a prank that had been played on him and hunted Malthrys throughout the world. Now Malthrys was clever and Qaan could not find him so he sought out another demon, Hahkenata, a demon who could see everything. With Hahkenata’s help Qaan found Malthrys and killed him, all that was left of him were his sorcerers and sorceresses.

“And that is the story of the creation of sorcerers and sorceresses. All true, every word.”

Lucy narrowed her eyes at that, she wasn’t sure any of that was true. Especially the parts about elementals. The other children were giggling away, it seemed that they were just enjoying hearing about all the things their parents forbade them to speak of. But Lucy wasn’t here to giggle at the mention of the word sex, she was here to hear stories.

“What about the other side?” she asked.

“Other side?” Ben asked with that twinkle in his eye, he knew exactly what she was talking about.

“Other side to V... Vess... Veness...”

“Oh yes the other side to Venesstrifect,” he said happily and he had all the children’s attention again. “Well that is a story I only heard about recently, it is a most interesting story, about a child. A child who was raised by an elemental.”

Roony marched out of the castle toward the barrack. He had warned all of his men to stay away from water, not to drink it, not to touch it. They didn’t need to drink anymore, they never felt thirsty with the fire burning away inside them. They still had to feed it though, so they still had to eat. But water would burn them and that was a weakness he had thought no one would know. How had this witch known about it? Hadn’t she been dying a few days ago, that had been what his intelligence had told him.

He looked down at his foot, it was in a boot now but there were black spots beneath the boot on his toes. Black spots that shouldn’t be there. Maybe he couldn’t rely on his intelligence, maybe there were things at work here that spies and informants couldn’t tell him. Maybe now he was entering the domain of witches.

At the top of the barrack wall was a long two pronged staff with a woman perched atop it, looking down at them. She looked sickly, just like everyone, but she was grinning wildly beneath her floppy hat.

“Welcome, oh mighty Company of Silence, to the hospital. I truly hope we can cure your conditions.”

“Who are-”

“Behold!” she shouted. “Your affliction has been cured! You can now speak once more! Your silence has been lifted! I hereby dub thee the Company of Moderate Levels of Noise!”

Roony frowned, this was the woman with the staff? Who on earth was she and why was she talking to him like this?

“Who are you?” he asked, motioning for his men to shoot her.”

“Oh I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she said wagging a finger at the men loading bows. “I was willing to parley but everyone else wanted to just tip gallons and gallons of water over you. They think it’s hilarious. Personally I think it’s rather sad that you sold your souls to a demon to burn away disease, leaving you with a gaping weak spot to water, and furthermore...” she said loudly, growing a little agitated now. “You are not even immune to all the diseases! You think Raqos can save you from Venesstrifect?! This is an elemental you’re dealing with! The very beings that created the matter and substance of the world itself! There is one creature in the kingdom! One creature in the world! That can survive living in this city and that creature is not you! So I suggest you run away now before things get really bad!”

Roony held up a hand for the men loading bows to stop. They’d stopped anyway, the mention of water had them on edge. Perhaps he’d made a mistake, perhaps-

The woman perched atop the staff fell off and landed with a thud on the wall, disappearing out of sight. He frowned, that was rather ungraceful, and-

The ground started to shake, he staggered about as around him buildings and structures wove back and forth faster and faster. Things began to break and crack, he staggered to the ground as a rumbling began to echo out from beneath the earth. Then they heard a crack, a terrible crack that echoed through more than just sound and they spun around to see the great oak tree. The tree that had sat at the heart of Castle Elkring for all of living memory and beyond. The tree that had never changed, never moved, until now. They watched the tree topple over, bringing much of the castle itself with it.

As the dust billowed out and they all clung desperately to the ground a faint cackling echoed out over the sounds of rubble settling. Then it stopped, and everything was still.

Roony didn’t wait to see what had happened, through the clouds of dust and debris, he ran. He knew where the gate was and he knew it was open, as he ran he remembered the sorceress. He hoped the rest of his men would distract her long enough for him to make good his escape.

He heard a rolling boom of thunder and the pitter patter of rain behind him. His men began to scream, it didn’t seem likely that they would hold her off for very long.

“A woman, a pregnant woman, was raped by a sorcerer. A tragic tale in its own right and one that is all too common. The woman grew sick from this and worried for her child. The sorcerer left her and only later did he learn she was pregnant, and as such he wanted the child to be his, petty as this sorcerer was.

“The woman and her husband desperately searched for somewhere to hide from this sorcerer and they happened across the Fisher Plain, the home of Venesstrifect. A land stricken by plagues, nothing could live there and the couple hoped they could lure the sorcerer in and then leave him to die while they themselves escaped. Unfortunately, they were wrong. The plagues of Venesstrifect are brutal and the couple barely made it a few steps into the Fisher Plain proper before they became too sick to move. The sorcerer lasted a little longer but he too succumbed.

“The woman and her husband died but not the child. Intrigued by this child Venesstrifect kept it alive, somehow using its control over plagues for medicinal purposes. Venesstrifect kept the sorcerer alive as well, too sick to move he continued to regenerate as all sorcerers do. Venesstrifect took the flesh of the sorcerer, removed all sicknesses and poisons from it as it was its right to do and fed it to the child. The child grew up to become a healthy baby girl and eventually crawled away into the arms of her grandmother who was waiting on the outskirts of the Fisher Plain, able to see her granddaughter but never reach her.

“The grandmother took her away but she often found her way back, intrigued by the elemental who had saved her life. Maegara, as she was called, became a thief in the lands around the Fisher Plain. The Greenlands, the Grey Road and even the Library. She would steal from them and then when they gave chase retreat to the Fisher Plain where any pursuit would succumb to the terrible diseases. There she hid all manner of secrets and treasures, just waiting for someone to find them.

“There was one who could follow her though. The magics of the Library are vast and one of its inhabitants is Mazzran the Worm. I don’t have time to get into his story today but suffice it to say that he followed her back to the Fisher Plain once and there they fought. She returned what she had stolen that day and he returned to the tower riddled with diseases. In his weakened state the archivists captured him, making a drug that would keep him alive and forcing him to work for them. But he swore never to return to the Fisher Plain, terrified of it as he was.

“So when Maegara came back for her most daring robbery yet the inhabitants of the Library were unable to send Mazzran after her. Which meant that they had to watch helplessly as she ran off with the Stone of Falling Stars, one of the most powerful artifacts in the world. To this day the Stone of Falling Stars lies hidden in the Fisher Plain, unreachable by anyone save for Maegara the Thief and Mazzran the Worm. If Mazzran were to fetch it he would have to make himself solid to carry it back and in doing so likely become infected again. Maegara though, she is immune to all the diseases of Venesstrifect for it cares for her and keeps her safe. She is not a thief any longer, now she uses her thieving skills to care for the innocent. Helping those who are unable to help themselves. I’ve never met her myself but I met her grandmother who told me this story. So this one,” he smiled at Lucy, genuinely this time. “This one actually is true.”

Maegara the Thief walked up to the sorceress through the rain. Around them the piles of ash that used to be the Company of Silence washed away.

“Who are you?” the sorceress asked.

Maeggy adjusted her hat, it was very effective against the rain. “I am here to save this city and you are going to help me.”

The sorceress looked down at her. She did not look very impressive.

“I-”

Mother Magda hobbled up beside her granddaughter and looked up at the sorceress. “She’s with me. Listen to what she has to say.”

“We are evacuating,” Maeggy said, throwing her hands in the air. “Get everyone to run away! In an orderly manner of course. Once you get far enough away all your diseases will begin to fade. You’ll definitely live, you’re a sorceress. As for everyone else, eeehhnn, hopefully.”

“What’s going on?” the sorceress asked.

“I’ll explain when we’re finished,” Magda said. “For now you are going to use whatever power you have to get everyone out as fast as possible.”

“What are you two going to do?”

They both looked very sad at that. “We have...” Maeggy said slowly. “An operation to perform.”

The sorceress frowned but she didn’t press them further. She had other things to do.

Over the next few hours the sorceress moved people out. As much as she loathed it people definitely listened to her. She didn’t use any of her powers, as she was rapidly learning, it was a lot of work to make them actually helpful without causing more problems. But she didn’t need to. Someone as powerful as her in charge smoothed out a lot of problems. Everyone did what they were told and within hours the city was almost completely empty. Anyone who didn’t listen soon changed their mind when the sorceress showed up and things began to run even smoother when bowls of healing broth began to be spread throughout the refugees.

For deep within the city, by the ruins of the castle Magda drained her daughter’s blood with tears in her eyes. Beside them was a table covered in herbs and poultices with mortar and pestle and a pot bubbling over a fire the sorceress had lit for them.

Maeggy lay on a spare hospital bed clutching a bag to her chest and fading in and out of consciousness as her blood was drained. They had argued about this a lot. Magda had been adamant that she wasn’t doing it, that she had to leave the city with the rest of them. But as much as she was riding the high of her near death experience Magda had never been very assertive, and deep in her heart she knew Maeggy was right. Even with all their plans and precautions many many people would still die, unless they could be given the only cure that would work. So they had to make as much of that cure as they could.

Magda gave her granddaughter a mixture of the hasteherb to keep her awake and then gathered up the pot of broth they’d made.

“We never got enough time together,” she said sadly. “You were too good for this world.” Magda was crying now, looking at Maeggy, pale and shivering on the bed before her.

“I was a liar and thief grandma. Especially a thief.”

Magda smiled through her tears. “You were an incredible thief. I’m glad you didn’t become a witch like I wanted. You’d have been wasted as one. I’m going to miss you, more than you can imagine.”

Maeggy smiled as well. “I love you grandma.”

“I love you too Maeggy.” Then Magda hobbled off with the pot, meeting the sorceress on the way out who helped her carry it.

Maeggy lay on her bed waiting for them to leave, clutching the bag to her chest. Within the bag the Stone of Fallen Stars whispered words of hate to her, trying to get her to break it. But she was well used to those words, she ignored them completely and spoke to the air. For the air was filled with wriggling, writhing things. The wriggling writhing things of Venesstrifect.

“Well old friend, I guess it’s just you and me now,” she said. “I know you’re hurt. I should never have hidden this stone on top of you, I’m sorry. I suppose you left the place where you got hurt and came here, where there were lots of people to infect. Good thing you were hurt I suppose, you must have been really hurt for everyone to have lived this long. But now I’m going to hurt you again. You can’t stay here you see, this place is too important. You’ll just spread out and make the whole Hallowed Realm sick. This won’t kill you though, you don’t die that easy. Maybe someday someone will rid the world of all disease and kill you properly. I know Magda wanted me to do that, that was why I got the stone in the first place. Lofty ideals I know. But I could never kill you. Not after what you did for me.”

With hands trembling from blood loss Maegara the thief reached into the bag and pulled out the Stone of Fallen Stars. She had waited the agreed upon three hours for Magda and the sorceress to get out, talking slowly or not at all as the time passed. The words of hate from the stone flowed through her head but she ignored them. She would always ignore them. She didn’t use the stone out of hate.

Tears rolling down her eyes she crushed the stone between her hands and called down the fury of the heavens upon the ruins of Castle Elkring.

The sky was still faintly red from the last time the stone was used when these stars began to fall. One, then two, then many. All pummelling into Castle Elkring, the centre of the Hallowed Realm. Everyone who’d evacuated had been told to close their eyes and face away, even then the light was almost too much. The sorceress decided to watch and immediately went blind which was disappointing. She grumbled as she waited for her eyes to heal.

All across the realm people watched as one star after another tore the sky apart. The rumbling explosions shook the realm, knocking down buildings and trees that were close to the blast.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the falling stars became less frequent. Soon there was one at a time. Then there was a small one, a tiny one, left straggling behind the others.

The last star plummeted to earth and it missed the castle, landing just outside it. Landing on a sight that was once known as the Grave of the Phoenix.

Miles and miles away in the Wilderness the Inkdrop Queen awoke from her sleep, her dream still fresh in her head. The city of Castle Elkring was hers to claim, Raqos had said quietly, far more quiet than he usually was.

She looked up at the sky and traced the path of the fallen stars. She was beginning to suspect making a deal with a demon had not been the best idea.

The fires and carnage of the fallen stars took days to die down but Magda was hobbling through it again as soon as it did. She couldn’t find any remnant of her granddaughter’s body but of course there was the stone, reformed as it always did. So she collected that in a pouch, and, ignoring the whispers it sent through her mind, she walked off back to her hut. She’d need to think of someplace better to hide this.

Duren clambered out of the pile of stones, empty dreadful numbness in one eye and a dull throbbing in the other. A dull throbbing that he knew would soon build up to a raging inferno. He panted in exhaustion, even after all that fire had unearthed him he was still going to take a long time to recover from being doused in water for so long.

He looked up to see two heat shadows. One, the flickering faded shadow of a human and the other the warm comforting glow of his horse. Seeing her he could almost forget all the pain that constantly wracked his body.

“I found her in the stables of the Company of Silence. I thought it best you two be reunited,” Karnell said.

Duren walked slowly forward, drawing near the two heat shadows. His eye wasn’t blazing yet, it was still calm, he was still calm. He liked being calm.

“I can help you,” Karnell said. “I can fix you. If you just come with me.”

Duren looked at him, fixing one dead rotted eye socket and one flickering flame on him. Karnell was not afraid, he had accepted his fate.

“I killed you,” Duren said, at such a distance he could recognise the heat shadow.

“No you didn’t,” Karnell replied and they stared at each other for a moment.

“Give me my horse,” Duren said, holding out his hand for the reins. Karnell gave them to him and he swung up onto her back. He let go of the reins, they would burn away soon anyway, he was surprised she’d let them be put on her.

He looked down at the Karnell heat shadow. So faint, so feeble, so easily snuffed out. An easy way to put off the oncoming pain for a brief second.

“Where are we going?” he asked and Karnell led the way.

Raqos, son of Qaan, brother of Qinar, was in his realm. He did not sit, he did not stand, he did not walk there. He simply was. He was also sick, and so his realm was sick. He had feared interacting with an elemental but he had done it anyway. He had made that deal and tried to give the Company of Silence immunity to disease. Not only had it not worked but even that limited interaction had been enough for Venesstrifect to spread to him. A mistake. Demons could not afford to make mistakes.

He didn’t have much time he knew. Soon he would be dead, succumbing to an incurable disease. He could see it with that certainty that demons can often see the future. Knowing how their deals will turn out but missing certain things that perhaps a mortal mind would easily grasp.

Through the Forest of Topaz, his realm, he thought. All of his plans, all of that inevitability which weighed on the actions of any demon. He would have to enact those plans now, luckily most of the pieces were already in place, many of the deals had already been made.

His brother was vulnerable. Living in that stationary monolith as he did it should be simple to destroy him. If Raqos was going to die he was going to take his brother with him. The gems in the Forest of Topaz lit up in rage and Raqos reached out to his pieces. It was time to destroy the monolith of Qinar. It was time to destroy the Qinrock.

Qinrock will Return