Chapter 475: Siege Part 1
…Hollow Shade… The Western Wall…
In the darkness of the new moon, an entire segment of the shade wall glowed bright hot. The molten magestone sunk into itself and flowed down. The lava flowed into the city and outwards into the grasslands of the valley. The spells of the shade wall had fallen apart and the once ebon-black magestone was now a frosty-translucent white. Where once stood an imposing section of the shade wall, now only a magma gate remained, beckoning the enemy to invade.
The screams of terrified soldiers were drowned out by the deafening roars of the dragonbane flying above. The void beasts swooped down and snatched up half-a-dozen soldiers in each clawed hand. Their spiked tails swiped across the battlements, impaling dozens of soldiers and sending even more careening off the wall to their deaths.
Mages hurled spells and archers shot their arrows at the dragonbanes, only for the projectiles to glance harmlessly off their thick hide. Captains and Bulwark Commanders all across the Western, Northern, and Southern walls ordered their trebuchets to fire, but the dragonbanes were too fast for any boulder to hit.
~~~
…Hollow Shade outskirts… the grasslands…
Caligo watched with silent satisfaction as the black mana faded from the shade wall and left it pale, defenseless. The roaming shades screamed out with a shrill cry one last time and crumbled away. His dragonbanes hungrily flew around the new ‘molten gate,’ picking off the soldiers.
“Finally,” Lin Lu whispered from his shoulder. “Our dream is coming true.”
“This is just the beginning,” Caligo replied. He turned to Sylaril, chieftain of the Adder tribe. “Prepare to fire the trebuchets and load the jade orbs.”
“Right away, my lord,” Sylaril bowed.
“Nokti,” Caligo called out.
The vampiress hurried over to his side. Jade-colored war paint streaked across her brown skin, the color of her god. “Yes, my lord?”
“Rally the 1st and 2nd divisions and march to our freshly made ‘gate.’ The molten magestone will cool off by the time you arrive.”
Nokti nodded. “And once we’re inside the city? Do you wish us to head straight to the Villa District and cut down the nobility cowering in their homes?”
“No, that was Marek’s wish, his drive is simple. There will be time for revenge later. I want you to prioritize the barracks situated next to the walls, they are the main support for the soldiers on the wall’s battlements. Once you’ve eliminated those, head to the medical encampment, they should be settled behind the northern wall.”
“As you wish, my lord.” Nokti bowed, then mounted her centaur and galloped away.
Caligo closed his eyes and focused on the dragonbanes flying above the city. “Vorphyrux,” he whispered in the void tongue. “Gather your brothers and sisters and strike down the defenses across the entirety of the wall. Destroy their trebuchets and devour their archers. For once, do not hold back, sate your hunger to its fullest.”
A sense of understanding burned bright through their connection.
Caligo shifted his focus to two other dragonbanes. “Lyrak. Oshnyr. Kill all the survivors at the molten gate. Leave an open path for our armies.”
~~~
Ophelia Thorn laughed with glee at the sight of the wall’s destruction. “Your time has come, Hollow Shade! You traitorous bastards will all be devoured by our master’s monsters!”
Marek Helene dispassionately glanced at his wife. “Why are you so happy?”
“What?” Ophelia frowned. “Are you an idiot? Hollow Shade will fall tonight. My enemies, our enemies, are going to die. This is the moment of triumph you’ve always dreamed of. Your aunt is dead, slain by your own hands, and the rest of her family will be dead soon. And yet there you stand, like a petulant child angry he didn’t get a pie for dinner.”
“Caligo told me he was going to kill every adult in my tribe because I disobeyed him at the parley,” Marek said grimly.
“The price we pay for our disobedience,” she muttered with a wry smile while tracing her finger over her eyepatch.
Marek glared at her, “Tell me, when you think of ruling over Hollow Shade, do you see yourself ruling above the corpses of your enemies or the ashes of the entire city?”
Ophelia narrowed her eye. “What are you saying?”
“Your family were the Royal House of Hollow Shade until they were betrayed and ousted by the very nobles who once swore loyalty to your ancestors. I imagine you dreamed of yourself striding back into this city as a conqueror, but do you think there will be anything left to rule when Caligo is done with this place?”
“He will not raze the city to the ground,” she said calmly.
“What makes you so certain?”
“Our master promised us the ruling seats of power in this city, his voice in the Ebon Realm. Unlike every single other being in the Null Realms, Caligo actually keeps his promises.”
“You still believe him? After all this time? After what he did to you!? You’re a drow, you still have one good eye. Tell me, what do you see in the darkness of the night? Look at those things!” Marek pointed at dragonbane flying above the wall. “Do you think they’ll just stop because we want them to? I’ve seen what they can do. I know how this ends and I think you do too.”
“You may resent our master, but I know him better than you. Caligo may be cruel, heartless even, but he is just. He promised us the city and he will keep it.”
“Maybe, but in what capacity? You fancy yourself a powerful queen, but all I see is a slave to her master’s will.”
“Throwing a tantrum now, are we, boy?” She smirked, “If I am a slave then you are no better, Dusk King.”
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“You’re right…” Marek looked her in the eyes, “Do you know what the difference between us is? You think once we accomplish Caligo’s orders he will give us our reward. You believe that you’ll be able to live out this life of a queen to your heart’s content. But I know the truth.”
“And what’s that, my dear foolish husband?”
“That we gave up our lives the moment we made a deal with that monster. You and I, we’re just puppets being pulled on the strings of Caligo’s whims. You’re just too greedy to see it.”
Ophelia pulled him down by the scruff of his shirt, leaned forward, and whispered into his ear. “I’d rather be a royal puppet to a god than live and die as a dog in the mud. We are not irreplaceable. One false step, and he’ll find another to do his bidding.”
“Is that so…?” Marek stepped back and walked away.
“And where do you think you’re going?” she called out.
“My aunt may be dead, but the rest of her vile offspring are still cowering safely away in the cursed city.”
“The dragonbanes will finish off your House and the other traitorous nobles, I assure you. We need simply wait. Tomorrow you will rise as king of all these lands.”
“Then tonight I will finish this by my own hands, not by the aid of a god and his beasts.”
“You’d rather risk your life on the frontlines because some tribe mongrels are going to die anyway? Are you mad? You’re a king!”
“I’d rather be a dog who fights and dies in the mud beside his tribe. If you’ll excuse me, my dear wife,” he said coldly and left.
~~~
Sylaril raised her arm and let it fall with a stony expression. As soon as her hand fell to her side, the line of trebuchets fired, hurling jade-green boulders into the night sky. The boulders disappeared in the darkness of the new moon.
Families huddled together in their small houses in the Commoner District, praying to the ebon gods that the battle would not reach their homes. Jade boulders crashed into the district, falling into homes, shops, and streets alike. Wood and stone shattered on impact, sending shrapnel careening throughout the area. Clouds of dust rose around the craters and faint cries echoed in the night.
The residents whose homes were hit were killed before they had a chance to scream. The remnants of their homes had flown outwards and crashed into the surrounding houses, causing the old structures to fall on top of the families inside.
In a matter of seconds, the Commoner District had fallen into chaos. What lamps and candles had been within people’s houses had been snuffed out. Survivors stumbled out of their homes, bruised, bleeding, and with broken limbs. They cried out for help, but most of the usual patrolling guards had been sent to the wall’s defense.
A second volley of boulders suddenly fell down, shaking the ground, and sending wreckage flying. Bits of sharp wood pierced men, women, and children trying to flee the area. As the second volley crashed down, the first jade boulders began to shake.
In one small shattered home, Shirleen, a goblin woman cried out for help from underneath a fallen beam. A boulder had crashed into her neighbor’s home, but the exploding wreckage had destroyed her old wooden house.
Though there was little light, the woman could feel blood dripping from her forehead and the warm liquid pooling underneath her shirt. Sophi, her little girl screamed and cried beside her.
Shirleen glanced around, searching for her husband. She spotted a disfigured hand hanging lifeless from beneath the rubble. Its green skin had been torn off, leaving broken bones and little muscle in plain sight.
A pain like no other welled inside Shirleen’s throat and she cried a hollow wretched sound.
“Mommy! Daddy!” her little girl cried over and over.
Shirleen looked around and shouted for help. One of her other neighbors, a human family, emerged from their home, relatively unscathed. Hope blossomed in her chest. “Help! Over here! Please help us!” she called out desperately.
The neighbors turned to her voice and saw her underneath the wreckage of her broken house. The wife gasped in horror and their teenage son rushed to help. But the husband grabbed his son and pulled his family away towards the direction of the Trade District, as far from here as possible.
“No… no, no, NO!” Shirleen screamed helplessly.
She watched as a few survivors ran past, none even noticing her cries or the cries of others echoing in the air.
The hope in her chest was smothered out by a heavy despair. This was it. No one was going to come. Many had died in the attack and the ones that had made it were running. No one would stop for a goblin and her child.
She was going to die. Without ever making up with her eldest daughter. Without looking into Karen’s eyes and telling her she was proud of the woman she had become.
“Help!” Sophi cried out.
Shirleen looked down at her little girl and the pain and hopelessness from that night three years ago flooded into her mind. A gang had kidnapped the two of them. Shirleen had watched helplessly as one of the thugs had beaten her daughter for crying too loudly. That was all she could do, watch, as Sophi was almost killed.
A different feeling suddenly swelled within Shirleen’s chest.
Not pain, nor despair, or hope. Something deeper, something that bared the rest of her emotions and pushed them aside.
Shirleen smiled shakily. “It’s going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Mommy…?” Sophi mumbled through her tears.
Shirleen breathed in deeply, over and over, each breath faster than the last. She gripped the wooden beam with both hands. She planted her feet on the ground as best she could and pushed against the beam with a grunt. Blood flowed down her hands. Pain shot through her arms and legs. The wood beam didn’t budge.
Still, she pushed, her voice breaking with every breath. She pushed her shoulders against the beam and dug her feet deeper into the ground, pushing with every ounce of strength in her body. Her head bowed, she closed her eyes and prayed to the gods, any god who would listen, for help.
“Mommy!” Sophi cried out worriedly.
Shirleen opened her eyes and saw the fear in her daughter’s yellow eyes. She stared at her daughter and clenched her teeth tightly. Shirleen gripped the beam tightly until splinters dug into her skin. She roared a primal scream and pushed against the beam. The wood creaked. Pain blinded the edges of her vision, her limbs burned with exhaustion, but she held her daughter’s gaze and pushed.
A sharp agonizing pain stabbed into her back, but Shirleen screamed in defiance, her trembling arms unyielding. The stones shifted and the beam slid over and off them. Her arms fell to her sides and she crumbled to the ground in exhaustion.
“Mommy!” Sophi crawled towards her and held Shirleen’s hand between her two smaller hands.
Shirleen smiled weakly, “It’s going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay.”
“H-How, you’re bleeding!” she cried.
“Mommy is okay, don’t worry about me… Sweetie, I need you to go find your sister.”
“Karen?”
“She’s at the temple. Can you find your way there?”
“Yeah!” Sophi nodded.
“Good girl,” Shirleen mumbled, her voice trailing off.
“Mommy? Mommy, wake up!”
“I… I can’t move… my body won’t listen to me… I need you to go, sweetie. Find your sister…”
“But I don’t want to leave you—!”
The jade boulder at the neighbor’s ruined house began to shake. Like an egg it cracked open and a stone arm broke free. A thick-limbed creature made of chiseled stone emerged from the jade boulder and marched out of the wreckage. Strange sigils covered its body and two green magestones sat where its eyes would have been.
The golem slowly turned to the sound of the little girl’s crying and began shuffling towards them.
Shirleen opened her eyes wide in panic. “Sophi, you need to run, now!”
“N-No!” she cried.
“Sophi, please!”
The golem raised its arm, its fingers outstretched, each one studded with steel claws. Sophi stood up with trembling legs and covered her mother protectively.
“Sophi! RUN!” Shirleen screamed.
A metal chain lashed out from the darkness and caught the golem’s arm. The enchanted construct slowly turned its head towards its attacker.
The familiar sound of metal clinking echoed in the darkness. A cloaked undead sentinel shambled to them, its body wrapped in armor.
Sophi patted her clothes and searched her pockets with a panicked fervor. She gasped triumphantly and pulled out a small iron nameplate from her pocket and waved it in the air.
The sentinel stared at the nameplate through the dark sockets of its steel mask. The undead abruptly yanked the steel whip and threw the golem forward. The stone construct stumbled and shook the chain off.
The two creatures began to circle each other, chain whip and steel claws at the ready.