October 31, 2020 - Nolan Acreage, Near Nevada, Iowa

It had been almost two weeks since Jes had climbed into the saddle. Not since the first storm. There had been other storms in the past two weeks, but none quite as serious as the first. Miller had volunteered to stay with Hadrian and Gwendolyn at the house, but Jump was eager to see the Imperial fortress that had been erected in a hay field. The soldier wasn’t an experienced rider and it showed, but Hadrian had offered his incredibly calm horse for her to ride.

“It’s a bit of a ride to get over there, but we’ll be safe as houses until we’re about a mile from the fortress.” Rock explained as he led the way out of the dooryard.

Jes looked back over her shoulder and waved to her mother, Gwendolyn’s face was creased with worry, but she hadn’t protested. “We’ll be back for dinner!” She called over her shoulder.

The trio rode in silence only until they turned onto the gravel road from the drive. It was the soldier that broke the silence.

“What can you tell me about Hadrian, now that we’re out of his sight?” She asked.

“What do you want to know?” Rock’s voice was wary as he answered.

“Is he really… safe?” She asked.

Jes snorted, guiding her horse so they rode abreast. “Is anything safe anymore?” She countered.

Jump’s head tilted to one side as she thought, a frown etching its way deeply into her brow. “I would have said yes, before I came here.”

She couldn’t help but laugh, “Sure, what with a pandemic and everything else going on.” Jes’ crooked smile was made even more crooked by the pull of her new scars. “How’s the election going?”

“Holy shit,” Rock said, “I almost forgot about the election!”

Jes shook her head, still smiling. “What does it matter for us anyway? We can’t vote.”

The soldier frowned and said stiffly, “I’d rather not talk politics.”

That made both Rock and Jes laugh harder. Jes so hard she actually had to wipe away tears. After a moment, she shook her head and wiped her eyes. “Probably for the best. Politics and religion can be quite divisive.” Her tone was mockingly serious. “To answer your question about Hadrian, I’m pretty sure he’s safe. He has been very helpful through this whole thing.”

“Helpful how?” Jump probed.

Rock guided them off the gravel road and through a break in a fence on a more direct path to the fortress. “Since we picked him up on the first day, he has helped us tend the stock and store up the harvest. He has helped us can and pickle, helped us learn to use a wood-fired oven for everything. He warned us about the elves, protected us from some of the things that came through the Rift. But most importantly,” He glanced at Jes. “He took care of almost everything when Jes was hurt.”

“He even helped heal me.” Jes admitted.

Rock gave her a curious look, arching one brow.

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“Healing potions suck.” She said. “We’ve been lied to.”

“He gave you a healing potion?” Rock sounded surprised.

“Yes, and it hurt like a bitch. I’d have to be fucking dying before I took another one.” Jes admitted. “It was almost worse than getting hurt.”

Rock’s eyebrows shot up. “Worse?”

Jes nodded. “Almost worse.” Her eyes looked haunted, one purple one golden brown.

“What happened to you anyway? Those scars look pretty fresh. And gnarly.”

Silence fell over the three of them for a long minute. Rock looked uncomfortable, but didn’t answer.

“I was hit by lightning.” She answered after a long awkward moment.

“No shit?” Jump asked, her tone awed. “Lightning.”

“No shit.” Rock answered as Jes slowed her horse until she was riding behind the other two. “Since everything stopped working there have been these glowing storms that go through. She got hit with the first one.” Rock explained as they crossed the fallow fields.

It was a warm October afternoon and the horses were moving easily over the soft ground. Jes let the others get further ahead of her, slowing her horse to an amble. She could barely hear Jump and Rock talking about what had happened since the Rift. She didn’t want to listen. She stroked the side of her horse’s neck, scratching gently as she leaned forward. The horse chuffed and Jes tried to smile, the gesture wobbling on her lips. “I know right, Deli? Shitshow.” She mumbled.

The horse didn’t answer. Not that she really expected him to, he was just a horse after all. “For a long time I was just waiting it out, you know?” The horse just kept walking, no response. “This year was terrible, but I was just waiting. It would end eventually. It just kept getting worse.” Her eyes swept the midwest landscape, empty fields and denuded trees. “It has to end eventually. Right, Deli?”

“This shitshow has to end.”

They left the horses and closed the last mile on foot to avoid attention. Laying belly down on the top of a rise in the terrain, they looked over the still distant fortress-city the elves had built in the past two weeks. Jump was in the middle, flanked by Rock and Jes. The soldier had brought binoculars and she looked through them at the fortress. It only took a glance for her to whistle softly.

“Holy shit,” She said. “Holy. Shit.”

The glasses panned over the fortress, taking in the manned walls and towers, the ballistae, everything. But most of all, the elves. Pointed ears, willowy frames, beautiful features. “Fucking elves.” She muttered. “They built a whole damn city in two weeks?”

“They built a whole city almost overnight,” Rock corrected.

The city that sprawled below was boxy, inelegant, even ugly, but it was certainly defensible. “Overnight?”

Rock shrugged as he looked out over the Imperial city. “Yeah, overnight. Hadrian said they probably used magic to shape the earth.”

Jump frowned and took her eyes away from the binoculars to meet Rock’s eye. “Magic?”

“Whatever happened that took out electronics, that was when they started using magic.” Jes said.

“No shit, magic?” Jump said again as she turned her attention back to the binoculars. “It looks like they are on alert. What are they expecting?”

“Hadrian says they’re used to having a big ol’ target on their back.” Rock said, “I’m guessing they’re waiting for something to strike.”

“Why hasn’t anyone come before?” Jes asked.

“There’s some weird shit going on with this whole Rift thing. Not that we really understood the Rift thing before we came here. I mean we all saw the cosplayers on TV. Or what we thought was the cosplayers.” Jump pulled her eyes away from the binoculars and met Jes’ odd colored eyes. “Nothing works for about 300 miles around this place. You bring a truck in and -” She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s like crossing a line, it works, and then it doesn’t.”

The elves hadn’t noticed the three of them yet, the sun was behind them, slowly falling to the west. Jump had been careful to make sure they wouldn’t have glare on the binoculars. The soldier watched for a long time in silence as the afternoon waned.

“The numbers are surprising.” Jump admitted as she put down the binoculars one final time. “Will we get back before dark if we leave now?”

Rock checked the sky. “We should.”

Jump crawled backward carefully, slipping down over the rise. “Let’s move out then.”