We wandered out, out past the grove, past the trees, past the tree line and the leave piles I could only hope did not catch and out into the grass, the flame continued to burn, and countless pounds of ash hurtled up into the sky, where they would come crashing back down to earth. I practically merged with Anna. I was so close, drawn by the magnetic pull I felt with her while the fire kicked up my heartbeat.
I did my best to bring it back down, to breathe, but my senses were acute enough that the smoke in the air, thin as it sat, was horribly overpowering. I stopped breathing through my nose, breathing only through my lungs, but it didn’t help much going from smell to taste.
Now we just have to figure out where Selly is. She's probably around here, just up. I’m surprised she’s not back down here already.
“Where’s Selly? We were in there for a few minutes, where is…” Anna asked, mirroring my own thoughts. She paused to look up to the sky, only to stop moving or talking, her mouth opening slightly.
I looked up too and saw in the sky, lit by firelight, a small bird hurling down towards us, with a sharp, shrill, familiar scream accompanying it.
I made to catch it, but I missed, and it hurtled down into the ground, bounced once, and rolled while Selly, blade in the back of its head, hung on shouting at the top of her lungs, white fuzz slick with the vital red blood of the bird.
It rolled to a stop on its belly, one wing splayed in a dramatic display, and she pulled her blade free with a foot against the bird's head. Flicking the beast's blood from the white porcelain blade, she put one hand on her knee and looked up at us.
“I fucking told you so, kinsman; I told you I would get jumped by 'em, big stupid beasts.” She said it and kicked the neck of the bird for emphasis. It was then my eyes noted a few more dark shapes on the ground, a small flock of dead birds.
I noted that one wing was clipped ever so slightly, ending not with a round end but a sharp, jagged line, which made a harsh whizzing whistle noise as it buzzed like the crack of a tiny whip.
“Are those the birds that live in the grove? Were you killing my birds?” Anna asked, shocked.
“I don’t know if they're yours, but does it matter? Twas not done from malice, don’t get me wrong, these beasts were seeking my end and I don’t take kindly to them on a good day. But they’re just beasts, it’s not a great loss, there’s always more of em.”
“There, birds. Not even big birds, that’s… I think that’s a Chickadee… and that’s a Bluejay! These are songbirds! They were just little birds… Not birds of prey!”
Anna seemed terribly torn up about it, but I had noticed that most of the birds, while songbirds, didn’t seem to be present. They had still been in the grove… at least most of them were… probably.
I hadn’t exactly checked, but I knew there were more than ten of them, so I figured that most of them were safe.
“Aye? I get what you're getting at. Seems a bit funny… I suppose I thought they sounded rather musical when they were trying to rip me limb from bloody limb while we duel in the air like beasts of ancient myth! Make sure you yell it, Saphine! And… are you spacing out? By Titania’s tremendous tush, you are. Snap out of it! FOCUS!”
She shouted, waving at me while I counted the number of birds and was trying to remember if I had seen them before. I hadn’t even recognized that I had relayed to Anna what Selly had said until I got to the part where she was yelling and didn’t do it, which seemed to annoy her a little.
“Sorry,” I told Selly, “I must be tired, I’m just spacing out a little.”
Selly Buzzed up to me, right close, within an inch of my eye. I could see the minute tufts of hair and the slick curve of red holding to them like drops of dew on a blade of grass.
“You’re wigging out, eh? You are not spacing; you're seriously rattled. Just like the other day, you were a bit spacey then, too. When did you start getting the shakes?”
I craned my neck back as she got a bit of blood in my eye, but I didn’t understand what she was talking about. I wasn’t shaking, and I didn’t think this was anything like yesterday.
“I’m not shaking, and this isn’t anything like yesterday. I’m just tired.”
“If you say so… Oh, almost got sidetracked there. The fire that was the point of this… How do I say this? It's everywhere, the fire is all around, not focused at one point.”
The news hit and began to percolate. Trying to imagine a city in the shape of Moarn, not a regular shape, no circle or rectangle, but a blobby stretching form with the walls in its center.
The fire was not focused, not on the side closest to us, but all over the city.
That was not normal, even without firewalls, mages or whatnot. That was not how fire worked. It started and spread. It could jump, but that required effort, with an increase in effort commensurate to the distance.
To be all over would require…
It would require intent. Intent fire was not capable of, for fire to be spread like that would require intent and effort from others.
“Is… Is it going from the outside in? Or is it in clumps? What do you mean by everywhere,” I asked.
“Some clumps, but it's spaced out… It was closer to the outside than the inside. Lots of movement, too. There might have been some fighting, but it was hard to tell… Do you think that it wasn’t a bunch of upstanding someone's tippin' over their cooking pots? Because that’s what it looked like now that I think about it.”
“I wouldn’t put it past life to do something horrible. That’s just the hand that comes… More often than not,” I told her.
“You, too, are talking too much,” Anna complained, “Where are we going? Because of the bird murderer, and you are starting to get conspiratorial.”
“I am no murderer!” She shouted at Anna before returning to me, “But yeh, there might be something fishier than a monger with no sales at dusk going on.”
I didn’t translate her comment, but thought.
I would need to keep it in mind, but the fire and fighting were not what I pondered. The only thing I needed to think over was whether or not I would tell Anna.
It was not one of the things I would normally think about; hiding something from her would normally be a detriment. But if we were going to the center of town for the storm, Anna would be safe behind the only two sets of walls in all of new-moarn. Safe from whatever horrible strife was happening.
And if I went out, she would think I was going to help fight the fire, not rush into saving people from other people, or monsters, or whatever was going on.
I had the feeling that she would not want me to do that alone.
She had told me she wanted to come along with me next time to make sure I didn’t get hurt too badly, to make sure I didn’t come back soaked with my own blood, but she needed to do something to help, and I didn’t know where she would go mentally if I told her. She was smart enough to put it together, to take possible fighting, and dilute that into me, leaving once she was secure and safe behind some walls.
She would know the second I left that I was breaking a promise.
I was damned if I told her when I left her behind, and then it came to the other half.
If I didn’t tell her, and we were attacked, she would be unprepared, and I would have lied to her for my own personal gain. I would have abused her openness with me to protect myself from my own actions.
And that was the thing that fought within me because I couldn’t let her get hurt like that.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I opened my mouth and knew that no matter what I chose, I was damned in some way. I was damned, but I could choose, and I wouldn’t choose a convenient lie over the truth, even if it would raise her anger.
“Ok… Anna, Selly says it's all spread out around the edges. I assume that means we need to get you to the center of town?”
She nodded, looking over the tiny birds with a melancholic look. I hope they weren’t hers, but I also couldn’t hold it against Selly even if they were. Her hatred of birds had been consistent, and I was at least starting to see why, considering her size compared to them. It would be like a person getting dive-bombed by a cart drawn by a bison.
“If it's all around and not in one place, it would be best to head to the center of town. I would love to see the look on Carl's face when I walk up and call up the storm of the year right on his doorstep. Maybe then he will understand the problem if I could stop a city-wide fire alone, but can't solve the problems of our time…”
“Understand the problem?” I asked.
“Nothing, sorry, I got lost in thought,” she told me, turning to focus back on the situation at hand. “So we're going to the city center, is that all?”
“No… there's what looks like fighting in the streets. So we’re going to need to pay attention to everything first of all, if could be normal civil unrest, but fire all around the outside of the city is suspicious.”
“Sabotage?” she asked.
“Unless it’s a yearly occurrence to light your house on fire, but only on the edge of the city, then it's more likely than not.”
“Darn it. I’ll need to call it in fast then, or whoever is responsible can just keep lighting fires.”
“Can you still do that?” I asked her, not to demean, but to temper my expectations.
“Who do you think I am?” she said cockily, “I haven’t gotten much of an opportunity to go all out, so I might as well do it now, no?”
I smiled at her. I didn’t know if it was bravado or truth, but I would put my trust in her either way.
“Come on then. Do you want me to carry you in, or do you want to walk-” I asked.
“Walk!” Anna said almost fast enough to cut me off, “I want to use my legs to walk today; I’ve been deprived of walking for long enough that I’m bound to put on weight, so let's get going.”
“Okay then,” I told her with a nod, “Selly, can you show us the best way you remember to the city center?”
“Aye, Aye, I’ll lead you there… But I’m doing it on your shoulder. If another bird fights me, I’m bound to get my antenna sniped by Anna there.”
“Sure thing,” I told her before taking Anna's hand and heading back into the city.
We paced through the grass, circuitously moving around the city's outskirts, my eyes drawn to the dancing flames as I spotted them. I heard noises that were probably just crackling pops of rapidly drying timbers, losing whatever water was in them before they popped and cracked and crumbed, but to me, they were cries for help.
There was a terrible weight in the air, a horrible weight that accompanied the smoke. I could feel a call of sorts from the fires as I spaced out between Selly, guiding us towards a way into the city. I couldn’t tell what it was.
Was it something mundane or magical? Simply my mind or something born from mana?
My mind wandered as I did, tied only to the world outside by Anna's hand in mine and Selly calling out.
My heart beat like a drunk in my chest as I reached out into the world with my sensory skills, trying to make sense of my gut feeling, and did not find a simple answer.
The world washed into light as my [Magi] skill fed me the mana, the wood and earth and fire and ash and air and heat of everything in my senses screeching harshly in my ear as they moved and coiled and changed. Life and death played their roles too, as whatever life was left in buildings combusted, feeding the fire and turned to death and thrown to the sky on grey-black ash.
I was feeling the world die what little death it could have. The ash and fire pinged me through [Gaze of the Coming Spring] enough that I didn’t turn it on. I had never even used it, and I had the feeling by how it sang that it would be a sight that would confuse and bewilder me.
Then there was the other death, that which lived in people and not plants. I could feel ripples from within the city, as [Marked by the Long Road] told me about others who were waiting in the dark of death. Crying out in the dark, confused but not alone, and it sent shivers through my bones.
“In here, it was the best place I remember seeing, but we need to take a detour east to avoid the worst of the fire,” Selly told me.
I relayed it to Anna and reflexively rubbed my sore eyes. I hadn’t even blinked as we moved, and the smoke stung, but I looked at them as they came away wet. I had teared up a bit and winced as I reached up and rubbed both eyes with my palms.
“I got smoke in my eyes,” I lied.
“Aye, and you’ll have more in them before we're done,” Selly told me.
“It's not so bad,” Anna said, unaware of my tears, in the fading light of twilight and the harsh shadows of fire. “I thought it would be worse.”
I rubbed my eyes for a bit until my palms brought me back to the present, then I pulled my shovel off my back, and we crept forward.
For all that there were signs of burning close by, the street was really normal. There were even people making their way out of the city, jostling one another to get out, panic-driving them forward with packs of animals carrying belongings with them.
I had no time to wish them the best, instead acting as a bulwark against the tide as we made our way down the side street full of people first inwards, then eastwards onto a main road a few hundred feet down the side street we had entered, cutting east as we drew closer.
Down the street had been blocked by rubble, buildings having been pulled down to block the road, but towards our destination, there was more pandemonium. People in armour held a four-way intersection, ripping down houses and pulling rubble into the streets as makeshift barricades. People pushed through while guards stood waiting for something.
I pushed through the torrent of people. Anna behind me, my shovel outstretched like a wall toward them around me until we drew close enough to overhear shouted orders, and the space opened up.
They were indeed constructing barricades. Barricades and blockages like the one on the main street. Hacking down the supports of buildings with pole axes while other guards stood, waiting with truncheons, short swords and small personal metal shields. Far from my first thoughts, they looked disorderly with the different weapons, one thread of discontinuity between them that made the situation feel off.
“Why are they sealing streets instead of fighting the fire? What the hell are they doing?” I asked.
“I have no idea, but I’m not going to wait to find out,” Anna told me, stepping out from behind me and shouting at the closest guard, “Whatever do you think you're doing.”
She spoke it with a tone that she didn’t normally use, a tone that spoke of nobility and privilege. It was a question that was not a question.
The guard ignored her, so she walked up, staff in one hand, and bopped the man casually on the shoulder.
He turned, and she repeated, “Whatever do you think you’re doing [Guard]. You're blocking a road.”
He looked at her and took in the tone and the staff and looked down at her wearily.
“I… I… we’re blocking the road?”
“Yes, yes… I can see that, but why are you blocking the road?”
The young human man looked surprisingly stressed. He looked around quickly at the fleeing civilians and the other guards who saw him and pretended he didn’t exist. He turned back to her and said, “I don’t think I’m supposed to say that… Uh… lady mage?”
“Lady Mynes,” she said, “Daughter of the [Barron] and sister of both Clause and Strause Mynes, one of whom you are no doubt working for as a [Guard] of this city. I am the only mage in the city and am currently on my way to put out the fire, so I’m a bit short on time. So I ask again, [Guard]. Why, are you, blocking, this, road. Quickly!”
She asked, punctuating every word ever so slightly in a way that made me uncomfortable. It reminded me of those who led me around, ordering Kobolds and belittling anyone who stood out as an example.
It was very unlike Anna, but it was effective, no matter how much I disliked it.
Watching him, you could see the moment when his resolve snaped like a splintering beam of a house.
“Umm, they undead Lady Mynes. We’re barricading them in; if it were just the numbers, we could hold them, but with the fire, and the monsters and the irregular ones, we can’t, so we're blocking them in so we can pick off their leaders.”
“Fuck,” I said in tandem with Selly, speaking instinctively in our native tongue.
The noise drew the eye of the guard, who went from petrified to full-blown panic as he saw me.
“Uh… Undea-” the guard started, only for Anna to slap a hand over his mouth.
I breathed a sudden breath of relief as Anna clapped a hand over his mouth and said, “Do not address a [Saint of Death] in that manner,” she scolded him.
I did not want to add ‘pincushion by guards’ to today's list of things that happened. It didn’t help calm him, but he shut his mouth.
Anna turned to me and said, “We really need to get you a robe or something. You know, one that makes people think mage or clergy so they stop freaking out.”
I didn’t really know if she expected a response, but my smart mouth managed to get out, “I think if I dressed like a mage, they would start shouting [Necromancer] instead.”
“A white one then, a white robe. We could add some holy symbols to it and make it a statement. We could make you look like the [Pontifex of Life], hat and all. I doubt the church of Death has one.”
“I don’t think the goddess of life would like me flying her colours when I’m her sister’s Saint.”
Anna waved it off, “Their sisters, they would be fine, I’m sure.”
I thought of a few [Paladins] taking an issue with it and how little they would care, but I didn’t complain. Anna wasn’t going for serious; she was going for banter, and it had the odd side effect of calming both me and the [Guard] down.
“[Guard], escort me to your commander. I want a word with them,” she told him, not even turning to face the young man.
“You want my commander or the captain? Uh, Lady Mynes,” he asked, bowing a little as he finished.
“The captain, I think this changes things somewhat. I need to ask something of them.”
“Of course, I shall bring him to you, Lady Mynes,” he said quickly, positively scuttling away into the crowd.
We waited, Anna posturing herself like some kind of noble bird and me twitching and thinking and fearing. My mind was going a million miles a minute, the smell of smoke and the sound of nothing happening making me concerned about all the fire going on just a few hundred feet away.
Anna took my hand again just as I was spacing out, and I nearly flinched out of it.
She didn’t speak a word, she simply held my hand until the guard pushed back through the crowd with a familiar face.
An older man with beady eyes, the only guard I knew, had struck me as a rat of a human being with his mug and desk slapping. An old rat who had found his place, with his salt and pepper hair and desk. He was now dressed for violence instead of desk work, with a mace at his hip, a gleaming shield, and a breastplate that looked a size too small for him.
“Captain Gurtz? Funny seeing you here.”