Now that Pierce felt stronger, he joined Brenda’s platoon in disguise, rather than trying to sneak back into the wagon. The cloak was a good disguise, he looked like any number of clerics in the army. The orb was harder to hide, but they had put it in a soldier’s backpack and he was carrying it, although it hovered and did not weigh anything.

They struck camp quickly, leaving behind more tents than they took with them. All the effort to quickly set up a camp was thrown away in the pivot to moving into the town. Pierce saw the slower moving donkeys and cart horses that often pulled the supply wagons being cut loose and soldiers loading supplies directly onto the animals or carrying them themselves. That comforted him a bit, this wasn’t Mattias concocting some last minute dash into the city with no supplies. Clearly his friend saw they had time to move in and support before they got cut off.

Thankfully, Brenda’s platoon and Pierce were not given anything to carry, they were marching battle-ready. That also meant they started moving out sooner.

“Last chance to turn around,” Brenda nudged him and also gave Jack a pointed look.

“Yeah and then what, leave these people to die, that’s not what I signed up for,” came Jack’s response, which was echoed by determined nods from the rest of the soldiers.

“Fair, though they might anyway.” Brenda was a realist, and her platoon were used to it, but that sentence still put everything into perspective and caused silence to fall across the group. It might have been better if she had lied and made up something as she had done countless times before.

The silence continued until a soldier on horseback rode past and gave them the order to move out. They would take the vanguard position and lead the way forwards, as they often did.

The town of Eastmount was built into a hill overlooking the plains where the demons had been summoned. The town itself was built onto the gradient, it had a main square and a lot of streets at the base of the hill, and then these spread out more across the slopes of the hill as it gently sloped up, with a main town hall and secondary wall at the the top of the hill. Behind the town hall was a cutaway drop out to the east and the plains there. This gap was actually why the demons who were making their way around hadn’t been able to reach the city yet. They were still on the plains.

However, that also presented a problem, because although they were on a road coming from the west, the main road curved around a rocky patch and ran down to the plains and actually approached it from the southern gate. Taking that road would delay them, and bring them right into the demon’s path in the open. So the soldiers had no choice, they marched cross country across the rugged rocks with the plan to approach the town through the northern gate.

It was not easy going, and several times Pierce heard a cry as someone fell or tripped on a lose rock. Once or twice he heard the clatter as someone in full armor hit the ground hard, which might have broken a leg or worse. There were flashes of light as clerics expended their energy to heal people, but Pierce heard Mattias call out and tell them to save their energy for the worst wounded and to send anyone else back.

There was also a steady stream of civilians making their way past the soldiers. Like the soldiers they couldn’t bring carts this way, so those that could not fight or did not think they would make it had taken everything they could carry and started to make their way in the opposite direction from the oncoming demons. They had better hope that Eastmount held for long enough for them to get away though. Mattias did spot a few people in armor trying to hide amongst the fleeing civilians. These were dragged out of their disguises, and put at the very front of the marching army. It was one thing for the external soldiers of the Hand of Sol to decide not to come here to die, but no soldier assigned to Eastmount would be allowed to flee in its darkest hour. Pierce thought that they were lucky that every body was needed or they might have been executed for desertion on the spot.

That was the pressure of the march, they needed soldiers but they couldn’t spend their limited holy and magic energy to preserve them. Better anyone who injured themselves at this stage, went home to fight another day.

The realisation that they might get left behind, seemed to tighten the focus of all the soldiers. No one wanted to not fight with their unit over something as minor as a sprained ankle, and the number of accidents Pierce heard dropped after that. Though he was sure more than a few injuries were covered up much like he had chosen to do, just so you could keep going.

Within a few hours, they had reached the northern gate, and they were welcomed with gates that swung open immediately to let them in. Mattias was one of the first to cross into the town and he dismounted and began to speak to the gate guards.

Pierce could overhead as he was part of the vanguard, who had followed just behind Mattias.

“We are glad to see you!” said a man wearing the badge of a captain of the guards.

“Absolutely, but what is the situation?” said Mattias straightaway.

“Some of the demons have reached the southern gate, but the main force is still moving around,”Mattias nodded, but the guardsman turned to look back out the gates a bit concerned.

“Pardon me for saying so sir, but are you the vanguard of a larger force or, when are the reinforcements getting here?” he stuttered a bit when Mattias looked at him, but then continued “Not that I doubt you, but you’ve seen the number of demons out there, and there are only a few hundred of us on the city guard.”

Mattias stared at him grimly “No reinforcements yet, though we have sent for help. We were just on our way here. No one knew this force of demons would be so big, we have to find a way to hold out.”

The guard captain looked upset by the news, but then he saw the determination in Mattias’ eyes, and nodded to himself. “As you say sir, and from where I’m standing things are already looking better than they were this morning.” At that he gave a weak smile and offered his hand, Mattias took it in a firm grip and nodded. The two men understood each other.

Mattias then continued, taking command of local strategy as befitting his rank.

“For now you’ll have to make do here, until we know if the demons are planning to encircle the town or just focus on one gate. I know its risky, but I’ll leave some runners and we will be watching the demons closely, so we should know if they start to spread out. For now we need to reinforce the south gate!” The guard captain didn’t question him, just nodded and called out to his guards to let them know they weren’t being relieve yet.

At that Mattias gestured for the rest of the troops to move into the town, and the vanguard with Brenda and Pierce followed him.

Pierce could hear him calling orders to his runners at the front of the column, he was telling them to instruct some units to set up a base in the town square, make medical tents, and a supply depot with guards. It seemed most of the army would be going straight to the walls while some dealt with the admin.

Eastmount was a large town if you included the hill, but at the base it was only 4 streets wide, though the central square was large and had a small temple to Sol on one side, a fountain in the middle surrounded by a common lawn and two taverns that faced the temple. It was growing into a warm summer afternoon, there was a light breeze blowing in from the plains and if you ignored the subtle hint of demon-shit that it brought this was a lovely day.

The tavern shutters were closed, when they should have been open, and the square should have been filled with children playing games while their parents watched on from chairs by the lawn.

There was none of that, every window was closed, every house silent except for the occasional crying baby. Pierce glanced a worried face or two peeking out of the window at him. He saw an old woman smile standing in the yard of what looked like a blacksmith, smile and point out the soldiers to the small boy hanging onto her dress, but the smile faded as she saw the grim faces on the soldiers and she pulled the boy closer.

There were men except for the very old and infirm who were sitting on porches or looking out from balconies. There were no young women either, that was normal, the Solanian army took all sorts, if you were young and fit you could join. Though in a case like this, anyone who could hold a weapon would have reported for muster.

Pierce had known the scope of the threat, he had seen the size of the demon army, and after all, this wasn’t his first fight. But in the past he had mostly fought with the army on the move. His unit had been a campaigning one, sent out to aid Solanian interests in foreign lands, or to intercept or counterattack against enemy armies, but rarely used for defence of a stationery point. This was the first time he had to face his own people as he went to protect them. This was the first time he had to face the impact of the battle, win or lose there would be families without fathers, mothers, sons and daughters tonight.

It was only a few streets on either side to cross from north to south in Eastmount, there were more streets lining up the hill but they kept a straight path, looking to reinforce the attacked wall immediately, and they got there in less than 15 minutes.

Pierce could see Mattias looking all around him as they rode through the town. He knew his friend would be trying to decide on a strategy, trying to figure out how to save more people or whether the town could hold. Mattias managed to keep his face neutral until they reached the cleared mustering ground near the southern wall. Then he saw what he actually had to work with.

There was nothing wrong with the guards and soldiers of Eastmount, the problem was just the number of them. If Pierce had to guess he would have said there were maybe 40 actual soldiers, maybe 30 guardsmen, and the rest. Well at least there were 300 or so of them, but they were armed with everything ranging from inherited rusty swords to farming implements. It wasn’t good. Barely any of them had armor, or defensive gear to speak of.

That wasn’t to say they weren’t willing, and Pierce saw Mattias school his expression back to determined calm, but they weren’t soldiers. Pierce and Mattias both knew that would count near the end.

Still, it could be worse, another 400 bodies to use to compliment the 450 that they had brought, that meant nearly 1,000 fighting bodies vs 5000. Even the smallest demons would not make a 5:1 ratio easy.

Mattias called out for the troops to start spreading out along the southern wall, with Brenda’s first platoon held in the center to reinforce. It was a good height of a wall for a town this size, almost 3 meters. It also had a battlement and some crenelations, and most importantly it was made out of stone. This wasn’t a bad defensive position and Pierce would have happily fought off an equal number of demons here, but 5000? He shook his head to himself.

Brenda walking next to him noticed that gesture though. “Looks bad doesn’t it?” she agreed.

“Yes, I don’t know how long we can hold this wall…” Pierce replied.

“I’m sure Mattias has a plan.” Brenda said, as much to reassure herself as him. Pierce wasn’t so sure, Mattias was a good battlefield commander, but like Pierce he was better on the offensive than the defensive. He relied on his experience to make calls during the fight rather than planning out longer strategies. He and Pierce had worked as a team in that regard, Mattias handling the chaos of the battle and Pierce helping with the broader strategy. But Mattias didn’t know he was here.

Pierce and Brenda waited, as Mattias finally met the commander of the local troops. He was a rough, burly man, with a blonde beard, short curly hair, and armor that was well maintained even if age and rust had managed to claim a few dents and patches.

“Gerald Sir! Happy for the reinforcements, I’ll put my soldiers under your command immediately!”. He went straight to the answer for the first question Mattias would have asked about chain of command, which showed good experience working with the regular Solanian army.

Mattias saluted at this, banging his fist on his chest. “Good to hear, I was going to ask anyway. How much fighting as there been so far?”

“Light attempts at attacking the wall, a few of the smaller ones actually made a ladder and let the others climb up them, but we were able to throw them back with some well-placed arrows. None of the ArchDemons have come yet.”

Mattias visibly paled at this, but he must have tried to conceal it as Gerald didn’t notice. They had been far away this morning, so the demons had all looked the same from a distance, but archdemons were often 5x as talls as regular demons and capable of just climbing over the walls if they felt like. “Arch demons, that’s bad news, how many are there?”

“We’ve counted 5, 3 are definitely soldier-type, but the other two, we might have one caster-type, and one Necromancer-type.” Mattias couldn’t conceal his frustration at that. The Solanian army had classified different leadership figures in the demon armies into different capability types. The soldier-types were much easier to take down, but once the demons started to bring in magic or worse necromancy, the challenge of taking them down only grew.

“News goes from bad to worse, but don’t worry. We sent runners to high command as well as several magic message spells, they knew we are here, and they know that we need help. After all if they break past us, its a near straight run with no other fortified towns between here and Solana. So we have to hold them, and we will get reinforced.” Mattias said that last part louder so all the soldiers could hear. The ones that new him better probably caught the lie like Pierce did, but he saw some of the others taking some comfort in it. Yes they would get reinforcements, there was no way this demon horde would reach Solana, but the odds of them surviving long enough when the very reason they were here with only 500 is that the army was further away dealing with an even bigger incursion.

“What is the plan then sir?” Gerald asked, he seemed glad to have someone else to take the responsibility.

“This wall is our strongest point, we have to hold it. We’ll spread out our troops, repel footholds with the more elite soldiers and make sure they need to concentrate on us rather than encircling the town.”

Gerald nodded and then said “And if we lose the wall?”

“We’ll retreat to the town hall and hold them off there, that will be our fallback point.”

Pierce shook his head, it wasn’t that Mattias was right, but he was missing some vital elements that would give them a fighting chance.

He nudged Brenda with his elbow. “I need to go take care of something.” She nodded and motioned for their whole unit to move off to the side of the muster area so that he could take the opportunity to slip away.

Pierce slipped down a side alleyway and started making his way back towards the square. The problem with Mattias strategy is that he was going for an all or nothing victory. Either they held the walls, or they held the town hall. There was no nuance. That was why his friend was a good attacking commander, he went for objectives and held them for as long as he needed to for the army to win, but that wouldn’t work here.

When Pierce got back into the square the majority of the soldiers were already there. A start had been made at an aid station with supplies being pooled in one area, and soldiers were going in and out of the inns. No doubt they were commandeering the kitchens, the beds and anything else they needed from the two establishments.

Pierce went into the inn and found quartermaster Hyacinth, sitting at a table with papers in front of him, and taking lists from soldiers that came in from doing inventory. She was a more elderly soldier, with a big scar across her face, hair that was starting to go grey, and a jaw that had been broken more than a few times. She was also missing a hand, but it was not her dominant one so she could still write the endless lists required for her job.

She didn’t look up when he came in, just said “the mages and clerics are gathering in the temple, you can join them there”, she only looked up when he didn’t leave, then she did a double take as he lowered his hood.

“Pierce! But you aren’t supposed to be here. Mattias said you were still too injured.”

“Hey Hya, Mattias worries too much, I can still help, even if I’m not fully back on my feet.” Hya nodded at that, if he was lying there wasn’t much for her to do anyway.

“Right you’re here now anyway, what can I help you with? Be warned there aren’t many beds, I can get you one because of your rank, but you might have to share when we get into the thick of it.” One of the things Hya was quite good for was looking out for the average soldier when things started to get rough and making sure everyone got the best sleep or food that was possible, even if it meant ruffled feathers.

“No, nothing like that. I’m changing our strategy a bit here. I know your soldiers have just deposited the supplies but I want them to start taking half of them up the hill to the town hall. Do you have a map of the town?”

Hya gave him a puzzled look but then nodded, and pulled one out.

“Okay, also have anyone who is good with a hammer and nails to start building barricades at these spots.” He pointed to about 8 locations on the map that were all chokepoints that led up from one level of the hill to the next, including a final chokepoint on the street that ran straight up to the stone walls that surrounded the town hall.

Hya’s eyes went wide, but then she nodded. “You don’t think the wall will hold for long then?”

Pierce nodded, “it’s too wide an area to hold for too long, and even if it does, we still need to plan for a fallback. Mattias has already decided that we will fall back to the town hall, but he hasn’t thought about barricades, choke points, etc. You know him…” Hya nodded.

“And materials for the barricades, people might object?”

“Prioritise taking from houses where the people have already fled, if they abandoned their home they don’t deserve it. After that, take what we need, if anyone objects, remind them there is a demon army at their doorstep. Oh one more thing. Start having the soldiers go door to door, get able bodied civilians to help you. I want every scrap of food that is edible in any house in the town in that town hall, under guard. Then you can start moving the civilians up there as well. Get them to bring bedding and blankets. I don’t want the first thing that happens when the demons break through to be a bloodbath.” Hya took all of this down in her notes and nodded, then she paused and said.

“Sir, technically you aren’t here, and Mattias hasn’t given any of these orders…” she seemed slightly less certain as to where she stood in the chain of command.

“Hya, I know its a grey area, but you know Mattias, he will be on that wall until it falls, and when he does he will be glad that someone thought of all this.” That persuaded her and she saluted and smiled at him.

“Now it was actually a long march, do you have a room I can sit in?”

“Yes sir, I’ll have some food brought in as well,” she gestured to him towards the back of the tavern where there was a small private dining room with a decently comfy chair.

He sat down for a moment, and felt the energy from the march leave him. He was definitely still in recovery. Still he tried to cast a small light spell, and felt the magic was still just as slippery as it had been before. He managed to get it a few sparks, but could not actually make the light appear. He sighed in frustration, and then put his head on the table and tried to get some rest.

—

He awoke later on, when a soldier knocked on the door and brought in a steaming bowl of stew and some bread. The stew was standard army fare, not good, not bad, made with whatever was around, but at least it was filling. The bread was terrible from the perspective of a baker’s son, but he doubted many of the other soldiers were complaining. He ate both while formulating his next steps.

He couldn’t reveal himself to Mattias yet, he would be a distraction, and his friend would probably do something foolish like order some of the much needed soldiers to escort him out of here. He trusted Hya to enact his orders, she was one of the most veteran soldiers in their Battalion. The barricades would be built, and Mattias would have a proper fallback.

That left him with some choices. He could sit at the fallback point for hours and try to maintain enough mana to help defend the retreat, or he could try to be more proactive.

Pierce had never been patient before a battle, so up he got, and left the tavern. He nodded to Hya as he went past, she was overseeing some of the rank and file as they tore down some houses on the square for materials. He could hear faint shouts of protest from the owners of the former house, but they were quickly told to keep walking as the soldiers marched the civilians up to the town hall on the hill.

The barricades were going up rapidly, but this was proper battlefield construction and something that Hya as quartermaster had overseen countless times. There would be three barricades on the major roads at the bottom of the hill, and then additional barricades on the main steep road that led up the hill to the town hall and the secondary walls. That would give them one large but quickly abandoned chokepoint to get everyone inside and then the ability to stage a fighting retreat up the hill. It was the best they could hope for.

Mattias was on the wall to the direct south, so he headed out of the square to the south west. Larkin would be commanding that section of the wall, and he knew Pierce well enough to assume that Mattias had allowed him to stay. It would also give Pierce a better vantage point on the main fighting.

The south-west section of the wall was not heavily engaged in fighting yet. Pierce could see some archer’s shooting arrows but they were directed towards the south, where the main fighting must be. He did see a few demons being fought on the walls, but they looked like the smaller, more agile kind that were often used as scouts. So Larkin was fighting off a scouting party but nothing more yet.

He acknowledged several soldiers as he walked towards the place where a command post had been set up. He could tell it was there because it was well-guarded and in the shadow of the wall to protect against any incoming fire. Demons weren’t big on arrows, but they did like to throw rocks and other nastier things like acid sacs, or worse.

Larkin was surprised to see him, but as expected he just nodded when Pierce said that he was back on his feet.

“Nothing too strenuous yet, it looks like they are trying their usual tactics to try and smash through in one go, but they will come for us soon.”

“Good news Captain, remember, make sure none of those scouts get back, or they will come sooner.”

“For sure sir,” both Larkin and Pierce knew demon tactics quite well. Unless there was some major Demon general with them, and that wasn’t guaranteed even for a force of 5,000, they tended to focus on their strengths. One giant push to overwhelm the defenders with force of muscle, and if that didn’t work, then they would spread out and try to find a gap in the defenses. But the demon’s weren’t stupid, that is what this scouting party was for, if there was an obvious weakness, then they would change the target of their assault. It was vital the scouts were silenced then, so the Demon’s would continue to think that there were forces equal to what they were facing on the south wall spread out all along the rest of the town.

“How bad is it?” Pierce asked and saw Larkin grimace.

“As we expected sir, huge numbers, lots of wall-breakers and greater demons. Well it might be better if you take a look for yourself.”

“Let me get up on the wall then, is there someone that could show me to a good spot?”

“Yes, one second. Marcus?” Larkin called out to one of the troops in his command outpost and Marcus came over, saluted and stood at attention.

“Relax, you know Mage-Commander Pierce, Marcus?” Marcus relaxed and then nodded. Pierce thought he might recognise him as one of the new recruits from their last campaign.

“Yes sir, we fought together at the Battle of the Ragged Fields in the Savage lands. Can I say sir, your last fireball really saved my ass, and a lot of unit 5.”

“Yes that’s right, I remember there was a Gigantic Leopard that was going to jump right behind your unit. It was a lucky shot.”

“Lucky for you and for us,” and Marcus saluted again. Pierce smiled, before Larkin continued. “Mage-Commander Pierce needs to get up on to the walls and have a look at the fight. Can you take him to the southern watch tower, and I know he can look after himself, but make sure that he doesn’t get into trouble.”

Pierce laughed at that, “I have no intention of joining in yet, don’t worry Captain, I just need to understand.” Larkin gave him a nod and Marcus lead him off.

Marcus was chatty, but he didn’t seem nervous. There were some true rookies and replacements in the Battalion for this fight, though the greenest had been sent home or to evacuate towns along the route. Marcus had already seen one campaign through, and although the odds were bad today, at least they had a safe place to fight from. The Savage Land campaign had been difficult, because it wasn’t just the tribes you had to fight, but the entire jungle was out to make your life as miserable as possible. At least in this down, you didn’t have to take a buddy to the latrine with you, in case the plant you squatted by turned out to be carnivorous.

Marcus seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he said “At least there are no bugs this time sir.” and then he regaled Pierce with a story about the time he had woken up to see a mosquito the length of his arm trying to drain a pint of blood from another soldier in the tent who had forgotten to put up the netting before he went to sleep.

“He didn’t forget his netting again the entire trip, well you wouldn’t sir, not after that.”

Pierce was content to let Marcus talk, responding appropriately though his heart wasn’t in it. He had been having too rough of a time and he was too worried about his mana problem to properly engage, but Marcus just read this as battle nerves and so he kept talking as they climbed the stairs, walked along the wall and climbed up the watchtowers two ladders.

However, Marcus’ chatter trailed off as they reached the top of the tower and the full battlefield came into view. The main southern wall was already embattled. Pierce could see siege ladders, and the smaller horde demons rapidly climbing up them. There were already several pockets of fighting around these ladders on the wall. The fighting looked fierce, for every pocket Pierce could see being repelled a new one was formed.

The main force of demons hadn’t even engaged yet, this was normal for them. He could see some of the “wall-breakers”, and other greater demons at the back driving the smaller demons in front of them with whips and smacks from huge hands. These were the cannier demons who were watching to test the strength of the defense and saving their energy. These were the ones that Pierce was usually responsible for dealing with.

Marcus seemed unprepared for this sight, he had probably never fought demons or been this outnumbered before. Pierce made it easier for the soldier by giving him an order.

“Right Marcus, stand here with me now, ignore the ranks and tell me what elites you can spot.” This seemed to ease the man, and he turned his head away from the wall and joined Pierce in surveying the demons that were holding back.

“I see 5 wall-breakers, 4 troop killers, and 3 bulwarks, sir.”

“Good, though you missed a few, you see that small green and purple one at the back.”

“Yes sir.”

“Explosive troop killer, nasty thing filled with acid. Not smart, more like a dog that explodes when kicked the right way at the right time. Thankfully it is hard to breed, so it looks like they only have one. See any mages?”

“None, sir”

“Look closer, you see the large horned ones with the thick arms?”

“Yes.”

“Those are mage-guards, the arms can be used as shields to block incoming arrows and attacks, which means there must at least be one mage worthy of bringing a guard like that. That could be a problem.”

“I’m sure you can handle him sir,” came Marcus’ predictable response. Pierce, however, wasn’t sure, even at full strength some of the demon mages could be tricky, and he didn’t have the energy he would need. His other mages would have to win that fight for him.

In a world of magic and demons, Solanian battle tactics had evolved to fighting foes who came in much broader ranges of size and skill. It was rare for any army, horde or tribe to come to a battle field without some magic, or some elite force. Whether this took the form of a giant demon, or a tribe’s great shaman that would rain exploding toads on your army. The doctrine of Solana was to form heavily armoured shield lines, combined with a mix of swords, hammers and other close combat weapons. Behind these lines were the Sarissa troops. These units held massive 4 to 6 meter long spears that were wielded with both hands and capable of taking down even the largest of demons. The combination of a solid front line, protecting the giant spears proved to be a very flexible approach to the threats of Rathe.

However, that left the elites. It was hard for even the most trained units to take down the elite fighters, in the demon’s case size played a factor, for other armies it was either skill or strength in magic. Both sides knew this as well, which is why, more often than not, elites fought other elites in direct combat. It might seem silly, but if you didn’t engage the enemy elite, then they would tear through your lines, and if you tried to go and kill their ranks then they would just do the same for you, and you’d end up duelling anyway when everyone else was dead. Or they’d ambush you when you were fighting the other side’s ranks and you’d be at a huge disadvantage.

So while elites did engage, they were often quickly drawn out into fights by the elites from the other side, and when your elites fell, that’s when the fighting got really desperate.

Solana had evolved these tactics, they would advance the shield line around enemy elites, and try and isolate them so that their own elites could engage and nullify them. This was the main role of soldiers like Mattias, Pierce, or the Ironsong’s and other famous duellists in Solana. In other places and times, people might question the validity of bringing a fencer to a battlefield, but in this context it made perfect sense. Good reflexes would let you dodge attacks and counterattack, a single strike to the heart would kill even the most savage of brutes. Sometimes the demon’s had a second heart, but that was a different problem entirely.

Even as he thought this, he saw one of the larger wall breakers running forwards, it was oddly fast despite its size. It was a mottled purple and grey, and covered in large bulbous protrusions. Instead of arms it had tentacles, and it had no face, just a large maw filled with teeth, capable of biting a man’s head clean off. As it got closer to the walls, its tentacle arms extended from within itself and shot up to wrap around the walls, crushing one soldier against the battlement. Then the demon heaved and threw himself up onto the wall, and landed with a crash, displacing soldiers who hadn’t had time to dodge.

Pierce winced as he saw a few of the soldiers in full armor go tumbling backwards off the wall. Even if they survived it was likely that something would be broken. Despite the surprise factor of the speed, this is what Solana trained for, and the rest of the soldiers pulled back as one of the elite advanced. He couldn’t tell who it was at first from this distance, but then he saw a telltale sign as a giant glowing shield of light blocked the monsters attempt to punch the approaching fighter.

That meant that the elite that had joined the fight was Berian, a veteran paladin, who had been multiple campaigns and fought demons before. His speciality was fighting bigger targets, and Pierce grinned as a giant sword of light appeared next to the light-shield and took a swing at the demon. Berian could project his faith outwards from himself into his weapons and enlarge their reach by extending them with light. His shield then became larger, his sword too and he could fight creatures twice or even three times his height.

It was not an easy fight, however, and Pierce watched as the demon grew more frustrated, and grabbed one of the men he had knocked off the wall earlier with a long tentacle and tried to use the body as a club to attack Berian. Berian was forced to block the attack with his shield, and had to hope that the other soldier had died from the fall, or the whiplash and not his block.

They exchanged blows for a while, Berian was definitely on the defensive, but the demon had to dodge regular sword swings so he was not able to attack constantly. Then, Pierce saw fight turn as the demon staggered then and fell to one leg. Berian must have attacked the creatures legs, using his smaller stature to get under the beasts guard. Pierce cheered along with the rest of the soldiers as he saw a blade of light come through the beasts heart and out his back. Then some other soldiers rushed forward and helped Berian heave the corpse over the walls, down onto the other waiting demons who scattered rather than being crushed.

From here, Pierce could see that triumphant warrior standing in the middle of his fellow troops, still surrounded by a nimbus of light. However, he could also see the figure was leaning on another solider, who was supporting him on his right side. It looked like Berian had taken a blow in that first conflict, and although the priests could probably heal him, these things always added up fast.

Pierce was frustrated, even on the elite count they were outnumbered, and they couldn’t afford to have any injured this early. If Berian was out of action that would leave Mattias as a duellist, a veteran great-hammer wielder called Bartholomew, one battle-cleric called Isiah, and two of the mages. Pierce had maligned him to Mattias but Simon, the temporary Mage-Commander, of the Battalion was good enough to attempt to take down most of these elites. Though Simon’s mana was more limited. His other mage colleague, Patricia, who was a pyromancer was much better at duelling but younger and more likely to make a mistake.

So they had some resources, but even if they handled the elites, there were still enough ranks to overwhelm them all. Anyway, he had seen enough. The elites would be a problem, but there was no way they could hold that wall against all the ranks for too long. This was ignoring the fact that eventually a scouting party would get back and reveal that the other walls were not guarded well at all.

They would lose the battle for the walls, the question is, would they lose the one for the town and their lives as well?

—

Pierce was already down from the walls, and moving back towards the centre of town. He had left Larkin to get on with his business. Larkin already knew the importance of killing scouts and maintaining the illusion for as long as possible.

He resolved himself to prepare as best he could to help with the fallback and retreat, and that meant more meditation and mana-accumulation. He got one of the soldiers in the square to direct him to an empty house along the road to the southern gate, so he would hear when the retreat was called, and he set himself up in a chair on the ground floor. After making sure the house was empty, he also took out his new orb from his robes, and placed it floating on the table in front of him.

He had figured out he could control its movements mentally, either anchoring it to him or to part of his body with his mind, or ordering it to float statically above a certain point. Though that was the extent of the control he had over it.

It was a strange feeling, he was definitely connected to the orb, and he had felt that burning fire that coursed through him when he first touched it. Yet, he didn’t feel that he was as connected to it as maybe he could be.

In truth he was wary of it, since it had hurt him, and he still didn’t know its capabilities. He didn’t yet trust it, even though he knew it was clearly an instrument of Sol. It was sealed away for a reason after all. And yet, despite his wariness, he felt drawn back to staring at it, again and again.

As he watched, he realised it was not one solid source of light, there were swirls of light moving around inside the orb. Every so often there would be a gentle pulse, and a new swirl would start, joining the vast overall pattern.

He closed his eyes against the sight, he was getting too distracted from his goal, which was to build up his mana reserves. Once again he started to draw the ambient magic around him into his core, in a town like this the magic came with feelings and emotions as well as sensations, fear from the current battle yes, but also an undercurrent of determination, of iron, earth, and the sound of pickaxes.

The magic still felt like water he could not control, but there were ripples in it. It was an odd sensation but he felt the mana drain away faster from the front of his body than it did from the back. There were theories that mana was actually a force stored in muscles and spread throughout the body, but he had never felt it before, not like this.

He opened his eyes and saw that within the orb, the swirls were moving to the opposite side of the orb from where he sat. There was a realisation then, that whatever was in the orb was pushing the mana out of his body, and also trying to escape the distance. He had to know. He tentatively put out a finger and touched the orb with the tip.

Pain, hot burning pain, raced down his finger and into his body. He felt himself shaking as any of the mana that he had left was burnt out of him once again, and then he saw the orb returning to normal and the pain receded as the last of the mana left his body. Pierce was glad then that he hadn’t been able to store more mana as clearly what had happened when he had first picked up the orb was a backlash caused by the large amount of mana reserves he normally had when not fighting. He had been burned as the mana literally was burned out of him, and then left empty, and now it was stopping him from even recharging.

This made no sense, the inscription on the orb had said it was an item of true arcane power, and yet it had destroyed his mana and seemed to be determined to stop him from keeping any. Clearly it was leaving him with no choice except to fully embrace whatever the orb was offering. There was definitely power there, and something magical. Though why Sol would want a mage without mana to cast spells, he didn’t know.

He paused then, too many old stories involved an artifact promising power and causing misery. Then he thought about Berian, one of their strongest fighters, needing to be held up by another warrior after only one fight. He thought about Brenda and Jack who were both probably already on the wall holding off the demons, their children deserved to see their parents again. He thought about the people he had seen in the houses on his way in. Yes many had fled, but those with young children, the elderly, and the poor, had no recourse to run away. How many would die if they failed here? Not just in this town, but in the other towns along the road to Solana?

He closed his eyes and whispered something he had always believed in, the battle cry of the army of Solana. “For the might of our lord, for the home of the holy”, and he grabbed the orb again.

This time there was no fire, he had no mana to burn, so the orb felt cold to his touch. He could sense some ambient force swirling around inside but he could not access it right now. He expected there to be some pull, or some draw from the artifact asking him for something. Maybe a magical commitment, or a pact of some kind, but nothing happened.

He stood there for about 5 minutes just holding this orb, mentally he was committed, focused, and open. Magically speaking he was leaving an open door and agreeing to whatever the orb wanted, but nothing happened. He was about to throw the orb down in frustration when something happened. He felt a gentle tug on the core of his being, on his soul, and Solanian magicians believed in souls, and were trained to understand what yours being interacted with felt like. So he felt a gentle tug on his soul from within the orb, and he let his body agree.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Something faint rushed into the orb, from what looked like outside the room, coming in the doorway, and Pierce felt a small part of himself rush to meet it in the orb. He watched as the two gentle lights met, a part of him and a part of something else, and became one line in the swirling pattern of the orb.

And then nothing… No other change, no rushing of power, just a mysterious piece of his soul, combined with another magical force, and nothing changed.

Pierce wanted to throw the orb in frustration, but he was aware that he had agreed to something and that the compact should be respected in case it caused some backlash. So he stowed the orb away again under his robes, and stood up and stretched for a few minutes before settling back down and staring at the orb some more.

—

He was disturbed from his focus a few hours later by the sound of a horn, sounding the retreat from the walls. He had made no additional progress, every so often the orb would flash and he would feel some part of him connecting with it, merging with it, and then it would go silent again. It continued to burn away his mana whenever he touched it as well, so he couldn’t even stockpile anything. He realised that he couldn’t put the orb down, it came to him whenever he left it, and as long as it was near him he could not build a mana reserve.

So he put the orb back in his robe, hiding it as best he could, and made his way outside. He was in time to see ranks of soldiers making their way towards him, that was a relief. It wasn’t a rout then, but an actual fallback.

He grabbed the first one going past – one of the spear wielders – and demanded an update.

The soldier stopped out of breath, and quickly saluted.

“Sir, their scouts got through, they are encircling us now. We are falling back to the square”.

Pierce thanked him and added to his orders, “When you get there you’ll find defensive positions, tell the officers there that the orders are to form up defensive lines and prepare to fall back up the hill.”

The soldier didn’t question Pierce’s role here as he recognised his rank if not himself. So Pierce had to hope that the orders would filter through. They couldn’t stay in that square and be assaulted on 4 sides, even the first fallback point wasn’t enough of a chokepoint.

Pierce turned to go towards the walls, he had to speak strategy with Mattias,but then he heard a crash, and the rush of soldiers towards him accelerated and he got caught up in the flow and was carried towards the square.

“The gate has fallen, hurry, hurry!” Mattias’ voice came from behind him, and Pierce saw his friend run straight past him, aiming to get ahead of the fleeing troops and take command. Pierce hurried after him, his friend would need his help now.

“Come on, what’s taking so long, oh damn it who put these barricades here!”.

He had run into the first of the barricades that he had asked Hya to build, and Pierce could see she had done a good job. Strong wood from the houses had been hammered together to form a makeshift wall, with room for 2 soldiers to pass through. Mattias was right, this was slowing the retreat more than Pierce had intended it to.

“That would be me.” Hya pushed through the stream of soldiers making their way through the doorway. “We’ve also got more, all the way up the hill to that old town hall.”

Mattias looked frustrated at first, he started to complain “How are we supposed to do a fighting retreat, when there are walls in the…” and then he caught himself and realised what he was saying.He was too caught up in the adrenaline of the fighting, he wasn’t thinking strategically.

Pierce saw him take a breath and steady himself.

“Of course, you’re right, good thinking. Direct the soldiers to swing around and come through the other barricades, I’ll handle the retreat”. And just like that he turned around, and began to stride back in the direction he came, then he saw Pierce and froze.

“You…” he said, with a mix of relief, disappointment, anger, and joy, but just like before his mind turned away from the distraction and focused on his objective.

“Get up that hill and somewhere safe, we will talk later.”

And then he jogged off, directing the nearest soldiers down side streets to circle around and yelling out to the final ranks of soldiers to turn around and begin a more focused fighting retreat.

Pierce reflected for a second that one of the main reasons Mattias was in command at his age was that ability to pivot on a pinhead and adapt. He was a fantastic battlefield commander, though he had problems sometimes with the broader picture. Then again, that was why he had mages, and other strategic staff to help.

Pierce hobbled back towards the square. His staff wasn’t much use without mana, as it was just a focus for magic, but it did make a decent walking stick for his injured body. When he got there he found that Hya hadn’t been lying. Several houses laid in ruins as the wood from inside them had been torn out, and there were makeshift barricades around the square and the last looked like they were going up on the steep road up the hill.

“Commander Pierce!” She called out as he went past, and he walked over to her, and they stepped off to the side of the square near the barricade.

“Sir, I hope this is what you had in mind. As I said before I knew Mattias would see the sense when it was done. The barricades here are a bit more simple, but we’ve put a bit more work on the ones further up the hill.”

She gestured then, and he could see what she meant, while the barricades in the square were more numerous, and just simple walls with chokepoint doors, the barricades on the hill looked like they had gaps for spears, and proper gates.

“That’s brilliant Hya, you’ve outdone yourself. Proper battlefield engineering.”

“Well, the troops that have spent the last three hours doing this aren’t going to be good for much else for a while. I’ve been working them full out.”

“That’s fair, Send them, and the troops coming off the south wall back to the ultimate and penultimate barricades. They can rest there for now. Get the other commanders and troops from the backlines and the other walls to begin planning to reinforce the squares and the lower down barricades on the hill.”

“Oh! You’re here after all Sir,” came a voice calling out from the barricade. Pierce recognised the uptight accent and tones of Simon, but he wasn’t prepared for the sight of the other mage as he came into the square. Simon was bloodied, he had a huge tear in his robes and his right arm was hanging limply in the sleeve. His face was covered in blood as well, and he was still bleeding lightly from a cut on his forehead.

“I found it harder to leave than I had planned”. Pierce replied, “But nevermind that, what happened to you. Do you need a healer?”

“They’ve already seen me, but they are saving their energy for the worst. They told me that this”, and he gestured to his head, “was low priority. Nevermind that the blood keeps getting in my damn eyes.” Ah, thought Pierce, there was the classic Simon entitlement he was used to.

“So what got you?” Hya joined in, trying to refocus the conversation.

“There was a nasty Mage they had. It was throwing fireballs at our walls, so I tried to hit it with a Light Lance, but it blocked it. Then it came at me with a load of different arcane spells. So naturally I focused on arcane shielding, but it was too far away, so I didn’t see that it also had these nasty spikes on its back. After five minutes of nothing but arcane attacks it got frustrated and skewered me.”

“Please tell me you had physical wards up.” Pierce said in disbelief. Though Simon rolled his eyes at this.

“It’s not day one at the academy, of course I did. I hadn’t been focusing on them, but I maintained my level twos. It blew right through them”. Pierce locked eyes with Simon then in alarm, and watched as the other mage nodded. Level twos were the standard that most mages maintained during combat. They were strong enough to stop a crossbow bolt, or an arrow, but not 100. Still if this had come through those, that meant it was a serious long range threat.

“Thankfully it didn’t seem to want to waste its spikes on the ranks, or it would have been carnage, but you’ll have to watch for them and make a plan. To be honest, I’m glad you’re here.”

Pierce was surprised by that, Simon must really be shaken. They had always been fierce competitors and Simon had said that he was relishing the chance to be fully in command only two days ago.

“About that, let’s talk about it while we walk up to the fallback point.” Hya gave him a look and then a nod at that, she knew he probably wasn’t up for fighting in the way Simon hoped.

As they turned to leave he said “Oh Hya, he knows I’m here, send him to find me when gets back.” Hya smiled at that. “Well you weren’t going to fool him that long anyway.”

As they began the walk up the hill, Pierce started explaining to Simon about his mana problems. The other mage looked alarmed, and then realised that he was still in charge. He sighed at that, but Pierce assured him that his brain still worked even if his mana didn’t, and that he would help as much as he could.

Determined and with slightly less animosity, they walked together up the hill to the fallback command point.

From the top of the hill they had a much better view of the surrounding town, and the sight was not good. Pierce could see where the fighting retreat had almost stabilised. Most of the soldiers were inside the first line of barricades now, and many were back at the second set of barricades that covered the three roads that joined together to run up the hill. He could see a writhing purple and black tide as demons poured in through the broken gate and down the streets. That tide smashed into the line of retreating soldiers and was held back, for now.

But not all the soldiers had been able to join the retreat. Pierce could see pockets of silver and yellow, little islands in the purple sea. Pierce saw some of the larger ones hold out for a while, but he watched as one after another the little islands were consumed by the tide.

They stood watching that together in silence, before Simon and Pierce saw some larger shapes wading through the sea. The elites were pushing through again.

“I’d better get back to it,” said Simon, and Pierce took the other man’s hand. “Good luck, I’ll see you on the other side. Oh and if you aren’t sure how to take something on, send me a runner, I’ll be up here”.

Simon nodded, even a day ago he would have made a comment about how he could handle it just as well as Pierce, but now he just said “Thank you,” saluted, and headed back down towards the square.

—-

Pierce watched the fighting from the top of the hill. It was grim going, but it was not all bad. He saw the barricades at the square hold out much longer than he had expected.

The sarissa were the real difference in this kind of fight, every small chokepoint turned into a shield and spear wall that could let every soldier kill lesser demons by the score.

The elites were harder to contain, the square was finally abandoned because one of the wallbreaker, this one with large hammer hands and a reinforced shoulder carapace, actually punched a wall down and created a new entry way into the square.

Pierce did grin a bit as that first demon ate a fireball and a light arrow from Simon and Patricia. He could almost here the Pyromancer’s laughter echoing up the hill. Normally she had to hold back when the other soldiers were fighting closer quarters or use more precise attacks, but the demon punching his way through the side of the square had also left him exposed.

That demon went down in a wriggling mass of fire, but then another building to the left collapsed and more demons started to pour through. Pierce heard the horn sounding again and the square was abandoned. Pierce could see far too many bodies on the ground, but they had left twice as many demons on the ground as well.

It wasn’t good enough… sadly that was going to be the refrain of the day.

This pattern repeated itself, the soldiers held out as long as they could. The barricades would hold, and then one of the Demon elites would find a way to tear them down. Their mage set fire to one, another acid creature vomited on one and dissolved the entire barricade in minutes. They kept having to fall back and leaving more soldiers on the ground as they went.

There were moments of bravery as well. All of the Solanian elites had earned their keep, Pierce saw Mattias down a troop killer that had arms made of hundreds of barbed tentacles that could worm their way inside armour by running his rapier clean through its eye in a single leap.

He had seen Bartholomew striding in to smash a wall breaker head in with his hammer. His weapon got stuck there though, and while he was trying to pull it loose he was ambushed from behind by a score of ranks.

Pierce saw the battle-cleric Isiah running into the fray, calling down hammers of light to smash the ranks off Bartholomew, but by the time he got there all that was left was crumpled armour on the street.

Patricia also fell, Pierce saw her fighting an acid-based troop killer, and she showed her inexperience by trying to set fire to it when it was far too close. She must not have recognised the type from her training or she wouldn’t have tried to burn it. The heat vapourised the acid, and spread it around as a gas, which everyone, demon or human, that inhaled quickly fell over with no hope of healing.

Pierce was cursing, two elites had fallen, though they had killed twice their number before they fell so at least the elite count was evening up. If he remembered there were likely 2 more wall breakers, another troop killer and that damned mage.

He went to check on Berian, who had been injured in his first engagement on the walls, and was still out cold in the town hall being cared for by some of the locals.

The locals asked him for an update as he walked by, but he just told them to stay inside and not get in the way. The older ones knew what that meant, and took charge of keeping the younger members quiet and out of the way.

Without Berian, that just left Mattias, Simon and Isiah. Not nearly enough. Pierce once again cursed himself for touching that orb. It had continued its weird pulsing, and soul drawing during this fight, going faster at times. Pierce hoped that it was building towards something but he couldn’t yet figure out what it was.

As he went back outside, two soldiers barged past him with a stretcher. Pierce looked down and saw Isiah lying on it, one of his arms was missing. He wasn’t bleeding as someone had used a bit of divine magic to close the wound but he had passed out from the shock. Scratch one more elite, Pierce thought.

The soldiers tending to the man confirmed that he had taken down his target though, which had been a big wall breaker attempting to drive through the second-to-last barricade. The wall breaker had succeeded though, and the Solanians were falling back to the inner walls surrounding the town hall.

Evening was falling as Pierce went back outside, they had been fighting all day. As he walked down the steps of the town hall had to dodge around several wounded troops. The steps had become an infirmary of sorts for anyone that was too wounded to keep fighting. The nasty thing about fighting demons was that it wasn’t just clean sword wounds, there were nasty bites, some dripping with poison and others with acid that kept biting even after the demon had died. Even worse, some also injected parasites into the flesh of those they bit, continuing the process of killing their prey. Those soldiers were often seen as the walking dead, because they usually only had a matter of time until they passed out from the internal assault, though if there was a skilled cleric nearby they could sometimes burn the parasites away with healing magic or holy power.

Magic was in short supply here, Pierce could see that much like with Isiah’s wound, Clerics were just stopping bleeding, they weren’t healing anyone to full that couldn’t be immediately sent back to fight.

Pierce was prepared for the wounded, especially after being in the town hall and seeing the ones that weren’t able to sit on the staircase outside. What he wasn’t prepared for what the lack of wounded.

There were about 10 soldiers inside being cared for by the villagers, and another 30 sitting outside on the stairs. That was it. That was all the wounded. Added to them, there were about 100 soldiers he could see still fighting on the walls and at the gate.

140 soldiers left out of 500, that was a terrifying attrition rate and the fight wasn’t over yet.

Pierce went back to the rear command post, which was just to the left of the town hall. There he met Mattias, who was looking haggard and had dents in his armour and black demon blood on his blade.

He walked out and met Pierce with a scowl on his face.

“You,” and he pushed a dirty gauntleted finger into Pierce’s chest, leaving a blob of something dark and sticky that Pierce didn’t want to think about behind, “Should not be here!”

His friend looked genuinely angry, but Pierce couldn’t help himself.

“And you should?” He replied, and Mattias punched him. Not a hard, full forced punch, but a solid thud connected with his belly and made him bend over wheezing.

“Can you cast?” Mattias continued, his voice growing louder. “Come on, tell me I’m wrong and your magic came back!”

Pierce just looked up, he couldn’t find the words.

“Exactly, so why? If you are useless to me, why are you here?”, as he asked the question the rage seemed to drain from him, and he continued, “why, why are you here? You could have been away and out of this. You didn’t need to die for no reason.”

Pierce stayed silent for a second and then said, “Well you were all going, I couldn’t let you run off without me.”

“You should have.”

“I couldn’t. Even though my magic hasn’t come back, I needed to be here. Think about it, what would you have done without someone ordering Hya to build all those barricades? No one else thought of it, you needed me.”

Mattias’ face grew clouded and then he smacked his head “Of course, that was you, I wondered where she came up with the idea. She isn’t usually that spontaneous.”

“Hey!” came Hya’s voice from within the command tent, it seemed there was no real room for privacy when space was this tight.

“So I’ve already saved your behind, magic or not, and I would do it again. I would choose this again.”

At that Mattias nodded and then smiled, and put out his hand. Pierce grabbed it, and the friends hugged.

“Well then, Mage-Commander, what is your assessment?”

Pierce motioned for Mattias to move closer, and they found a quieter corner to discuss the real tactics.

“We won’t hold that wall, there’s still too many of them. We need the last of those elites down, and then we need to use the town hall and the elevation of the steps as our final fallback point. We can hold off a lot of ranks on that staircase with our spears.”

“Kill the elites just like that, and then keep retreating.”

“Yes, that’s our final chokepoint, we hold the line there or not at all. It’s been almost a full day, and we know from the magic messages that the army is on its way. They could be here by the morning.”

“Okay, that makes sense…” Mattias trailed off as if he just realised something.

“Pierce, how many people would you say can fit in the town hall, including the stairs leading out?”

Pierce gave him a look that said he already had thought this through.

“About 200-300.”

“And how many townspeople are already inside?”

“About 250.”

Mattias went pale at that. Pierce dropped his voice to a whisper.

“Look, we hold the wall if we can, we arm the townsfolk that can fight, and we only fall back to the stairs when we have so few people left that it is our only choice. This is why you need me, this is the sort of call you could never make. Its better to save 50 soldiers and 200 townsfolk than to lose everyone holding to an objective we can’t possible hold.”

Mattias paused for a moment, almost seeing his friend in a new light. They had never been pushed quite this far before, even on their roughest campaigns there had always been reinforcements or alternatives.

His voice cracked a little as he replied.

“No you’re right, we do what we can, elites first, then we hold out, and then we retreat only when needed.”

“Good, and make sure you aren’t on the wall when we retreat, they will need their commander until the last”.

Mattias looked right at Pierce and Pierce could tell that he had correctly read his friend’s mind. No last heroic sacrifice for the commander, he needed to be there to hold everyone together when most of them were dead. They both paused for a second sharing the silence, and then Mattias broke away. “Right, let’s do this, you work with Hya to get the civilians armed, and work with Simon to draw out the elites.”

Pierce nodded and Mattias strode off towards the gates calling out orders for troops to rotate off the front, getting them what rest he could. The demon’s weren’t tireless, they took breaks, and the offensive had slowed at times, especially after one of their elites died and the ranks lost morale. Inevitably though the larger demons would corral the smaller ones back into line and a fresh wave would come. That is what everyone was waiting for now.

Hya once again showed her experience by not batting an eye at Pierce’s orders to round up anyone who looked like they could fight from inside and to start issuing them what spears and weapons that were left. A spear was a weapon for a trained soldier, especially the sarissa that the Solanian’s had, but two untrained fighters could do the work of one with a bit of training. Hya nodded, picked up her own sword and strapped it to her waist, and then gestured for her support staff to throw down whatever admin tool and notebooks they were carrying and pick up their own weapons. A few of them looked surprised, but she was insistent, she knew the point in the fight they had gotten to. Pierce left her to it.

He found Simon sitting under a tree to the right of the town hall, it was the only shade not caused by a building or the now-dangerous walls. The mage was breathing heavily, but had not taken any more wounds, despite acquitted himself very well against the elites he had taken down during the battle so far.

“Glad to see you’re still here.” Pierce said as he walked up, “Sorry about Patricia.” Simon replied with a grimace, “There’s only so many times I can remind her to study demon classifications. She would have learned with enough experience, but you know, for a mage she really was more about the power than the learning.”

“True, but then we were all like that at first, so caught up in the magic we thought we were invincible. I remember on my first campaign Mattias had to grab me back from getting eaten alive by this giant beast I tried to light-arrow. Imagine my shock when the arrow bounced off.”

Both of them laughed at that, but the laughter faded quickly.

“Look, we know they only have three elites left. Do you think you have one more in you?”

“I’m almost out of mana, but maybe, if it’s one of the slow ones.”

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking, we can’t do much about the mage, its too long range, and it isn’t really hitting us because it can’t see onto the top of the hill. If it gets close enough to shoot us Mattias can get it. That just leaves the two wall breakers, one is a proper lumbering type, you know the one with the endless mouth full of teeth in the middle of its body?” Simon nodded. “I think that’s your target. The other is much faster, designed to jump behind defenders and get doors and gates open that way. Mattias is already watching for that.”

“Okay so go onto the walls and wait for the big lumbering one to try and break through, and then shoot it. Got it.”

“No you see here is the problem. If we put you up there, the mage can snipe you. We need you to stay down here, resting, and then when that big one breaks through. You throw everything you’ve got at it, and then we just hold the gap that it died in.”

“Rest for a bit longer, well that sounds like a great plan.”

“I thought you might like it. Is that okay?”

“Yes, I won’t let you down.”

Pierce got up and watched as Simon took up a meditating position. He could feel him drawing in mana from the surrounding area, and quickly walked away in case the orb interfered with the other mage as it had been doing to him. As he rounded the corner back towards the front of the town hall, he heard someone calling out his name. It was Brenda, she was somehow still alive.

“I’ve just come down from the walls, with what’s left of my unit.” Pierce looked around then, and realised that the unit he had ridden with on that first day of their journey was reduced heavily. It was only Brenda and 4 others left. Pierce looked, and then looked again.

“Jack?”

Brenda’s face went grey. “Yeah, he fell at the last barricade. Almost made it here, but as we turned to leave one of them dived towards my back, and the bastard actually jumped in the way. No idea why he did that, he has a kid, same as me. He didn’t need to.” There was anger and grief on her face now. They had served together for over 3 campaigns, over 8 years, that was a long time. Their families and their children were friends as well, it went beyond just the army for them.

“You would have done the same.” Was all Pierce could think of to say.

“Yeah, yeah you’re right I would have. Anyway, it sounds bad but I can’t think about him now. I have to focus on the fight, so I can get back to his son and tell him what a hero his dad was.”

Pierce just nodded, wished her good luck, and drifted away. There wasn’t much more that could be said, and words would just steal away from vital resting time now.

Pierce drifted around, comforting some soldiers, reassuring some rookies, not that there were many left, giving some orders and helping where he could. He heard Hya arguing with some townsfolk who were saying that they couldn’t fight, that they weren’t soldiers, but he saw her just lead them outside and then they looked around at the number of soldiers left and the number that had died for them and they just walked over and picked up the weapons they were offered and started drilling without further complaint.

In this brief lull between the fighting, he allowed himself to breathe deeply. He would do all he could to help his soldiers. Maybe his magic would somehow come back or the orb would turn into a fancy grenade, he didn’t know, but he would do what he could. He even went so far as to strap a sword of his own onto the outside of his robes. Though he did think he might be better just whacking any demon that came close with his staff.

Then the ground started to shake, and the demons came again. He heard Mattias yelling the Solanian battlecry “For the Home of the Holy”, and he heard the clash of steel again.

This was a good defensive position, and the troops did hold out better than he had anticipated. He saw Solanian soldiers killing the demon ranks by the score from their high vantage point on the low walls; it even looked like the demons might not break through for a good hour.

Then as the sun well and truly set, and darkness fell, the walls shook once more. The huge lumbering wall breaker had come up to the gate, and was smashing its huge arms and head against it.

Its hide was so tough it was deflecting the attacks from the soldiers on the walls around it. The ones that did get through were ignored as it kept on with its single minded attack. Thud, Thud, Thud, and then the sound of cracking and creaking wood as the bar holding the gate shut began to give way. Thud, thud, thud, he saw Simon stand up from the tree where he had been gathering mana to himself this entire time. Thud, thud, thud and then with a huge cracking sound, the gates were thrown back and the soldiers that had been bolstering them and hadn’t escaped in time were crushed against the walls and the ground.

Simon was true to his word, no sooner had the gates cracked open and the wall-breaker came pushing in, he had gotten into position and started to rain magic down on him. He started with light-arrow spells, and then followed up with more light weapons. A light spear, went flying, followed by a rain of stars that all exploded leaving pitted holes on the hide of the beast.

The beast did not look like it would stop though, and soldiers could not get in between the furiously casting mage and the beast. Some did start trying to push it back with long spears, but it either grabbed them and broke them or pushed them aside. It was fixated on the mage that was causing it so much pain.

For a moment it looked like it would reach Simon, but then his onslaught paid off and the creature started to slow. It fell to its knees less than a metre from the mage, and couldn’t move any further.

Pierce saw Simon conjure one last light lance and pierce the heart of the beast, and then it fell to the ground.

And yet as it did, it opened its huge maw wider and wider, and something shot out. Pierce cried out and rushed forward, he had seen this before. The creature had a long tongue with a secondary mouth at the end of it, normally it couldn’t extend that far, but it had clearly decided to use the last of its might to throw it at Simon.

The tongue-mouth hit him on the neck and instantly began to savage him. Soldiers rushed forward, and so did Pierce, but by the time they got there it was too late. Simon was lying on his back, staring at the sky. He had done his job, but it had taken everything from him.

Pierce found himself crying a little, which he hadn’t expected. He thought we weren’t really friends, and then he corrected himself. Things had changed, they had become friends, and comrades, that is how he would speak of him for years to come. If he had years left to speak about anyone.

He barely noticed Mattias engaging and dispatching the other wall breaker. As he had told Simon it was a great matchup for Mattias, which is probably why the creature had held back until now. Mattias just watched it try and dodge his attacks and picked the right moment to run it through, and left it dead on the ground.

Instead he was staring at Simon’s body, and watching as a fragment of light broke off from the body, met with another fragment that came out of his own chest, and then flew into his robes. Was this an answer to the mystery?

But he didn’t really have time to consider it right now. The mage was still left but it had not shown his hand. Perhaps like Simon he had been out of mana and had to take time to recover. Though he could feel its presence nearby, it had to be close, as the last elite it was the only reason the lesser demons would keep attacking, and they were definitely still attacking.

Pierce turned to the shocked troops around him and began helping Mattias order defensive lines around the broken gate. The demons were pouring in now, and the fighting was beginning again.

Pierce was forced to retreat back to the doors of the town hall, and watch as his soldiers and Mattias fought yet another fighting retreat. They held the gap in the wall through into the early hours of the morning, but the attrition rate was still high.

Maybe it was 2 hours until dawn when their casualties forced them to give up the wall, as Pierce had predicted.

They fell back to the town hall and made their stand on the steps there. The townspeople had their weapons and were taking their turn at the front with the last of the soldiers, even the heavily wounded that could stand were doing what they could.

It was maybe an hour before dawn, the first hints of light were hitting the horizon, when the demons backed off their latest offensive. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but no one could relax. People drank and ate what hard food was left. Pierce looked around him, there were only 60 actual soldiers left. Over half of the townspeople that they had conscripted were gone. They didn’t even have the spare energy to collect the bodies. He could see them from where he stood. Even Mattias was injured, not dead or in mortal danger, but he had a huge gash in his left thigh and he was relegated to giving orders from the back.

Dawn creeped closer, and the defenders were starting to see the hope that came with the new day when the drum beats started. It was a loud rat-tat-tat, and they could see the demons advancing again through the ruins of the gates. Behind the massed ranks, Pierce could see the waving staff of the large Demon mage, coming to finish the job. They had no one who could stand against him.

The demon ranks and the mage advanced through the gate and were now approaching the steps of the town hall. The mage was just as Pierce had imagined from Simon’s description. He was taly and gangly, with long frail limbs, and a torso that was wider than it should be. He was wearing a robe and walked with a staff hunched over. Pierce could see holes in the robes, which must have been where the spikes that had injured Simon had broken through. Pierce was worried, this mage looked old, and an old Demon mage was not to be taken lightly.

Piece was surprised when from behind him came a murmur and the doors of the town hall which had been kept closed to protect the civilians and badly wounded opened. Pierce felt a warm light on his face, and thought the dawn had come early, but instead he looked in awe as Berian walked out of the hall. He was still injured, he was limping a bit and favouring his right side, but there he was, a Paladin of Sol came in their darkest hour.

The mage pointed, and the ranks charged forwards, but Berian sliced them down by the hundred with his blades of light. Even with the mage behind them their will faltered and the ranks held back. Berian pointed his sword at the mage, they would fight it out themselves.

They met in the middle of the town hall square, both armies had made room for them to avoid any collateral damage.

The mage opened the fight by shooting arcane lightning, but Berian caught it on his shield. He replied by conjuring a spear of light and trying to end the fight there and then by stabbing the mage with it, but it bounced off the mage’s wards.

Then the mage started conjuring mini-fireballs, and Berian was forced to spend minutes dodging, but he was already tired and injured, so one of the fireballs caught him and seared the top of his shoulder through his armour. He was forced to drop his shield, but that helped him dodge the next few attacks.

He was deliberately dodging closer and closer to the mage, aiming to get into melee range to put the magic user at a disadvantage. He closed and then drew his sword up, extending it into a light-blade and went to bring it down to cut the mage in two, but the mage dodged, and rolled away. Pierce expected Berian to follow-up with a second attack, but instead the figure in armour did not move. He paused there for a second, and Pierce heard a faint hissing sound, and then he realised the mage was laughing.

The mage walked over to Berian and pushed him in the chest, and then the man fell backwards. Those blasted spines had shot out of the mage when he rolled and went through the front of Berian’s armour. The man was dead, or dying. The last of their elites that could fight was done. Mattias swore, and the soldiers around Pierce let out a collective groan. The mage just continued its weird hissing laughter.

Then, like it had done with Simon, a small piece of light drifted up from Berian’s body. The mage looked at it shocked and made to grab it but it flitted away, again it met with a small piece of light, a piece of his soul, and went into his robes.

Piece couldn’t even think, he was so furious, this stupid orb, the pursuit of power, if he had magic this entire fight would have gone differently. He believed in the light, so why had Sol cursed him and taken away his magic. Yet in his fury, he realised he was gripping the orb in his hands under his robe. He tore it free of his robes, and the troops around him moved back. If it had glowed before when he had found it, now it shone like a second sun, with currents of light and shadow playing throughout.

He was still holding on to it, looking at it and then wildly around him at the reactions of his fellow soldiers. They all thought this was some hidden power he had brought out at the last to save them, but it wasn’t. Berian was their last chance, not him. As he thought that he looked at Berian’s body, and then felt a tug from within the sphere, and then something inside him clicked.

What sort of magic would Solana want to seal away? What would someone who believed in it view as the true source of magic – the ‘true Arcanum’. What would take parts of his soul and bind them to the spirts of the dying?

He felt the orb burning in his hands as he looked at the body of his comrade, who had given everything to the light, and then he realised that these true souls who fought in Sol’s name, they really would give everything. Even if it meant their life, they would give everything, and if they could somehow keep fighting even after death, they would do that as well. Wouldn’t they?

He had not been practising some form of weird soul stealing, the pieces he had gathered had come willingly. He realised then that every time the orb had flashed during the fight, it must have been when a soldier that really believed in this cause and knew him died. When they died part of their soul had come to him, and he was storing it in this orb. This orb, or maybe as a better name for it, a SoulKeeper.

He looked again at Berian’s body and the hopeful faces around him, and heard once again the mage’s laughter and he knew what he had to do. Nevermind if Solana had banned it, and locked it away, it was a tool of the light and he was here to enact the light’s will.

With that resolution the orb gave him the words he needed, burned in fire in his mind and skin.

“You, who fell in service of the light,

You who wished to give all to the cause,

You who wanted to fight until the last and beyond,

Arise fallen warriors of the light, and fight once more, For the Home of the Holy”.

With those words light spilled out of the Soulkeeper, and sped not just towards the body of Berian, but towards the area where the other Solanian bodies had been piled up, and down the hill as well towards the other areas where brave souls had fallen in the defence of this town.

Pierce saw Simon sit up from amidst a pile of bodies and dust himself off, a grin on his face. The tiredness of the battle was gone from his dead eyes. He saw Berian stand up, ignoring the wounds on his body and pick up his sword again.

He saw others as well, people he did not know well but had commanded on different campaigns. People who he had given orders to, and who had placed their faith in him time and time again. Light filled and suffused them, shining through the cracks in the dead bodies, and out of the wounds that killed them. This confused the living Solanian soldiers, many of whom had fought undead. They looked at him strangely then. These were definitely undead, but they were clearly on the side of the light.

That confusion and wariness lasted until the first resurrected group of undead smashed into the stunned demon ranks, and Berian walked forwards ignoring the magic being thrown at his already broken body and calmly lopped the head off the demon mage.

Pierce smiled as he saw Jack, and it was definitely Jack, leading a group of other resurrected soldiers right into the back of the demon ranks, who started to break and scatter now that their leader was dead.

The undead soldiers pursued them until the demons had run out onto the plains.They would have to round them up but that would be a problem for their reinforcements. Then the undead soldiers came back and lined up, along with Berian and Simon in the square.

Most of the living were sitting down now, though some were still eyeing the undead and had not put down their weapons. Mattias looked like he wanted to get up and do something but his injury kept him seated, still he called out.

“Pierce, what have you done?” he sounded worried. Pierce didn’t reply. He needed to confirm something for himself before he answered.

He walked over to the soldiers and he saw nods and waves from people he knew. He walked up to Simon, Berian and Jack, who were waiting for him at the front.

“I did this, and I will let you rest, but I have to ask, what did it feel like?”

Simon got what Pierce was asking before the other two, and he replied simply.

“A choice, it felt like a choice.” the others nodded.

Jack added, “Yes, there was light and there was warmth, and there was this feeling like we could go or we could stay.”

“The same for me,” agreed Berian, “Though I could still see where I had died, and I knew that I could go back and fight, and that you would allow me to save more lives, so of course I said yes.”

The rest of the soldiers nearby were nodding in agreement. A few articulated the same. They had chosen this, chosen to give that little bit extra for Solana.

This put Pierce’s mind at ease, a bit, and he heard Simon laughing. “What, Pierce, did you think you’d changed overnight into some powerful necromancer who could bind the souls of Solanian’s against their will, with no training? I know you’re a prodigy, but that’s a bit much…”

Pierce found himself laughing and crying, tears of relief. Perhaps this was actually a gift from Sol then, another weapon to use for the light. A last resort for soldiers who were commited to making a final stand.

“Can you go now then?”

“Yes, I think we can, well those of us that want to. I think some of us could also choose to stay.” Jack replied. “I am quite attached to this body, but I feel like I could also be in a different one, like maybe his – and he pointed to Berian’s arm with its huge muscles. I think that would work just as well. So yes, I think maybe I’ll stay for a bit, look out for you.”

Pierce was surprised to hear Berian, and Simon also saying the same thing. In total he had brought back 40 souls, and of them Jack, Berian, Simon and 5 of the other soldiers he had served with decided to stay.

And then it was agreed, all the soldiers began to sit or lie down, and it felt like a soft warm breeze ran over the hilltop as the lights went out in their eyes. Some, as promised, flowed straight from their bodies and into the SoulKeeper. The others drifted off out of sight, to be with Sol.

Then the hill was still once more. Everyone took their time moving around then, those that were hungry ate whatever they could, those that were thirsty drank. No one spoke much, the energy for speaking had been eaten up in the fighting and the emotions of the day.

Pierce walked over to Mattias, who was still looking at him strangely.

“They agreed to come back, you know, I didn’t force any of them, I just became a conduit for their desire to keep fighting.”

“You idiot!” Came Mattias’ reply. “I don’t think what you did was evil. I was right here. I’m not scared of you, I’m worried for you. Most of the soldiers here will be grateful, and will have seen, but most of the army of Solana is not here.”

As if on cue, there was the sound of horns and hooves starting to come closer to the town.

“Great reinforcements, right when the fighting is over. Look Pierce, I’ll give a good report on this, but we can’t keep it quiet, there are too many civilians. I’ll make sure to lay this out clearly for them, but honestly, I don’t know how they will respond. It might be an idea for you to break away and lie low for a while.”

“What, no I can’t do that, I’ve rediscovered an ancient Solanian magic, I can help a lot of people with this.”

“Yes, ancient and sealed away, someone thought this was too dangerous to be used.”

“Maybe, but I have it now, the army will see the benefit. I have to believe they will.”

“I hope you’re right. I really do. Okay go and rest a bit, I imagine we will be moving out back to Solana as soon as we can.”

Pierce drifted off, and found a corner of the town hall. The civilians had already started to work, moving the dead, gathering supplies, moving around the town with armed guards in case of any lingering demons, so it was quiet.

He heard horses pull up and heard Mattias speaking to the new commander, but it didn’t matter. He had unlocked the secret of the SoulKeeper. He could feel its power now, stored in the orb next to him and he knew he could pull on it when he needed to. Yet he still could not store any mana in his body, so I guess that meant he wasn’t a mage anymore. He was now a Necromancer.

—-

The journey back to Solana started the next day. There were so few, only 40, soldiers left that the reinforcement actually commandeered wagons and took them all home in those rather than making them walk. Pierce ended up in a wagon with Mattias, Brenda and a few others. No one really spoke, they were all too tired.

They entered back into Solana to a hero’s welcome. There had been other fights going on, the army had been spread thin after all, but this was the story that had captured the imagination of the public. 500 brave souls fought through the night until only 40 were left at the end all to protect innocent civilians from a demonic horde 10 times their size. That was the stuff that legends were made of.

However, Pierce noticed no mention was made of Necromancy. He understood that, but it also annoyed him a bit. Surely the story of Berian the Blessed as he was becoming known would be better if people knew that his soul had wanted to fight evil so much it stuck around after his death. Actually he started that rumour, in the days following their return, and it became part of the retelling, not with any mention of undead or necromancy. Instead the bards talked about the power of the paladin’s soul being so pure that even after he was slain his spirit reached out and killed the beast that had killed him before he faded.

Pierce was also surprised that he was left alone. No one from the clergy or the college of mages said anything to him. They sent him home, and forbade him from speaking about what he had done, or practising Necromancy. Mattias was also strangely absent, though Brenda did come around with Jack’s son and her daughter for a visit.

Life became quite calm for the baker’s son over the next few weeks. He helped around the house, and in the shop. He spent evenings chatting with locals, and life returned to normal for a while, though he still had dreams about that hill and the fight in the darkness. Sometimes he even had nightmares about zombies coming to eat him, but he thought now at least he could probably stop them.

He wasn’t discharged from the army, and he wasn’t stupid. They were clearly trying to decide what to do with him. So he did keep practising necromancy in secret, he found that his summons were stronger when they inhabited a body, but that he could also summon them in a sort of spectral wraith form without having a body nearby. This was good when he wanted to consult with them, or in the case of the soldiers he hadn’t known as well, to learn about them.

He found himself running small errands for the 8 souls in his SoulKeeper. Simple stuff like making sure the Soldier’s widow’s stipend made its way to the wife of one of them, or making sure Jack’s son got the cake he wanted for his birthday.

Doing these things put his mind at ease about this whole thing, and as he felt his bond with the souls continue to deepen, he found that he could call them at will, and that sometimes they could even emerge when they chose rather than when he asked for it.

He could also prevent them from emerging if he was in an embarrassing situation, but it was more like a postman trying to deliver a letter. Either he could go to the post office and collect the letter himself, or he’d get a knock on the door in his mind and he could answer it and get the letter that way.

So there was some harmony, but also tension. His parents could tell something was wrong. They kept asking after Mattias, or asking why he wasn’t participating in the 5th parade celebrating the ‘Heroes of the Hill’ as the bards had dubbed them.

He couldn’t explain, so he didn’t, which made the tension grow even more.

It was on a morning, 8 weeks after his return, he had just gotten into a fight with his mother who he had assured that nothing at all was wrong, when there was a knock on the door.

An Archon stood there, the very same one that had come to collect Pierce 20 years ago for his Awakening ceremony. Yet this time he was not alone. Behind him stood templars, and a full company of soldiers. In his hand there was a scroll, which he unrolled and then began to read from.

Pierce de Vale, you have been found guilty by the heads of Solana of the crimes of Heresy and Necromancy. You are sentenced to be cleansed by the fires of Solana. Do not attempt to resist. Anyone found aiding you will be considered a co-conspirator and equally guilty.

With that the soldiers stormed the house, and his mother and father were forced to looked on stunned as their son, whom they had thought was a hero was dragged away for one of the worst crimes in Solana – Heresy.

—

Pierce had only been in Jail for a day before they dragged him out again. Clearly after deliberating for 8 weeks on what to do with him, they had decided to move fast.

He couldn’t fight it, well he could try, but given the size of his guard he wasn’t sure how far he would get. He did protest his innocence loudly, and talk about the fact that he was just an instrument of Sol, but that seemed to annoy his guards even more.

He was hauled before the magistrates then to plead his case in person one last time. He used all the words he could think of. He had found this orb by accident, he had not known what it was, he had only used it when there was no other option except to let people get slaughtered. He even called out his spirits, the spirits of Berian and Simon, who had both been well respected in life, but these were denounced as a mockery, and he only saw fear in the eyes of the magistrates.

They denounced him, said that these spirits could be under his control and he could make them say whatever he wanted them to. The fear they felt closed the case as far as they were concerned, and his sentence was reaffirmed.

They dragged him out to the main square in the citadel of Solana the next morning. The very heart of the city, where he had queued on his 8th birthday waiting for his awakening ceremony. The square he had walked through every day to go from his rooms in the citadel to the library. The square where he had his first kiss, with another of the mage-students when he was 16. Too many memories.

He tried to anger, but he had none, he tried to muster some fight but it wasn’t there. The problem was, he was a believer, he believed in Solana, and believed that the rulers had to make the decisions for the greater good. Maybe necromancy was too dangerous a tool to be allowed to exist.

That conviction lasted until he saw the pyre. Then he did fight, he scratched and clawed, he summoned the spirits he could though they were weaker without bodies. It was odd to hear Berian denouncing the templars of his order as they dragged him to the pyre. Someone hit him then, leaving him dizzy and limp, and he couldn’t fight anymore as they tied him to the pole.

He was vaguely aware of a crowd around him, watching him. He was on a raised platform in the square. He could see faces he recognised, survivors, the ‘heroes of the hill’ looking on with anger. Some were yelling at the guards, some even looked like they were contemplating violence. Others look at him with sad but determined eyes, like they were sad this was happening but that it had to.

Brenda was there, and she was being supported by two friends, she looked so drunk she could barely stand and like she had been crying for days.

He couldn’t see Mattias, which disappointed him. Then he heard a loud thunk, and he realised that Mattias was there, and had just run into all of the guards to start a fight. His heart soared to know that his friend was here to help, but then it fell again as he watched 20 of the guards dogpile onto Mattias and pin him swearing to the ground.

Then a priest approached, and said.

“Now sinner, though your punishment is set, I give you the chance for repentance and perhaps salvation in the next life. You who are far from the light of Sol can be cleansed by her fire.”

Pierce spat on the priest. “Please spare me your drivel, I am more of a believer than you are, I have saved more people in Sol’s name than you ever will, I am closer to Sol than you will ever know.”

At that the priest turned away, and nodded to someone, and the fire started. Pierce felt the heat start to build, and the smoke began making him dizzy. He couldn’t believe after all his struggles it was going to end like this.

As the flames started to reach his feet he began to scream, and he really wished he was anywhere but here. Somewhere where the light respected power that could beat its enemies instead of judging him for it. Somewhere that wasn’t as dogmatic and afraid. Somewhere else.

He felt the smoke making his head spin, and then realised it wasn’t the smoke, his whole body spun around, and he landed of all places in a snowdrift.

The shock of the snow on his burnt feet was a sweet relief, but that didn’t last long before he forced himself up.

He must be dreaming, he must be dead, but he was standing in the middle of a field of snow, and there was a giant standing next to him.

The giant picked him up.

“Are you okay, you just appeared?”

“No, not really.”

“Okay, but tell me later, there are demons coming. Can you fight?” The Giant eyed him skeptically, and seemed to be asking mostly out of optimism than anything else.

Pierce reached out with his mind and felt death around him, old bodies, buried in the snow, larger bodies, and thought Berian and Jack might enjoy those, but he needed to be cautious.

“Yes, but my methods are a bit unorthodox…” and Pierce paused to wait for the reply. The giant just smiled and slapped him on the back, driving the wind out of him.

“Who cares, you fight, Demon’s die, we go and drink.”

Pierce nodded and summoned Jack and Berian into the bodies of what it turned out were two giants buried under the snow. At first he thought the giant he had met would be disgusted, but instead he said “Good, they would be happy to be able to keep fighting.”

And then Pierce, Jack and Berian fought demons with an Olinn, on the mountainside of Isenloft, in the land of Aria, and that is the story of how Pierce de Vale, Necromancer of Sol, came to Aria to begin a new adventure.