Chapter 17
Elara Dawnstrike ran a hand through her hair and let out a sigh. She pushed away from her desk and looked out of the window, at the city and the walls beyond.
Ilus’ raids had severely diminished the stores they’d laid into the different settlements around the city. It had also hit their morale hard. Ilus wasn’t just defending anymore.
Then there was the damned posters that were showing up with people’s rations. Across different places. The information had spread faster than volcanic ash. Ilus was hiring, and willing to pay well for them to turn on the Cinderborn.
A knock at her door turned her towards it.
She opened her mouth to dismiss them when the knock came harder and faster. “Come in!” Elara said.
The door opened to reveal her secretary. The man’s normally placid face was creased in wrinkles, another time she might joke about Joel aging himself.
“A fire broke out in one of the storage facilities near the front. It was focused on the food supplies,” Joel said.
“Shit. Ilus?”
“It was all locked up, the guards didn’t report anything amiss, no one but our people and Caius’ were allowed in.” Joel’s eyes moved to her desk.
She tracked his eyes, the strobing glow distracting her. A meeting just as this is going on .
“Close the door,” She waved to him and pressed her hand to an enchanted square of metal.
Joel closed and locked the door, the sound whisked away as she activated the silencing enchantment and then reached for the orb. It filled with color and flared.
A ghostly table extended from her own desk, made up of the different desks that the Molten Fist’s leadership was made up of.
Torin sat at the head, Elara to his right and down the table, across from her was Caius, looking more haggard than ever.
Riven and Lyra were beside them with Gavrik taking the other end of the table.
“The convoys were hit,” Lyra said.
“Which ones?” Elara asked. Though her stomach dropping out and Lyra’s dark expression basically answered that.
“The ones bringing in the weapons from Netherforge. We’ve lost contact with three of the fleets. Right after you got that message from High Captain Sarnai of the Infernal Marauders. Emberclaw hasn’t reported it yet, but they’ve lost contact with several flotillas. I think that they’re making a play to remove them.”
Any other day Elara would have been pleased. The Emberclaws were an arrogant bunch of bastards that deserved to get wiped out. Now, they were their best ally against Ilus. The Infernal Marauders had no gripes with Ilus and if they were to take out Emberclaw and just remain neutral then Ilus could begin to send out ships to the molten sea as well.
“Emberclaw is still powerful, it would take them time to get worn down,” Torin said.
“They just got three shipments of the weapons. Sure they can take out the shields of Ilus, they can also take out the ships of the Emberclaw,” Caius said.
“Shit.” Gavrik snarled and shook his head.
“The Infernal Marauders haven’t been sitting on their hands, they’ve been getting stronger. There is a reason that they’re looking for ports to solidify their position,” Lyra said.
Elara looked at Torin. Their bedrock and bulwark rubbed his hand over his face, looking more lost than ever.
She turned away to her opposite. “I just had a report from Joel that one of the storage facilities holding food supplies went up in flames. Caius do we have more coming in?”
Caius gave her a smile of a wolf caught hungry, without a gram of joy. “No, I bought up the fact that they aren’t sending out their people with enough food. It’s the damn Magmaists running their numbers. If they say they need that much food, then the world best make it so that it works.”
“What does that mean?” Torin asked.
“It means that if we want the Cinderborn to be effective in the fighting we’re going to have to keep them fed and dig into our own supplies,” Caius took in a breath and let it out. “Which by my calculations, means we have about two weeks of food.” He held Elara’s eyes. “Though with the latest report that could be less.”
Elara looked to Joel who came close at the look. “How much did we lose?”
“Depot had enough food for three full companies for three days.”
The words were a punch to the gut. “Caius you took into account the losses we took with the Ilus raids?”
“We do not have a full accounting yet.” He pressed his lips together, gaining time to find the right words. “I do believe that Ilus got a good amount of supplies from us. Though I am also pretty sure that other supplies have disappeared among the local populations. It is not hard to see we’re tight on food. People have been hoarding for a while now.”
“We need those supplies to crack Ilus,” Torin leaned forward.
Lyra’s cough pulled him up. “To root out those hiding food we would have to use a large part of our force that would not then be able to play a role in the attack. There is also Ikor. I’m pretty sure that he survived the attack on my city and that he’s still here.”
Elara saw it, Torin was on the edge, maybe, just maybe with the right push. She cleared her throat in the silence, drawing everyone’s eyes.
“After the fight with Ilus and taking the city. How are we going to supply our people with enough food?” Elara asked.
“We can purchase it on the open market, send our farmers back to their fields to produce more,” Torin said.
She looked to Caius. He closed his eyes a reluctant executionor. “With the increase in prices from Cinderborn, we can expect to pay those same high prices to anyone else that is willing to trade with us.”
“Ilus has a vast ability to produce food,” Torin said.
“As long as they have earth mages.” Elara sat back. She saw the recognition flash through the other’s eyes they weren’t blind.
“It will take at least eight months before the farrmers are able to produce something. We’re going to lose a number of them to the fighting too,” Gavrik said.
Torin looked at the desk in a blank stare, his hands balled into fists, his shoulders shaking with tension as the veins from his neck down flared and stuck out like snakes, his shaking grew stronger through his upper body before he released his hands and let out an exhale. “Fuck.”
He leaned back into his seat. “So we’re low on food, low on funds, our closest ally which could rapidly become our greatest threat has our neck in a vice for food. These posters, is there any truth to them?”
Elara looked at the others as they looked to one another.
“Nothing has been confirmed.” Torin read the room. “So we’re stuck between Ilus and Cinderstein, the grit between stones. Emberclaw could be changed out with the Infernal Marauders. Cinderstein won’t care as long as the Marauders bow and scrape. It could give us a much more reliable ally. If we can reach a deal with the Infernal Marauders then we could have their support in attacking Ilus and getting more supplies, no?”
“We’ve had good dealings in the past and the fact that they warned us about their attacks on Emberclaw shows they have some goodwill towards us at least,” Riven looked between Elara and Lyra.
Elara nodded her agreement, with Lyra.
“Then that should be our next angle of attack. Lyra I want information on the fighting between Emberclaw and the Marauders,” Torin said.
“About a third of the Emberclaw fleets have not been heard from. The Marauders are hitting them hard,” Lyra said.
“I know you are not one that likes to deal in conjecture and estimations Lyra, but what do you think the outcome will be?” Torin asked.
“I think that the Emberclaws will lose. From my sources, the Marauders have cut them down at the knees and across their networks in almost surgical strikes. They must have been planning this for sometime with how accurate and devastating their attacks have been.” The Emberclaws are reacting, I suspect we will be asked to assist them in the near future to bolster their fighters.”
“Cut orders for all of our people to head back here to join into the fight on Ilus. That should get us out of the line of fire,” Torin said.
Gavrik turned to the side, speaking to someone beyond the crystal’s projection.
Caius looked away from the table as well and then frowned. “Say again?”
“Posters and letters have started circulating among Cinderstein. The letters reveal scandals and power plots within the city. It has already caused several uproars. Houses are rallying their forces and going against one another. The posters are a warning to the people of Cinderstein.” Caius’ secretary stepped into the range of the projector and handed a piece of paper to Caius who started reading.
“Caius?” Torin asked.
“Sorry sir,” Caius cleared his throat. “The poster tells several stories, I know at least two of them to be accurate and so will the people of the city. Its made to gain people’s trust for its real announcement. It warns that the volcano is going to erupt and that the leadership from the city has been lying to them and will lie to them that it will not occur.”
“It is too close to everything else to be a coincidence,” Riven said.
“I agree. At the very least the Cinder Born will be throw into some chaos. It could even lead to people fleeing Cinderstein,” Torin said.
“While they’re focused on internal problems they won’t be on the external ones. The fight with Ilus is more of an annoyance than a threat. They could pull their support and rally their various forces against one another,” Lyra said.
“We have three days to launch an attack and win against Ilus or this will all start to come apart,” Gavrik said.
Everyone looked down the other side of the table to Torin.
“Agreed.” Torin said. “Cut the orders to the effect. We have one last play to give. Lyra, find and kill Ikor.”
***
Valter’s head snapped up from his drawings, several stars laid out on his table.
The alarm enchantment began vibrating on his hip. He stood, checking the silence enchantment on his way to the rear window, people were rushing towards his building.
Valter ran back to his desk, drawing out the crystal, his mana threading through familiar paths while his other hand grabbed the silence and alarm enchantments, cancelling them before storing them to free up his hand to grab the sack holding Ikor.
Someone connected through the crystal.
“V here, I think I have been compromised, moving to the rally point, contact D if you can to meet me there.”
“This is D, on my way.”
Valter put the crystal away as he hurried down the stairs. He slowed his pace, casting invisibility and silence on himself before he walked through the front of the store and out the door.
A few people looked at the store door opening and closing by itself.
Valter jogged away, working to stay away from others. One touch and his invisibility would wear off.
A bolt hit just to the side of where he was, the ground exploded. People cried out as they were struck with stone shards.
Valter hissed at the sting of the rocks cutting through his clothes and skin beneath. He lowered his arm and bolted.
“There you are!” A woman yelled from his side, leading a group of fighters. One that had been leading the group who checked on his old smithy’s battle site.
She drew another arrow, it glowed with power as Valter reached inside himself and drew on his core. He exploded forward, armor shot out of his storage ring, wrapping around his chest, his feet slipping into his boots as the pieces connected up his leg.
His helmet covered his head as his gauntlets wrapped around his head. Her arrow was cutting through the air towards him.
He triggered a thermal burst, the arrow pierced the directed detonation in slow motion. Valter’s thinking pushed beyond a human’s natural limits.
Valter grounded his feet and pushed forward into a stance as the runes on the arrow activated. He triggered the enchantment in his shield, buffeting the arrow, slowed further before it struck his shield.
His arms were punched back into his chest as he was thrown backwards towards a stone building. Mana weaved through his channels as fast as thought, triggering small thermal burst, to hurl himself to the side, shoving himself from his feet.
He threw out his hands, hitting the ground, he rolled onto his shoulder and pushed himself up, weaving a second spell, his legs glowed red, his soles the color of magma.
A scorched dent and then bright silver scratch cut through the face of his shield. Fuck .
Valter threw himself to his feet under him and stepped on the ground.
An arrow hit where he’d been, the ground detonated, pelting him, his shield rang with their impacts as he found his second step, unsteady as he tried to find his feet, the third gaining traction as he sped through the city.
A thermal blast triggered behind and to the side, throwing him out the way of one arrow. The force from the damn street blowing up forced him to use his shield. He jumped for a building, missing the third, running along the wall before he leapt clear, taking a street that would block his attacker’s line of sight.
Going to leave a damn path to where I am .
Valter took out a health potion snapping off the glass neck with his thumb he shoved it into the top of the sack, emptying it.
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Attacks were met by hammers torn from the surrounding buildings.
Valter’s vision showed the world in a litany of colors. Temperature, mana, runes and enchantments. They swum in his vision. He could quickly look through it all, categorizing it and understanding it.
A glance back showed the woman and her people running after him using the rooftops. More were joining them by the minute.
The woman and three of her people were keeping up, the others were trying their best.
Good movement spells, or they’re stronger.
From how many formations and spells he’d seen the people use, magic wasn’t rare here. Though storage devices were. Different worlds, different ways he guessed. He gathered heat around himself, storing it.
One of the trio following the woman put on a burst of speed, where his skin was exposed his mana channels glowed with a yellow light.
He leapt from the roof towards Valter.
Valter turned, his feet digging into the ground as he channeled thermal burst. He cranked back his arm and hurled his. The thermal burst ignited, the hammer’s speed doubling and cracking through the air.
The man made to defend, but he had no way to change his path in mid-air. The air condensed around the hammer as it broke through the man’s arm, driving it into his chest and hurling back up against the building, white supercooled vapors covered him, as he whimpered.
Valter called the weapon back to him condensed and focused the heat around him into a hair-thin beam directed at the man.
The beam cut into his armor and chest, the supercooled, turning to superheated detonation made sure the job was done.
Essence concentrated in Valter’s core as his hammer landed in his hand and he focused on drawing the heat away from it and into his armor, his feet already leaving molten footprints on the ground as he kept running.
A roar came from the rooftops, one that shook his core.
Many thought of Valter as slow, of mind and bearing due to his size. Sure he talked slowly, but that was only to confirm the ideas that were sparking against one another in his head.
His size had slowed him in the past, but his armor, his spells were all used to counteract it.
Hammers tore away from buildings in the dozens as arrows rained down around him. He dodged their paths, and then where they impacted and exploded. With his helmet he didn’t just see ahead of himself, he saw in every direction.
His feet shifted as thermal burst and molten steps blended together, tearing up the street as he dodged the incoming attacks.
That only brought more upon him. The woman threw blades that cracked through the air. Thermal blasts broke his ribs with the force needed to get him out of their path.
He took out an empowering plate, inserting a thermal blast into it, he charged and threw it.
He jumped and used two blasts, smashing through a building, he skidded out on the other side, legs pumping as he ran as fast as he could, each step took him several meters, as he built back up to a full sprint.
The plate detonated in a clap of superheated compressed air.
Attacks stopped landing around him as he kept on his path towards the rally point.
He skidded to a stop and tore off the bag, tearing it open in the process.
Ikor was looking around, bleary eyed as he tried to get up feebly. Guess having that much sleep potion isn’t good for a person.
Valter took out his shield and secured it.
Come on Desari . He looked through the buildings, the heat signature of dozens closing in on his position.
***
Lyra blinked through the detonation, the man had gone through a building.
He turned and stepped forward, the air detonated behind him as his steps melted the ground.
“With me! There’s only one of them!” Lyra yelled. She had him now. Bells were already ringing in and she had people coming in from every direction.
The stone hammers collapsed back into their components as she ran towards a wall. In a leap she was ontop of it, running down the foot wide-span, leaping to a roof. He wasn’t even trying to hide anymore, sacrificing stealth for speed.
Her people ran across the rooftops and through the streets, rushing towards him. They were coming in from every direction.
She rushed after him, he had the distance and was gaining more. He stopped?
“The hell is he doing?” She growled as she closed. She glanced at the second life signature that had been in the bag. Ikor?
Why the hell was he in a bag? Maybe he was more wounded than they thought? His signature was vibrant at least. Questions could wait.
She threw up her hand, firing up a flare of blue light above the armored man. He shifted to face where her flare came from.
Good, then he won’t see the others coming from other directions . Though the way he’d dodged her arrows was just unnatural .
Getting through his armor was going to be tough, few things could withstand the power of a green core fighter.
She grabbed three daggers from her belt, reaching the small square he was located in.
It was at the back of a large building with three alleys coming in from different directions. A small communal area turned dilapidated.
The alleys snaked through the buildings, they wouldn’t give her people charging through them a clear line of sight.
The armored man was holding a shield and that damned hammer, his back up against the sack and then the large building behind him.
She threw her daggers, weaving a mirror spell. They shot out, accelerating for him.
Hammers peeled from the surroundings to meet them. He threw out his shield and activated an enchantment that threw most of the daggers away. The others struck his shield or buried themselves in the ground around him.
They had done their job, her feet touched the ground and she crossed the space between them in seconds. Her blade lashed out, anticipating him lifting his shield to spot her.
He set himself and shoved his shield forward. She diverted her attack to a slash. His hammer rose up to hit her in the side. She shifted to bring herself around his guard.
He shifted like a dance partner, reading her.
Rock crumbled around her.
Lyra drew a dagger and threw it out, it spun around her and turned into several dozen, waging a war upon the hammers that shot towards her.
She shot backwards, weaving movement spells. His shield deflected attacks with unerring accuracy, his hammer taking all of her attention. If he was able to use both I’d be dead . The molten edge on her blade was flickering, she looked up in alarm. He was draining the power of her heat spells passively?
I need to end this .
She gritted her teeth and drew a second sword and charged back in, a deadly dance that left but scratches on his armor. His strength more than a rival to her own, his movements tight and precise to make up for her speed.
A spell detonated among a group of her people moving away, three went down. He weaved through attacks, taking others on his armor. Still standing infront of Ikor.
He threw his hammer, making Lyra dodge again. “Get up old man, Desari said you could actually fight.” He caught his hammer.
He hooked the hammer, more hammers pulled out from the surrounding buildings and ground to harass. Lyra dodged two wishing for a blunt weapon.
She and her people had been trained with thing blades, bows and arrows. The blunt hammers made of stone were a much greater threat.
He was but one man. She had to stop Ikor from getting up.
She cut her canteen, water leaking out as she clashed with the armored man again, his fighting style was brutal and minimalistic, the least amount of movement and power to have the greatest effect. There was no flourish in his fighting, it was a task to be completed to him.
The spell weave came together in her mind. Darts of water shot out from her canteen. He blunted several on his shield, ringing from their speed. He wasn’t able to stop the others that rushed around him for Ikor’s prone form trying to get up.
The spell was crushed . Lyra grunted from the backlash running through her channels, barely dodging the armored man’s attack, she was so stunned.
Ikor doesn’t know water spells? It was one thing to defeat another spell, use a counter spell, a barrier, or something it couldn’t get past. To break a spell so completely. It was something that elementals were rumored to do. Their understanding of the element so complete that it fell under their command, tearing it away from others around them.
It was a spell she used for its surprise. Water spells weren’t used in the fire region, few knew good counters for them or expected their use.
The water was turned to ice and sent flicking away, over the rooftops where people’s yells were suddenly silenced.
A woman wearing a cloak that covered her features dropped from the large building behind the armored man. Her eyed glowed purple.
White and blue fire spells filled the space. Lyra’s blades danced to meet them, using all of her speed and strength as hammers added into the fight. Her daggers trying to break them apart, holding her own against both of them a stalemate.
***
Ikor blinked, it felt like lifting a house off of himself to open his eyes. Looking at the feet of an armored man. Lyra Shadowend on the backfoot . Her blades glowing as she dueled with blasts of fire and hammers.
People appeared on the roofs around them as a pair of feet dropped next to the armored man’s.
A man let loose an arrow, Ikor’s mana raced through his channels and into a weave. Lighting appeared around the man, Ikor waved his hand, jumping it between three others that dropped, smoldering to the ground.
“Well hello Ikor,” A voice he knew belonging to the feet..
His head snapped up, seeing those purple eyes. He didn’t know the cloak, couldn’t see her face, but he knew it was her.
“Desari,” He said, the word creating a confusing swirl in his stomach.
Her eyes snapped beyond the armored giant, tiles shredded themselves into darts that shot out faster than he could track to the sounds of several wet impacts.
She swirled her hands, the wind picking up as rain started to fall.
A woman with twin blades cut through the tile darts and dropped from the roof, she cut out, piercing through Desari’s wind, landing.
Ikor breathed it in, his element resonating with the water.
The woman rushed towards them, the armored man, met her with shield and blade, his armor’s runes glowing bright, their weapons clashing with such power to make openings in the rain. Their movements weaving into one another’s. Neither with an advantage, both on a razor’s edge.
The level of skill and even understanding it was beyond Ikor.
“Valter, turn it into fog. Ikor use it for your casting!” She pulled out a cut gem with several bands rotating around it.
The whole area grew thick and warm--the rain puffed into fog, obscuring everything around them in a second.
The battle between the dual wielder and Valter never slowed. More fighters were getting into the small courtyard.
Ikor could trace the charge that ran through people, from brain to heart and foot.
He rose to his feet, as he guided lightning. It jumped through the fog, burning it away in parts, striking the moving attackers.
“To me!” Desari said.
Something detonated and Valter was next to them, his armor smoking.
A gem the size of a human head flared with purple light and the world turned black, white and grey, before melting into a new arrangement, a still picture that burst into color.
Ikor stumbled on the uneven ground, looking around the small valley they stood within. Some of the fog that had come with them was pulled away by a breeze, spreading out and dissipating before it could create a plume.
A spell for sure.
He turned to the woman who stored the cut gem and it surrounding spinning bands. The sheer density of runes on the gem beyond his knowledge. She pulled back her cloak’s hood, her Cinderborn tattoos shifting with her face back to one he had never thought to see again. She pulled off the cloak to reveal her armor underneath.
The armored man ran up the valley they were in, lowering himself to a crouch as he got higher.
“Desari, you-you died?” Ikor growled. “Though I guess there is little that meets the eye with you.”
“I did die, though there were some certain circumstances that changed things shall we say.”
“People don’t come back from death unless they dabble in the darkest of magics,” Ikor growled.
“Clear.” The man called back down.
“Thanks Valter.” Desari started climbing towards the armored man. “No babes or souls were destroyed so I might live again.” She said as she walked. He hurried to follow after her. Looking around as he reached where Valter had been kneeling.
Cinderstein rose up as proud and immutable as ever, though it was smaller in the distance. Further down the shores of the Molten Sea? He glanced towards the bare signs of some kind of settlement, beyond that, the shimmering air produced by the Molten Sea.
Valter was leading them away from the volcano, pulling out a crystal. A spell wrapped around him stopping Ikor from listening in.
“What are you doing here?”
“The Geraxi pantheon messed up the teleportation spell for Ilus. I came to see what is going on and if need be-help. It seemed that my help was needed.”
“We were doing just fine without you. You betrayed us, turned us over to those savages! This,” He waved his hands to everything around them. “Those that died being teleported here, in the fighting since, in the fighting before. It was all your fault.”
She turned on him, those purple eyes flaring with brilliant power, the world seemed to constrict around him slightly, her elemental powers unconsciously reacting to her emotions.
“How many times did I go to the council saying that there were spies and groups within the city that were trying to shape the discourse within? How many of them did I have to make disappear in quiet as they were gaining power. You sat up there thinking of the academics of it all. Oh how I loved the idea of Ilus, but I was not blinded by reality.” She snarled. “I stayed in the shadows, thrived in them to do the things that you were all unwilling to do. How many times the libraries were breached by those looking to create weapons? How many teachers or students worked for other nations looking to bring more to their banner and target those that were strong. How many students and teachers did I protect making sure that kill orders never passed out. That assassins never reached their targets.”
Desari laughed, one of bitter relief. “Gods it feels so damn good to let it all out. I was steeped in blood for Ilus. To protect all of you. When you wanted to create classes for students to learn how to defend themselves. Who do you think supported your actions, eased the way for spaces to open up for such training?” She advanced on him. “Who was the person that you confided in when you talked about two of your old apprentices being killed on their way home?”
His stomach clenched as he looked a this woman in front of him. The perfect academic, a student that had risen to the ranks of apprentice and regarded as a teacher by many. A nearly permenant fixture in the library or in the potion laboratories.
An alchemist of immense renoun. She was quiet, confiding in few. Her words sparing, each ringing through with importance. Never one to waste words.
This, this was someone different. The same form, but her bearing, her ability in spells. It was her, though it was as if a veil had been torn away.
“What happened to you?” He asked.
“Nothing happened ikor,” She sighed and let out a breath. “This is who I am, who I’ve always been. I just changed who I was to fit in better and let me complete the mission in front of me.” She turned away and followed Valter.
“Come on Ikor, lets go save Ilus, again.”
Had he ever really known her? This Desari was much more assertive, stronger. Those spells. The cut gem with its rings were gone, but she’d been able to teleport all of them with ease.
He looked beyond her to a town that butted up against the shore of the Molten Sea. Several ships were moving towards the port.