Dahlia found waiting boring. Adeline and Amelia did their best to try and help her pass the time by peppering the fairy with questions about her combat capabilities, her spells, her minions, but there wasn’t a lot to tell. She only had four actual spells, and six cantrips. It turned out that was a lot for a level two.
Adeline and Amelia possessed different classes. Adeline was a rogue, while Amelia was a fighter. Amelia’s preferred weapon was a warhammer, but her father refused to let her join the front lines of skirmishes, so she ended up using a crossbow. Adeline used a short bow. Combined between them they had a total of three abilities: Vital Surge, Valor Surge, and Ambush. Which made Dahlia seem like a positively versatile combatant in comparison, with double that many cantrips alone.
Still, the time passed slowly, and sure enough, when the sun sank into the horizon a scout broke away from Lord Graystone and Jaspar to report to Zorah, who was in charge of the archers.
“Snarf’s main force has been sighted and they are enroute, maybe ten minutes. Initial count puts their forces at over six hundred, with large elite Hyena-men brutes and multiple Fangs of Set distributed throughout the force. They learned to split up their casters after last time,” the man relayed to Zorah.
The nearest archers went deathly quiet when numbers were mentioned. Riverwatch had far less than six hundred defenders, at best there were two hundred men and women arrayed at the gates and a few more than fifty on the raised sniping platforms. Many had evacuated on the ferry during the day.
“Hard to miss with that many targets,” Zorah spat out gruffly. Her grim demeanor didn’t help with weakening morale though.
“Dahlia, can’t you do something to make everyone braver? Fey are legendary warriors.” Adeline begged the fairy.
“You’d have to make a bargain with me,” Dahlia said quietly. “I don’t have enough power to do everything on my own, yet.”
“What kind of bargain?” Zorah asked, her keen ears picking up the conversation.
“Something valuable,” Dahlia said with a shrug. She could fly across the river with her wings, unlike the rest of the mortals. It’d be a shame to leave Adeline and Amelia behind, though.
“My true name?” Zorah asked.
“Might not be enough,” Dahlia said. Zorah had been reluctant to speak about her past. Without that knowledge value couldn’t be assigned easily. What value was the name of one-woman vs the hundreds of death bringing shadows that emerged from the woods. The silhouettes of enormous elite Hyena-men Brutes led the raiders, the largest of whom looked as tall as the ten-foot-high palisades around Riverwatch. “This is turning into a pretty big ask,” Dahlia pointed out.
“All three of our names?” Zorah asked, and the twins nodded.
“To save your town?” Dahlia asked.
The ladies nodded.
Pact: Save Riverwatch from Snarf.
Glimmer Point Advance: 5
Reward upon completion: 15.
Difficulty rating: Hard
Accept? Y/N.
Yes, Dahlia thought in answer to the query.
You have gained 5 Glimmer points. If you fail to save Riverwatch, you will lose 20 Glimmer points. Negative Glimmer points will result in fractures in reality that will adversely affect you.
Dahlia laughed nervously. The mortals looked at her in askance, uncertain why the fairy’s mercurial mood shifted towards manic laughter.
“Whisper your true names to me,” Dahlia demanded without explanation, her tiny purple eyes pleading.
“I am Amelia Odessa Graystone,” Amelia spoke her full name.
You have gained 4 Glimmer points. Total Glimmer points: 10.
Unlock racial ability: Glimmer Warp (10 points)?
“Yes,” Dahlia confirmed mentally.
Glimmer Warp unlocked.
Glimmer Warp: Expend Glimmer Points to achieve reality bending effects.
Knowledge blossomed in Dahlia’s mind about ways she could bend the rules of reality, and approximations of how many Glimmer points it would cost her to accomplish different effects.
Glimmer points: 0.
“I am Adeline Phoebe Graystone, the Magic Trickster,” Adeline whispered to Dahlia.
You have gained 4 Glimmer points.
“I am Zorah ‘the Shadowthorn’ von Draegen,” Zorah told Dahlia. Based on the somberness of the human’s tone, Zorah thought that her name being told would be some kind of dramatic revelation to Dahlia. But there wasn’t any. Dahlia had no idea what a von Draegen was, but she loved Zorah’s nickname of Shadowthorn. It sounded badass. If Zorah died, maybe Dahlia would turn her into an undead.
You have gained 12 Glimmer points. Total Glimmer points: 16.
The fairy pulled out her tiny lute, checked if it was tuned, and looked around. Fey didn’t only play tricks on mortals, other fey were even more frequently their targets. More than one blissful day in the Soulweald had passed by with Dahlia’s Gloamhoney Bee swarms warring with that bitch Deborah’s Veilguard Ant swarms for supremacy of the best Luminthistle patches.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Luminthistle nectar enhanced the magical strength and foundation of fey creatures who ate it, and acquisition of the nectar resulted in intense bouts of conflict between the denizens of the forest. The fairies, unable to help themselves, picked sides and shared in the spoils of victory when their side won. To some it might seem like a paltry affair to invoke war magic over, but it was these games that had taught Dahlia how to bolster her forces, and which Glimmer Warp told her it would cost ten Glimmer points to execute.
“Listen up!” Dahlia shouted, but only the girls noticed or looked at her.
“Listen up, you useless oafs!” Zorah shouted, her voice struck the defenders of Riverwatch like a whip. Reluctantly eyes left the shadows boiling out of the Bramblewood and turned to Dahlia.
Dahlia’s fingers drifted across her lute, the insects went quiet, and the wind hushed. Unlike the fairy’s tiny shouts, each note that drifted from her lute spread through the twilight and practically rang directly in the ear of her targets. If one had the ability to see music, Dahlia’s notes shimmered golden in the air, although flecks of silver swirled amid the gold. She hadn’t quiet mastered her voice or instrument to achieve pure gold. She played a few more strumming, mournful notes, to make sure she had the crowd’s attention and then Dahlia’s voice rose as she spent the ten Glimmer points to expand the single target spell Dread Resolution to the whole crowd via fey war magic.
♫“From shadows deep, old legends rise,
With baleful gaze and demanding cries.
They bear no fear, regret, nor pain,
Their story loaded with loss and bane.
By bone and ash, by grief’s embrace,
Steel your heart, take up your place.
With dread resolve, no soul shall break;
The dead’s resolve, you now awake.
In silence bound, yet never gone,
The lost march still, their spirit strong.
With spectral hands, they lend you might,
A shield of dusk, a blade of twilight.
By bone and ash, by grief’s embrace,
Steel your heart, take up your place.
With dread resolve, no soul shall break;
The dead’s resolve, you now awake.
Now let their whispers around you ring,
To weaken foes and courage bring.
In hollow breath, a curse is sown,
Their power’s edge is now your own.
With shadows bound, in silence sworn,
Bear now the strength the lost have borne.
In Dread Resolve, no spirit fades;
The fallen rise within your blades.”♫
With each carefully articulated word the twilight air congealed and vibrated with purple waves of fey magic. The torches and glow stones mounted on the palisades created shadows which writhed and climbed into the air. They became illusory forms of heroes long gone. The heroes waved their personal banners in the air, and the magically glowing sigils of legends banished terror and fear from the hearts of mortal men and women.
And that was only the start.
The shades of the brave dead stepped up to protect men and women with the magical power of the song. Spectral energy coalesced around the defenders of Riverwatch, a protective barrier that would absorb damage and protect them. Fear banished; injuries thwarted. That was only half of the spell’s effects. The dead and gone made the ordinary weapons of dock workers and day laborers’ glow with infused magic, and then a powerful chill radiated out from the defenders of Riverwatch.
“What does the spell do?” Zorah asked, then remembered herself. The forces of Snarf had entered the killing field.
“Release!” Zorah demanded. Arrows arced into the night while crossbow bolts shot straight. Few were the casters amongst the archers, so Dahlia bid her time and caught her breath.
“Fear immunity, temporary health, weakens enemies, and makes weapons count as magical,” Dahlia answered. None of the Hyena-men had entered range of her cantrips yet.
“That’s a lot for a spell that affects so many people,” Adeline noted jealously.
“It only works on one person. I had to expend a lot of power and use war magic to make it effect everyone.” Dahlia corrected Adeline’s misguided view on how the spell worked. The fairy found their lack of worship and praise annoying.
As if to not be out done, Riverwatch’s resident wizard finished an incantation of his own.
“Fireball!” The middle-aged human cried out, and a sparkling ball of fire shot into the front of the on-coming horde of Hyena-men and exploded in a huge radius of fire. The pained yelps and cries of dozens of Hyena-men filled the night, with many expiring in the incendiary blast.
You have gained (2x16) = 32 experience!
The front ranks made it to within range, and Dahlia hit one of the brutes with Shadowy Whispers, while the twins fired their crossbows, and Zorah let loose a strange arrow with a bulbous tip that exploded and covered a number of Hyena-men with oil. Her second shot left the bow right after the first, the tip of the arrow on fire, and combusted the oil.
You have gained (2x5) = 10 experience!
Dahlia’s mind filled with the stupid voice telling her she gained 2 experience for each of the Hyena-men that died, and it was annoying, distracting, and dumb. She wished it would stop until the raid was over.
Experience messages filtered off until the end of combat.
“O Mighty Isis, shield your servant with your wings of protection; let your fierce grace encircle and guard those in your light!” a powerful feminine voice boomed out from the front gate.
Radiant visions of devoted humans wielding staffs or brandishing ankhs appeared around the cleric Jessa, who stood with the front line at the main gate. The divine power of her spell created a visible aura around the cleric, and when the Hyena-men entered it their speed dropped to almost nothing, as if the creatures had run into a gelatinous monster. Then flickers of radiant power struck each monster that dared enter the presence of the holy woman—no matter how many came, the holy apparitions were prepared to deliver powerful blows to the Hyena-men.
For all the Hyena-men dying, there were scores more ready to take their place. The horde still spread from the woods, and the largest of the brutes reached the palisades at the same time a large explosion rocked the side of town. A ten-foot section of the palisade was utterly demolished in the blast.
“Dahlia, use your minions to hold the gap!” Zorah requested desperately.
“Let’s go!” Dahlia cried and Mr. Disapoofer appeared under her to leap off the archery platform towards the breach.
A single Shadow writhed in the same darkness Mr. Disapoofer had departed. Although she still had two more spell slots to use for first level spells, unless her current shadow died or someone needed healing, she didn’t have much use for them. She could only summon the same shadow, so casting it again right now would be totally pointless.
“Xeras, I’m counting on you!” Dahlia shouted as her Gloamknight stepped into the breach. The first swing of Xeras’s wooden great sword beheaded a hyena-man and left a brutal gash across the chest of another.
“Did any get by us?” Dahlia asked her familiar.
Sniff. Sniff. “Ruff!” Two. Mr. Disapoofer answered.
“Shadow, Mr. Disapoofers, go kill the ones that got by and get back here.” Dahlia commanded.
Ten seconds after the familiar and shadow departed a hyena-man skulker jumped out of the shadows, sword raised to stab Dahlia in the back.
A crossbow bolt hit the skulker, followed by another.
Dahlia barely dodged the sword and blasted the snarling attacker in the face with a crackling lance of radiant energy that drove the last vestiges of life from the awful smelling hyena-creature.
Maybe, Dahlia reflected, she shouldn’t have sent Mr. Disapoofer and Shade away. The dark seemed more dangerous than it had before with the knowledge that there were hidden enemies that lay in wait for vulnerable moments, and on the other side of the palisade a horde of Hyena-men swarmed towards the breach with only Xeras and Dahlia to stop them.