If we show mercy, we die.

"FOR THE THIRD TIME, IT doesn't matter what we do to them; they just keep coming!" Dusten's anger is palpable, and I can't say I blame him. This conversation is going nowhere.

We've been sitting in this room for a couple of hours while the guardians argue the best course of action for dealing with the soldiers who attacked us. None of them survived to be taken prisoner. Even the one I left with a gash in his hip was taken out by another passing guardian. We've never bothered to capture an enemy because they're so relentless that we dispatch them as quickly as possible.

“We all know what happens when we kill them,” Dusten continues. “We know they don’t possess any sort of magic, so it’s safe to assume whatever technology they’re using is responsible for the disintegration. Anything they bring with them is destroyed, too.” Dusten paces the floor, his arms crossed over his chest with one hand on his chin. He resembles a proper scholar, though I know he'd rather be out doing something than talking about it. “We were able to take one of their guns from them long enough to find out they don’t work for us. Not that it mattered, since it dissolved as soon as its owner was dealt with.”

Dusten continues going over what we know about our enemy: no one has ever seen a soldier’s face before. The closest we’ve come was tonight, when Tove’s spell destroyed a soldier’s helmet. None of us got a good look, however, other than he appeared as human as we do. Alven believes they’re not actually human, however. A safe assumption, considering how they die, but that doesn’t explain their sheer numbers. I can’t begin to count how many of these soldiers have been killed throughout the years, but it’s considerably more than a small army. If you took the number of them that we’ve killed and put them together, there would easily be more of them than us.

It's the ones that are still alive that pose the problem, and we’re all fairly certain that number far outweighs ours.

We also know how they get into the village: they appear to have technology that allows them to teleport. This means that, unfortunately, no one has even seen them come or go in any particular direction from the village or the outlying city. The area surrounding the city is all desert, save for the cliffside that creates our northern perimeter. We’ve heard rumors about that cliffside, and none of them allow for any sort of human life. Horrific creatures lurk in the crevices, and the one path that leads any distance into the cliff face has never been explored. It’s this fact that keeps us from ruling it out entirely as the enemy’s stronghold, but we do know that the largest and most dangerous creatures remain hidden until we’re so unlucky that they come hunting. The aforementioned path into the cliff seems to be the only place large enough to house such creatures, so we assume there’s no way the soldiers would be hiding there as well.

The only location we have no hope of exploring is the top of the cliff. The rockface is sheer, unclimbable. If the path in the cliff leads up there, we’ve never found out and likely never will. We do, however, have plenty of rumors and tales carried down from the elders who talk of a living Hell. How they know, we can’t say, and they’re not sharing any time soon. All they tell us is to stay away, and that’s good enough for me.

I’ve seen what comes out of that cliff; I have no desire to find out what has claimed its place at the top of that food chain.

“So, what are you proposing we do, Dusten?” questions Silas, one of the older guardians. His hair is beginning to gray on the sides, and he walks with a slight limp. He’s one of the longest standing guardians with us today, though not one of the first. He is currently eying Dusten with scrutiny, challenging the younger guardian to provide the solution no one else has been able to.

“I don’t know,” Dusten sighs, looking down at the floor. He wants so badly to end this suffering, but like the rest of us, can’t form a solution of his own. It makes me feel bad for him, rather than want to ridicule him for yelling earlier. We all want this to end—angers flaring is the last of my concerns. “We have to do something, though. We can’t just wait around for them to attack again.”

“But no one knows where they’re coming from,” chides another guardian, though there is kindness in her eyes. Morrigan is one of the first guardians. She doesn’t see combat these days but helps take care of the other guardians. She’s one of the healers that Dusten was referring to when he tried to console Alven. She also handles intelligence, along with a couple other less combat-oriented guardians. “The way they come and go, we have no way of tracking them. A fact I’m sure Emperor Rigas is quite proud of.”

The mention of Emperor Rigas sours my stomach. None of us can say we know of him personally or to any great detail. All we have, in fact, is a name, taken from the elders’ tales and warnings. I wish they’d just tell us what they know. It’d make our lives much easier.

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

Probably.

“We’ve searched as far out into the desert as we dare to go,” muses Silas, more to himself than to the guardians around him. “No signs of any city, town, or even a single shack is out there, much less a palace.” He grumbles the last bit, as if resenting the fact that he has to even consider that the emperor might live in a palace. “There’s only one other place anyone has been able to come up with,” he continues thoughtfully, scratching his graying beard. “And no! We’re not even going there.” He’s quick to shut down any grandiose ideas of anyone making the journey to the top of the cliff.

“But where else is there?” The question crosses my lips before I even realize I’m thinking it. Nearly every eye in the room is on me in an instant, and I feel my cheeks flush. Smooth move, Lyra. I quickly try to explain my thinking without backpedaling, because I do mean it. “If we don’t figure this out, they’re just gonna wipe us all out eventually. Dusten’s right; they’re never going to stop coming for us.” I glance around the room, but I’ve nothing else to say, unfortunately.

“So, you’re suggesting we go to them, then?” This time it’s Normon who speaks up. He’s a younger guardian, two years my junior, but he’s seen plenty of combat. To be questioned by a technical subordinate, despite the lack of any sort of chain of command among us, admittedly grates at my pride just a little. It’s a valid question, though. One I can’t answer with confidence.

“Not at all,” I counter. “I’m saying we expand our search. We’ll take what guardians we can. Everything we know is based on rumors—”

“Rumors passed down from reliable sources.” Morrigan is chiding me now. I don’t let it get to me, though. I know where she is coming from, but we can’t just sit here and let this enemy destroy us without a fight. “I’m more than willing to regard anything the elders have said as fact. They have no reason to lie.”

“But if they really know so much, they must have been there,” I offer, arguing my point with more zeal. “What if they’re just trying to get us to stay away for some reason?”

“Then it must be a good one!” Silas is practically yelling now, and it takes me aback. Am I pushing too far? “If you stay this course, girl, you’ll be damning us all. How many of our guardians would such an endeavor strip us of? While you’re off gallivanting through the depths of Hell, you’d leave us defenseless!” I can hear the anger growing in Silas’ tone. He has a point. Taking a group of guardians through the cliff would weaken our numbers here at home. With an enemy that could show up at any time, that’s less than ideal.

But something has to be done.

“All I’m saying is we need to find out what’s up there,” I say more calmly, simply trying to explain my thinking rather than argue a point. “No one can find or think of any other place they could be coming from. Where are our people being held? We shouldn’t just abandon them without knowing their fate.”

“The elders all seem to believe they’ve been killed,” comes Tove’s reply. She’s trying to be the voice of reason that I so clearly need, but I know that she feels the same way I do. “Our chances of survival are almost zero.” She looks at me with sadness in her eyes. I know she wants me to be right, but she’d be just as foolish to agree with me as I’m being right now. But that’s not to say that she won’t.

“I know that,” I say softly, feeling as much at a loss as Dusten did a few moments ago. “But there has to be something we can do. We can’t just lie down and wait for them to kill or capture us all.” I sit down in the chair I barely remember leaving, sighing as I run a hand over my face.

Silence lingers for a moment, and it feels like the meeting might be winding down to its end. A few people shuffle uncomfortably in the silence, and after a moment, people start getting up to leave.

“Maybe we can.” Dusten turns toward me but eyes the entire room. “Maybe that’s the answer we need.” He gazes at me as if he’s hoping I’ll get it, but I don’t. When he must finally see that I’m not catching on, he continues. “We know that their main goal is to capture mages, not kill them. They’re obviously taking them somewhere.” He looks around again, as if waiting for any sign that any of us knows what he’s trying to say. “C’mon guys, it’s simple. We just have to let ourselves get captured.” More than a few jaws unhinge as he speaks. Silas, unsurprisingly, looks ready to have a stroke. “We choose a couple, maybe three guardians to allow themselves to get captured. Not the strongest among us, just in case they teleport us straight into a volcano or something, but a couple of reliable, skilled guardians who might be able to break free once they get to wherever they’re returning to.”

The idea is absolutely ridiculous, extremely dangerous, and surprisingly good. We’d be risking the lives of whoever we send, full stop, no questions asked. But if they’re successful and they can find a way back or a way to send a message, then we’d have new, very valuable intel.

No risk, no reward, right?

Apparently, the feeling isn’t mutual, because the room is suddenly thrown into an uproar. Guardians are arguing left and right—most are against the idea, but also a surprising number are for it. I consider it myself. It’s not a terrible idea, and would take loads of planning, but it could be our best shot at ever getting any sort of idea about where our enemy is coming from . . . and where our people are being taken to.