BEGINNING AT THE END

Flames smoldered the air. The smell of rust and ruin suffocated his senses. Kalani’s finger twitched. A light breeze whipped in front of him cleansing the foul air in his path. Hunkered below the walls of ice, Kai, Samantha, Knox, and Jules fought desperately to stay alive. They were surrounded by a force far stronger and larger than theirs.

To think the horde brought five sages to this raid... If it were just one, maybe they could have handled them. Five sages were just too much. Overkill even. His squad was the only remaining obstacle stopping the horde from pillaging the small village of Tintston.

The village itself wasn’t much. It was full of hearty folks who labored hard for the little they had. There were a few markets tailored to weary travelers in need of supplies, repairs, or rest. Everything else about the town was unremarkable. Most maps didn’t even include it as a destination. At least that is what most people thought. The emperor knew it was a key spot for controlling the south east coast. Without the town, the Burning Shores might as well be lost.

Which didn’t make sense. If the town was so vital why send so few squads to repel the invasion. Surely the emperor would have expected the horde to target this destination. Even if its significance was lost to many in the empire, the horde had a way of knowing what was important or not. Their webs of information gathering somehow ran deep. There was no way a few squads were suppose to stop this tide. There had to be another plan.

Kalani swallowed the dry lump forming in the back of his mouth. The thought of failure today… farmers, crafters, miners, families… would be killed if they’re lucky. Most likely, they’ll be slaves. Whipped and beaten until they are no longer useful, and then discarded to feed the wolves. Bitterness began to blossom.

He wasn’t sure if he was more upset with the horde or the emperor. His friends, and the people of Tinstown trying to just live… All lost to the greed of the horde or the schemes of a monarch. Bitterness spread deeper as despair filled his soul.

Before he could get to his squad the ice barriers protecting his friends melted. Kalani continued to make his way toward them, without a care for his safety, hoping for anything to shift the inevitable.

There was nothing. No miracle. No hero of the empire. There was no salvation for them.

Eyes full of anger and hate but mostly worry locked onto Kai’s one last time. His buddy — his brother, holds his gaze as flaming death descends. For a frozen moment in time he could sense Kai searching through the desolation for him. The ragged ranger, just days ago ascending to the ranks of a knight finally locks eyes with Kalani and nods his head disaprovingly. The small action gives Kalani reason to pause. The frozen moment ends as a sinister blue fire incinerates his friends.

A spike of grief and anger forced him to gasp. Desolation and destruction worked their way towards him. Despair preceded the deadly duo and Kalani found himself once more in a pocket of time. This time there is no comfort to be found from his friends. He is alone and struggling to escape its damning grips of despair. His broken heart beated heavily his breaths were slow. This can’t be the end of his squad. This won’t be the end.

Kalani shrugged off Kai’s objection and pulled out his last hope of justice. The lackluster bronze armulet from his bag covered in runic symbols dimly glows with a pale gray energy. With a smooth almost eager motion the band slid onto his wrist. Maybe this was the damn emperor’s plan after all.

Mana surged through him. The templar ascended boundaries passing through stages of progression within moments becoming no less than the sages that killed his friends. The sky… no, the storms belonged to him. He felt its overarching presence high above him, witnessing this day. The reluctant storm was bursting to give way to his command. He couldn’t save his friends, but he could make the horde pay. His will hardened as his fist tightened.

Bright yellow sparks erratically burst from the sky and charged toward the ground, becoming massive wild streaks. Slamming into the ground with blazing speed, the lightning shook the world. Trees caught in the blast shattered into piercing shards. Relentless explosions drown out screams only to fade into an aching ring. The blazing fire that claimed his squad was split asunder, the energy of the blue flame was sucked into the storm now devesated the force of the horde. Sages — the so called gods amongst mortals — were slain along with many others within moments.

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There was only whiteness that could be seen after the storm subsided. The flashing energy proved to be too overwhelming for senses. The power he called forth was unlike any he ever felt before. Inside him, he felt the tempest billowing with rage… It was malcontent and he hungered for more.

****

“That’s not how it happened, Kalani. Also, do you need to include all the detail? That was some weird eye contact you had going on with Kai. Definitely longer than five seconds. And that’s just awkward. I’m giving your dream a five out of ten. You lost six points because I wasn’t mentioned once.”

“Didn’t I mention you died, Moloki? I’m pretty sure you were dead at the beginning of the dream. A fact that I wouldn’t omit.” Kalani slowly rolled out of his bed. The sun was only moments from rising and his squad was late for the ritual morning warmups. The late rising was just as much a part of the morning rituals as the warmups. No matter how many time he tried to refute the idea, his squad had him outvoted six to zero. Of course he always voted with his squad to delay morning rising because he didn’t want to be an outcast. Being the squad leader was already ostracizing enough.

Samantha lying extra close to Kai noticed Kalani stirring and groaned. “Death’s wrinkled prick, Mol, why did you have to ruin the nice morning? We could have slept through the storm.”

Already started on the stretching exercises, Kalani cups his thick left arm and pulls it across his chest. Rainwater trickles down a stray lock of dark hair and drips onto his face. He ignores the irritation and encouraged his squad to join him. “You think we would have skipped the morning warmup? It is the most important part of the day. On top of that, there is no way we are going to the afternoon session without proper preparation.”

Knox, bleeding irritation from her eyes, stuffs her sleeping gear into her pack and pulls out a ration bar. She takes a large bite of the dry bar and proceeds to take another before joining the stretching routine. “You’re all wrong.” She mumbles with a mouth full of oats.

Jules takes the bar from her sister, takes bite, and then quickly washes it down. “Yeah, you changed, Captain.”

“Don’t call me Captain.”

“Sure thing Cap.” Hearing the nickname, Kalani winced. He hated the promotion even more now that his squad kept coming up with new names for him. Serg, Cap, Capn, General…Commander, Holy Chieftain. He had a name, and he preferred everyone would stick with it. It was a name given to him by his father, The Stormdancer. It was the last words he heard whispered by his dying mother. Kalani was his name, and he would be damned if he let that slip away.

“Jules,” Kai says as he begins his stretches. He waited for Jules’ attention before he adeptly shook his head. It wasn’t a full head shake but Jules knew the argument had already been lost, and resigned. The ranger didn’t often shut down squad shenanigans but when he did it was usually around ‘shit-thirty’ in the morning. And even then he was only twenty percent consistent which typically lined up with the shit-day of the week — also known as Monday.

“Sorry, Kalani.” Only a year younger than her sister, Jules looked like an exact replica. The only difference was that she had a slight patch of freckles on her cheekbone that was only noticeable when she blushed, which she was doing now.

Quick to her sister’s aid, Knox redirected the conversation. “Mol, what makes you the authority on dreams anyway? How could you possibly know Kalani’s dream wasn’t real?”

Waiting until everyone else joined in the morning stretch, Moloki finally joins in on the exercise only to pause to address the issue. “You probably don’t know this, but as a light lancer, I am attuned with all things light and truth — ” Despite Samantha’s groans, Moloki manages to press on. “— Dreams are more or less the manifestation of truths unrealized. They are the light that has yet to shine, only waiting to be absorbed and captured — ”

“Cut the horse dun heaping out of your mouth, or I will force you to swallow it,” said Samantha who could be heard cringing during Moloiki’s monologue. To her credit, she silenced the light lancer for a moment.

“— As I was saying before I was kindly reminded to get to the point,” Moloik said with a playful sparkle in his demeanor. “The dream doesn’t add up. Kalani finds a powerful band, we are overpowered by bugbears, I am the first to die, and then Kalani goes beserk with power? That dream was a load of crap.”

For all the wordiness of Moloki, it brought him comfort knowing his friend still trusted him and thought nothing of the dream. The dream had brought great discomfort to him, which is why he easily shared it with his squad during morning wake-up. Even with the newly formed squad, he felt it was important to share everything. An ‘open door’ policy is what Kai had called it when he backed the idea during the first team meeting two years ago.

Two years… by the abyss, the squad wasn’t as new as he thought. Kai and Moloki had been with him from the beginning. They were his childhood friends, and through these last four years of service, they have been through it all, their bonds even tighter.

Kalani’s mind continued to reminisce on his motley squad composed of three islanders, two humans, and one elf. Being the empire’s daggers, the small squad had been through more these last two years than most would experience in a lifetime. Now they were in the thick of their last year of service. A few more missions, and they can finally return home…or pursue a life of their own.