Travelling with a skilled Mistwalker, three large Marsh Hydras, a Sylvan Wyrm, and an elite strike force sent by Hecate was a lot different than traveling with a rag-tag band of adventurers out to scavenge monster materials. Maybe it was the presence of Amaranthine. I sensed no emanations in the mist that warned of a powerful Sapphire tier Mist Lord, but I didn’t really have any kind of mist senses. I made a note to ask Claire about it when there were less people around.

Amaranthine remained at the rear of the party, where she minded the Sylvan Wyrm and the Marsh Hydras, while I walked with Claire at the front. Even Claire seemed surprised at how easily our progress through the Mists went, and in three Veils we split with the forces headed to other Castles, and a short walk left us standing in seething mist.

“We’re here,” Claire declared.

“You don’t sound happy about that,” I noted. Indeed, Claire’s face had look of deep anxiety and concern, and her eyes mirrored the haunted look Remy’s had been burdened with for so long.

“We’re about to attack home, Em.” Claire practically whispered it.

“Yeah,” I said and turned to face the group as everyone gathered. What more was there to say? For Mithras to pay for what he’d done to me, Etienne, and all of Solarias, we had to attack Havenstone. I thought she understood that, but doubt seemed to eat at her. “We’ll get your family out.”

“Your navigation was well done, despite yourself,” Amaranthine complimented Claire, but there was a barb there.

“I helped negate your fears and reinforce your goals,” Thorn, the Sylvan Wyrm, croaked in a wooden voice to us all. The large wooden dragon towered over the three Marsh Hydras, each of which were fifteen feet or so tall.

Claire’s cheeks reddened, but I touched her shoulder and coughed. Chaos and lightning sparked in the air.

“We’ve got a job to do, and we aren’t going to sneak in if we get detected before we start. Focus. How long until our allies attack?” I asked Corvusol and Arx Maxima.

“Imminently,” Corvusol answered.

“You know what to do?” Amaranthine asked of Thorn.

“Yes. We are to engage the forces of Mithras in a skirmish and keep the knights occupied at the Gates. If the Gates fall we are to make a spectacle of ourselves destroying the surroundings and avoid eating noncombatants.” Thorn answered, clearly tired of being drilled on such simple instructions, but he also didn’t want to risk Amaranthine’s wrath by being glib.

“Go,” Amaranthine commanded.

“Clump up, hold hands, and don’t make noise,” Remy demanded of the rest of us.

Amaranthine took my hand with her left hand, and the way she stood said she wouldn’t be taking anyone else’s. Xian took my other hand, Chrys took his. Claire situated herself between Chrys and Miyuki, and Remy took Miyuki’s hand. With his free hand, he scribbled a spell circle and whispered the words to an incantation.

“Don’t fight the spell. Focus on letting it wash over you,” Amaranthine whispered to me.

I watched Remy cast his spell and observed as the effects spread through everyone’s linked hands.

Obfuscation has been added to your known Vectors.

The Mask of Azazel helpfully noted the addition of a new vector, and the purpose of the spell Remy cast. The magic reached me and could not go any farther. I let go of Xian’s hand, and the spell completed.

“Your resistances and being a blank are too much,” Remy grumbled.

“It’s alright, I picked up the effect, I’ll handle myself and Amaranthine.” Even as I spoke, I added an Obfuscation vector to Amaranthine and myself, and sure enough the misty effect that swirled around the others effected us.

“Follow me,” Amaranthine commanded and tugged my hand. I followed, and so did the group. I noticed the mists seemed to cling to us even as we walked towards the thinning clearing of the True World. A secondary effort at concealment by Claire?

Amaranthine led us south of the main gates. Before we fully left the mists the sounds of a battle reached us. Thorn and the hydras had made it to the gate, and we breached the mists. Two hundred yards of no man’s land. We strode confidently out into the stretch of land. If our attempts at stealth failed, we would have to make do. The walls were thinly manned away from the gates, the magic and power of a Castle meant very few monsters would be able to pierce the walls.

Halfway across the no man’s land a patrolling Horizon Guardian paused to stare directly at us. I could feel his eyes staring at me, or so I convinced myself. A large black eagle screeched in the air, and the patrolman shook his head and continued his route along the wall. I exhaled in relief. The bird vanished as the foxfire that had made it dissipated.

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“Good one,” I heard Remy whisper to Miyuki.

The last one hundred yards to the wall were fraught with a different sort of tension. The ground had been turned into a literal minefield of spells over the years.

“My time to shine,” Claire bragged quietly. “Could you hold my elbow, Miyuki? I need my right hand.”

After some readjusting, Claire flexed the fingers of her free hand, then looked as if she were trying to mimic Remy’s spell work with her fingers. She wasn’t, maybe it was a better comparison to say she was picking an invisible lock? After a few minutes of fiddling though, a gentle breeze blew past her and the minefield of magic shorted out.

“Go,” Claire commanded with a confident tone and a proud grin.

It wasn’t that we didn’t trust Claire, but we still went through the last one hundred yards to the wall with care. Not a single trap went off on us. Magical or mechanical. Thanks to being an Enkindler, I could see what ability she had used. The crafty concept of Farmagnuðr the Trailbreaker granted her an ability called Trap Nullification. It made me wonder if Farmagnuðr the Trailbreaker were a thief, as well as a pathfinder.

The twenty foot wall didn’t seem as impressive to me as it had growing up in Havenstone.

“Allow me,” Xian said. The sound of his immense sword leaving its scabbard accompanied the words, and the wavy dappled blade shone in the air before Xian stabbed a solid eight feet of the ten foot long blade into the ground.

“Bring Low,” Xian commanded.

Up and down the wall sparks filled the air. As far as I could see, it looked as if someone had chalked arches on the outside of the wall. My stomach churned slightly in fear that Xian had gone too far. A fear confirmed when the stone, steel, and whatever other materials were in the shield wall crumbled to dust and left fifteen foot high arches every thirty feet up and down the wall as far as I could see.

Xian pulled Viper from the ground and chuckled at his handiwork.

“Great job,” I grunted, as Amaranthine tugged my hand to lead us inside.

“It’ll make evacuation easier,” Remy muttered.

The air inside the walls smelled nothing like I remembered from childhood. Gone were the familiar, calming scents of warm bread, the exotic aromas of Janelle the perfumer, or even the unpleasant, foul stench of the cities sewers wafting up from the occasional grates. The scent of old fires and ash lay heavy in the air.

“This isn’t right,” Amaranthine muttered. She wasn’t looking at the city, but at the wall.

“No, it isn’t,” I agreed, and caught a piece of ash from the air.

“The walls aren’t healing,” Amaranthine pointed out. “The Castle should regenerate the defenses, or create barriers.”

“Awful lot of ash in the air…” Remy agreed with me. “The Castle’s magic still burning strong at the center of town.”

“Where are the people?” Claire asked.

That’s when it clicked in my mind. It was mid-day, if the position of Mithras in the sky could be trusted. The streets of the city should be full of people going about their business or fleeing from the fallen wall. Instead, the streets were empty. Not even a rat scurried across dark alleys.

I let go of Amaranthine’s hand, and Delirium of Ruin appeared as I broke into a full run towards my parents’ house. The rest of the group chased me. I ran past the houses of people who had never given a second thought to me, and I didn’t give a second thought to them. Visions of Mom, Dad, and even Etienne danced in my head. In my rush, I ripped the front door off its hinges and tossed it loudly into the street. The scent of blood filled my nostrils.

Dad lay stretched across the floor of the parlor. Thick golden spikes had been pounded through his palms and feet, and his blood formed a spell circle. When I opened the door, a spark of magic ignited the sigils in blood, and the whole profane sigil lit up. The flames grew, danced, and jumped into the air to form a humanoid shape of orange-white flame.

“Hello brother,” Etienne’s voice greeted me, but I could tell this wasn’t Etienne.

“Go fuck yourself,” Corvusol said from behind me. I could hear multiple people retching in the street, from just a look inside the parlor.

“That’s no way to talk to family, is it? How about you, Emery. Welcome home. I hope you don’t mind that I redecorated. It seems the Adventurer’s Guild of Havenstone has been harboring an awful lot of Mist sympathizers, including traitors who made pacts with the vile fey.” The flames condensed and shaped themselves into a detailed replica of Etienne.

“You killed Dad?” I couldn’t believe I had to ask that question. I had believed that I could save Etienne, that I could rescue Mom and Dad, and maybe save others. The idea that Dad would already be dead had never even entered my mind.

“It is the punishment for traitors,” Etienne said with mock sadness. “My hands were tied; he made a deal with that very Fey there. I let you leave alive last time, what makes you think I’ll be so benevolent this time?”

Amaranthine flashed a smile of sharp teeth and hatred. The red of her eyes sparkled with hatred, and challenge. Yet she didn’t say anything in answer to Mithras’s challenge. Something more was going on then what I could perceive, I knew that much.

“Why?” I asked the flames.

“I am the Savior of Humanity. The bright light that keeps chaos at bay, that allows humanity to thrive in a universe of chaos. Collaboration with the monstrous, filthy, and unclean cannot be tolerated in the True World. In my glorious light they are safe, loved, and prosperous. It’s a real shame that the once virtuous people of Solarias abandoned the path of my love in favor of material wealth harvested from the mists. Yet I could have forgiven them that trespass, but one sin is never the end, is it?” Etienne’s voice, so prone to cracking only months ago, possessed an authority that didn’t belong.

“What did you do?” I demanded.

Etienne, no, Mithras, smiled.

“Why, I saved them. I bestowed upon them my infinite grace, my vast forgiveness, and granted them reprieve. Solarias once shone brightest of the frontier kingdoms, but its luster has faded, sin has festered. Out of the fallen kingdom of Solarias, the True World has expanded greatly thanks to the willing embrace of so many. Seven hundred and seventy-seven Castles have risen in the neighboring lands, tens of thousands of miles have been sanctified. The True World is closer to realization than ever, thanks to the devout faithful of Solarias.”

“Oh my, it appears the magic in poor, traitorous Marius’s blood is nearly spent. I told my Horizon Guardians that if they kill you, I’ll grant them forgiveness for their failures.” The flames cohesion dimmed slightly.

“Suffer,” Amaranthine declared, and the world seemed to go sideways, upside down, left and a bit diagonal. I recognized the power she used, Introduce Instability, but the power she dumped into it, the raw strength of it unveiled against Mithras shook the whole of the Gossamyr. A thousand sirens sang in my head in warning, as the flames of Mithras sputtered out.