Sarien rode recklessly after the others, following Goslin as he rushed for the base of the wall surrounding Tyralien. The rhinn closed around them quickly and Sarien watched Goslin nearly fly off his horse as he dismounted and banged on the small door. The rest of the group dismounted and placed themselves in a half-circle with their backs against their leader, weapons drawn.

Goslin’s frantic pounding barely made a sound against the thick metal door. He then pressed his ear to the door and shook his head.

“Em? Can you get us in?”

Sarien swallowed and braced himself as he saw a barrage of rhinn advance toward them. Daisy had at least caught up and looked unharmed, his gray and white fur was covered in dirt, but, to Sarien’s relief, free from any blood.

Emeryn nodded sharply to Goslin and walked up to the stone wall, placing her hand on it. Heylien started firing off arrows into the oncoming wall of rhinn soldiers. Each one struck true, but the number of downed enemies wasn’t enough to even make a visible difference in the milling mass that descended on their position.

Emeryn looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened. “Buy me some time!”

The horses bucked and dashed off. Sarien didn’t try to grab for the reins. There was no use in keeping them anymore.

Rhinn soldiers circled them, inching forward slowly, their spears pointed at Sarien and the others. The only saving grace in that moment was that they didn’t seem to have a proper officer among them, and no one wanted to make the first move.

Sarien did the only thing he could think of to scare them off. Black flames enveloped his spear, silently dancing along the obsidian surface. He held up his spear with one hand. With his left hand, he brought forth as much of the white flame as he could muster.

Both flames grew as he focused, and the rhinn stopped their advance. Everyone’s attention fixated on Sarien, including his own group, everyone except for Emeryn, who faced away from him to.

Power surged through Sarien and he felt the white and black flames pull toward one another, as if a powerful wind blew at them from opposite directions. Sarien realized too late that this was his first time manifesting both flames at once, and he wondered if it was a mistake. Perhaps the barrier inside him kept them apart for a good reason.

Sarien broadened his stance and pulled his arms wider, creating distance between the two flames, but the movement only stoked them brighter. Both powers enveloped around his spear and hand, growing larger in size.

A bead of cold sweat ran down his back as he struggled against the flames.

“Uh, Sarien. What are you doing?” Kax asked, glancing between Sarien’s flames and the troops. The rhinn stood still and had done so since the black flame made its appearance. They eyed him warily and their archers didn’t even lift their bows. All they did was stare and wait.

“I don’t know!” Sarien yelled, struggling against his powers. “I don’t know what’ll happen if they touch!”

“Then put them out!” Heylien said, his voice threaded with alarm.

“No!” Goslin had his shield on and was standing to block Emeryn while she worked her magic. “It’s keeping the rhinn at bay.”

“Got it!” Emeryn yelled. The door screeched open on rusted hinges. A large chunk of stone wall was missing around the door’s lock.

Goslin waved toward the opening. “Everyone inside! Em, get ready to close it back up!”

Sarien watched from the corner of his eye as the others darted through the small door, but he couldn’t move. His entire focus was on keeping the powers from combining. The rhinn soldiers had snapped out of their reverie when the noticed the others escaping and began moving forward again.

“Sarien, let’s go!” Goslin shouted.

Sarien gritted his teeth. “I can’t move! It’s like they have a will of their own!” He couldn’t take his eyes off the narrow space between the flames, either. They were so close now. Almost touching. Physical force wouldn’t be able to keep them apart, so Sarien used the only other thing he could think of. His will.

Thought worked where strength didn’t. His arms burned. The two flames flickered in the air, but Sarien asserted his will, driving them apart. They writhed around each other wildly but couldn’t merge. The mental barrier was enough to block them, just like the one inside him.

Was the one inside his own making as well?

The rhinn rushed forward, perhaps sensing Sarien’s confusion and preoccupation. The black flame, Sarien’s slaying, grew and billowed, as if angry. It whipped out in an arc through the crowd like wildfire in dry grass, dropping rhinn soldiers like flies. They didn’t scream, didn’t react at all. The enemy just dropped limp to the ground. Screams rose from those who watched their fellow soldiers collapse around them, and within a few beats of Sarien’s strangely calm heart, they turned to run. He managed to extinguish the white flame.

The collective cries of more than a hundred rhinn filled Sarien’s mind. His mind exploded with the terror of all those trapped rhinn. Sarien cried out in anguish, a wordless scream of horror at what he had done that rang in tandem with all those poor souls.

“What’s going on?” Goslin yelled.

“Too many!” Sarien managed to get out the words. Barely. “I can’t—“

Goslin reached over, holding his shield out for Sarien to take. “Use this!”

As soon as Sarien grabbed the metal rim, black flames ran across the surface, and Goslin jerked away, careful not to let it touch him. Tears streamed down Sarien’s face as he directed the captured rhinn into the metal, turning it dark gray, then obsidian black.

His mind quieted. It was his own again. Sweet release. The black flames winked out. Sarien got to his feet unsteadily and staggered through the open door, where his friends all gaped at him in silence.

Goslin hurried after and shut the door behind him. “Em! Lock it!”

Emeryn pushed through the group and placed a hand on the stone. The wall seemed to melt under her touch. In a matter of seconds, the whole door disappeared behind a new layer of stone.

“That should do it,” she gasped. The only light had come from thin gaps around the door. When Emeryn closed them, it threw the whole narrow pathway into darkness.

“Now what?” Kax asked, his voice echoing loudly along the stone walls.

“We find a way up into the keep,” Goslin said. “This must be an escape tunnel. It should take us right where we need to go.”

“Why isn’t it better guarded?” Lana asked, lighting a small lantern. Where she found that, Sarien didn’t know. He sat slumped against the ground and had to struggle back to his feet before he could follow the others. The light was barely enough to see by back at the tail end of the group, so he followed Goslin blindly.

“They might not know about it. This place is old,” Kax said. “Looks abandoned.”

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“But the door—” Lana began.

“The other entrance is probably hidden somewhere. Why bother guarding a door you can’t open?” Kax asked.

Heylien chuckled darkly. “Or it could be a trap.”

“Trap,” Hart agreed.

“Yep,” Kax said.

The path was one long hallway. At the end of it, they found a crumbling spiral staircase. It wasn’t until Goslin started up the stairs that Sarien saw it. The shield. “You brought it?”

“What was that?” Goslin asked, looking over his shoulder before turning around. They both stopped, and the small light from Lana’s lantern disappeared above them, leaving them in darkness.

Sarien brought out his own flame, cold and stark. He pointed at the shield. “That.”

“What was I supposed to do? Leave it out there?”

“I don’t know,” Sarien admitted. “How can you hold it? How can you stand the screams?”

Goslin shook his head. “I don’t hear anything. A sort of vague sense of uneasiness is all I get, and that I have at all times, anyway.”

Sarien reached out and touched it. He immediately regretted the decision and pulled back. “I hear them. Kax hears the bandit in his sword. Why are you different?”

“No idea. I’m nothing special.”

“That’s not true, and you know it,” Sarien said. They stared at each other for a few seconds while Sarien’s embarrassment grew.

“Thank you, Sarien. That means a lot,” Goslin finally said, holding the round shield a little higher. “I wonder what this can do now.”

“Do?”

“Yes. The weapons cut through almost anything. Do you think this will protect against any attack?”

“I don’t know,” Sarien said, then his eyes widened. “My spear!” In the commotion outside, when the black flames consumed all those rhinn, he’d dropped it. Sarien hadn’t realized until that moment. He couldn’t even remember if it discharged or not. “It’s still out there.”

“It will be fine, dear friend,” Goslin said, patting Sarien’s shoulder with his free hand. “You wouldn’t be able to fit it in here, anyway. Too narrow a passage.” Perhaps Goslin was right, or he just wanted to put Sarien’s mind at ease. Either way, Sarien couldn’t help but feel naked without a weapon, and he’d just handed the enemy a powerful artefact.

“Uh, Goslin?” Kax asked. The sound came echoing down the staircase, as if coming from far above.

Goslin peered up into the darkness and moved the shield so he carried it on his back. “We’re coming.”

“It’s a dead end up here,” Hart said, his voice sounding flat.

Sarien hurried behind Goslin, holding up his white flame to provide enough light to move by. Something shot past his legs and Sarien yelped in fright before realizing it was Daisy. Sarien shook his head. The dog was surprisingly light on its feet when he wished to be, but he was comforted by the dog’s presence.

“What’s wrong?” Goslin asked when they reached the others. They emerged in a small, circular room constructed entirely of bare stone. The air was thick and musty, like it hadn’t moved in years.

Heylien, Kax, and Tomford moved aside to show a blank wall with a faint outline showing where a door might have been at some point in the past. “Now we know why it wasn’t guarded,” Heylien said.

Kax grinned, but there was a hint of nervousness on his face. “At least it wasn’t a trap!”

Emeryn stood with her hand against the stone. Then she frowned and stepped away. “I think there’s a passage behind it.”

“How many flights of stairs was that?” Tomford asked. “We have to be pretty high up by now.”

Goslin shrugged and went over to Emeryn, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Can you open it for us?”

Emeryn frowned. “Yes. But there’s something I have to try now that we have a moment’s respite.”

“What is it?” Goslin asked.

“I’ve had this sense since losing my arm. When Sarien tried to heal me.”

“What do you mean?” Lana asked.

Emeryn took another step back, away from the sealed wall. She raised her hand, palm forward. “It’s like the ground itself is singing to me. Like I’m a part of it. It’s even stronger here surrounded by stone.” She drifted off and her brows furrowed with concentration.

Then the stones began to move.

“What in Ivan’s scorched beard is happening right now?” Kax asked, taking a step back and pointing to Emeryn’s feet. “You’re not even touching it! How are you doing that?”

The blockage crumbled into smaller stones and fell away, revealing a dark corridor. Emeryn’s smiled serenely. “If I’m already part of the stone, why should I have to touch it?”

“What you just did is impossible,” Tomford protested.

A mischievous gleam entered Emeryn’s eyes at the words. “I know. Shall we go?”

“Well done, Em,” Goslin said.

Lana stepped through the opening and the others followed. Sarien watched as Goslin stopped Emeryn, holding her back. It seemed he wanted a moment alone with her.

Sarien followed Lana’s lantern light. Emeryn had mentioned feeling a strange new sense within her since he failed to heal her from the luison’s bite. He remembered that his white flame had enveloped Emeryn and touched the earth below their feet.

Was this his doing? Did he connect Emeryn to the earth through his power? There was so much he didn’t know.

“It’s wood this time,” Tomford said from up ahead.

“What’s going on?” Sarien asked.

“Another barrier,” Hart said. “A door?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Heylien answered. “Just a bare wall. The wood is treated too, like furniture.”

Goslin hurried up behind Sarien, panting, his cheeks red. Emeryn followed close behind, her hand in his.

“Has to be the hidden entrance, right?” Kax asked. “Push!” Grunts and groans filled the corridor as Kax, Hart, and Heylien pushed against the hidden door. Soon, a crack of light appeared and Sarien extinguished his flame. The gap grew wider as Heylien braced his legs and pushed. The wall suddenly fell away and Heylien stumbled through the opening, Kax and Hart falling on top of him.

Sarien hurried through only to be met by the sharp end of a spear. A group of surprised guards in the colors of Tyriu surrounded them. Sarien immediately lifted his arms as he took in the room. It was bathed in sunlight coming from several tall windows. A few finely carved chairs sat around a square table that was loaded with books, parchment, and what looked like maps of the city.

Goslin pushed past Sarien. “I am Goslin of House Steerian, here to meet with King Caelin. He is expecting me.”

The guards took some convincing, but they finally brought the group to a very distraught king. Located in the middle of the castle, the throne room was surrounded by a courtyard that allowed for windows on all sides of the large space except the wall behind the throne, where enormous paintings hung depicting the heroes in various stages of their struggle against the gods.

The heroes were especially popular in Tyriu. Them not having a god to rule them left the kingdom insignificant and oppressed during their terrible reign, which made their freedom afterward all the sweeter.

The bare stone walls were all painted white, and white marble pillars lined the path from the great front doors to the throne from which the king presided. It was a huge hall, and it appeared all the bigger now that it was completely empty except for the king, his guards, Sarien, and his friends.

Tyriu’s monarch sat slumped back in the ornate chair he used as his throne, and his crown sat askew on top of his head, sticking in a tangle of curly blond hair. Caelin was a young king, only about two decades older than Goslin himself, and the disheveled appearance, together with reddish cheeks and a sullen look on his face, made the king look even younger.

“King Caelin,” Goslin said, bowing slightly.

Caelin sighed and sat up a little straighter on his throne. “Goslin of House Steerian. From your father’s letter, we expected you sooner. And not that you would come scurrying through our barred escape tunnels, like a rat.”

“Apologies,” Goslin said, straightening. “We encountered some trouble in our travels, and the front gate to the city didn’t seem appropriate with all those guests already here.”

The king’s face darkened. “Do you know who these devil-men are? Where they’re coming from?”

“Rhinn, from Rhinerien,” Goslin said, pointing to Sarien. “My friend has been there. They have come here through gates between our worlds.”

Caelin did not look amused. “They have mounted raids into the city, appearing from nowhere, striking, then disappearing. You’re telling me they have a way to just step from one place to another?“

Sarien looked a little uncomfortable, but he stepped forward to speak. “They call it traveling.”

“Ah, a pyromancer!” Caelin said, pointing at Sarien’s chest where the pyromancer’s guild seal hung on his chest. “We will put you to good use! We’re sorely lacking in offensive power as it is.”

Goslin stepped in, clearing his throat. “My friend here only holds the title ceremonially.”

“What do you mean?” Caelin barked. “Ceremonial fire mage?”

“I would have expected the rhinn to use traveling far more extensively than just mounting raids,” Heylien said.

“And you are?” the king asked. “Never mind, I don’t care. Syster is in charge of the defense. You should speak with her after we’re done here.”

“A woman in charge of your war effort?” Lana asked, obviously impressed.

“Whoever is best for the job,” Caelin said. He then looked at Goslin. “You’re here for one of my daughters. To marry.” Sarien caught Goslin glance quickly at Emeryn. “A quest then! You will help defend Tyralien and deal with whatever they put into our underground tunnels, blocking them! There are concerning reports about people hearing strange sounds from down there, and someone saw tentacles coming up from a grate! Like an octopus! We sent some men down there to investigate.”

“What did they find?” Goslin asked.

“They have not returned yet,” the king muttered.

“When did they enter?” Kax asked.

The king fidgeted with the sleeve of his robes. “Yesterday morning.” Then sighed again. “So, do you accept the quest? We need access to the water.”

“I’ll help you defend your city, and I promise we’ll find your men,” Goslin said.

Sarien visibly gathered his courage and spoke before the king could answer. “I’m looking for my father. Talc Wald. He sometimes goes by Trym. He’s a pyromancer.”

The king shrugged and sunk down a little further along the seat of his throne. “We don’t have any pyromancers inside these walls.”

Sarien’s face burned, but he did not relent. “Mohalim then? A smith.”

“Do I look like I know any smiths? Talk with Syster!” He waved a hand, dismissing them.