— Mesalin Featherstone —

As Mesalin flew high into the dark morning sky, she began tapping into her skills. She started by activating “Observe From On High” almost instantly feeling her adrenaline fueled worry fade to the back of her mind even as her vision sharpened dramatically.

With her mind calm, she was reminded that avoiding being seen would be almost as important as increasing what she could see. The sky was clear so rather than using a skill that would allow her to blend into cloud cover, she tapped into a skill from her new Dread Wind Scout class. “Spectral Gales Embrace” wrapped her form in a fast moving black wind. It was a bit costly as it was intended to knock aside projectiles, but against the dark sky it would serve as a camouflage of sorts.

After frequently fighting alongside them, Mesalin had little difficulty identifying the riders as dwarven cavalry troops. Most likely they were from Stonesheild but they weren’t acting like aid sent from an ally.

Mesalin could only occasionally make out the forms of riders moving through the trees but she could clearly see the fifty riders on the road. They moved about as quickly as they could without kicking up a large dust plume and they weren’t using any form of lights.

Dwarves did have fairly impressive night vision, even in near total darkness, but it was short range; only about five to ten feet depending on the dwarf and their class. It also wasn’t particularly detailed.

As much as a distant, more emotional, part of her mind wanted to give the benefit of the doubt she couldn’t think of a peaceful explanation for their actions.

Regardless, sneaky, probably hostile dwarven cavalry wasn’t a particularly helpful report so she winged closer to the group on the road.

Soon she realized that the mount of the rider leading the group was not the same as the stone horned rams the rest of the forces rode. Instead it was some sort of drake.

It was a testament to her enhanced memory given to her by her class and the impression the woman had made that she identified the rider as archmage Minira. Mesalin had only met the powerful dwarf twice and seen her in action once, but that was enough.

The first time Mesalin had met the woman it was while she’d been delivering a scouting report from her village to their dwarven allies as a fairly fresh recruit. At the time Mesalin had been too overwhelmed by all the high tier individuals for any details of their personalities to stick in her mind. The next and final time she’d met her was after Mesalin joined the pseudo village council of Still-Leaf. Remembering seeing the archmage in action, she’d been surprised to see Minira was a cheerful, relatively young looking dwarf talking excitedly about retiring and moving her family to the village.

With the woman apparently leading a hostile force into position around the village, Mesalin couldn’t help but think more about the only time she’d seen the dwarf fight. One of the beastman clans that roamed The Great Beast Steppes subsumed enough of their rivals to march a great horde of soldiers and war beasts towards the Barrier Mountains.

Mesalin was flying miles away from the oncoming force but she’d still felt the growing static charge in the air as the dwarven archmage prepared her attack.

Lattice like bolts of lightning rained from the sky ripping through armored war beasts and beastmen alike, killing thousands in mere seconds. That alone hadn’t broken the enemy forces but it had blunted their charge and as the battle raged on she’d killed thousands more, including almost all of the largest war beasts.

After studying the enemy for a few more minutes, trying to get some idea of how many were surrounding the village she turned back towards the village.

She was pleased to see the noncombatants were moving in almost organized manner into the most defensible buildings and the guards and militia were gathering at the gate nearest the approaching forces. Even better, the few lamps that had been lit were extinguished. Dwarves had impressive night vision but it had a fairly short range.

Making sure to cancel the powerful gale around her as she went, Mesalin winged down towards Lovisa to report what she’d found.

— Lovisa Silverthorn —

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Lovisa knew she needed to appear calm, so she forced herself to stand still rather than pace back and forth. Standing around her, also doing their best to project confidence, were the rest of the council still in the village, aside from Lin who was still in the air.

Lovisa wished she’d had more preparation for the role she now held as she did her best to arrange the few dozen volunteers and guards into something at least resembling a defensive force. Mostly that was just arranging them in lines with the ones with ranged weapons or magic standing behind the rest.

She just hoped Lin would be bringing some piece of good news as she tried not to think about how few of those she led would see another sunset if the approaching force was hostile. Fortunately she didn’t have to wait long before Lin landed gently beside the rest of the council.

Unfortunately the news did not seem to be good. The force was dwarves approaching sneakily led by a mage who could kill all of them herself.

There was likely more Lovisa should be doing but she couldn’t think of anything that would actually help so she simply watched the dwarves on the road as they approached. As the voices of the others washed over her, unheard, she saw the front of the dwarven line exit the trees. As the majority of the encircling troops were in the open they all unshuttered the crystal lamps hanging from their mount’s saddles, starting with the group on the road.

At each farm a pair of soldiers broke off to patrol around them as the rest moved on. Eventually after a nerve wracking wait the line of dwarves stopped almost exactly one hundred yards out from the village’s makeshift walls.

After what looked like a brief discussion the dwarf riding a drake rode forward with a dwarf riding a ram riding on either side of her.

When they were within a dozen feet they stopped and the drake riding dwarf called out “We’ve been sent ‘ere by King Dalthorian Stonesheild to investigate the’ state of Still-Leaf village. Yer self-proclaimed leader claimed tha’ Moris rose up the village’s dead. We need ta be sure tha, no necromancer is actually puppetin’ the dead.”

From behind her Lovisa heard some angry muttering. Plenty of people were rather angry that the dwarven city hadn’t sent aid while they were alive but did send a force to accuse them of being mindless slaves when they were granted a second life.

Others joined in pointing out that the dwarves were trying to help even if it was not necessary.

Wanting to cut things off before the few arguments turned into anything larger Lovisa turned to the rest of the council and said “We should probably talk to her, we don’t have anything to hide and we don’t want to interfere with the others trying to get aid in the city.”

When the rest agreed after a short conversation Lin said “I’ll call her over. I think I’m the only one here who’s spoken to her more than once, even if she probably doesn’t remember.”

When no one disagreed she called out loudly saying “Before everything with the snakes you wanted to join this community. I hope we can still welcome you in as a friend. There are no necromancers here.”

Things were tense as the barricade in front of the road was removed and Minira and the two dwarves with her allowed in.

After the trio dismounted Minira approached the council and said “For what it may be worth I do hope ya are tellin the truth. The loss a so many a ya has weighed heavy on most a those who came ‘ere an many more besides.” She paused looking at the counselors present before focusing on Lovisa and continuing “So where is uh, wha’s ‘is name. Drothum was it?”

Lovisa tilted her head a bit confused before realizing what the dwarf ment and saying “Oh, You mean Drethlin? He was a pretty devout follower of The Emerald Grove so it seems he declined the offer to return from the veil.”

Minira nodded apparently to herself and said “Eh, no great loss there. It does make wha’ ya say happened a bit more believable though.”

As the sky lightened and eventually the sun peeked over the horizon Lovisa, Lin, and Ismini escorted the three dwarves around the village. As an archmage Minira could apparently detect ongoing spells cast by other mages, including necromancers. When it became clear not only was there no indication of necromancy but the undead villagers were somehow protected from the light of the day Minira at last accepted their story.

As they’d walked Minira had agreed to leave some troops to temporarily help defend the village if they were indeed intelligent free willed undead. When it was clear they had been telling the truth she therefore left to get some patrols going and take some burden off the villagers.

When she was out of sight, Lovisa turned towards Lin and Ismini and said “So, um, do either of you know why she believed us because the village protects us from the sun?”

Lin just shook her head but Ismini was clearly trying to remember something before lifting her head up and down slightly in an approximation of a nod before speaking in her strange campfire-like voice “My homeland is near the Necropolis of the Black Glass Desert. Those few who deal with them say that not even the legendary tier necromancer who governs that land can allow his undead to walk openly in the daylight. I don’t know if it’s true but it seems the dwarves, or maybe just that dwarf, believes it is.”

Lin shrugged and said “Maybe, or she might not actually believe it. The soldiers left behind may be a gesture of good will but they could also be left here to keep an eye out for necromancers. Either way I'm just glad this didn’t come to blows.”

The tour had led them almost back to where they had started so Lovisa said “Well, I should probably go and help organize the guard rotations.” and set off in the direction the dwarf had gone.