The evacuated city is about as close to ursu construction as I’ve yet seen outside New Vetus. The buildings are tall and the streets cramped. There is clearly more understanding in the art of construction by those in the pact nations than that of Joiak or Zadok, but they still don’t come close to the scale the ursu build.
To be fair, none of the races other than the ursu really need all the extra room. Dohrni are tall at their full height, but still only a portion of an ursu. Plus, they rarely stand tall, usually relaxed at about the average height of the other races. Ignoring volans, of course. A single floor in an ursu building would support two for any other race.
This immense difference is most apparent in the thickness of the alleys between buildings. In the dead of night, and the silence that only comes from an abandoned city, those looming structures are restrictively close together.
As I walk through the dark streets, letting my footsteps be heard and offering any would be attacker an ideal, unsuspecting target, the towering brick walls feel more akin to underground tunnels than somewhere in open air. It’s frustrating that even without the knot layering fears in my psyche, I still find enclosed spaces unnerving.
An hour has passed since I left the three executives in their office. It’s surprising. I really thought they’d send a hit squad after me the moment I left. Maybe they are smarter than I thought. Could the Order bureaucrats actually be reasonable?
The repeating slap of a dohrni’s steps echo off the buildings. I guess it was too much to hope. Footsteps resound around me. With the tall walls around me, it is impossible to determine the number of attackers, nor where they are coming from. A heat signature behind me is barely noticeable through the buildings, but who knows if there are more hiding?
I can feel heat through one or two walls, but they become less distinct the more that gets in my way. The city, as quiet as it is, is far from empty. Residents that have refused to leave. Soldiers on patrol. It is hard to tell which body of heat is coming for me, and which are simply doing their own thing.
The first door I see, I enter. If they are after me, there is no doubt in my mind there will be water mages amongst them, so an enclosed space will be best to give me an opportunity to incinerate them before they get any opportunity to attack. Worst-case scenario, it’s a Beith ranked water mage. If so, I’ll collapse the building on top of us and run off.
In a corner, wedged between a staircase and the doorway to an adjacent room, I hide. The mermineae fur and lack of light keep me invisible, while giving full sight of the doorway.
The door handle rattles before a dohrni pushes its way into the building. They throw the door closed behind them, no one following. Are they alone? Or are there more outside? Is this dohrni a Beith? Or simply bait?
“Solvei?”
Oh. It’s Remus.
I tug the string at the neck of my outfit and step out of my nook. “What are you doing here?”
“It is you.” He lets out a relieved sigh. “What are you doing wandering around like that at night? It’s almost like you are asking for trouble.”
“I am.”
Remus stares at me for a moment, before dumbly asking, “what?”
“A few people from the Mercenary Order tried to capture me, because they think I deserted. I told them they would die if they came after me.”
A tentacle slaps Remus in the face as he gives off a groan of frustration. “I’m sorry for that Solvei, it’s why I’m here, but killing those that come will only make things worse.”
“It’s why you are here?” He won’t make me fight him, will he?
“Yes.” He nods. “I came to find you so they couldn’t make some dumb attempt, but I see I was too late.” Remus turns back to the door, gesturing me to follow. “They have no grounds to call for your arrest. You never officially signed on, nor did you swear the Order’s oath, so they do not have the authority.”
“What about Grímr?” I ask as I follow him back out into the street. “They didn’t punish him, did they?”
“Well, they did. But it isn’t anything to worry about. A fine is all they gave him before reallocating him to Meja. It is different for you, because you are unknown. You haven’t proven where your loyalty lies, so some at the top of the organisation are determined to lock you down and control you. It’s bad at the moment. Considering the typical incentives to keep the stronger mercenaries around have shown to no longer be as effective as they thought, upper management is desperate for alternative methods of control.”
The glow of the Ember Moon illuminates the brickwork walls around us in a deep crimson. Oddly, the light makes the streets more comforting. Like a pseudo flame engulfing everything without leaving a physical trace.
“It is, thankfully, only a few that are behind the attempt at your capture, so while it will take some time, I can argue your case.” Remus leads me away from the makeshift military district, and I have to wonder if the people from this city actually found a place to stay in wherever they were evacuated to. There are so many buildings that I can’t imagine the number of residents being small.
Amongst the infrequent heat signatures, behind me, a region above average suddenly becomes five distinct shapes. Looks like a group just turned a corner. Considering they are heading towards us, it looks like the executives aren’t all that smart.
“Until then, you’ll need to stay out of their sight.”
Ah. He hasn’t noticed them yet. “It’s a bit too late for that, Remus.”
He turns to me in question at the same moment the group stumbles into our alley. The dohrni stops and sighs as I turn to deal with those running at us. They give away any subtlety and rush at us with bright markings painting their bodies. The stone paved road curves up behind us, closing us in the alley with them as a pair pool their strength into a wave of water that floods the space between buildings.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Solvei, get out of here. Let me calm these fools down.”
“No, I can take them.”
“They are working for the Order. Killing them will only make things worse for yourself.”
I stare back at Remus, before launching myself up the tall walls to avoid the wave as it crashes over Remus. The remaining water encompasses my teammate and traps him in its embrace. A whip of the dohrni’s arms scatters the liquid and he jumps to the wall opposite me. The five mages below continue toward us with a smaller wave carrying them. Like that khirig mage that once attacked me, they have spinning blades of water cutting through the pavement on their path toward us.
“Fine, I won’t kill them,” I say.
Remus nods in thanks and turns his attention to the group as I rocket up to the rooftops. I keep an eye down below, making sure he can take care of himself and doesn’t actually need my help. The duo with amber markings get in his way and try to hold him up. They intend to give the water mages time to chase me, but they can’t get past Remus that easily.
He shatters the walls of stone they build around him and cuts off the other three from continuing. As easily as he could attack and crush them where they stand, he simply blocks their way and throws them back when they try to come after me.
“Sorry guys, but I can’t let you go further. Your superiors are in breach of protocol. Go back. Wait for a proper trial to be held.”
The mages stop and exchange glances. “Remus?” I hear them ask. He really is well known, I guess. I don’t stand around. He has everything under control. Even if they decide to attack, Remus clearly outmatches the lot of them. After what happened in that office, I’m insulted they sent nothing better.
I told Remus I wouldn’t kill those five, but the order executives still tried to have me killed or captured. It doesn’t matter which. They went forward with it despite my warning. The mages will leave alive, but their bosses won’t.
In a matter of minutes, I’m flying toward the command building. I need to be careful to enter without hurting anyone else. It would be easy to simply burn down the building, but I will hurt others in the attempt. They won’t be able to escape a spreading fire, as I’d once foolishly assumed. No, normal people aren’t that hardy.
Thankfully, I shouldn’t have to worry about any Beith mercenary stationed here. If there is, I’m almost certain they would have set them on me with that group of mages. It would be so easy to dive into the building and take the trio out. But do I want everyone to know it was me?
Volan sentinels watch every approach to the building. Even with my camouflage outfit, they would have a good chance of spotting me. Their eyes are just better than most other races. Heck, I’m sure they’re watching me right now, flying above and just waiting for me to make some move. Though that isn’t exactly all that impressive. I shine like a miniature inferno in the darkness of night.
I should really work on my control. Despite having far more strength than what I assume my tribe ever did, the command I have over my fire is still lacking in comparison. With how much every other part of me has grown, I really should focus more on bettering that which was drilled into me ever since I was a child.
Also, being able to fly and not be spotted immediately would have been really nice right now.
So, how do I get into the building without being seen by the unrivalled sight of the volan guards? Well, I do have an idea.
❖❖❖
So it turns out melting my way through the earth beneath buildings has the unintended side effect of destabilising the supports for the structure I’m crawling under. Fortunately, there was nobody around when the wall of a double story building collapsed under its own weight. Fortunate, because I wasn’t discovered… and nobody was hurt.
Now I need to figure if it’s even possible to break into the command post with this method, or I’ll need to scrap the plan entirely. I can hardly leave a path of destruction on my way in and call it stealthy, can I?
Wait, why am I doing this in my default body? I chide myself while my body shrinks, taking on the form and size of a jerboa. I’ve never been able to push myself this small before, and it soon becomes clear why; The ground melts under my tiny feet without intention.
I can no longer hold back the heat of my white flames. Any attempt at reverting my body to the cooler golden fire fails. I let my body grow a touch, taking on the form of a fennec fox. The larger size gives me much more freedom and control over how my heat affects the surroundings.
For crawling through the earth, the form of a worm might be the most efficient, but… I really don’t want to be a worm.
I try to dig once more, beginning at another uninhabited building a good distance from the first. When I melt everything in my way, the rock tends to cave in behind me, so I have to attempt something with more control. The smaller size will help, but I should be more careful this time. Instead of leaving the rock molten as I crawl through the ground, I focus on the heat, pulling it out of the stone the moment I’ve squeezed past it.
The magma pooling around me hardens but only fills the bottom half of the tunnel I’ve dug. For now, the rock walls hold. I push forward, doing my utmost to suppress the anxious twisting in my chest.
I chose to tunnel my way in not only because it would avoid the eyes of the volans, but because I despise the fear I feel. It should be all but impossible to be trapped underground anymore, and yet the idea of being buried alive still terrifies me. The knot no longer limits my movements, so I need to prove that I can do this. I need to show the world that a simple fear won’t stop me.
The tunnel expands a few streets with no buildings falling on me, when I realise I don’t actually know how far I need to go before I reach the building used as a command post. I’d chosen a starting point a fair way off from the militarised area, to prevent being noticed, but I now discover that it is far harder to tell how far I’ve come than expected.
After sitting in indecision for a moment about whether I should go back, I settle on rising from where I am. As my tunnel inclines to the surface, ever so slightly, I feel a heat signature above.
Barely a moment after I feel it, the ground above me melts away, exposing the interior of some building’s basement. The body heat I felt is outside, down the street. I climb to the ground floor and get my bearings through the windows. I still have quite a distance to go, but the number of patrolling guards increases from here.
It should be pretty easy to make that distance now. I’ll just check every few hundred metres. The massive congregation of people at the command post will be more than obvious even with rock over my head. I’ll need to be careful not to rise too quickly when checking, otherwise I might break through the surface and give myself away.
An hour of crawling through magma later, I finally arrive below my objective. The mass of heat above can be nothing other than the many people concentrated within the command centre. The only issue I have now is how do I get in without being noticed?
I could simply dig up and hope there isn’t anyone where I breach, maybe choosing a place that feels less dense with heat. If the building has a basement, there shouldn’t be too many waiting around, but being careful can’t hurt.
I burn a path toward the less dense heat section, hoping to rise with no eyes around, and stumble into a tunnel system already dug beneath the building. The rock melts away before me and dribbles down into this new chamber. Without heat sources in the tunnel, I couldn’t notice it until it was too late.
Barely in time, I suck the heat out of the molten rock before it burns through the pipe taking up most of the tunnel. The tube gives off a constant groan as I climb into the space. Even with the pair of pipes running along the wall, there is plenty of space for me to walk, and I take my time to change back to my default form.
I’m not really sure where this tunnel leads, but it is clearly a part of the building I wanted to get into. Well, this is probably a better entry than what I had planned, but I really wish I didn’t have to walk so close to what I am pretty sure is a tube of rushing water. I’ve been around the other races long enough to know that they find this important, but I don’t have to like it.
I eye it carefully as I don my outfit again. Knowing my luck, the pipes will burst before I can even make it up to the basement. Well, no point waiting here.