Alo’aharu watched and waited as Callione soldiers rushed past the dungeon, arming themselves and preparing for battle.

Alo’aharu had originally wanted to wait until the year’s end festival two weeks from now to launch their plans into motion. But from what it looked like, the Calliones needed every soldier they had on their payroll to deal with whatever threat opposed them up on the surface.

There would never be a better opportunity.

Alo’aharu grabbed a makeshift lock pick from under the pile of hay they slept on and didn’t bother trying to hide an attempt at unlocking their cell.

“Hey! Cut that out!” a guard shouted. He stopped running with the others and moved towards Alo’aharu.

Alo’aharu grabbed the guard by the wrist once he was close enough and slammed him against the iron bars between them. They grabbed the keys of the guard’s hip and retreated to the back of their cell.

As the guard called for help, Alo’aharu unlocked the collar around their neck. A rush of adrenaline and euphoria surged through them as they could once again absorb ambient mana.

The guards unlocked their cell door and tried to attack them. Alo’aharu evaded the swipe of a sword and pummeled the first guard to reach them before pinning the second down. They drank mana from that second guard, causing her body to shrivel up like a pruned fruit.

Alo’aharu unleashed a wave of raw mana, clearing the doorway for them to finally set foot outside of their cell.

As more guards prepared to subdue them, a blood-curdling screech echoed through the cold, stone dungeons.

Guard and slave alike froze in their tracks.

A door to their cell block burst off its hinges, the beaten and bloody body of a guard carrying it all the way to the dead end fifty feet behind them.

A monstrous abomination combining Harpax Callione with a dragon stepped through the doorway, a fang-filled grin plastered to his face.

“I took me some thought,” Harpax’s voice growled. “But you slaves are also residents of Rosalia.”

The guards looked between Harpax and Alo’aharu, not sure of who was the enemy. However, that cleared itself up as Harpax grabbed a guardsman and ripped his throat out with his teeth.

The guards turned their spears on him, but Harpax moved with speed and grace that common warriors could never match.

In a blur of motion, every guard in their cell block was dead.

Alo’aharu could only stare at the draconic sorcerer. What had happened up there? Why were the Calliones slaughtering their own men?

But they didn’t have the luxury to have answers to their questions, as Harpax turned his murderous gaze on Alo’aharu.

“Elemental.” Harpax commanded. “Prostrate yourself at my feet, so I can get through with killing you slaves. I’m needed on the surface.”

“Alo’aharu!” a deep voice echoed from another cell block. Barsheen. “Help us!”

“Kick his ass!” Ukhaua snorted from his cell.

“Shut your snouts!” Harpax spat. “Nightborn! Hurry and let me kill you!”

Alo’aharu’s hands lit aflame with raw mana. The cracks in their grey dermis surged with azure energy.

Harpax gritted his teeth and prepared to fight.

“You can’t have thought I was going to offer my neck to you.” Alo’aharu muttered.

Harpax kicked a spear from one of the fallen guards into his hand and launched it at Alo’aharu.

They easily evaded the spear, but Harpax followed it with his fist.

Alo’aharu twisted around to regain their balance and grabbed Harpax’s wrist, turning the sorcerer’s follow up attack into an opportunity to slam his head into a row of iron bars. The cell bars sang as Harpax reeled.

They followed up with an attempt to drain some of Harpax’s mana. But they were cut off when Callione overpowered the elemental with unusual strength and tried to pin Alo’aharu to the wall.

Alo’aharu made use of the narrow space and ran up the wall, landing behind Harpax. Both of them turned to face one another, but Harpax touched Alo’aharu first, sending the elemental flying in the same direction the block door had gone.

Their being rippled as an unnatural, invisible force crushed Alo’aharu against the back wall.

As they were let down from the wall, Alo’aharu crossed their arms over their chest, releasing a barrage of small energy bolts from their dermis.

Harpax only survived by imbuing himself with his curse. He barely threw himself ahead of where the bolts converged. Backed by the explosion and his own momentum, Harpax aimed a set of blackened claws on his hand at Alo’aharu’s throat.

Alo’aharu rolled under Harpax’s flying body and popped up to kick out a wave of energy at the sorcerer’s back.

Callione grunted in pain as his own momentum cracked something in his body.

Alo’aharu wrench their arms backward and sparked twin jets of power to roar in their palms, propelling them down the dark dungeon hall.

They swung their fist into a staggering Harpax, creating a deep, vibrating shock wave with the impact.

Harpax made a crater in the wall, but used the impact as his launching point. The sorcerer crashed into Alo’aharu at such a high speed, it carried them with him as they flew back to the other side of the cell block.

As the momentum wore down, Alo’aharu had no way to stop Harpax as he pulled open a cell door and slammed them into it, before grabbing them by the collar of their rags and making the bars sing a second song.

Alo’aharu’s feet touched the ground in time to maneuver around Harpax’s attempt to close the cell door on them. But as the energy projectile they shot missed, they found themselves on the back foot as Harpax continued to attack.

At this rate, Alo’aharu was going to use up their mana before Harpax even had the chance to kill them.

Mimicking the way some of the combat slaves fought, Alo’aharu stopped the backwards momentum by making a wide, immovable stance.

They grabbed Harpax’s hand and drank.

The sorcerer yelped as he pulled his hand away. But blackened scars had formed where Alo’aharu’s hands had touched.

They let out a diffused blast of energy, knocking Harpax off balance before grabbing onto his face.

Alo’aharu put every ounce of effort into drinking the sorcerer’s mana until Harpax’s emerald eyes burned out.

With a sigh, they dropped Harpax’s corpse to the ground.

They approached Zakiti’s cell first and let her out.

“I have the feeling,” Alo’aharu tossed her the keys. “That a lot more slaves will work with us now.”

Zakiti unlocked her collar. “Then let’s not allow this opportunity to go to waste.”

Alo’aharu nodded. “I’m going to use the sewer exit we established. I’ll scout out the situation. Meet me up there once everyone’s out. Our concern’s fighting our way out of the city, not killing Lord Callione himself.”

Zakiti put a hand on their shoulder. “Take care.”

Alo’aharu grabbed another ring of keys off a fallen guardsman just in case and started sprinting deeper into the Callione dungeons.

All the way at the end was a series of decrepit, unoccupied cells, one of which had a small hole in the back wall that spilled into the sewers. Alo’aharu opened the padlock to that cell and blasted the loose stone away with a bolt of raw mana. They climbed into the sewers and maneuvered their way to the nearest sewer hole.

They winced at dim, but still blinding sunlight as they pulled themselves up into fresh air for the first time in what seemed like weeks, though it had actually been only a couple of days.

Actually…the air smelled like iron. Far from fresh. And once their eyes adjusted, Alo’aharu could see the eclipse in the sky.

The surface was in chaos.

Civilians screamed in terror as they ran away from the harbor in unorganized mobs. Draconic sorcerers like Harpax descended on wings to attack and slaughter the common people.

Off in the distance, Alo’aharu could hear the clang of metal against metal and the rumblings of explosive sorcery.

The harbor was full to the brim with ships bearing black and ivory sails. They’d seen those black sails somewhere before…

“The Sea Scourgers…” Alo’aharu muttered to themselves. The Sea Scourgers were attacking the city. It was a full siege. Had they killed Mattiew and were attacking to get revenge on Andar? Or was Mattiew still alive?

If the Scourgers were trying to kill Andar Callione, they’d have the support of the slaves.

***

Adriana’s arms shook with exertion from the simple act of descending the stairs from the tower.

She stumbled and staggered, barely staying upright as she pushed her weight from wall to wall, slowly making her way forward.

Her family had become monsters.

She was a monster.

Her skin wasn’t made of scales and she didn’t have wings, but she could feel that accursed blood running through her body like an ichor oozing out from her very bones.

She almost collapsed just hitting the first floor. If she could spare the focus to spit, she would. How pathetic she was, unable to even walk down a flight of stairs.

Her family had gone out to slaughter all of Rosalia. Now was her chance to get to Mattiew. If only this damn curse didn’t make her so slow...

Adriana took a break at the bottom of the stairs to refocus. She needed to get outside. She needed to get to Mattiew.

“And just where do you think you’re running off to?”

Adriana looked up from the floor to see Diana Callione standing in the doorway between the stairwell and the corridor. Her father’s concubine had similarly not taken on the appearance of a dragon.

She took a slow, deep breath, and let the mana flow into her body. But the curse heavily restricted the quantity she could take in.

“Shouldn’t you be out there...killing people?” Adriana groaned.

“I find the whole scales and fangs look rather gaudy.” Diana shrugged. “And someone had to keep watch of you.”

Adriana didn’t know of Diana’s sorcerous abilities, nor did she have any confidence that her own abilities would work properly. But she would not let Diana stand in her way.

“Abandon my father…” Adriana grunted. “Get out of my way and I won’t hurt you. I need to get to...Mattiew.”

Diana scoffed. “Hurt me? You can barely look at me. And that’s not even factoring in our newly...enhanced survivability.”

Despite the power infusion, Calliones could still die. She could feel it in her own bones. It was certainly more difficult to die. But it could be done.

Adriana exerted as much mana as she could, willing herself with fortune and pushing misfortune into the walls of the house.

A portion of the ceiling cracked and collapsed in a pile of rubble on top of Diana. She avoided being crushed with a step to the side.

A few surviving maids screamed in terror from their hiding places as Diana channeled a weave of mana of her own. A young handmaiden, no older than fifteen, lurched as she attempted to run away.

Adriana prepared herself as Diana pushed her mana into the handmaiden. The poor girl writhed about, her veins turning black while her eyes filled with blood. Her skin went gray as a corpse and she started sprouting limbs from her back.

Bile threatened to rise in Adriana’s throat. She could only watch as Diana’s curse twisted this innocent person into a monster.

Adriana tried to back away as fast as she could carry herself, but the creature that the handmaiden was becoming leapt after her at Diana’s command.

A quick burst of luck caused the handmaiden to slip on the carpet beneath her newly formed talons. She pushed the bad luck remaining into the wall beside her, causing the frame of the building to weaken and crack slightly.

If she exerted herself enough, Adriana could bring the entire house down on itself. But that wasn’t an efficient way of dealing with a single opponent.

But for now, the house itself was her only weapon.

Diana’s curse appeared to only affect others, turning them into Nightdweller-like beasts who fought on her behalf. Perhaps her victims had to fulfill certain requirements. Otherwise Diana would’ve turned Adriana into one of those beasts.

Adriana tried to take apart different sections of the house to slow down Diana’s monster. But it was only a matter of time before the distance was closed.

She braced herself as the creature swiped at her with its claws.

Adriana flew through a door from the sheer force of the attack, breaking a wicker chair with her landing on the stone floors in the next room.

Her eyes struggled to stay open as the vertigo racked her head. Her chest and arms were soaked in blood.

Adriana heaved, focusing as the creature stepped through the doorway, followed by Diana.

“I don’t understand why Andar didn’t just kill you.” Diana spat. “You’re the daughter he disinherited. You don’t get to be called a Callione anymore.”

Diana commanded her creature with a flick of her wrist to grab Adriana by the throat and hold her up to its mistress.

Adriana sputtered and choked as the creature’s grip crushed her windpipe. Though there was little struggling she could do. 

“Your mother is an empty shell of a woman. You belong to a line no longer worthy of this House or of Lord Andar’s brilliance.” Diana growled. “You deserve this. Your mother deserves the same fate.”

Adriana coughed and hacked as the creature’s grip grew tighter around her neck. Blackness crept in from the edges of her vision.

“What’s going on here?” Adriana’s eyes snapped open again to Reina Callione, who stood in the doorway, her skin adorned with a scaly texture. “Diana? What are you doing?”

“Mother!” Adriana rasped. “Release the curse! Please!”

“Don’t even think about aiding this little rat.” Diana snapped. “She was trying to escape and help her mutt.”

Her mother’s brow remained furrowed with a mixture of terror and sadness as she looked frantically between Adriana and Diana.

“Just...let her go, you caught her!” Reina exclaimed. “Ancient Kings, you’re hurting her!”

“And what, Reina?” Diana asked. “Are we suddenly supposed to feel sorry for hurting our enemies? Are we not Callione sorcerers? She’s given us more trouble than she’s worth.”

“Enemy?” Reina asked. “She’s my daughter! She’s part of this family! Now let her go!”

“She’s no one’s daughter.” Diana said.

“Mother!” Adriana screamed, though her voice only came out as a scratchy gasp. “The curse!”

Adriana met her mother’s eyes, pleading with all her heart and soul as her consciousness faded from her.

Mother...if you can hear me, somehow...Father isn’t worth it. None of this is worth it. Just do what feels right. Please. Adriana prayed to anyone who would listen, be it the kings, ancient heroes, or gods.

Reina broke eye contact with Adriana.

Her heart shrank. What else was she expecting from the woman who only cared about results?

Was it wrong of her to have faith in her own mother?

Adriana’s eyes opened again. Strength flooded into her muscles. Feverish delirium washed away from her mind. And mana poured into her like a broken dam.

The amount of focus she once needed to just intake a few scraps of mana now pushed wave upon wave of sorcery into the creature at Diana’s command.

The creature released Adriana and collapsed in an instant.

“Wh-what…” Diana gasped.

Adriana got to her feet, heaving.

“What did you do?” Diana snarled, half directed at both Adriana and Reina.

“I forced enough mana into your monster to give it several sudden medical issues.” Adriana explained.

“You!” Diana turned to Reina. “You released the curse?”

“I-I was just-” Reina started.

Diana rushed at Reina, claws morphing out of her fingernails.

“NO!” Adriana screamed. She ran for her mother, but she was too far to stop Diana as she sank her claws into Reina’s ribcage and ripped out her heart in a fountain of blood.

Adriana shoved Diana to the side with supernatural strength and caught her mother as she collapsed.

Reina coughed up blood in her daughter’s arms, clutching at the open cavity in her chest.

“Adriana. I’m…” Reina groaned. “Ancient Kings…”

“Mother. Mother!” Adriana shouted, her knee breaking through the floorboards as she pushed every ounce of good fortune from her killing the monster into her mother’s body. “You’re not dead yet.”

Reina’s eyes closed, despite her mother trying to fight the unconsciousness. Adriana checked her pulse. It was weak, but she was still alive. Somehow, this dragon blood kept her heart beating outside her body. She needed to get to a healer as soon as possible.

Adriana tried to set her mother’s heart back in its proper place and turned to face Diana with a glare that could kill Nightdwellers.

Her sorcery manifested as red arcs of lightning across her body as she infused the room itself with misfortune.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Diana asked. “You aren’t seriously going to bring the place down on us!”

“Not us. Just you.” Adriana muttered as the walls and ceiling all came crashing down around her and her mother.

***

Mattiew was getting into the rhythm of decapitating his cousins in law.

The draconic Calliones were tough. Gashes, cuts, anything that didn’t just sever the body’s spine or the neck completely regenerated in a matter of seconds. Unless it was some kind of fire. Khemti had used that mirror sun blast move to set a couple of them on fire, which they never healed from.

But his armies didn’t come prepared with buckets of oil.

Among all the chaos, Mattiew had tried to establish the harbor as a safe zone to defend civilians. However, the Calliones seemed bent on only killing said civilians.

Mattiew stopped in his tracks just as a Callione dropped out of the sky and dragged her claw through the cobblestone road around himself, Dreya, Kalai, and a few Scourgers, causing violet fires to spring up. They burned almost as hot as Semiramis’s sorcery.

“Turtle, boys! Turtle!” Mattiew shouted as the sorceress gained more height before diving at them.

Mattiew joined his Scourgers in making a wall of shields above their heads just as the sound of scraping metal replaced what would’ve been the squelch of flesh. With another dive bomb, she grabbed one of the younger Scourgers and tore him to shreds in the air.

Kalai, in her usual fashion, ran through the flames and launched herself into the air, making a crater in the road. She spun with her cleaver swords, bisecting the sorceress.

She stamped out the fire, letting the remaining Scourgers out.

“May I advise you on something?” Kalai asked.

“You don’t have to ask.” Mattiew said. “What is it?”

“Things aren’t going well.” Kalai put it bluntly.

“I can see that.” He grimaced.

Despite Kalai, Khemti, and Mattiew being able to take down a dragon with little assistance, most of the Scourgers needed to be in groups of fifteen or twenty to have a chance.

This both scattered his forces and clumped them up, making them easy for sorcerers to gang up on the broken lines.

“We need to fall back.” Kalai said. “Reorganize. We thought we’d be fighting soldiers. We can’t keep fighting a battle without a plan.”

“She’s not wrong, Matty.” Dreya heaved, crimson running down the side of her head.

Mattiew huffed. “Fine. Kalai?”

The Queen of Conquerors cupped her hands around her mouth. “RETREAT! Scourgers and Setts! Retreat to the harbor!”

Mattiew and Dreya ran with their forces as they made a not-quite-orderly retreat down to the walled off harbor.

As they fell back, ballista fire covered them from the mounted bows on Scourger ships.

The harbor was full to the brim with civilians, each more confused and scared than the last. Scourgers tried to maneuver around them to defend it from sorcerers, but flying sorcerers were…well, flying sorcerers.

Mattiew was quick about getting Khemti to meet up with them on the beach.

“What was the retreat called for?” Khemti asked.

“At this rate, we’re going to be picked off group by group.” Mattiew said.

“We need a proper plan for these dragons.” Kalai insisted.

“We need a map of the city, then.” Dreya said. She glanced over and pointed at one civilian, a middle-aged woman in a scribe’s robe. “Hey, you. Can you draw us a layout of the city?”

The scribe nodded silently.

“Well, we don’t have all day. Draw in the sand.”

The scribe walked over and started mapping out distinct sectors of the city and major roads. All four of them closely studied the map as it came together.

“Let’s make our objectives clear.” Mattiew said. “At first, it was to kill Andar Callione and rescue my wife. That all is still on the table. Andar is definitely the head of all this. But now we also need to defeat these dragon sorcerers.”

“I suggest a pincer maneuver.” Dreya said. “They won’t win a battle of attrition. If we can sandwich them between our two armies, we can overpower them with numbers. Our Scourgers are more mobile and have experience with complex group maneuvers. We should take the Scourgers around the market district and pin the sorcerers from behind.”

“Won’t they just fly away?” Kalai asked.

Mattiew tugged on his beard. “The dragons want Rosalian blood. I’m not sure why, but they insist on going for civilians.”

“Are you suggesting that we put civilians on the front line with our soldiers?” Khemti asked indignantly.

“It’s the only way to keep them safe.” Mattiew argued. “If we leave them here, the Calliones will just overrun the harbor and kill them. If we have them with our ranks, not only is that their best chance, but we’ll also have more numbers if we find something to arm them with.”

Khemti grimaced. “I...Fine. My troops are heavier and less accustomed to fighting as a unit. We’ll take the civilians and charge them head o-”

“Captain!”

All four commanders looked over at one of Mattiew’s men as he ran towards them.

“Captain!”

“Oh, what now?” Mattiew sighed.

The Scourger pointed behind himself at the sea.

Mattiew narrowed his eyes, squinting at the horizon.

Ships.

There were dozens and dozens of ships.

“What banner are they flying?” Mattiew asked.

“The Sunkiller’s, sir.” The Scourger’s voice cracked, his face empty as though this was the first time he was hearing it as well. “The Sunkiller’s come for us.”

As with any mention of Semiramis, anxious whispers spread among Rosalia’s denizens before it spread to the Scourgers and House Sett.

“Shit.” Mattiew hissed.

The Sunkiller’s ships were still far off, but the time it would take for the Scourgers to flank the Calliones and get rid of the sorcerers would give the Sunkiller ample time to prepare herself. If they were fast enough, they might have a chance against both.

“Once we’ve left the harbor, we have no interest in taking it again,” Mattiew said. “Because either we successfully complete our invasion or we die. I say we focus on the Calliones. We have time.”

“Not as much time as you’d think, Captain.” Dreya said. “It might be me, but those boats look to be traveling a tad bit quicker than your average trireme.”

Mattiew looked back out at the approaching armada. She was right. He knew from a glance that those sails were full and their ships were much closer than they should be. Those boats would be on shore in less than twenty minutes. Likely sorcery, no doubt.

“I don’t think I would’ve shown up if I knew these ships were coming on behalf of the enemy…”

Mattiew looked to his left to find Alo’aharu, dressed in rags and scrapped armor salvaged off Callione guardsmen.

“Wait, where have you been?” Mattiew asked.

“Locked in a cage.” Alo’aharu muttered. “Getting all the Nightborn slaves on my side so I could lead a revolt. I came to find you to coordinate our armies.”

“You’re looking great, Alo’aharu!” Kalai grinned. “Chipper enough to help us fight the Sunkiller!”

“We’ll have time for pleasantries later.” Alo’aharu said. “I can see you all have a problem on your hands.”

Mattiew blinked. Then his chest fluttered with relief. “Thank the Ancient Kings. A revolt? We can do this shit! Where are your rebels?”

“Stationed near the keep, but out of reach of the...dragon-human...whatever they are.” Alo’aharu said.

“That’s our hammer. Can you order them to attack the dragons from behind?” Mattiew asked. “Khemti, gather the civilians and your army and do the pincer maneuver with the rebels. The Scourgers and I will take care of the Sunkiller.”

Alo’aharu raised their hand and fired a bright azure bolt of light into the sky. The bolt exploded in the air. “Go now. They’ll start attacking soon.”

Khemti turned to muster his armies and get the common people to go with him.

“Do you need to go back and lead your army?” Mattiew asked.

Alo’aharu shook their head. “They’ll be fine on their own. What do you say you, me, and Kalai all team up on the Sunkiller? Just for old times’ sake.”

Kalai let out a hearty, boisterous laugh. “Yes! That’s an idea! Let our hearts dance with our swords!”