It was dawn.

Tirnaog isn’t pulling back? Teris landed on a tree overlooking things, giving me a better vantage point of the field as I stood at the front of the army.

Not yet. I’m probably going to have to take out Mosse first.

You have any idea what he’s up to?

Not a clue, but maybe it’ll make this interesting. I rolled my shoulders to settle my blades on my back more comfortably and then glanced back, up at the hill where Hector stood, standing stoically with the rest of the generals, prepared to call the shots. I craned my neck to look more fully behind me, at the army that lay spread out between the gently sloped hills that marked the edges of our battlefield. Then I turned back to face the opposing troops, similarly laid out at the other end of the lowlands.

We were both just waiting, but we didn’t have to wait long. It seemed maybe the Aeron and Tirnaog troops were anxious to get the show on the road, a sentiment to which I related.

The trumpet sounded, loud and clear, echoing off the land before flying upwards to the sky, announcing our war to the Fates themselves. As it drifted away into nothing, the troops started moving.

I drew my swords, hearing the men behind me react and start marching as well. I waited just a second to make sure they were moving before taking off at a sprint, a pace that would have me clashing with the enemy well before the rest of the troops reached one another, just the way I liked it.

I thought something might happen, something shocking or unexpected, before I fell into their line and started ripping through their men like they were made of wet paper, but nothing did. It was disappointing, dampening the thrill of the fight, as I started carving my way through the army. I was maybe being a bit more reckless than normal, covering my back a little less, but this army was far less likely to turn to attempt to circle around me– they had another army to worry about, not too far behind me, that was still advancing head on. To attempt to corner me, they would have to turn their back to the greater force, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

Indeed, though those immediately to my sides would always engage, the army seemed far too shocked by my recklessness for anyone to really think of a change in strategy, and I continued to carve my way through the middle of them, breaking their ranks, as the two main forces finally reached one another, engaging in a more traditional conflict.

I was almost dead center in the army, corpses littered in my wake, feeling remarkably unsatisfied with the outcome so far, when my wish was granted. Something happened.

Specifically, the earth erupted all around me, caging me in an impromptu cell with no door or roof, made entirely of stone.

I blinked. Of all the things I’d been expecting, that really hadn’t been one of them. It did answer some questions though.

Rift energy infused my leg, and I kicked the stone, the energy exploding outward from me, ramming into some soldiers who had been in the near vicinity. I looked around for the culprits.

The Surgebinders were standing on the hills surrounding the battlefield, all of them wearing unenhanced cloth robes and strange veils of sorts that covered their eyes and faces. It may have been a religious matter, but I felt it was likely a more tactical one. The glow of a Surgebinders’ eyes revealed their gift and to what Ascendant they were bound; by concealing them, it left it uncertain if I were dealing with a group who dealt exclusively with Stone, as had just been demonstrated, or if there were a mixture of talents with which I would have to contend.

I was admittedly, and probably in poor taste, pretty excited about the development. It explained Mosse’s arrogance, proved I had been correct about him being a contractor with his own team, and gave a reasonable explanation for why Coyle wasn’t certain in my victory. The theory was a decent one– stack up those with superhuman abilities against the warrior who seemed to have some level of superhuman ability. It wasn’t going to work, but it was a decent theory.

The ground beneath my feet started to shift and roil, so I took off running again, though it wasn’t as easy this time. I had wedged myself in the middle of a thick crowd of armored obstacles, and despite how easily I had been taking them down moments before, it was a little different when I was also trying to keep my feet off the ground as much as possible.

Growing irritated with my lack of mobility, I did a wide sweep with my blade, cutting through a small swath and at least giving me a small radius of room.

It was at that moment when a ball of fire came hurtling towards me from one of the hilltops.

They didn’t seem to have a complete disregard for collateral damage, then, but they also clearly weren’t too concerned about it. I could respect that.

I jumped on top of one of the lavasuits worn by an enemy and then rolled off and behind him, using their own soldiers as reasonably effective shields from the resulting explosion that hit the ground a few feet away. We were blown backwards, myself and the soldiers behind whom I had been hiding, and one of them landed on top of me, which wasn’t an experience I cared to repeat.

I groaned softly and infused my limbs with a bit more Rift energy to gain the strength to shove the lavasuit off of me, the owner either dazed or perhaps just fully deceased from the blast.

There was a lot of smoke though, providing a temporary cover, so I stayed on the ground, unslinging my rifle from my back and bringing it around to face one of the hills. I couldn’t see anything at all through my eyes, but Teris had taken off before I had even fully finished bringing my weapon around to use, flying above my location and looking at my target, giving me the best attempt at aiming from my perspective that he could do without entering the battlefield himself.

The first shot went understandably wide. The second one hit one of the poorly defended Surgebinders in the upper leg, dropping them.

Then the ground was opening up beneath me again as the smoke cleared, and I started moving through the army a second time, mostly avoiding the normal soldiers now, treating them more like an obstacle course than opponents. The collateral damage from the Surgebinders’ abilities were killing more than me.

How many altogether, Teris? I asked, rolling to avoid another fire attack, cursing that I apparently hadn’t taken out the Flamebinder– or, at least, the only Flamebinder.

I see six visible on the hills, doing their little dances, but I don’t think we have any way of knowing if there are some that haven’t come out into the open yet.

He had a point, but, for now, at least, I was only worried about the six immediate problems. Is that counting the one I shot?

It is. She’s still up there, but I’m not sure she can do much without being able to move her leg.

But she might still be able to do something. I sighed somewhat heavily and then flinched backwards, only barely avoiding having my face shot off with a wild laser blast. The chaos of battle was in full swing now, and the Surgebinders who weren’t directly targeting me were causing a significant amount of turmoil on the battlefield– not that the ones who were targeting me were somehow bringing order. It was a messy situation all around, and we had probably already lost more men then I had hoped the ending tally would be.

I sighed heavily and stopped fighting altogether, sheathing my blades and running as quickly as I could manage to the edge of the battlefield. Currently, the closest side was the enemy side, so I started booking it at full speed towards the enemy camp, giving me a satisfying moment of all of the generals in the distance starting to panic as I approached. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for them.

As soon as I cleared the main army forces, I turned sharply, almost completely around the other way, but this time I was running up the hill, advancing on where the Surgebinders were stationed.

Somewhat predictably, they stopped worrying about the army as I became by far the biggest threat.

Less predictably and more surprisingly, nothing immediately happened. The ground was still rumbling under my feet, the air still occasionally grew a bit hot behind me, but there was nothing immediately threatening.

And then I took another one of my quick, long strides, and in the exact second when both my feet were temporarily off the ground, an immensely strong gust of wind came up from beneath me and I found myself flat on my back moments later.

Well. That’s mildly embarrassing.

I started to stand when the earth opened up under me, the ground becoming a sinkhole that swiftly grabbed onto my legs and began dragging me downwards. I reached out for a handhold to attempt to pull myself out of it, and fire burst up around me, burning my hands as I tried to escape.

I looked around, watching the way the three Surgebinders who weren’t that far from me now moved, how they had all angled themselves towards me, watching the flow of their arms and the shifting of stances with their legs. It really wasn’t quite dancing, but it looked like some kind of meditation ritual– yet, somehow, through it, they channeled the power of the ancient Ascendants who had once taught and led mankind.

I was glad I could finally say that I’d seen them in motion.

I reached back out of the pit, the sand having swallowed me up to the bottom of my chest, and grabbed for a handhold on dry ground. Once again, it burst into flames, but this time I just ignored the fire, the skin on my hand regrowing as fast as the fire could burn it away. It wasn’t pleasant by any means, but it got the job done.

As I freed myself from my cage and regained my footing, a new sort of fervor entered the movements of my opponents. Their speed didn’t change, their form didn’t loosen, but there was a new urgency there.

The ground opened beneath me again, but I was ready this time, jumping up and out of its reach. The wind buffeted me, but it was far easier to resist when I knew it was coming– likely the reason they hadn’t been using it until that prime moment. It was clever, a good strategy, and I almost fell bad as I slowly but surely advanced towards them.

“You could give up,” I offered, calling out over the rush of wind and the roar of fire as I vaulted out of the way of a horizontal fire tornado that had been sent my way like a missile. “Is Mosse really worth dying for?”

“Not Mosse,” one of them– it was impossible to tell which in all the chaos with their full body coverings– said in a hiss. “For the ancient ones!”

“For the lost city!” another few of them echoed, and I decided at that point that talking to them would just be a waste of my time.

My blade carved the first one almost neatly in two, reminding me how much easier it was to take care of opponents who didn’t have any armor at all, and soon all three of them lay dead about my feet. They were remarkably less effective at close range without the element of surprise.

Once the one hill was cleared, I found a place with decent cover, some bushes, and laid down in them, pulling the rifle from my back. It was, somewhat disappointingly, over in another five shots. Two misses wasn’t enough to make it long enough that they could find me, and it seemed the veils they wore to tactically hide their abilities had the downside of blocking their own vision. I rejoined the army, and, soon, I noticed troops being subtly pulled back.

The generals on the enemy’s side were arguing, and then Coyle called a retreat.

It didn’t take much longer after that for Aeron to raise a white flag.

The terms of surrender weren’t really my expertise, but, as I understood it, the nobles had already set up some kind of paperwork. While a more detailed arrangement, from which Ildanach would almost certainly profit in terms of trade, would be forthcoming, the initial agreement included a non-aggression clause for, at a minimum, a full year, binding Aeron back to its former neutrality. Killough would have to sign it to make it fully binding, but there wasn’t much concern at that point. Tirnaog was clearly done, Aeron’s army was done, and their last reserve of hope, contracting with Surgebinders’, hadn’t won them anything.

It was over.

“Feels kind of anticlimactic,” Hector noted, coming to stand next to me as we watched what was left of the Aeron army pack up and head home.

“Tell me about it. They thought six Surgebinders were going to win it for them?”

“It is unusual to see them in a Skirmish, and most people don’t have you,” Hector noted wryly.

I shrugged and then turned to him sincerely. “Thank you. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

Hector snorted. “All I did was stand up there and tell the generals to shut up about changing the plan every thirty seconds.”

“Exactly. Do you know how badly this would have gone without someone up there telling them not to change the plan every thirty seconds?”

Hector breathed a laugh. “I suppose you have a point. We headed back?”

“I’m going to wait until they cross the border, but yeah. Have to catch up with Jes and Raesh, see what our dear High Inquisitor is up to, not to mention visit Will.”

“She wanted to know when we won?”

I nodded. “And, I think, to say goodbye. You could come too if you wanted.”

“Nah. Give her my good will and well wishes and all, but I wasn’t part of your team.” Hector clapped me on the shoulder. “Good work, Captain.”

I chuckled. “Thank you. You as well, Captain Wolfe.”

“I’m going to be kind of sad to say goodbye to this city, even after everything,” he mused, looking back towards the Highcity and the forest that surrounded it, just barely visible as a silhouette against the light of one of the rising moons.

“It’s always sad to say goodbye,” I said quietly and then smiled. “But I’m sure we’ll find our way back at some point. Besides, Morrigan has far better entertainment.”

Hector inclined his head in agreement. “That they do. It really helps when you don’t persecute the best actors and musicians the world has to offer.” We both grinned and then he patted my back again. “I’m going to head back, get some drinks with the soldiers before it’s too late. Don’t stay out too long.”

I hummed. “Oh, if you happen to run into a soldier named Brenden, thank him for me.”

Hector blinked and then shrugged and nodded. “You got it.” With that, he turned and walked away.

The rest of the Ildanach infantry headed off for home, the generals having been some of the first to leave, and soon it was just me, still watching as the Aeron collected their dead, putting them on wagons and bringing them over the territory line so they could take their time to bury them.

Teris flew down and landed on my shoulder, pecking at the collar of my coat.

“Stop that,” I scolded lightly.

The bird stopped. You know it’s not actually over.

“It is with Aeron. Dahl is another matter.”

A serious matter, still waiting for you.

“I know.”

Teris shuffled on my shoulder, the bird himself seeming to have nerves about it. What if you can’t kill him?

“Then I’ll keep trying until something works.”

What if nothing works?

“You worry too much.” I pat Teris on the head. “Everyone can always die somehow, to something. I should know.”

No one’s figured out your weakness.

“I didn’t make the mistake of pissing off my weird companion who helps get me my power.”

Teris pecked me directly. I have nothing in common with that crazy zealot!

I laughed softly, shooing the bird off of my shoulder, though he continued to glare at me. “You have as much in common with him as I do with Dahl.”

The raven settled down slightly at that, though I could still feel the petulant annoyance. How long are you going to stand here and watch them deal with their dead?

“As long as it takes.”

Why?

“There are Riftlings over there,” I gestured to my right, north of our location. “I’m just going to keep an eye on them.”

You killed a lot of their men; what’s it matter if the Riftlings take a few more?

“They’re trying to honor their dead.”

Teris just looked at me for a moment. Humans are weird.

I chuckled and didn’t argue in the slightest.

It was the middle of the night when I made my way back into Ildanach, using one of the trees near the wall to make my way into the city proper despite the hour, making my way through the slums, and then using the same trick to get into my room without disturbing Berd.

Struck by a strange curiosity, I left my room shortly after I arrived, however, slipping down the hallway of the inn to the room that I knew had belonged to Avaline. I unlocked it with my picks quite easily and looked around.

As expected, it was mostly barren and deserted; she had undoubtedly taken her things with her when she had moved to her far more opulent abode. There was a book sitting on the nightstand though, the book I had seen her reading that day in the common room next to the fire, when I had decided to get to know her better instead of just heading back up to my room– a book of children’s tales and fables. I thumbed through it quietly, sitting on the bed to get a better look.

They’re for children, she’d said, like it was such an awful thing.

I wondered if she felt she had grown up now, moved on from her need of them. I wondered if she felt it were such a good and accomplished thing to do.

I wondered if she were happy.

It was a question I’d been too upset to ask, too busy snipping at each other from across the room full of politicians, to caught up with all of my anger and sorrow. I determined to talk to her at least once more, to ask. She hardly had to choose me, but she didn’t need to do this either.

I picked up the book and took it with me back to my room, where I spent the rest of the night.

It was a reasonable hour in the morning when I headed back to that reclusive district of the city, back to that uncanny herbalist shop that shouldn’t have had the business to exist, yet continued running nevertheless.

It was unlocked– I wasn’t certain I had ever found the door otherwise, regardless of the hour– and when I knocked it simply opened.

“Right on time,” Angel greeted me this time, offering me cookie immediately.

I blinked. “Not even giving me an opportunity to wallow this time, hm?”

“Do you want a cookie or not, Elyon? I don’t have all day.”

I chuckled and took a cookie. “Don’t you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a customer in here.”

Somewhat abruptly and out of the blue, her cat suddenly launched itself off of the counter in a blind panic, hissing before darting away into the shadowy corners.

I watched it run bemusedly. “Is your cat okay?”

“He thinks this place is haunted,” Angel said, waving off the declaration like it was absurd, which I supposed it was. “I keep telling him its his own imagination.”

“It’s astounding that he doesn’t listen to your sagely wisdom in such matters,” I said, my tone impeccably dry through a severe exertion of will. I took a bite of my cookie in the hopes of masking any amusement on my face.

“I know!” Angel agreed. “I would definitely know if this place were haunted. I’m practically an expert in such things, even if mostly through osmosis.”

I had no idea whatsoever of what she was talking about, so I hummed, nodded, and took another bite of cookie. 

“You think I’m mad,” she pointed a wooden spoon at me as though it were a weapon.

“I’m enjoying my cookie,” I said instead of answering and then changed the subject. “How’s Will?”

“Doing wonderfully, although I do wish she would stay longer.”

My heart sank. “She’s leaving already?”

“Mhm. Been packing up her things all day.”

“That’s… a remarkably fast recovery.”

“Well, she’s hardly entirely recovered, but her biggest problem was malnutrition. A steady diet and plenty of rest have been solving that, and now she’s determined to set out and finish her recovery someplace quieter.” She stopped, but continued a moment later, no longer seeming to be talking to me but rather muttering in a grumbling sort of tone, “Because my shop is oh so loud.”

I really did not understand this woman’s mood swings. Half the time she’d be giving me prophetic declarations about the evilness of my own soul and the doom I would bring upon my friends, and now here she was, talking about her cat, ghosts, and muttering to herself. “That doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.”

“Oh, of course you’d agree! You can’t breathe in here.”

I blinked several times, but upon her mentioning it, the horrible, stuffy claustrophobia that normally didn’t hit me until I had left the shop came crashing down, and I suddenly had to struggle against immediate nausea.

Either she realized what she had done, or perhaps I had turned physically green, because she looked at me and then winced. “.... I do apologize for that. I can mix you up something if you–”

“No. No, thanks,” I said crisply, regaining my composure. I dealt with this feeling all the time; it was fine. Somehow it seemed infinitely worse in here than it even had in the dungeons, but I took another bite of cookie and tried to make sure it stayed in my stomach where it belonged. “Is Will in the back?”

Angelia nodded. “Of course. She’s mostly packed already, gathered all her things from her home and brought them here in little excursions. I think she’s just been waiting for you to come back for she heads off.”

I smiled faintly. “I’m glad she waited. Thank you for taking care of her.”

“Of course. That’s why I’m here, you know. To take care of those who have no where else that they can go.”

“It’s a noble effort.”

“You have elsewhere you can go,” Angel said, incredibly pointedly.

I blinked several times. “Do…. Are you saying I shouldn’t have brought her here?”

“No, Will is absolutely most welcome, and I was happy to help, as I mentioned.”

“I’ve never come here for me,” I pointed out slowly.

“I think someday you’re going to try. You don’t belong here,” she said primly.

“You’re a bit confusing, you know that?” I said, the annoyance I felt seeping out into my tone; I didn’t bother to try to mask it. She was being quite rude.

Angel sighed. “You’ve done nothing that would put us on opposite sides,” she admitted. “But you will. It’s a hard line to draw.”

“What sides? Angelia, per the norm, I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I said in exasperation.

“I know, I know. I’m just a crazy woman. Go talk to your Willow.”

“I would really love answers if–”

“Go talk to your Willow,” she snapped, and I gave up, heading into the back.