The Tenami village sat amidst a canyon of snow-blasted rock, surrounded by tower-like spikes of ice which seemed to scrape away at the murky blue sky itself. Small, windswept huts of black stone were dotted about the clearing, battered by a hailstorm of howling winds as they stood like graves amidst a field of crisp white earth. The Norsaki clansmen moved about in small huddled groups, clutching fur cloaks tightly around their bodies as they went about their days.

The Chapel of the Moon Childe was built away from the rest of the camp, in a small patch of icy white gravel. The Chapel itself was an extravagant blend of polished marble and gold, woven together into a great tower which lorded over the rest of the camp. An ornate onion dome stood at its peak, sitting atop a massive drum-like pillar. The whole building was drenched in magical charms, keeping it free from the terrible wrath of the snowy weather which raged about the camp.

Nothing but a light humming of snow and wind made its way through the walls of the Chapel, creating a heavenly melody of northern divinity which hung lightly in the air.

Moriyah Jaelith Tenami, Moon Childe of the Tenami clan, sat at the heart of the Chapel, her legs spread out across the warm stone floor, a braid of dark red hair woven over one shoulder. She had milk pale skin, and a large frame which went beyond simply chubby.

A lean figure, dressed in cumbersome fur robes, came striding into the chapel, a slender object bound in flaky hide clutched beneath his arm.

“Daughter of light,” he called out to her by way of greeting “it is done.”

A knife-like hint of a smile crept across her plump lips. “Bring it to me.”

The figure walked solemnly over to the Moon Childe, before kneeling down before her and placing the parcel at her feet.

“It is said to be the Machine Priest’s finest work yet.” he boasted proudly.

She unwove the bandaging with delicate hands, revealing a slick blade of polished black metal, bewitched to a complexion so dark that it seemed to drain the colour out of the air around it.

The Moon Childe took the blade in her left hand, slowly rising to her feet, her enormous stomach visibly wobbling and jiggling as it was left exposed by her ceremonial robes.

She gave the sword a quick flourish with a swift flick of her wrist, and it let out a sharp hiss of mechanical splendour and alchemical ingenuity.

“Bring me an offering to test it on.” The Moon Childe commanded in a voice like thick honey.



A loud splash pulled her suddenly from her dream.

Jaelith awoke with a dull groan, all bound up in her covers as the ship rocked back and forth. Her fiery red hair was sprawled out across the pillow in a mess of knots and tangles, and thick black bags bulged under her puffy eyes.

After much tossing and turning, she begrudgingly climbed out of bed, her flabby form shaking as she hit the floor.

She squeezed herself into a high neck, bright crimson cutout dress, which was short in length in anticipation of the hot weather, before fixing her tangled tresses with a bottle of hair solution. Deep purple makeup was applied to hide her tiredness, and simple white boots were slid onto her broad feet.

When Jaelith finally emerged from below deck, more than a little cranky from lack of sleep, she was greeted by the sight of several figures mucking about by the ship’s railings.

“It’s not like I wanted to sleep or anything…” she grumbled to herself, placing one hand on her ample hip in an almighty display of pure sass.

Ibuki, Cole and Amber, who had just managed to get back on the deck all looked at Jaelith as she emerged from below deck. The two men were currently confined in the bodies of two brothers and their widden eyes suddenly served to remind everyone of the fact. In contrast, Amber's face blossomed in a cheerful grin and she hopped down from the rail and went to the other woman, grabbing her hands and attempting to spin her around.

“Jaelith!!! I haven't seen you in aaaaaages, you look nice! I was just about to jump back in, care to join me?”

Cole's eyes became even bigger as the image that forcefully entered his mind: the huge woman plunging with a splash and creating a wave big enough to topple the ship over. “I don't think it's a good id—” He started but was quickly silenced by an elbow to the ribs. Ibuki glared at him, obviously having more regard for his own life (or unlife) than Cole.

“I have a counter-offer.” Ibuki started with a dangerously level voice. “You mentioned we woke you up. I suggest we go punish the real culprit for the whole commotion.” Amber looked at him amazed. A smirk twitched on his lips and if he had his glasses on right now, surely he'd be pushing them up the bridge of his nose right now.

“Gosh. You are a world class traitor.” She marvelled. Then turned to Jaelith, the huge grin returning to her face. “So what's it gonna be? Water or revenge?”

“I suggest you just try to go back to sleep.” Cole spoke in a quiet voice that wasn't acknowledged by anyone.





Ludelle couldn't help but twitch as the man accused her of murder, and so confidently. Of course, she had blood on her hands but who didn't? And then he struck again, calling her out on the lie. She knew she shouldn't take it personally but something about this man was very disconcerting. For a moment she froze, thinking that they had found her out, put one of their own in prison just to give her a bit of hope for escape before crushing it mercilessly. Only then she realised he was speaking in general. As his monotone voice continued she willed her shoulders to relax, hoping he'd been too distracted by his own thoughts to realise she'd held her breath for a second. For once, she was happy that he couldn't see her face. Most of what he said was cryptic but one thing she understood well.

“The Blade? The Stygian Blade? You're connected to them? What do you mean they've cost you everything?” There was interest in her words but there was also weariness. The more they seemed alike, the harder it was to believe he was telling the truth and that the whole thing wasn't staged.

As Megelis suddenly snatched his hand back. “Damn. I’m so sorry I am needed elsewhere. Sentinel appears to have a message for me. Megelis skirted Peredur making apologies as he crossed towards sentinel.

“Christian has sent a new recruit to plan for a new mission.” Megelis skimmed over the brief eyes darkening as he read it flicking across the lines of text Sentinel displayed. “Wait..do we really have..” Megelis frowned “Okay, okay. We’ll do it Christian’s way.” With that Megelis crossed to one of the open rooms on the edge of the practice field and began to clean his blades.

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Adéla hummed idly as she plummeted towards solid ground at lethal speeds, the vacuum tube lift pulling the steel container’s squishy organic occupant down to her certain doom.

With a gut wrenching lurch, the elevator stopped, and the doors dinged open merrily.

Staggering from the elevator, Adéla threw a dirty look back at it before setting off with purpose across the training fields. She knew Megelis was here somewhere, but where exactly proved to be a bit harder to pinpoint.

Megelis sat with the microcomponents of his nanoblade open and a pair of magnification goggles on as he tuned them, the balance was feeling weird in the left blade and it was probably due to a replacement batch of the nanites in the blade. Tweaking around the control components he tested the balance with his foot which the blade was balanced on as he sat cross legged on one of the tables meant for cleaning firearms.

Adéla walked up behind the man, watching him work for a moment before piping up, “Have you considered using compatibility drivers? Seems you’re using two different models of nanites and the drivers might not work on the other one, since you seem to be having some difficulty with them.” She walked around to the front, “Christian tells me I’m to work with you on a plan of action for Southgate?”

Megelis looked up at her and pushed the lens off his face. “Yes I have actually, however I prefer to use the the two different models since one of them is for defense and the other is for offense. The nanites are coded differently so I use two sets of drivers for the two different models. The nanites in this blade are more durable than the other set.” Megelis closed the panel on the blade and sheathed it before standing up. “What are we doing again and why does it involve the highest security prison in Angel’s Landing.” He held out his hand “What did you say your name was?”

“Adéla.” She replied smoothly, “I’m surprised you’ve not already been notified. We’re going to be staging a prison break, there’s an ex-Stygian Blade member there who we’d like to not be there. I was told to come and see you for planning. I already have a plan but I’m curious on your input.”

She paused momentarily before eyeing the blades, “Judging by the canisters though the cutting nanites are still of two different models and would likely require the proper drivers to work optimally. It’s usually best to use general-purpose models for a defensive and offensive blade.”

Megelis smiled at her and slid the blades into their sheathes on either hip. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing. You can’t get these nanites on the market.” Megelis stood up. “Sentinel, download mission briefs for the Master of Blade.” Megelis’ eyes flicked through the air as Sentinel sent the briefs to his contacts. “Well I’ll be damned. Okay so where do you want to start with this? I’m assuming you know something about this hacker? or does that even matter? I mean I don’t mind running a blind snatch prison break.” Megelis looked back to Adéla.

“I know her, yeah.” Adéla leaned against the table, “And yes, I do have a plan. It involves explosives, extendable bridges, and heavy firepower. I contemplated a more stealthy approach, but it raises the issue of actually getting her out stealthily as well, which wouldn’t exactly be easy.”

Sparing a moment to look over the nanites, she smirked, “Guess there are benefits to being a high ranking officer in a powerful mercenary group.”

“Anyway,” she continued without a beat, “the plan is pretty simple. One team stages a diversion on the other side of the prison, splits up, and sends in a smaller group to act like the ‘main’ rescue party. They’ll be ‘beaten back’ and the main diversion will continue while the other team goes over the trench and blitzkriegs their way up to the holding cells, extends the bridge and cuts through the bars, then back out in a bounding overwatch to ensure nobody pops out and gets Ludelle.” She shrugged, “It’s the product of a few minutes of planning, so it’s not going to be perfect. You have anything to add to things?”

Megelis looked at her for a long moment. “Okay. How do you plan on dealing with the small army of security that Southgate employs? Their tech is really nasty and the whole damn building is an anti magic zone so unless you are an avatar we will have to match tech with tech. That or carry in our own magic.

Adéla interrupted him, “I’m about as magical as dirt. Everything I do is with good old technology. Also, did you not hear the diversionary tactics? The goal is to draw the main force away and blitzkrieg the remainder with a fast moving heavily armed strike team. We’re not launching an all out assault, just a single stab with a bunch of fancy motions on the other side to make it seem like we are.”

Megelis tapped his swords as he stood. “It could work. We’ll need to set the magic users outside and direct the tech and carried magic users to the inside.” Megelis tapped the air and Sentinel deployed a hard light keyboard. “Have you taken a look at the personnel list yet? The Knights have pretty few personnel right now, which is actually the greatest limitation to us at the moment.”

“I glossed.” Adéla replied, “We don’t exactly have many good non-magic users suitable for a blitzkrieg it’d seem.” She paused, “I suppose there’s Otto… whatever his last name is, Justin something, Vitalis I suppose? Though she’d be better utilized as long range precision fire support...” She looked over at Megelis, “You have any recommendations?”

Megelis pursed his lips, “Crow. And Marielle. They are user mages. They won’t need to rely on outside magic in order to help out. That and Crow is just generally frightening. Never seen a djinn fae child before but it’s as frightening as it sounds. Oh and I think we might be able to make use of Theros, the Gæians likes his melee combat.” Looking back he shrugged “You got an exit strategy for the building?”

Adéla shrugged, “More explosions? I was actually wondering if you had something to offer there. I haven’t quite thought out that bit.”

Megelis looked up as though he were staring through the floor of the tower. “Well. I mean. We could always ask Raven to borrow her ship and just go back out through the top of the prison. It would through the guards for a loop since we’d enter through the bottom of the tower and then ascend once we have the target. The other thing to keep in mind is that we need to make sure the op isn't traceable to the tower.

Adéla looked quizzically at him, “Sorry, Raven?” She paused, “I’ve not been here particularly long and for that time I’ve more or less been stuck in a room, so I don’t really know anybody.”

Megelis chuckled. “You know how Christian is kinda scary with the whole lightning and storm magic stuff?” Megelis smiled. “Raven is the woman who shares his bed. And don’t worry you aren’t missing out. None of us has ever met Raven before, she left before the tower was ever built. Christian won’t say why but she arrived yesterday. And she has an airship”

Adéla’s eyes went wide, “Alllriiight then. Maybe you can ask her. I’ll just be busy hiding over here, no big deal.”

She cleared her throat, “But in all honesty an airship is kind of conspicuous and an easy target. This is supposed to be a lightning raid, in and out as fast as an a politician in an embarrassing situation. Blitzkrieg our way up, and then blitzkrieg our way out. Not to mention fighting to the top would be nearly impossible, and we’d be fighting uphill. I suggest we go out the way we came and have an armored car waiting and a dummy to draw their attention, presumably by shooting a lot.”

Adéla didn’t speak for another few moments as she considered the second part of his question, “As to how we’d keep it from being traced to the Tower, one we use me, and I’m supposed to be dead. Two, no insignia whatsoever, all black, nothing identifying. Three, we don’t head straight back to the Tower, have a safehouse nearby to rendezvous and hunker down for a few days, or even a week, then sneak our way there under cover of darkness and throwing another diversion, feint an attack on the prison and leave a “corpse” there with SB markings. In addition, we’ll not only free Ludelle, but some other prisoners too so it won’t look as targeted.”

Megelis shook his head. “Angel’s Landing law enforcement.” He snapped his fingers “Sentinel, what is the average response time.” Sentinel produced a list in the air “Average response time to assaults on government buildings is 5.4 minutes. Megelis turned back to her. “No way are we going back out the way we came in. We’d be wading back into a hail of fire coming back out through our breach. Besides The Blackwing has gunboats. Their fast as hell and pretty darn stealthy. We just make it to the roof and it grabs us on the way out.” Megelis had sentinel pull the schematics. “They seat twenty, we can modify them to make them faster if we need to. As for fighting up hill. if we take out a warden and get his key we can extend the bridges our self and avoid the guards.”

Adéla gave his suggestion a few minutes of consideration before she replied. “First off, that would’ve been nice to know.” She paused, “But that is a good plan, yes, I’m used to working with the bare minimum so you’ll have to forgive me if I forget all these options. Twenty should be more than enough though, will you be okay leading the diversionary team? I know Ludelle personally, and I think that’ll be helpful in getting her to agree to come with us.”

Megelis grinned “You got it, but I think Shard might have something up his sleeve. If I know him Ludelle know’s we’re coming. The Lord of Storms might seem absent minded but he really did earn his place at the top.” Megelis started to walk and gestured for her to follow. “How many people do you want with you? I’d say it’s probably a good idea for you to take Croweater. The bastard is strong as hell for his wiry frame but I’ve seen him pull so scary stuff inside antimagic fields. Stuff even I didn’t know was possible. That and he’s frightening as death itself, probably why Shard keeps him in the basement.” Turning Megelis started heading towards the Armory. “Who else do you think you want on your team?”

Calder moved confidently out into the training fields. Seeing the great open space available to him, he checked his immediate surroundings, to be sure he wouldn’t paste anyone, and pulled his mace out of a pocket and began to dance. What else could you call it? As graceful as any queen, as forceful as any maelstrom, and as precise as any surgeon, he moved through his paces with an eerily quiet speed and confidence. Only the mace could be heard as it wove through the air around him with apparent ease despite the near constant complaint of the disturbed air it passed through. Calder continued for a few minutes, before finishing it all off as suddenly as he’d started, and slipped his mace back into a pocket. The tide was roaring now, as it met the shore with thunder, foam and rainbows. Calder was getting to like the Tower of Stars more and more as he explored it. He turned back to the others and grinned, revealing rows of sharp, white teeth, that paled in significance when you caught the glint of sinister delight in his eyes.

Megelis crossed back across the field with Adèla in tow approaching the group. “Well, Okay I think that solves the personnel problem. At Least for you.” Looking from the group to Adèla, Megelis gestured “These were the three I had in mind. I’m sure you can find your way to the armory from here. I need to go acquire some new recruits for my own end of this plan.” With that Megelis turned and headed back towards the tower. Maybe he could find a few in the mess hall to flesh out the ranks.

Crow watched as Megelis left. “Soooo. What are we doing and who are you?”

“I’m not sure where the ‘Lady’ part came from, but I am Revenant, long story.” Adèla replied, “But I do have a plan in mind, of sorts. I’m a fighter, not an operator, so if anybody has the subterfuge skills to just get in there with no shooting whatsoever, speak now, otherwise we’re exploiting security flaws and there’ll be shooting, and fighting, and all that good stuff.”

“Seems like fun, Marielle and I will be on a clock though since we will only have so much magic to work with assuming we’re operating in an anti magic zone.” Crow folded his arms and yawned as he peered up at the sun. “Must have worked through the night again.”

“We’ll talk on that in a little, then.” Adèla looked to the rest of the group, “For the record I’m roughly as magical as rocks, so any magic you have or need help with you’re going to need to explain in terms for the ignorant savage. If there’s nothing else, I can tell you the skeleton of the plan, and anyone who thinks they could help is welcome to pitch in.”

Calder spoke up, his voice hissing like waves over shoals or on a gravel beach. “I have some skill at infiltration, though most of my skill is in traveling through the nevernever and then making a surprise entry to this realm. I do not know if that will work here or not, but it could provide us an advantageous entry and extraction point. My magic is wild, I will have little enough to add besides my strength, speed, and cunning, which are not lacking in any manner. That said, unless the tower has equipment on loan, I have only my mace and shield with which to aid this endeavor. Most of my tools used prior to today were on loan from my benefactor.”

Thinking for a moment he considered the requirements that he was aware of, and asked a question regarding the nature of the plans to retrieve the prisoner. “Are we going to get in by posing as Blades bringing in a new prisoner? If so, since I have no capacity to do anything about threats outside my reach anyway, I think I should be the ‘prisoner’ being interned.” I set my focus on Adèla taking her measure and liking the quality and strength of character she displayed in her demeanor and stance.

Suddenly a young, loud voice cut through all other noises in the room. If eyesight wandered among the group they’d catch Marielle, propping herself against a wall as an artificial grimace laced with her lips. She was picking her teeth with a kunai knife. “I say we just blow the fucker up with an RPG, grab the bitch, then make like a baby and get the fuck out.” She huffed out in between clenched teeth. “Need I remind you bitches I have a flying car that can crash the party?” Marielle stopped self-cleaning and started twirling the knife around her fingers. “As for you tankface, Raven might have some supplies for a naked fighter such as yourself, unless you plan on using your ass to sit on people for a lethal weapon.” Marielle’s eyes wandered to Adèla’s face, then her outfit. “Dude what’s up with that getup? It looks like you’re ready to smash a sorry-ass’s face in.” She paused. “I want one.”

“You haven’t even seen the actual armor and you think this is face smashing gear?” Adèla smirked, cocking her head to the side, “This is just the suit that goes under it. You haven’t seen anything yet.” She sized the newcomer up, “I have to admit though, while blowing the hell out of the prison would satisfy my inner pyromaniac, and my plan does involve plenty of explosives, the walls of the prison are reinforced concrete with ceramic and homogenous steel ablative layers. An RPG won’t do shit. Now, a shaped charge of several hundred kilograms of ANFO…” She smiled devilishly, “The best part is that it has excellent soundproofing and I know how to cut their central security system routing. We’ll blow a hole in their wall, walk through, and due to their brilliant design choices only a small part of the prison will know about it. They’ll easily be dealt with.” She patted the hand cannon hanging at her hip, “Apparently, we get access to the armory.”

“Ahh, yes… Now I see what they meant, about mortals being hopelessly graceless. Though it has less to do with grace, and more to do with gentleness and tact. Still, your plan will work, so I have no objections.”

Adèla raised an eyebrow at Calder, “I think the proper word you’re looking for is happily graceless. And of course the plan will work, I helped design the damn prison specifically so I could break myself out if I needed.”

Marielle snorted. “Or badass….ily… graceless”

“Not my words mortal, but I see your point. Do we lack anything? Or can we begin this little bit of chaos?”

Suddenly the black haired girl fixed her posture and stepped closer to the center of the group. With the flick of her wrist a card suddenly appeared at her fingertips, replacing the kunai. It shone like oil and had two words etched onto it, along with a symbol to match.

The Star

“If we need it I can always use this little beauty. Always helps me find my car keys.” Marielle winked. “So it can most definitely find who we’re looking for, let’s say, if the power goes out. or we can’t rely on tech.”

“It is a pity that your pretty cards can’t fetch the lost item, or this would be much simpler. Does it at least tell us how to get to the lost object or person? That’s something I keep forgetting to ask about actually, who are we fetching and are we taking anything for them to use on the way out?”

Adèla rolled her eyes at Calder before fixing a glare on Marielle, “What do you mean, can’t rely on tech?” She huffed, muttering under her breath, “Magic users.”

Marielle shrugged. “I love machines as much as the next cool girl but hey, I need my damn car keys ASAP when I’ve got shit to do.” Marielle’s glance glided over to Calder before she shrugged again, this time more dramatically. “I have no fucking clue, whoever she is she’s my hero.” She inhaled sharply before grinning. “Saving me from the curse of not being violent.”

“I see you have yet to learn the value of patience, like most youths.” I laugh, the sound not unlike a rolling boil. I dismiss my jibe as Adèla speaks up, hoping to avoid an interruption from Marielle.

Adèla piped up, “Her name is Ludelle Glowren. Genius hacker, not exactly a frontline fighter. I imagine we’ll be doing our best to keep her out of the line of fire instead of handing her a rifle.”

“Is hacking her only skill then? And everyone should be able to fight, so if she has anything that could be used in a fight, we should provide her with whatever she may need to do so. I suggest taking a durable computer, since she’s a hacker. She may need to access something electronically on our way out.”

“Shaped charges are universal hacking devices. Besides, when I cut the security it’ll take them at least an hour to get the systems in that sector up and running again, and that’s without live gunfire digging chunks out of the walls.” Adèla looked over at Calder, “Again, she’s not exactly a frontline fighter from what I remember. She’s also a good pilot.”

Marielle stretched a little, taking all the information in before frowning. “I have tons of space in my hat,” She fumbled with the magician’s cap floating snugly behind her, pulling it out in front of her with one hand. “So, whatever you decide to bring for her I’ll carry it. That way you guys aren’t tripping over yourselves like a bunch of clumsy teenage girls with too many books.” With that she flicked the cap in the air and it danced around in a spin, defying gravity like a balloon before it slowly lead itself back to her shoulder blades like a shy magnet.

“You’re going to burn through your magic like crazy if you pull that crap inside the prison.” Crow kept his arms folded. “This is going to end badly if you plan on relying on magic to do anything in that prison. It’s going to be spotty at best and since you’re human you don’t have anything else to draw on. I advise you acquire heavy armor and do your best to not use magic. Otherwise you’ll get shot and then you’ll end up in my morgue and then you have no idea what I might do to you.

Crow’s face didn’t give away any hint that he was joking.
Marielle shook her head. “Keep your pants on, the storage in my hat barely uses any magic at all, besides, I have armor.” with that Marielle lifted up one of her boots, the bottom containing a compacted metal appearance. “My skateboard here will cover me up and save my ass.” Marielle roughly kicked out in front of Crow’s face, the metal suddenly jolting and transfixing into half of a metal rectangular surface everyone could only assume was part of the machine she mentioned.

Calder was dubious of the factuality of a skateboard covering Marielle up, but it was her board and her life, so it’d probably do well enough. He did still want to take some kind of computer for their target, he’d probably need extra batteries too… Calder wouldn’t mind getting his hands on some arms and armor, he’d never had a chance to play with anything so modern. His evaluation of his teammates continued, Marielle was a hot head, who could be trusted to keep the heat on; Crow was hard to read, but his calm morbid manner bode well for him; Adéla seemed a competent soldier in every respect, but her capacity to listen was somewhat lacking for someone in a leadership role. Calder had answered one of Adéla’s questions in the conversation, and received only interjection from Marielle in response. The lack of response bothered him more because it showed a lack experience as a leader than because it was a slight to him personally. These thoughts lurked in the back of Calder’s head while he waited for the group to decide to move to the armory or where ever we were going next. Since the conversation seemed to be more about where, when, and how frequently things would be exploding while they went to extract their target, He turned to Crow to see if he had any suggestions on how to proceed. Calder just hoped this didn’t turn into a hostage situation, since explosions didn’t mix well with those.

“Crow, if magic is of no use, how would you retrieve Ludelle Glowren?”

Adèla sighed, interjecting with an exasperated grumble, “All of you, shush. Look, I have a computer of my own specially reinforced to be about as indestructible as you can make such a device. I’ll take it with me for her to hack things, but the fact of the matter is any combat skills she has are going to be reliant on her own magic, if memory serves, and that’s not going to be of much use whilst in the damping field. Her main skill in this sense will be hacking, but that’ll almost certainly take more time and be less expedient than simply cutting through the door - their security is top notch, 65536 bit encryption, intrusion detection, the whole shebang and they’ve almost certainly upgraded it since. I’m happy to restate my actual plan for entry sans magical assistance if someone needs. Now, let’s avoid falling into a big pissing contest again, are there any more questions?”

Crow raised his hand. “Are we going to go to the armory?” He stood there with a bored look before he calmly shoved Marielle’s foot out of his face.

Is this amatuer hour or what? Shard is actually going to get me killed. No brains all tits is going to burn more magic than a match in a room full of gas, the Troll doesn’t know a channel item when he sees it and Knights actually come in a non magical flavor still? I would have thought we stopped taking people who didn’t at least have potential but here we are.

Crow gestured. “It’s that way, loud mouth is gonna need a helmet or someone might damage her most dangerous asset.” Crow pointedly ignored Calder’s question.

Calder decided to take a hint and shut up, no one wanted his input right now. He could live with that, he was effectively the most junior knight present, despite having a few centuries on most of them. He waited patiently while the others decided what was next on today’s agenda.

Adèla looked over at him, “You had a question I remember? What was it again? Sorry, but things kind of got… out of hand. It was something to do with disguise?” She then glared at the rest of the team, “You all can have your pissing contest after the op, got it? Right now, take your attitudes and shove them where the sun don’t shine. You’ll have plenty of time to sling insults later.”

Calder was quite surprised that she even remembered that there had been a question, which had come so much earlier in the conversation. It had been more or less answered by now, but since she’d remembered its existence he decided to reiterate it for her further consideration. I had asked if we were going to pose as Stygian Blades bringing in new prisoner to the prison, it seemed a quiet and simple insertion method to get us past at least the first line of defense. From there we could progress further into the prison and collect our charge and then bang out if necessary.

“Ah! An interesting plan, but unfortunately not something that will work for the entire plan, however it would serve very well as a Trojan horse of sorts, I can provide you with a tool to slap on one of the security apparati that will short the connection to the central hub, they won’t even know anything’s wrong until they get a report in person. Again, I designed it that way in case I needed to spring myself. And unless they’ve completely overhauled the security system, it’ll still be like that. And I know for a fact that they haven’t, since they never thought to deactivate my security key.” Adèla grinned maliciously, “A good enough plan for you?”

Crow raised an eyebrow ridge She’s ex stygian blade, that explains so much. He’d spaced out early on in the conversation since this was going to be a giant mess and he was still mulling over an autopsy from earlier. Why are we doing this? Shard could have sent Ralrisk and this would have been over before anyone knew the prisoner was missing. “So I get that you have security access and all that crap but why are we being sent? The Mistress of Shadow could get in and out easy with a single person. Are we rescuing more than one person?” Crow was officially suspicious of this whole operation. It smacked of a smoke screen.

Adèla shrugged helplessly, “All I was told was I needed to break out the prisoner they transferred there recently. That’s all I know. I’m also wondering why we don’t just send in a stealthier person instead of a strike team.”

Crow’s eyes narrow. “We’re bait. This is a cover for something else entirely. That smug bastard. I bet he really does want to rescue her but I bet while we have the entire city breathing down our necks he’s got something else planned.” Crow rolled his eyes. “Come on, I want to test out some of the toys in the armory and the Troll needs a minigun.” With that Crow stomped towards the armory with Vulture squawking on his shoulder.
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The armory was a gigantic vault around an inner sanctum which housed the Forge. Master of Arms, Master of Steel, and Master of Blade credentials could get you into the outer Armory but only high level clearance or Master of Steel clearance could get you into the Forge. The massive Hardened Adamantite doors hard three separate sets of sliding bolts across the double doors as well as sets of bolts that extended from the structure of the doors themselves into the substance of the tower around the Armory. The actual structure of the armory was made of an entirely different substance that appeared to be a type of granite but anyone attempting to cut through it would be in for a much harder time than expected.

Calder walked through the armory, noticing that the majority of the weapons were made for creatures smaller than himself. There were several made for begins his size, but only one caught his as appealing. A five barreled 20mm mini-gun, with an enormous pack for ammunition, Calder supposed. He picked it up and slipped it into one of his pickets, bag of ammo and all. He’d never bothered to find out how his pants o’ pockets worked, but they did, they always did, so he added this new toy to his kit the same way he usually did, putting it into a pocket. Calder looked around knowing he’d be a large target while using the mini-gun he wanted something that would help mitigate their ability to knock him out of the fight. He finally found a sturdy looking breastplate and helmet. Looking around some more he found a belt-spat that he could wear if things got bad, though he probably wouldn’t bother since it would hinder his access to his pockets. Calder finally moved back to the entrance, where he would wait for the rest of the team, wearing the new breastplate and helmet, but having stuffed the gun and belt-spat into his pockets, which didn’t bulge in the slightest to suggest that anything was in them.

Tapping a wall console crow brought up an inventory. Scrolling through it he selected a few pieces of equipment. “Sentinel, can you bring me the class VI ballistic hybrid armor? I need the mobility, the class V and IV are too bulky.”

Testing the armor Crow turned right and left checking how it allowed him to move. “This one works the class VII doesn’t provide enough protection. Will you bring me the subcompact ballistic weapons?” The wide selection of submachine guns shifted itself in the armory so Crow could go over them. Finally selecting a drum fed short barreled gun which could be fired with one hand. Adding a side sling strap and two extra drums Crow tapped the panel again. This time sentinel brought him a bandolier of antipersonnel shaped charges. Adding this to the collection Crow tapped the panel a final time and added three compact shaped breaching charges.

Marielle followed suit, eyeing crow as he laced on his new gear. With that she flicked her wrist a little, her cap dancing behind her in excitement. The sound of static electricity popped all around them, and there was a distinct scent of sulfur in the air. If one were to look Marielle was now carrying an oily black railgun sniper rifle hybrid with a scope to match. She leaned it up on her shoulder, the barrel aiming for the ceiling.
The gun was surprisingly light, as was most of the newer gun models of Galendar. She swiftly strapped it to her back using a magnetic back shoulder blade piece she also produced from her magician’s cap. Marielle had a small pistol strapped to her hip as well, matching the color of her other gun. It was one of Galendar’s finest for its unique lethal ability to use Marielle’s magic to distort the way the ammunition worked.
Marielle produced the metallic skateboard from her feet and the metal slithered and appeared to melt, covering up her legs and matching the shape of the muscles. Finally the magician’s cap popped a little more and place itself on the top of Marielle’s head, the shape contorting into a black biker’s helmet with transparent orange face shield. Her card armbrace lay neatly snug against her entire upper arm covering the skin in black from the wrist up. She leaned her shoulder against the wall. It’s a shame nobody could see her amused grin. “All set boys, oh, wait.” She frowned. “Does this armory have any small pack belts at all? I need one of them to contain some stuff the Marrowblade woman gave me.”

Adèla walked into the armory, marveling at the myriad martial marvels mounted on the walls and within easy access, she could even modify them. She felt her heartbeat speed up, and licked her lips in anticipation. this would be good.

Rushing over to a worktable she called for her armor from her quarters, starting on modifications to add to it before it had even arrived. Never before had such facilities been available to her, but now that they were…

She selected a servo, wiring it up to a miniature cold fusion generator and armoring the whole assembly in the same plating her armor was made of. Descending into a fury of tinkering, soldering, she didn’t even notice when her armor arrived, taking a whole five minutes to do so before launching into the work with renewed vigor. Attaching the various components to the graphene carapace she would be trusting her life to, she hummed contentedly, pleasantly surprised to see the sheer amount of available materials to work with. She had even managed to wire a cooling system to mask her thermal signature, autorepair functions in case of a serious armor breach, combat drug administration system and biomedical scanners leading to a readout on the helmet, and a dead man’s switch, just in case the worst happened. The reactor wasn’t even close to full power utilization, but her own time was limited and she was forced to stand back after a while, admiring her creation.

Stepping into the armor was like a whole new experience, instead of the armor sitting on her like a weight, it powered on and moved with her, biomedical data flashed on the visor and told her her heart rate, breathing rate, even blood pressure, and could automatically administer drugs accordingly, in addition to clotting agents, painkillers, and various stimulants. Cool air surrounded her as the air conditioning system kicked in. The armor tapped into her cybernetics, allowing her to “feel” problems in addition to diagnosing them from the visor, and as she moved an arm the armor moved with her, servos activating to make moving the heavy plating completely effortless.

Adèla grinned, making a few fighting moves and miming using her sword. The armor responded as smoothly as silk, and the reactor had no troubles whatsoever keeping up. Whether or not it’d hold up to sustained live fire scenarios was uncertain, but she could use the armor without it anyway.

Her thoughts then turned to weaponry, looking around the armory until her gaze alighted on a thing of beauty. A massive gun normally reserved for use mounted on armored vehicles looked ripe for syncing with her armor’s and her own cybernetic aim assistance systems. “Pinnacle Arms, M-315, heavy machine gun, Mars IV Pattern operating mechanism, 500 round capacity.” She grinned, marching towards it, “Better known as ‘fuck yes’.”

She hefted the monstrous contraption, pleased with just how easily she could lift it with the aid of her newly modified armor. To her delighted surprise she found it was already configured for cybernetic linkup and personal use. A few seconds of finagling and a new readout popped up on her visor, detailing current ammunition, weapon temperature, etc.

Grinning, Adèla made her way back to the rest of the group, grabbing a few more ammunition packs on the way. “So,” she said, “shall we?”

The doors of the armory swung open once more and figure took up the doorway. Shard smiled as he looked them over. “Lethal, I like it. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen Knights look like this. About damn time.”

Shard had changed. He no longer wore the olive drab jacket, poet shirt and cargo pants. Instead his body was covered in a set of tight fit scale mail that mimicked the appearance of bronze however that was not the true armor. Over the top of the armor was a sheen of fluid crystal that formed ridges and joints as Shard moved. The armor was a hybridization of magic and technology. The crystal it was composed of was a liquid at room temperature but the nanite swarm that inhabited the armor was capable of holding the liquid to the Shard’s scale mail while cooling it in different areas to solidify it. The crystal was energy nullifying and one of the hardest substances in Galendar. “As much as I’d love to join you I have other things to attend to. However, your ride is waiting. Don’t keep Lady Marrowblade waiting. She’ll get you in close and then her people will get you out when you’re done.

With that he turned and left the armory. “Close the door on your way out.”

Ludelle's vision slowly cleared revealing a very familiar sight. Bare walls, faint light and an abyss beyond. She was confused for a few moments before the memories started trickling back into her mind. The guards... The man? Wasn't she just talking to someone? Someone vague whose face she couldn't quite see but someone who was definitely in the cell next to her....? And wasn't she just leaning on the bars? How did she end up on the bed again? Had she fallen asleep? Or had she finally started seeing things and talking to herself?

The woman sat upright and massaged her forehead. Rising to her feet she went to the bars and peeked into the nearby cell. Nothing. He was either asleep or a figure of her own imagination.

“Hello there.” A sleek voice greeted from behind her, nearly making Ludelle jump out of her skin. She turned and her beak impacted the metal bars, making her brain rattle and her vision shake. As she staggered backwards with an angry hiss she could hear a soft chuckle lingering in the man's throat.

“I'm sorry to startle you.” He said about as sincerely as a bear apologizing to a bee. She managed an angry “what do you want” as her eyes ran over the guard uniform and paused at the machine gun over his shoulder. A lump formed in her throat but if she didn't speak he wouldn't notice.

“I heard you've been a naughty girl.” The guard kept smiling. That smile over a young face looked oddly happy, the sincere kind that made a person's eyes light up. Unlike his words it didn't seem malicious... at least not until he leaned forwards, grabbing the bars and poking his nose through them. “A... very... naughty girl...” He murmured slowly and this time the chill she felt was obvious. It made the feathers covering her head stand up. Was that it? Was this man her final verdict? He didn’t answer.

For a few excruciating moments she stood there, unable to move, her breath catching in her throat. Like a petrified animal caught by the light of oncoming traffic she froze and couldn't do anything but stare. And he stared back. Shamelessly, silently. He relished in the moment quietly as if it were a fragile spell any word could break. Indeed, the sight of the fear she was trying to hold in was sending thrills of pleasure down his spine. It came in waves, lighting his gut on fire. The shiny rubber covering her skin was clinging to her body, revealing every perfect curve and every unconscious shiver. The light reflected off the strips, twisted by her forms and made her that much more beautiful to his gleaming eyes. The inhuman beak barely covering bitten and bloodied lips, the mystery of her face driving him wild.

He was mesmerised, she realised. A sick flame was barely visible in his eyes and his muscles seemed to tense in preparation of… something. She knew that if she was smart enough she could use that excitement against him. Perhaps coax him into the cell and then wrestling over the gun? There was a small chance of her winning but still a chance.

But then his hand slid to the lock and her courage evaporated. As he took a step in, she took a step back… and that continued until her back hit the wall and he hovered over her.

“Don’t be afraid.” He cooed with a voice as soft as a thorny rose. It somehow soothed and scratched her nerves at the same time. Confused she looked up to stared deep in his eyes.. Too bad she wasn’t a fighter. If she was, she would have realised his hand was coming up to her throat at the same time as she was lifting her chin. And when he squeezed, his grip was iron.

She tried to scream but with her crushed larynx that proved impossible. She tried to struggle but the guard smashed her head hard against the bricks and all strength left her. He removed his hand and let her body slide to the ground, vision blurring and world spinning. Then he knelt, grabbed the beak and forced it up with a sharp motion. Ludelle heard her neck snap and then his chilling voice. “Now you swallow.”

What? It took a second to register that his lips were now torturing hers. And they tasted salty and bitter.

Fuelled by the influx of oxygen and panic, Ludelle’s hands came up to push him away and this time he didn’t resist. He stood and calmly walked out on the walkway, locking the door behind him. He was still smiling when he departed.

“Go back to bed, sweetheart. And sweet dreams.”

Calder walked slowly towards the Southgate facility, his head down, he feet plodding slowly, occasionally earning a prod from one of his “captors.” He was the image of a broken being, having apparently lost any desire to fight or retaliate against his captors. Which explained his apparently light bindings, only a set of manacles, that could stun on command, bound around his wrists, holding them together at his waist, in front of him, since his physiology didn’t allow his hands to get close enough to each behind him for the manacles to reach both wrists. He wore only a dirty, grubby set of heavy durable shorts, like what a blacksmith of centuries past might have worn, covered in pockets, but all of them apparently empty. His feet, chest and head are all distinctly bare, his arms are adorned only by the manacles. Calder was very careful to do nothing out of character with his adopted roll, his centuries of living with the fae had taught him to play many roles well, and to switch between them at less than a moment’s notice. He used everything he’d learned to play a convincing role here today, letting the tide carry him as it flowed out into a deep and bitter sea of despondency.

Megelis strolled calmly into the mess hall. This was perfect. The chaos of the normal flow of life here was where the less sketchy and more crazy people showed up. They were his crowd. Leave the weird shit to Crow and the other masters and mistresses. These were his people. Calmly he climbed onto a nearby chair and queued into the mess halls audio. “Hey everyone sorry to interrupt your lovely morning I’m looking for some people to help me out on a job. I need several individuals who are capable of causing a scene and being capable of going undetected right up until causing such a scene. Yes its probably going to be illegal and we’ll probably shoot at some people maybe even get into a sword fight or two. If you’re interested I’ll be out in the hall for the next half hour taking volunteers. That’s all”

With that Megelis stepped down from his chair and walked out into the hallway.
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The repainted Redhawk Strider power armor now bore the insignia of The Stygian Blade as Megelis walked towards the front of the prison. Hefting the high yield rocket launcher to his shoulder Megelis fired it at the front of the prison. They would retract the bridge ofcourse. The rocket hit the front gate and blew it clean open. The rocket wasn’t anything even near normal. It had been packed full of elemental energy straight from the Shard. Megelis was still slightly surprised it had broken the gates.

With that he snapped open the folding stock on his rifle and open fired on the smoke pouring from the main entrance to Southgate. The knights that stepped up next to him and open fired were some of the nastier persons from the Tower. They were ex convicts, hitman and enforcers; the perfect imitation of a Stygian burn team. As he advanced with the line of similarly armed and armored Knights his comm pinged. “What?! I’m busy.” The female voice that came through the comm link was pissed ”The hell?! Shard sends you on a mission I could do on my own? and I get left? You’re such an ass!!” The comm clicked dead and Megelis rolled his eyes. Ralrisk might seem like a mature capable female on the outside but she was barely better than an awkward teenager sometimes.

Two of the Knights stepped forward and tossed out discs that snapped open sending cables across the gap between the street and the outer edge of Southgate prison before unraveling a large metal bridge for them to cross. The next two knights stepped up and held up their arms to project a shield wall for them to cross behind. As Megelis dropped back to check his rifle he was suddenly grabbed from behind.“What the fuck, Megelis?!” Ralrisk stood with a serious pout on her lips as she dropped her cloak and then disengaged the helmet over her face. Turning in anger he opened his mouth to shout and stopped. She was on the brink of tears. It was clear Shard had left her totally out of the loop for some reason. Megelis sighed and put his hand on her shoulder. “Go home ris, we’ll talk when I get back okay?”

The second he said it he knew he’d said the wrong thing and she all but stomped her foot and tears rolled down her face. In a panic he looked over his shoulder at the Knights struggling to cross the bridge. “Ris we can’t do this right now-” Her nostrils flared and she turned to stomp away no doubt going to do something stupid. Megelis panicked. “Ris wait!!” She stopped with her back turned and arms folded the pictures of petulant pissed teenager. “Will you help?” The hmph that she gave was the most ridiculous sound Megelis could imagine hearing in the middle of the firefight they were in. “You know I-” Megelis hit her from behind tackling her to the ground and shielding her from the hail of projectiles the struck his armor and she tucked herself under him. Looking up Megelis could swear she made eye contact through the visor of his helmet as her body heaved from how close she’d come to being destroyed by the hail of bullets. “will you help, Ris?” Ralrisk nodded, still lying on her back underneath him. “Yeah.” With that she re-engaged her cowl and cloak before slipping out from underneath him and vaulting the shield wall and tearing off into the cloud of smoke.

Then the screaming started.

Adèla walked alongside Calder, keeping a steady eye on the hard light projection surrounding her armor. As it was, she looked to be the spitting image of a Stygian heavy, an image she wasn't eager to see fail.

She prodded Calder with an armored boot, grunting menacingly, "Move it, shitbag." She looked over to the other "guard", "Sounds like the diversion's begun, we need to hurry." She whispered urgently. "Faster, pretty boy, move your ass or I'll do it for you."

As they neared the prison, she noticed the guards standing there seemed particularly nervous, evidently unsure of what was going on beyond gunfire. "Hey!" She barked, moving forward, "Prisoner transfer to cell block A, authority level Beta, transfer code BL175KR139." She paused, "Need to get him inside and respond to the disturbance in H wing."

One of them nodded and hit a button to his right, typing in a code and standing back as the door began to grate open. Adèla and Crow walked Calder through the gate, Adèla taking a moment to widen the projection to hide what she was doing as she took two pads and quickly placed them on the wall behind either guard, letting the extended projection drop once the explosives had changed their colors to match the background.

Hurrying through, she broke her stern attitude immediately, whispering to the other two, "You'll know when to start the party." And slipping off.

A pen was slowly twirling in a soft-skinned hand. It would make a rapid spin between long fingers, pause, and then proceed with another. A faint clicking sound escaped the pen as the mechanism inside got displaced with a protest but it fell on deaf ears. Or, more precisely, to ignorant ones.

His eyes were steadied on the screen in front. The light bounced off his features and sank in the darkness behind his chair. Next to him another guard called Karus was stressing over the events they were observing, shouting reports and commands down his phone but the words didn’t reach Sirius. There was a peaceful silence inside his skull that none could penetrate unless invited, and Karus definitely wasn’t.

After all, the events on screen were so deliciously novel. He didn’t remember the last time someone had attempted a raid on Southgate. He doubted anyone did. And what an interesting bunch of characters! On one side, two power-rangers, a lizard and Azog, on the other – another power ranger and his…daughter?… who turned out to be quite badass…. Hmmm… His tongue slipped out to moisten thoughtful lips.

Explosions, commotion, fuss… tempting, yet dangerous too. And while Sirius loved inflicting pain, he wasn’t a big fan of receiving it. He spun in his chair, putting his hands behind his neck in thought. Karus gave him a disapproving glance but didn’t say anything. He’d long learned not to.

Sirius stopped his chair to look at Karus and mouthed “I think you should go” just as the man received an order to join the reinforcements at the west side. Of course, it wasn’t his words that had prompted his partner to rush out of the room, but still, a small victorious smirk crawled on Sirius’ lips. That was better. There are people who value their own company over that of others. Surely, the little bird was the same.

Turning to the monitors again, Sirius touched the screen and enlarged one specific frame, dismissing all others. Ludelle’s frame was hunched over and bend into itself, fingers squeezing her arms, head resting on knees. A slight shiver was starting to take over her body, which meant his device was working. A burning-sweet sensation trickled down his throat as he swallowed. It was similar to drinking alcohol… yet so much better.

His brother always said knowledge matters more than anything. Personally, Sirius always thought force mattered more, but apparently some people sided with Calder. After all, Southgate hosted more than one outstanding criminal yet not many of them could be the target of such an outrageous operation. And even fewer individuals would attempt it. Among them, collecting defectors as if they were shiny stones, only fit Christian Highfell’s MO. And he could have guessed that even if he hadn’t recognised Megelis or his brother.

And of course, given how were all knights, Sirius was honestly rooting for his team to win the match against the guards. It was a bit of a mystery why he hadn’t gotten orders from his boss to get the girl out, but then again, it was quite possible that he’d forgotten to tell Christian about his other job. Would Christian call that treachery? Sirius wouldn’t. He’d just added a time-limit to the whole operation. After all, what’s better than a little race against time…?









I couldn't stop shaking. At first I thought the cold was the natural reaction of my body to the shock it had experienced earlier. Whoever that guard was, I was sure his face would haunt me as soon as I close my eyes to sleep. He would appear like before, out of nowhere and his eyes would become my world – my nightmare.

But he wasn't the scariest thing I'd seen in my life. Not the worst abuser. And my heart soon calmed and my breathing was restored. However, the cold remained. It was running deep like a chilling torrent slowly coating a river in ice. And sadly, I could feel that's exactly what it was doing to me. I couldn't be sure how he'd achieved it but I was sure it was his doing.

The cold was slow to move into my body as if it was the welcoming embrace of a dire lover and not the constricting of a snake. It embraced every inch of me, then sunk its teeth deep within my flesh and let out its venom. At first it only felt unpleasant, made me huddle up and blow on my hands to keep them warm. But of course, that couldn't help. The current didn't stop, didn't slow. With time I felt my strength betray me, even the shaking stopped – a sign of hypothermia, I remembered reading somewhere. And no wonder. I was part metal elemental and metal didn't get along with cold. It made it brittle and weak.

But even worse still... that wasn't all I was. My body was as much living tissue as it was metal molecules and that bastard had figured out an ingenious way of torturing me without even lifting a fucking finger. Somehow he had provided a spark that would set my cells against each other – warm blood versus freezing metal molecules, elven flesh exposed to the indifferent forces of nature. I could feel the small crystals already forming in my very arteries and joints, making me lethargic and giving me grief whenever I moved.

My eyes were stinging as if they were full of glass that fractured everything in front of me like a kaleidoscope. Whatever. I didn't need them now, I knew everything there was to know about this shitty cell. My world... There was an even deeper void beyond it and I could feel a similar void grow inside my chest. I had lost everything – my job, my home, my destiny, even myself and my secrets. And even though I could still feel the rage burning deep within my chest and inflaming my mind with false promises, I knew in my heart that it was all over. They had won and there was no battle left to fight.

I was laying on the bed but I wasn’t asleep. I couldn’t. Not in this maddening darkness that made you wonder if you’re even awake, if you’re alive… Dreams wouldn’t come to me. And I was glad they didn’t. It was a familiar feeling… familiar like the sting of a bee and not like the scent of a favourite person. It was sharp, bitter and unpleasant. It was a haunting of my past. The days when I’d dread going to sleep, uncertain of what would happen while I had my guard down. Uncertain that I’d wake…

I suppose it made sense. It was a pretty similar situation, back then and now. There were two key differences, though. First, I didn’t have the consolation of my stuffed puppy, Ricky. Secondly, back then something bad happening was a matter of chance. Now it was certainty.

I closed my eyes and willed myself to take deep breaths. What did they have in store-- I tried to suffocate the thought by humming a tune. My own voice startled me as it split the silence so I stopped. Deep breaths. The song resumed in my own head, inexistent to the world. I hummed it and listened to it and slowly it started eating up the darkness inside and around me. The pictures came to life in my mind, the people started dancing, the sun broke through..

I smiled. It took me a second to realise it wasn’t just the reality behind my eyelids that had changed.

There was a moment of pausing, the silence clogging the ears of all those eager to break it. Then, there was a pop of vibrations. They were soft, and spilled like sand across the air to my ears. It was my song, repeated back to me.

My eyes shot open. This wasn't right, was it? The singing died in my throat and I strained my ears, convinced that I'd started hallucinating at long last. But no... the tune carried on.. and was it getting louder?



Her suspicions were correct, for just as the beautiful music slipped and licked at her ears, the sound of feathers kissing the wind, and boots clapping on stone harmonized with every beat. The sounds dripped with purple color and taste, filling Ludelle’s senses almost immediately.

Her body was in motion even before she knew what was going on. She jumped to her feet, stumbling backwards and away from the door, the stiffness in her joints barely enough to slow her. This song was way too beautiful, it carried with it sensations she'd never felt before... Only a siren or fae could muster such inhuman splendor... That, or it was Death herself calling her into her embrace. She pressed her back against the wall, crouching slightly as if she even stood a chance.

The song suddenly slipped into words, a small, simple sentence that reverberated across the walls. ”Do not be afraid.”

After a few moments of the sounds echoing against her cell walls, a shadowy figure appeared before her, melting away some of the darkness. It was the silhouette of a bird, wearing an outline like the solar eclipse. The bird slowly slipped into her cell, gliding like a shadow with still outward wings.

Panic? Panic was a good word for it. Ludelle couldn't get any air in her lungs and not to be afraid really sounded more like wishful thinking right now. The new face she was given didn't convey any expression but beneath it the woman felt her eyes well up.

“Not like this. I don't want to die like this...” She whispered.

There was a woman. She crossed her arms in the corner of the cell, leaning against the cool wall. Blonde hair streamed down her face, covering one of her eyes. She looked over at Ludelle with a careful stare, but it wasn’t menacing in the slightest. It was warm.

A few moments of silence followed where nobody spoke. Gradually, the tension seemed to leave Ludelle's body until finally she straightened her back, realising that whatever this apparition was, there was no use resisting. With a beak facing her bare feet, she spoke.

“Why are you here?”

There was a bit of a pause as the woman’s red stare trailed across the floor. “You don’t need to contemplate when your death is going to happen,” She looked up at Ludelle and the corners of her mouth tugged a bit at a smile. “Because it won’t.”

The small smirk was reflected in the other woman's bemused voice. “Ever? Or just not right now?”

The mysterious woman chuckled. “Now, I don’t know about ever, but I can say that the law enforcement isn’t going to touch you. We’re coming to get you, Ludelle.”

The newcomer saying her name sent a shiver down the prisoner's spine but she seemed to have regained some of her confidence. It was a make or break moment, either she was receiving unexpected help or she was falling for a vicious trap. In any case, there was nothing she could do about it, the choice had been made for her.

“Well then...” She said, stepping towards Raven and extending a hand to touch her arm. The suspicion still lingered that she might have managed to fall asleep after all.

Just as soon as she was about to touch it, the silhouette of the woman broke into what seemed to be thousands of pieces of vapor glass. The shards eventually dissolved into the thin air, as if she had never existed. Her voice, however, lingered, and it kissed Ludelle’s ears with it’s sweet liquid sounds. “My name is Raven Marrowblade. I leave my personal companion with you until we arrive. He shall keep you company. Until then, farewell.” Then the sounds faded to nothing once more. The bird that glowed like an eclipse suddenly lost its luminescence, and it hopped over to the imprisoned woman. It was the mixture between a Raven and a Parrot, its feathers a black oil, and its eye red like its master’s.

Ludelle ran a finger over the bird's smooth feathers and a fierce smile blossomed on her face. So there was hope for revenge after all.

The ace of storms sheared through the outer metal door. Leaving a sheen of molten slag covering the ground. Stepping aside, Shard let the woman standing behind him step over the doorway. Her skin swam with liquid metal. Twilight Wardens moved to intercept her. Lashing out with her hands the metal on her skin extended and speared them through the heart as they advanced. Tossing them aside she moved out of the way. The next man through the door caused the temperature in the room to skyrocket. Following him came a another woman with eyes like staring into a shatter fractal.

Shard was grim as he advanced down the hallway. This was not the way it was suppose to be but the Twilight Council had given him no choice. Turning the corner another set of Twilight Wardens advanced with Kinetic shields in place. They were taking no chances; before they could speak the man with boiling skin stepped around Shard and hurled two bolts of plasma down the length of the hallway. The energy ripped through the shields and melted the Wardens.

Forgive me

The next door was blocked by another foe entirely. The woman covered in metal gasped. “Is that a….God Hunter?” Shard nodded in response. The second woman skipped forward and sent a rippled through the air. The seven foot tall grey skinned bald man with black eyes standing at the end of the hall turned but he did so as though he were moving in molasses. The woman with strange eyes snarled “How is it moving so fast?” Shard drew the Heart of Storms and shot the creature through the heart. “They were bred to kill gods. Why do you think?” With that he stepped over the dead God Hunter and sheared through the next door without pause.

The room beyond held a single platform and on it a single occupant. Shard extended his hand and a bridge of crystal formed between the edge of the room and the platform. The man looked up at Shard with clear hazel eyes. A smile spread across the man’s face as he stood and started across the bridge. “Well, well. I didn’t expect you to come looking so soon. Only a hundred years.” Shard folded his arms “I knew you were here the whole time, I just didn’t think releasing you was a great idea.

The Shard unslung the two swords on his back and handed them to the man “I held onto these for you.” The man studied them pushing his lank black hair out of his face. “Aw, the twin dragons how delightful.” With that he unsheathed both of the blades. One of them was a normal bastard sword with two straight edges, its hilt was a stylized dragon with a piece of amber held in its mouth. The second sword was slightly smaller with a single serrated edge and a single normal edge. The whole blade was set with a spine of onyx that ran almost to the tip.

“Oh yes this should be good.” As he said that the alarms went off. “Well, time to test it.”

With that the man strode through the doors and towards the oncoming tide of Twilight Wardens. Ego vox eclipsis He slammed the first sword into the floor and a thousand skeletal hands reached from the floor to grab the Warden’s Timent Umbra et luna sub pedibus With that each of the Wardens was wrenched from the ground and their necks cracked audibly. Ego praeco mortis And with that he lifted his other sword and the souls of the wardens were ripped from their bodies and sucked into the sword.

With that the man strode through the field of corpses. The woman covered in metal stared in awe at the display. “What have you done..” she whispered as Shard folded his arms.

Crow shifted the magic he was drawing on from the air around him to the skull hanging from a strap slung from his right shoulder. The Wyrdshield was going to burn the magic in the Souleater. As Adèla took off and the guard ran for the other sound of destruction coming from the far side of the prison Crow dropped his mask. Looking from Calder to Marielle he moved to a doorway and pushed it open. Son of a bitch. It actually just drops off into nothing. Sure enough the pit of southgate prison yawned in front of Crow as he stared out into the blackness. Looking up the cylinder he grimaced. “This is gonna be a bitch.”

Calder looked in, and noticed the bars were far enough apart to be used as hand and foot holds, and shrugged, he’d be a little heavy for the bars, but then causing chaos was part of the plan, right? Still, if he did that, he’d be unable to defend himself from any guards, and that would be problematic. Still it would be a useful card to keep in reserve, just in case. He grunted in response to Crow’s observation, and waited for one of the floating platforms to arrive. A guard rode the platform over, and waited while Calder was escorted on by Crow and Marielle, before taking the platform to the designated destination.

Marielle was surprisingly silent, save for some erratic breathing patterns. Past the illusion of her guard uniform Marielle was actually sweating a little. Everyone’s heads must be swarming with ideas, thoughts, and possibly fears, but if one were to peek into the folds of her mind they would find nothing but an empty void. She stepped slightly ahead of Crow and Calder, face expressionless. If they were to observe her thoroughly, however, they would see a slight twitch in the muscles on her arms and head every now and then…

Adèla jogged to the nearest mainframe access point, casting a quick glance down the hallway to make sure she was alone before slipping a small memory stick from a compartment in her armor and slotting it into the unsecured node. Well, it wasn’t unsecured per se, but the security was so lax even she with her minimal hacking skills was able to bypass the halfhearted encryption. Anyone trying to do this remotely would find a Herculean task, from within the walls of the prison itself? Security might as well have not been there.

Her custom written worm immediately slipped into the system undetected, depositing its rootkit in every single node it came across and rapidly seizing control. Within three minutes, the entire computer network of Southgate Prison was under her control, and with her hard coded and encrypted access key? Nobody was any the wiser.

Fingers flying like lightning, she redirected all four guard patrols heading to Cell Block A over to the “Disturbance” in H Wing, hopefully the addition of an extra twenty heavily armed goons wouldn’t mess things up too much. She wasted no time in locking down the sector and transferring all local control to the keycard she had embedded in her gauntlet and wiping the logs of any traces that she had been in the system, purging the worm and its rootkit with a few keystrokes, but not before sending a simple audio message over the cell block intercom, everyone could hear it as she cooed into the microphone, “Calder, it’s so dull here, and those manacles look rather uncomfortable. Be a dear and help me liven things up?” She terminated the connection, finishing the system wipe as she stood back from the console with the world’s largest shit eating grin. “Time to party.” She chuckled to herself, triggering a wireless signal to the two charges she’d planted behind the guards, tapping into the camera feed just in time to see their bodies sent flying from the force of the explosions. Of course, every other security camera had been disabled, Cell Block A would be an inaccessible blind spot. She whistled a merry tune as she jogged back to the group, HMG at the ready.

The guard wasn’t given a chance to react, Calder spun neatly and planted a foot in the small of the guard’s back, sending him flying forward over the rail, and then tumbling down into excercise pit. Continuing the spin, Calder popped the gimmicked shackles and threw them after the guard, in case the fall wasn’t enough to silence him. Then he pulled out the mini-gun he’d been given for the mission, and cleared an approaching platform of its guards with a couple seconds of sustained fire. He looked to Marielle, and nodded toward the controls. “You think you can get us where we need to be? I’m pretty sure I can handle covering our backs, if you and Crow can watch our front and top.” He moved to the back of the platform, and knelt on one knee, bracing the mini-gun against his waist, parallel to the platform. His eyes swept the cells looking for their target and wandering guards, mostly the latter though. He relied on Marielle and Crow to get them to the proper cell on time.

Crow looked up the shaft. “I see another group. Hold on”

With a lunge Crow hurtled into empty space arms spread out and he began to plummet before he burst into a mass of black feathers and angry caws. The swirling murder of crows with metal claws and red cybernetic eyes ascended the shaft in the beat of a hundreds of wings bearing death. The platform above held a few guards. As the mass of Crows approached they opened fire. The murder slammed into them and flung them from the platform. The last remaining guard pinned to the wall cowering as Crow reformed, grabbed the guard by the throat and flung him from the platform to plummet to his death. “Clear.”

The prisoners had begun to cry out for release promising help, death and other ravings. That was until He appeared. One of the Warden’s of Southgate prison descended on one of the platforms. Only this one was independent of the wall of the prison it simply floated in air. ”Stand down intruders and you will be granted a fair trial. Resist and I will use lethal force.”

Adèla emerged from a corridor nearby, coming to an almost screeching halt as one of the Wardens of the prison emerged. That was… not part of the plan.

She spared a half second to glance at the security readout, no breaches, he’d been in the cell block the whole time. She gulped, unsure of if he’d seen her yet. Nonetheless she tightened her grip on her weapon, gently flicking the safety off and lining up the visor’s crosshairs with the Warden’s neck.

She narrowed her eyes, judging by the voice, this was the guy who’d made nothing but innuendos while she was working on the construction of the prison…

She gritted her teeth and opened fire, the thunderous roar and shockwaves of the heavy machine gun slammed into her like a brick wall as it thundered, sending at least fifty of the anti-material projectiles at the armored figure. “I reserve the right to remain silent, but I’m not gonna!” She shouted over the roar of the weapon, and repeating herself after the burst was over, broadcasting it on her suit’s voice amplification system, before adding, “Summary execution isn’t due process.”

The repulsor field around the Warden shimmed from the impact of the projectiles. Turning on its platform it seemed to look down at Adèla. “You have been warned.” It tossed a handful of orbs into the air which took flight around the Warden. Before they open fired with energy based beam weapons searing the area in which Adèla was standing with high precision particle beams. Clapping its hands together and drawing them apart slowly arcs of green lightning leapt back and forth across its gauntlets before it thrust the hands forward sending an arch of green lightning towards Calder and Marielle. Before turning and firing a net made of hardlight energy at Crow.

Calder turned at the sound of the warden’s voice, and considered it carefully. It looked heavy, and powerful. This was going to take more time than Calder wanted to spend here… So he burned a little magic from his vanguards to capture, amplify, and redirect the lightning bolt right back at the Warden. That wasn’t a trick Calder could afford to repeat often, as he’d need those reserves later he was sure. He raised his mini gun and began hurling 20 mm HEI at the platform, hoping to destroy it, or at least damage it enough to compromise the warden’s footing. Calder fired in bursts of eight to ten rounds trying to spread the damage as evenly as possible across the platform.

The warden pulled its platform up to block the lightning and then the rounds from the gun as it sprung through the air to the other side of the cell block. Another platform launched from the wall and the warden landed on it. Moving above the old platform as it crumbled in air the warden fired a canister into the hallway, it hissed as it released a neurotoxin which would induce paralysis. Give up, you can not win. This is my realm. Criminal.

Crow cut through the strands of hardlight with his Talons. This was turning into a real shit storm, the Wardens were gods within these walls. Not only that but they were almost completely magic independent. The best technology was what went into that warden’s armor and ontop of that if they did end the antimagic field. It would just free the Warden to channel the power of Exandra which would make this even more nasty. Walking to the edge of his platform Crow tucked his submachine gun against his shoulder and open fire raining metal on the Warden.

Marielle stepped in front of the line of fire, the liquid metal around her legs splitting and snapping along her back and chest to catch a few of the scattered bullets before she shot an arm up. The girl turned her cheek slightly to Calder and Crow so they could see a dark grin lift half of her face. Her delayed reaction to the fight was disconcerting. She pointed with her outstretched arm to the door behind them. It was now open. As Marielle turned back to the Warden her eyes started to fog with orange, like smoke in a glass ball hitting the sunset. Any normal human being would run in fear, or stop moving due to shock, but Marielle was…
different.

She was batshit crazy.

She cracked her neck quickly and bent her knees a little, holding her fists up. The crazy woman’s eyes glowed like the sun, and her sharp smile grew even wider much to everyone’s discomfort.

“Come at me motherfucker.”

Calder was moderately annoyed with Marielle’s decision to waste some of his ammunition, but was pleasantly surprised by the distinct lack of explosions going off in his face. He shifted his focus to the canister, and pulled a tad more energy from his vanguards to encrust the nozzles with Ice, since it was just the nozzles it took very little energy, but a lot of focus, leaving him unable to act or react properly until the canister was dealt with. He glanced around taking stock of the situation as the canister fell harmlessly past him and Marielle into the abyss.

As you wish The Warden cycled to a different function on his gauntlet. It loaded an incendiary grenade into the mechanism that had housed the hardlight net and fired it into the corridor where Caldur and Marielle were standing. The impending firestorm caused the Warden to shield his eyes even though he had a tint on his visor. How is that for Coming at you motherfucker Turning to look up towards Crow he held out his right hand and projected a magnetic shield in front of him. Halting the hail of bullets to spin in air in front of him. Be gone. The hail of bullets returned with full force on Crow’s platform. Tearing it to shreds as Crow hurled himself out of the way. Turning its arm the Warden began speaking. I’ve neutralized invaders in one of the cell blocks. Send reinforcements to clean up the mess

Adèla shook her thoughts clear as she looked up, then a searing pain smashed into her, almost knocking her to the ground as her arms buckled. She looking down, recoiling in shock as she saw blood, and, a couple meters from where she lay, a leg. Lying in a gleaming pool of blood on the shiny floor of the prison. A leg covered in a distinct matte grey material, with very familiar servos and additions made to it.

Her leg.

A strangled gurgle died in her throat as she stared at the limb, then down at the stump that used to be connected to it, just above the knee. She frantically scrambled over to the dismembered appendage, hoarsely whispering to the armor, “Initi… In…” she fell forward, faceplanting just in front of the limb, before dragging herself forward again. Grabbing a hold of the severed leg she jammed it against the bleeding stump, coughing into the microphone, “Initiate autorepair functions. Activate autonomous suit functions for right leg.” She gritted her teeth, letting the suit’s nanites swarm over the armor plating and servo wires - they couldn’t save the leg, and she’d be getting a new addition to her cyberware, but for the meantime the suit itself could operate using signals from her cranial cybernetics.

A small timer popped up on her visor, letting her know she had approximately 30 seconds before she’d be useful again. She sighed, and then bit back a screech as another wave of agony smashed into her. Choking out another command to the armor, she looked around for her weapon even as her amputated leg shrieked pain signals at her mind, pleased to see it at least had survived the carnage.

As five separate pinpricks jabbed into her body in various places, she felt her pupils dilate as the world seemed to slow down and colors became saturated. Pain wasn’t an issue anymore, and everything seemed to move in slow motion, except herself. She wasn’t wounded anymore, she was just angry, and high, high as a goddamn satellite.

She grabbed her weapon, the suit’s servos doing an admirable job of replacing her leg as she jumped upright, barking several orders to the suit and entering a few commands to the software of the prison.

Local access override for all substations: Accepted…
Local access override for all regular personnel: Accepted...
Local access override exception for MASTKEY9001889y328yqr4287h09fwe9y… : Accepted...
Local access override for all local users: Denied, Auth. Code KEYWARDEN01

Adèla swore, glaring up ahead the hallway at the ongoing battle. Of course she wouldn’t be able to override the Warden’s control, she had specifically exempted them from her own control - prison was suspicious enough of her ability to access everything, giving herself control over even the Wardens would’ve landed her a stint in a cell of her own.

She rushed ahead, while she couldn’t deny the Warden control over the facilities, she was on a similar level as him, and she called down a second lift right on top of him at top speed as she unleashed another thundering burst at him, screaming over the suit’s loudspeakers to distract him from the massive piece of metal plummeting down towards him, “Jdi do pekla, ty hovno stravování posera zmrde!” (Translation: Go to hell, you coward shit eating motherfucker!)

The flames roared when the grenade spat out it’s destruction, covering part of the hallway with the fire. There was a long pause, then a loud laugh contorted purely of madness gurgled out from underneath the hot gases tongues. ”Oh you’ve done it now dumbass.” The sound of boots crunching ash echoed in the hall before the Warden’s target appeared, unscathed and re equipped into her magician clothing. Her smile was wide and her eyebrows curved down, furrowing into a dark face to match her ominous orange eyes. In her hand was two cards. One was a king of spades, the other: a ten of spades. She quickly jammed them into the thin gauntlet molded into her arm, then the fire bended to her will, compressing the gas to make it more concentrated. She thrusted her fists into the flames, gathering their will, before sending the blast back at the Warden with ten times its original combustion.

Calder was getting a tad annoyed with this warden, but aside from Adèla, no one had been injured yet, so Calder really couldn’t complain much. The grenade did little more than warm his scales, before Marielle redirected the blast. Taking this bastard from a distance wasn’t working, time to get up close and personal, right after that second platform connected that is. The mini gun vanished into a pocket again, and Calder leaped to one side, grabbing hold of the bars of a cell one level higher than he’d been, long enough to push off towards the other side of hallway, rising another level as he went. He was level with the Warden now, but he lept higher still, avoiding the descending platform, and pausing only long enough to see if the platform would connect with the Warden. If it did, Calder would jump down on top of it, if the Warden moved or moved the platform, he’d just jump the Warden.

Holding up its hands the Warden’s shields flared to light and overloaded, the outside of the armor crisping from the blast of fire that had consumed it. Shaking its head it looked up to see Calder hurtling through the air towards it.

The Warden moved backwards. Not to avoid the platform but to avoid Calder. It turned its particle beams on Calder and fired as it charged another burst of electricity between its hands. Before lunging forwards to grab Calder and deliver a massive jolt of electricity to the troll as it heaved Calder trying to lift the troll above its head preparing to hurl Calder down the pit. Die beast

Adèla’s eyes widened as, not only had her attempts failed, but the Warden grabbed Calder and prepared to throw him down to certain death.

She wasn’t having any of that.

A quick command rerouted all suit power to the legs, and she dropped the bulky machine gun, pulling out her nanoblade as she sprinted with all her might, vision darkening as she stared down at the figure who’d cost her her leg, who was about to throw to his death someone she couldn’t call a friend yet but definitely liked, who was getting in the way of her rescue of someone she certainly did consider a friend.

A growl built in the back of her throat, a bestial, inhuman one that grew into a full blown roar of rage as she sprinted towards the gap, the inhuman sound still emanating from her lungs as she lept over the gap, swinging the blade she’d seen cut straight through solid tungsten at the Warden’s neck with all her strength, enough of her consciousness remaining to reroute power to her arms for maximum strength.

Marielle threw her scearing arms down and sprinted at the warden, her smile instantly melting to pure focus and determination at the scene. Her eyes flicked over to Adèla, absorbing everything going on as she shouted at the girl. ”Distract the ugly bastard, ! I got Tankface!” This was going to use quite a bit of magical energy, a small price to pay for the troll’s life. She gritted her teeth and inhaled an ear-ripping sharp breath. “CALDER! Give me your hand!!” It wasn’t long before she was just mere feet away from him, extending her bare arm with an open palm. A purple mist oozed from her body, her skin slightly tinting a pink from the energy. ”NOW!”

Calder laughed as the beams tore through his unprotected arms and legs, though most hit and were ablated by his breastplate. A familiar spell, sipped energy from his vanguards as it healed the wounds acquired in his charge. This was his signature, and even a fall from the platform would be little more than an inconvenience for the troll. Calder lunged forward as the warden reached for him, checking the warden as the grasping hand found his armored back, and discharged into a natural capacitor. Calder really liked whoever had made this breastplate, they had an eye for the unexpected it seemed. Calder’s helmeted head rushed towards the warden’s visored face with the force of a hydraulic ram, but landed only a glancing blow as the warden lifted Calder over his head. That was quite a surprise to Calder, as he was even heavier than he looked, like most trolls. Hearing Marielle’s shout, Calder, kicked down at the warden shoulders, twisting around to reach her hand with his own. Catching her hand a tad roughly, but firmly, in a cool scaly grip, Calder pulls her up over the edge of the platform, incase he has to let go quickly.

Marielle inhaled as the Warden attempted to grab Calder before she suddenly bounced Calder so she held him up by his back above herself. Before he knew it Marielle was carrying him with two arms on his back as she bounced up, jumping just out of the Warden’s grip. “AH SHIT!!” Marielle growled. “You’re so heavy what the fuck!!” Her muscles strained as an example. “Adèla you might wanna finish being badass and get to the wall, It’s coming!!!” Her gritted teeth curved into part of a grin. Her face turned up to the troll whose belly was facing the ceiling. “Try not to puke on me,” Her grin was hardly convincing from the beads of sweat beginning to form at her forehead.

The Warden snarled as Calder was snatched from his grasp. Turning he lined up his gauntlet and prepared to turn Marielle and Calder to ash with the direct energy weapon in his gauntlet. As he did so the Warden turned his back on Adèla leaving the neck join in his armor totally exposed as he tracked the escaping pair of Marielle and Calder preparing a lethal shot on both of them.

Adèla snarled viciously as she cleared the gap, the targeting systems in her armor locking on to the exposed neck of the Warden as she channeled every scrap of power the reactor could generate into the blow. She brought the blade down on the back of his neck, smashing the weapon savagely into the armor as she herself crashed into him, the full weight of her and her armor smashing into the back of the Warden, pushing him towards the pit.

The Warden’s severed head plummeted in one direction while the rest of his body was flung into space plummeting into the depths of the pit beneath the cylinder. And with that there was silence as Crow descended from platform to platform.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crow peered down at the fight. As Adèla launched herself at the Warden, Crow knew the fight was over. Turning to look up the cylinder Crow took flight again in his Murder form, ascending the cylinder, searching for the prisoner they were here for. Something caught his attention….It stank of Raven. He’d caught her ancient and powerful scent lingering on Marielle, and here it was again. Turning his hundreds of eyes he descended on the cell. With that he reformed himself gripping the bars and peering into the cell. “Hey, rise and shine.”

The prisoner was already up, her muscles tense and ready for the breakout. She had heard the commotion and it had lit a fire in her soul that managed to overcome even the petrifying cold. As the bizarre man appeared at the bars Ludelle glanced at the bird the mysterious woman had left her with, its calm confirming that this was an ally and not a foe. “I don’t know about shine, but at least I can rise… and probably follow.” The woman grinned, her teeth flashing under the beak. “Is there a white horse somewhere around by any chance? And a spare key.” The nervous chuckle was covering the increasing pain the cold was causing her... but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered right now except getting out of here as soon as possible. She didn’t even care who her allies were and why they wanted her. She just wanted out.

Crow eyed her. “White horse? No. Key? No.” With that he simply slashed through the bars with his talons. Tearing them out and hurling them into space. “Are you the only one we’re taking out of here?” Peering back down the shaft he frowned. “This is going to suck, my magic is running low.” Turning back he looked her up and down, “Are you intact or do you need me to make accommodations?”

Ludelle’s eyes widened as the man slashed the bars and she took a startled step back. Pain shot through her ankle but it held and she remained upright. Fixing her posture and stepping forward she gripped one of the damaged bars and peered down the abyss below. “Intact. But I can’t fly.” She informed him bitterly. “My magic’s running low” sounded pretty grim and she hoped he had a better plan than making her run and dodge incoming bullets along the way.

Crow stepped into the room and picked Ludelle up like she was a child and walked back to the bars taking a look down. “Hold on, I don’t think I can transform us both safely so we’re going to have to do something different.” With that he spoke in the language of the dead and drew the spirits from his skull wrapping them around Ludelle and himself before he jumped into open space.

The fall was a short one but it terminated on a platform below before he leapt down to the next one. Descending rapidly. “Don’t squirm or I may drop you”

Easier said than done! Her muscles had spasmed on reflex when he’d cast his spell… and then she’d frozen, too scared to even budge when the darkness enveloped them and gravity pulled them down. Just a small hiccup revealed her terror as he jumped and secretly she was hoping she’d faint sooner rather than later.

“Are you sure this is safe?” She croaked weakly.

“No, it’s not. If my magic gives out we’re paste. It will probably cause the bones in our bodies to shatter, pulp our internal organs and render the two of us a single amalgamous mass for whoever has to clean it up. Assuming we fall all the way down. If we don’t the impact of a platform will probably kill us just due to impact.”

Crow looked down at her. “I wouldn’t advise thinking about it as you appear to be less than stable currently. Instead you may wish to consider your life leading up to this point and focus on the good things. I’m lead to believe it takes the edge off of a fear of impending death.” Crow leapt again

Out of everything he said, (none of which was calming in the least) it was the last thing that struck a nerve. It felt like a cold blade aimed straight at her heart exactly because she had so much unfinished business. Her fingers curled around his top and dug deep within, the anger, humiliation and hurt all exploding into a fit of insane rage. Her grip was strong enough to snap one of those iron bars and she felt like punching him for no good reason.

“You better make sure we survive.” She growled, her voice completely changed.

Crow looked down at her. “I said don’t squirm” His next leap carried them out into open space as he fell he let go of her waist and his left arm wrapped around her like a vice as he dug the talons on his right hand into the stone of the wall as he slid down it. leaving Ludelle to dangle in the air over the pit clinging to him before his fall jerked to an abrupt halt and he dropped onto the edge of the entrance to the cell block. “There, we survived. Next time try not to make such a fuss, it may cause us to die. And that would be highly unfortunate.” Crow’s face contorted into a grimace as he face shimmered and shifted for a second it was that of an Elder Sidhe, heart achingly beautiful with a touch of gorgeous madness around the edges. “It’s high time to go” he growled as he set her down on the edge.

The world swam and swung violently on their way down and when he let her go, Ludelle had to grab the wall to steady herself. Now that she was out of the cell her impeded vision was becoming more of a problem and seeing Crow’s face… in both its versions… was confusing at best.

“Have they transformed you too?” She asked while scanning the vicinity and trying to piece together what she was seeing. Everything seemed as if she was looking at it through a fractured window and she really hoped the effects weren’t permanent. Rubbing her eyes, Ludelle looked back at Crow. “I need a weapon.”

Crow extended his left hand and a blade extended from the flat piece of metal strapped to the inside of his wrist. Resting in his open was a flat blade. “Take it. And try not to hurt yourself.” Crow looked at her. “You gonna be alright?”

Noting the question he ignored, but grateful for the weapon, she took the blade and gripped it tight. “Now I will be. Thank you.” At least now she had a fighting chance.

“Done murdering things?” Crow yelled out into the cylinder towards the rest of the group. “We got what we came for, time to get the hell out of here before the Angel’s Landing Peacekeepers show up.”

Calder was done, he’d noted Marielle’s complaint and found time to reverse the situation, with him holding her, since that was far less taxing on both their reserves. He looked back at the fight, to see that Adèla had finished the warden. He’d made his way over to Adèla again and set Marielle down, as Crow descended with their charge. That simplified things a great deal. Calder reached over and placed a massive hand over Adèla’s severed leg, and burned through most of his remaining magic to heal it completely. It cost him more to heal others, but she’d taken out the biggest threat around, so he wasn’t worried about it. They’d all soon be outside again, and he’d be able to work his magic properly again. With that done, Calder leaped over to the entrance hall’s landing and took point, pulling his shield out, to cover his large frame, and those behind him, as he stepped through the doorway, noting the two conspicuously absent guards and the blast marks on the walls behind their posts. He grinned as the tide came rushing back into him, as he took up a position next to the open door so the others could come out, while he watched for their getaway vehicle and incoming peacekeepers.

Right behind Crow there was a skittering noise, only to have Raven’s companion hop towards everyone. It’s mysterious eyes oozed with purple mist, and it cocked its head to the side. gracefully it parted open its beak and let out a soft dissonance of sounds, like wind chimes. Like a shifting shadow it swept up onto Ludelle’s shoulder, brushing its feathery face into her neck in a nuzzle. A soft aftertaste of Raven’s voice slipped into Ludelle’s mind. ”You’re in good hands now, dear.”

Meanwhile Mareille grinned like a madwoman while brushing off the dust on her body. “Alright ladies and gents, prepare for a beautiful vehicle-gasm because in about--” she looked down at her gauntlet. “--ten seconds, you’ll be kissing my ass.” Marielle paused at that. “In the good way, of course.” She glanced over at the entirety of the group. “So, any of you fuckers know how to drive, or will I need to be two-timing the shit I had prepared for us?”

Adèla nodded gratefully to Calder. “Thanks for that, I’m rather attached to my leg, and I’d like to keep the relationship physical.” She looked over to Marielle, “Depends, what are we talking here? I can learn to drive almost anything in about a millisecond, so I’d reckon so.”

She looked over to Ludelle, eyes widening behind her visor as she saw the… significant differences in her appearance to prior. “Good to see you’re alive, though… the hell happened to you?” Immediately she regretted saying it, but she’d been taken off guard.

Crow slowly rubbed his temples as though the noise was annoying him. “Let’s just get the hell out of here before anymore fun happens that we weren’t expecting.” The whispering from the skull was back and it was slowly getting louder; an effect of draining its magic in such a taxing manner. The spirit's in it were becoming more agitated causing the headache and the beginning of a fowl mood.

Ludelle wasn’t quite sure how to react to the crazy woman in the revealing outfit, nor to the giant lizard that literally reattached somebody’s leg so she chose to ignore them. Everything was getting quite overwhelming and the woman could feel her brain shutting down. Fatigue was dulling her senses and her capacity to think or feel seemed to be rapidly decreasing. Who were those people? What did they want from her? Surely, their help didn’t come for free.

But right now she couldn’t care. Ludelle petted Raven’s bird and absently stared at the woman who addressed her in an oddly familiar matter. The voice sounded familiar but the armour didn’t ring a bell and the face was obstructed. A friend? Unlikely, she had no friends. An old acquaintance probably. Ironic, someone she knew but didn’t recognise was complaining about being unable to recognise her.

Part of her wished the masked man would hold her again – she didn’t feel terribly steady on her feet. Her eyelids felt heavy and swollen and it seemed like sleep was going to claim her any minute.

Calder glanced over to the beaked woman shivering near Crow, and couldn’t help but wonder why she was shivering, given that it was rather warm day. He dug into one his pockets… dug a little more... He hadn’t used this since he’d added it to his pocket several centuries ago… There it was, He pulled out a large cloak, enchanted to keep a body comfortably warm no matter the weather. He draped the cloak, made to fit his own massive frame, over the shivering woman. It wasn’t exactly ideal, but it would have to do. He inquired after the woman’s health next, since he was the closest thing to a healer the group had. If she died of illness on the way, this whole trip would be wasted. “Are you sick? Do you need medical attention?” He studied at her face very carefully, she seemed human except for the beak and skin, typical fae work probably… He wondered if he could undo that change himself, but wouldn’t know without a more thorough investigation, that no one had time for here.

Ludelle’s eyes snapped up at the troll and she blinked before speaking.

“Um… Thank you.” She muttered, huddling into the cloak (where did that come from?) and glanced around the group, uncertain if this is the right time for this. True, she was feeling very fatigued and hardly had the desire to move at all, but losing consciousness was surely better than being shot. “I do need some attention. Both my skin and face have been transformed… and I might have been poisoned. I feel unnaturally cold… ” Her teeth chattered slightly when she spoke. “But I think I can make it…? Where are we going anyway?”

Calder didn’t like the thought of having to deal with a poisoned prisoner, and the cloak should have helped with the cold… he gently touched her forehead, felt the cold there and recognized the spell that was causing it. He slipped a thumb between her chattering teeth and was not disappointed to find the second part of the spell embedded in her bloodstream. Who ever had done this was clever, like a fae, but Calder had literally grown up with fae, so it was expected. He took a few moments to review the spell and was pleased to find he wouldn’t have to skin the woman to break it. He carefully undid a small part of the spell and it slowly unraveled itself releasing the excess energy as warmth.

There, with the cooling spell gone the cloak should get her temperature under control and back to normal soon… He scanned her body carefully with magic, and found nothing else amiss, only her altered skin. Calder removed his hand, gently as he answered her questions. “Think nothing of it, You shouldn’t be cold much longer, but your skin will take more time and dedicated study to fix than I can spare now. I’ll see to it once we’re clear of the conflict. We’re going to return the bird.” Calder gestured to the bird Ludelle had been stroking and laid a steadying, and hopefully reassuring hand on Ludelle’s shoulder.

The woman almost flinched as Calder touched her forehead and almost recoiled his finger found its way in her mouth but her reflexes were too slow. It seemed to be a recurring pattern she didn’t like. Luckily he was quick to retrieve his hand and surprisingly, as he did, so did the cold too.

It was obviously going to take longer to completely warm up but she could already feel a bit better. A sigh of relief escaped her and her shoulders slouched a bit. “Thank you.” She muttered honestly. “All of you. I don’t know why you’re doing it but thank you.”

Adèla stepped up, putting a hand on her shoulder as her visor cracked its airtight seal and slid up to reveal her face. “I can’t speak for everyone else here, but I’m doing it because there was a friend of mine in a prison I helped design, and that just seemed wrong.”

Ludelle’s heart dropped as she recognised Adela. Oh God…. She thought, her eyes dropping. Whatever. It didn’t matter anymore, she didn’t have the energy to run, even if she had the opportunity. Not to mention the whole arsenal on Adela’s body and all the magic of everyone around. From the frying-pan into the wok…

Adèla’s eyebrows rose as she watched Ludelle. “Hey…” she watched her for a moment, confused at her reaction, “What’s wrong? You have the cloak, so you’re warmer now, Calder just… did whatever you do to fix magical ailments, we just busted you out of a high security prison. In a couple hours you’ll be safe, and we can focus on fucking up the Stygian Blade even more, because fuck those guys.” She frowned, “Do you need to sit down somewhere?” She looked over at the rest of the group, “How long ‘til our ride arrives, again?”

Ludelle threw Adela a guarded glance and nodded. Just how safe she would be was still uncertain, especially with someone from the Blade in such a close proximity.

Crow caught the look one Ludelle’s face and then looked at Adèla. “She’s on the out now. We’re Knights, you’re safe. Promise. If you don’t believe me then I can assure you Shard will convince you.” Straightening Crow blinked his eyes a few times. “It might be prudent to move to the exit. I believe Marielle can provide transportation from there.”

Adèla’s eyebrows rose. “Oh.” She muttered. “Yeah - for the record they fucked me over just as much as you. I took a machine gun burst right to the spine, you’re not going to see me working for them anytime soon. You’re safe, s’why we busted you out.”

Ludelle just nodded and hoped they’d get out of there soon.

It was surprising none of them noticed Marielle’s absence. Suddenly the loud growl of a clean engine thudded. Then, the sound of wheels, spinning and purring firmly on the ground came next. Sooner than anyone knew it, Marielle was back, on top of a unique motorcycle. She revved the engine with a grin plastered onto her face. “Yo bitches! Your savior has arrived!” before she could see any possibly puzzled looks she whistled with her two fingers.
The wall to the side of the alley across from them collapsed. The cause of the destruction blew away the debris for a clear path, revealing a black sports car, unphased. Both machines had glass containing carbon nanofiber. ( Motorcycle ) ( Car )

Marielle pressed a button and the protective glass covering the bike lowered, revealing the girl in her biker helmet. She pressed a button on the side of it, putting her voice through a speaker built into her helmet, the sound loud and crystal clear for everyone to hear. “Adèla, drive Xavier, my car.” The mechanical voice cackled. “Ludelle, you’re riding with me sweetheart. I’m your fastest route to safety. Everyone else…” She snapped her fingers and Xavier suddenly revealed it’s full potential, morphing into a thicker version of the car and extending its length, revealing a multitude of big guns, rockets, and explosives. “Make your enemy wish they went to Hell before meeting you.” There was a back layer to the car containing a spot for Calder in the back and a wide array of the attached weapons.

Crow gave Marielle a look, “Oh, compensating are we?” The ghost of a smile hovered on his lips before he climbed into Xavier and tapped a spot behind his ear. “Settled in, let's get the hell out of here”

Calder helped Ludelle over to the bike, where he made sure the oversized cloak wouldn’t get caught in anything, before moving over and sliding gracefully into the only space big enough for him, and kept an eye on the path behind the car, waiting for the inevitable pursuit to arrive.

With the appearance of the Warden’s from the prison Megelis’ forces had been forced back significantly. Ralrisk crouched behind the shield wall and checked her side arm as the other knights fired from around the wall of interlocking metal. The prison forces had been reinforced by Angel’s Landing peacekeepers and they were closing in around the group of knights. “Well, did you have a plan for getting out of here?” The pout was back. Megelis frowned as he fired off a few rounds. “Yes. Sort of.” Ralrisk snorted and stood up to fire off a few more rounds. She was still in a bad mood from earlier and killing things hadn’t helped.

Bringing up his internal comms devices Megelis broadcast the signal that he had prearranged with their get away. With that he hunkered down to wait. “Why are you so pissed off at me?” Ralrisk turned up her nose as she switched out the feed on her sidearm. Megelis sighed, this was not going well. The peacekeepers decided right then to make their advance. Turning Megelis laid down a heavy spread of fire as they charged. The other Knights moved back from their entrenched position. The street offered little cover, they’d be cut to pieces even with the armor.

Ralrisk put herself behind him using Megelis’ armor to protect her from the hail of gunfire. “Hey, so seriously? We need to go.” The look on her face was showing concern and it tugged at Megelis. “We’re going to be just fine.” It was weird seeing her at all concerned, the woman that Shard could send anywhere to do almost anything look this concerned.

-----------------------------------

The air shimmered above the street and a ship uncloaked just above street level. It was a Corsair armed to the teeth and just as heavily armored. The opening volley from the ship scattered the peacekeepers like rats and sent the Wardens fleeing back to the prison entrance seeking cover.

The whole outside of the ship was the child of the airships of old and the newer sleeker breed of airships. Emblazoned on the side of the ship was the name: Adventure Prize in brilliant red Stygian script. It had been altered to prevent others from connecting the attack to the Tower.

Megelis looked up at the ship and smiled before he began laughing. “Took your damn time didn’t you.” With that he grabbed Ralrisk put his head down and began running full tilt towards the ship. A series of lines were deployed from the ship as the Knights ran for the shadow of the ship on the ground and grabbed the lines.

“What the hell was all Ralrisk could manage as she looked up at the ship. Is that Nemesis?” Ralrisk looked at Megelis with confusion. He simply nodded “Yeah, it is. We changed the name so that it wouldn’t be immediately apparent. Ralrisk frowned “But, that means Ulric has returned? I thought Shard expelled him from the tower when he stole Nemesis?” Megelis chuckled “You mean ‘The Shard’s Revenge’ “ Ralrisk rolled her eyes “That’s such a stupid nickname, but that still doesn’t answer my question why is Ulric back?” Megelis shrugged. “Shard sent Eve to find him a week ago.”

Megelis missed the sudden flare or Ralrisk’s nostrils at the name Eve. “Well whatever.” She folded her arms as Megelis held her against his armor. Her sudden cold silence warning Megelis off of any further discussion.

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The man standing at the helm grinned a rictus grin through skin rendered taught and slick as though he had recently climbed out of a shower or bath. The air around the man was thick with an oppressive humidity. Eve hated standing anywhere near Ulric Felhammer, the man was disgusting and uncaring. Why did Shard send me to find this freak, I didn’t even know he was still alive, but I guess that is what happens when you give a lich back its phylactery. Eve slipped down to the deck before descending to the hull where the Knights had embarked.

Coming down the stairs Eve’s face lit up at the sight of the Redhawk armor. Leaping from the stairs with a squeal of delight she unfurled her wings and swept the distance between the two of them. Ralrisk had to hop out of the way as Eve smacked into Megelis, still in his armor. She wrapped her arms part of the way around the armor. “I didn’t even know we were coming to get you!! Oh my gosh thank goodness you’re safe.”

Ralrisk curled her lip in irritation as she backed out of the way. “I’m going to go get cleaned up.” Megelis disengaged his helmet. “Ralrisk wait-” but the woman was gone up the stairs towards the cabins.

Eve gave Megelis a concerned look. “What is wrong with her? She looks pissed? Did something happen?” Megelis just shook his head. “I have no idea what is wrong with her.”

Cleric 17, known to everyone here as Harn, entered his room and unloaded his satchel. He placed the various potions in the potion cabinet above his desk and placed the five glowing purple crystals he had gathered from the enemies of his last mission onto the desk. He then knelt before the Shrine of Xerin opposite his bed and thanked her for his safe return. After he was finished praying he got up and moved over to his bed, sitting down and trying to meditate on the events of the day.

He had been sent to a town that was under constant threat by the local group of bandits. Thanks to a retired military officer that lived there the townsfolk had the training to repel the occasional group of bandits, but a week ago five golems had attacked them. Guns weren't effective enough against them, so the town was quickly overrun by bandits. One of the city's guards had managed to make it to Angel's Landing and hired the Order to come to the city's aid. Unfortunately for him, though, he didn't have much money, which made it difficult to get recruits. Eventually the guard had managed to get together a few low-ranked members and they had helped him and the other escaped guards free the town.

It would have been a fairly standard mission, but after taking down the first golem, a combination of freezing it with an ice arrow and blowing pieces of of it with a fire arrow, he saw a faint glow from a crack it's chest. He had reached inside of it and pulled out one of the purple glowing crystals that he placed on his desk. He recognized them as soul crystals, used by necromancers to store the souls of the dead and animate corpses, but using them to animate golems was pretty rare. He didn't know how it was done, but he did know that one of bandits must be a necromancer, or at least be studying to be one.

He needed to do more research on it. He stood up and, taking the five crystals with him and leaving behind all of his equipment, he walked towards the library. He would have to research this. Maybe someone there would know more about it.

The pages of the book turned slowly as Lazarus ran practiced hands over them. It was just another story. Something to be consumed at leisure and moved on with. It had been an age since he’d read a proper book, let alone a work of fiction. As the pages turned he slimed at the antics of a witless detective and his clearly more capable female counterpart. Amusing to say the least but in the end the crime always got solved and the man took the credit while the female stood to the side. Something to be said about the way some people viewed the world.

The man’s feet were propped up on the table in the center of the library as he moved with an insatiable appetite through the collection of books on the table. Their words filling a stomach left empty for too many years. Dragonsire and Dragonheir leaned against the table where they were within easy reach. The swords hadn’t left his side since Shard had freed him and he doubted they would any time soon. The other tools of his trade had been returned to him in short order. Umbra was hooked to his belt and the soulstones had been replaced in the necromancer’s girdle. High time too they were crumbling from use and lack of care when he’d finally reclaimed his raiments from the Vault. Ah well, things were going better now. Even if he wasn’t entirely sure why Shard had freed him. Something caught his attention, a ripple. A memory half forgotten. Looking up he closed his eyes and extended his senses. Was that…? No. It couldn’t be. Why would she be here?

Lazarus thoughts were interrupted by the door to the library opening and then something wholly new held his attention as Harn entered. Well I’ll be damned twice. They do exist

Blood was humming in Hazumi's ears, an enticing rhythm that urged her on, urged her forwards. The battle was in full swing, cries of pain and victory getting caught in the wind like tattered clothing and tossed in all directions, the smell of blood and magic making the night air dense and hard to swallow. At noon, when the sun was high up and her sight was at its best, she had counted the Stygians: just under a hundred thousand men and women that seemed to have no notion of hunger or fatigue. Hazumi, Isabelle, and some twenty thousand warriors were Angel’s Landing’s last line of defence, the last collection of souls that could prevent the massacre that would ensue if the Stygian army breached the walls.

Blood was pumping, pushing her forwards, blood was wafting, luring her in. Standing on top of the hill overlooking a patch of the battlefield her hand slowly rose, palm down… and so did the life of a hundred living and dying right in front of her. The energy, the essence held within their mortal flesh left their body like the shimmering mist of morning and rose at her gesture, the bodies previously twitching now collapsing utterly motionless. The gentle scent of souls overwhelmed the stench of the blood, reminiscent of the sweet aroma of araliya petals and fresh rain. A bitter taste filled Hazumi’s mouth but she just narrowed her eyes slightly. The essence of the deceased came to her, warm and fresh. Tenderly, Hazumi knelt and buried the energy, keeping her hand on the soil to help it reach deep down and take root. It had been a trap set long ago, it had been the reason why she had been routed to the last line of defence instead of leading an offence. She was the final ace. Or rather, her abilities. Hidden until that point, not even the men and women from Angel’s Landing who gave their lives today, knew what the purpose of the trap was. If they did, then less of them would volunteer their essence for the creation of the golem. Now that a kilometer of the battlefield was eradicated, Hazumi held the essence of at least two hundred people in her hand and slowly fed it to her creation.

The battle was lost to the woman’s senses as she worked on creating new life but that didn’t mean time had stopped around her. Something sharp whipped her shoulder and brought her out of the daze, almost ruining the spell. As her eyes snapped to the side to see what had hit her, she caught a movement in front of her, followed by a sharp noise and splinters exploding in her face. It took her a moment to realise the tail of her armour had lashed out like a snake to interject an arrow aimed straight at Hazumi’s chest. Looking out she spotted an archer in the distance, reaching for another arrow.

“Don’t count on that again.” Ibuki’s voice came from behind. “Work faster.”

Hazumi nodded slightly and kept her eyes forward, hoping to finish the spell in time to evade the next attack. On her left someone shouted and opened fire, trying to buy her some time. It was difficult to work on the golem, to knit everything together and cut the clay just right for it to be both fast and mobile, and to keep an eye on the battle at the same time. Luckily Ibuki had predicted that and suggested she put his soul into her armour so he could keep an eye on her while she was distracted. She had to thank him later, apparently the dragon tail wasn’t such a ridiculous idea after all.

At last the golem was ready to rise, a colossal monster still hidden beneath the unassuming guise of a hill. But the souls weren’t that many and it wouldn’t last all night before its energy burnt out. Still, it was their last resort and as such it had to do maximum damage for as long as it lasted. So another investment was in order – this time an illusion. A simple one that may quickly be broken, but an effective one as well. It was transparency. As the golem broke through his egg and emerged, the Stygians in the distance would be none the wiser. All they would hear was a rumble, all they would feel would be the vibrations under their feet. Then – death, quick and swift. Even if a mage was among them, capable of exposing the giant, she was sure it would do enough damage within the first minutes of it entering the battlefield. Countless would fall… and then their bodies would become one with the golem who would keep them alive and screaming for long enough for everyone on the west side of the city to hear. The rest was up to the mages and warriors. She was needed elsewhere.

Without waiting to see the havoc and terror her creation would cause, Hazumi spread the huge leathery wings of her armour and took off. It had taken weeks to learn how to ride the wind and panic still stiffened her joints as soon as her feet left the ground, but she had quickly learned that falling didn’t kill her… and she had no choice. Things on the southern line were dire.

Hazumi flew as fast as she could, sweeping over the fires and flashes of magic at a speed that made her eyes water and her skin-sting. A fireball caught one of her wings and singed her left cheek, sending her plummeting to the ground. With an effort she managed to twist enough to steer herself in the direction she wanted before the ground surged at her. She more crashed than landed on the wooden construction, dislodging one of the elements that two soldiers hurried to catch and put back in place. Shaken, she looked up to a world that was no longer spinning and examined the damage to herself. Luckily the armour had protected her from the fall. Her left cheek was starting to tingle but she knew the pain would soon subside. This was more important. Panting, she stood and swept her hand over the battlefield, catching as much essence as she could to power the wooden golem. The soldiers looked cautiously at her as she brought the wood to life, a puppet they had worked on for two weeks before today. It was twice the size of the other golem, a loose collection of planks, logs and furniture collected from the nearby sheds and cattle-shacks, bolted together or just lodged into each other. Unlike the other golem, it was also not meant to be stable, nor durable. On the contrary, this one was meant to break down easily. It was merely a means to an end.

The wood was dry and brittle and it was soaked in whatever precious fuel Angel’s landing could spare. It was reasonable to assume that the Sygians could communicate across the battlefield just as well as Angel’s landing’s telepaths and so the strategy had to be different. As this golem was struck, it would splinter and shatter, embedding itself into the foe and into the ground. The soldiers were instructed to retreat as soon as they heard the creak of forest before the birth of a storm and they knew what to look for – a ripple in the night... their own reflection. This golem would be protected by a mirror spell, just as simple as the other one, but confusing in a different manner. And when it was all reduced to splinters and dead wood once again… that’s when the fire mages would rain Armageddon down the entire battlefield.

Hazumi released her hold on the golem and watched it rise. Her own face stared back at her, dirty and ugly. On her cheek a red burn had blossomed like a bloody rose, leaking blood and fat down her neck and the pain was slowly creeping in but Hazumi’s features were twisted for another reason. It’s the eyes that bothered her, the cold merciless eyes that showed no remorse for the hundreds they’d just killed. Murderer.

The golem creaked as it walked off slowly, marching over the fallen in search for fresh prey. Hazumi took her eyes off her own face and looked at the only two people who remained alive in front of her. The two soldiers looked back, one with fear, the other with disgust. She should kill one of them and take his essence to heal herself. After what they’d seen, one would refuse to fight and the other would resent her forever. The pain from the burn was now so intense she couldn’t keep her left eye open but when she closed it, the skin stretched causing yet more pain. What is one more death on the scene of a massacre?

Yet she would endure. Turning her back to the men, Hazumi took her position behind one of the stone walls, remnants of the wars past. From there she would keep the golems going and hope to get to the essence of the dead before the necromancers... and get enough to keep both the golems and herself alive until the battle was won.

…

Akime’s eyes slowly drifted to the chest in the corner of her cabin. In front of it, the armour was laid out that had saved her life multiple times during that battle. It was the exquisite work of a blacksmith long passed, a man called Urcis Kareendis. How many centuries has it been since she’d last worn it? She couldn’t remember yet she still kept it, as if it might be needed again. The dragon leather was dry but not cracked despite having lost its shine ages ago but it. The plates of every piece of amour were worn and laced with scratches, but the wings and breastplate were the worst to wear. Both bore deep dents and slashes where blades had managed to tear through the layers of tantalum and lead and reach skin.

The woman smiled. The breastplate was so scratched it looked like inox, yet on the other pieces you could still see vaguely see your reflection, albeit cut through and altered. She had stopped polishing the armour long ago but she had the strong suspicion Ibuki or Amber were still doing it.

Tearing her gaze off the armour, Akime looked over to the Tower, both with her eyes and with her other sight. A smile cracked her lips as she noticed all the newcomers. Suddenly she couldn’t wait to get off the ship and meet them all... especially one.

Soon enough everything was aboard a vehicle of some sort. As the last person climbed into the car (if that was even an appropriate name for it) a hand reached for the door, holding it open from the outside.

“Oopsie!” A cheerful voice exclaimed, “You almost forgot someone.” His prison-guard uniform was immediately obvious, and seconds later, so was his face as he peered in. “Christian wouldn’t be happy if you forgot to bring back all of his faithful servants.” His lips peeled off into a grin, revealing two rows of crooked and yellow teeth. The man’s eyes seemed red and watery as they slid over the passengers, soon halting on Calder. “Hello, brother.”

“Forgot nothing!” Calder, sent a blast of lightening towards his brother, more to get Sirius away from the door than anything else. “Get your own ride!” Calder slams the door shut in his brother’s face, or on it if he was still standing there like a fool. Calder … seethed in the back of the car, waiting for Adéla to get us moving. He kept his eyes on his brother waiting for him to try something so he could make it blow up in his face.

Sirius had to be quick to duck out of the way of the lightning but he’d learned early on that speed was of the essence when dealing with reptiles of any kind. He let the door slam shut in his face but didn’t step away. Admittedly, he was slightly surprised at Calder’s reaction. He’d expected something a bit more… well, at least a sour crook to his mouth. Perhaps an immediate offence was a more satisfying display of shock? The guard pouted slightly. Perhaps popping up wherever Calder currently worked was losing its novelty. He crossed his arms and stared down at the people inside as if waiting for an invitation.

“I see you quite enjoy the sight of the little bird in all her glory.” He referred to Ludelle, whose transformed skin practically meant she was parading around naked. And Sirius was sure his brother had noticed exactly whose handiwork it was. That, or he was getting sloppy. “You could have just said so.”

Crow looked from Calder to Sirius. “Who the fuck are you?” The sentence was devoid of any emotion even given the swear word. The interruption had given Vulture enough time to return. Crow extended his arm and the graceless bird landed hard on the outstretched arm. The arm in question barely budged a fraction; giving away just how much strength Crow’s Shaitan blood gave him. “If you really do work for the Tower then prove it.”

A blast from the speaker came out of Marielle’s helmet. She was off the bike, strolling over to the chatter. “Can you all stop jerking off so we can go? Ludelle and I have been waiting for you fuckers to start the car so we can get the hell out of there.” Her eyes glance over to Sirius, realizing the disruption in their escape. “The fuck? Who brought the kid with mommy issues?”
She saw a soldier nearby, spotting them. He froze up at the entire party and reached for some kind of signal in his pocket before he was burned to a crisp from a level four fireball. Marielle’s fourth of spades was locked in her gauntlet and she growled with effort as she threw it fast to prevent the team from being discovered. She turned back at him. “Explain yourself fucker. We don’t have time for an orgy of your shit.” Marielle pointed a finger out at Sirius, her black thermal glove tightening with the motion.

Farewell, Gartis. Sirius thought, shooting a last glance at the colleague who would never swap shifts with him again.

He seemed bemused by the hostility but not quite happy. He supposed it’s natural, given the circumstances. With so much testosterone and adrenaline pumping through everyone’s veins they strongly reminded him of a pack of wolves. His eyes took in Crow’s built body and Marielle’s guise with obvious interest. They seemed a bit more than the average run-of-the-mill knights he’d encountered so far.

“Firstly, I wouldn’t mind an orgy but I’d have to agree this isn’t the time. Secondly, I’d love to prove my allegiance to our noble tower but as we have no insignias that I’m aware of, I haven’t been able to get the appropriate tattoo. How about this: you’re all trying to make Southgate think you’re part of the Stygian Blade. Who would know the truth if not one of your own? By the way. ” He pointed at Crow. “I’d watch out for him. He doesn’t seem like a great team-player, letting the cat out of the sack so easily despite all the efforts to get disguised. Is that enough proof?” His smile turned from Marielle to Crow. “Of course, I’d gladly torture or kill someone as further proof but since this kitten already disposed of the quickest way to do so, you might be better off taking me with you and asking questions later. If it does turn out I’m a “spy” or ”traitor” the worst thing that can happen to you is having a little hostage that huge reptile in the backseat would just love to rip apart. It’s win-win for you, unless you fear you can’t handle me.” He chuckled.

Crow didn’t flinch at the remark about being a team player. “The reason I said something is quite simple. Either you are what you say you are or you aren’t. If you are then it hardly matters. If you aren’t then I’ll simply tear out your heart and eat it.” The emotionless delivery hung in the air. While Crow was a rather bland person most of the time, questioning his capability and his competence was always a dangerous thing to do. Afterall, he had the souls of five hundred Gorecrows to prove just how capable he was. “Fine” with that he climbed back into the car. Caring little what the others decided to do with the new comer. If he couldn’t convince them then they would kill him. Simple as that.

“He’s the fucker who turned Ludelle into a rubber duck! He’s also my half brother…. Why aren’t we moving yet? IF he’s actually working for Christian I’ll punch the fucking Stormlord myself!” Calder was in a particularly foul mood, merely at the prospect of having to work with his little half brother again. The first five years had been okay, then the twerp became obsessed, clinically obsessed, with fucking. That had caused some issues, and Calder had been quite happy to throw the unrepentant and highly twisted Sirius to the fae for his delusions. Somehow Sirius had survived and continued to haunt Calder to this day. Not that Calder had yet seen fit to properly attempt to end Sirius, but it was getting more difficult to ignore his petulant interferences.

Adéla started, whipping around in her seat to stare at Sirius. “He what?” She growled, a dangerous edge in her voice, “This fucker did what?” She looked at Calder for a split second and then back at Sirius. Her eye twitched as she sat there, “He did that to her?” She demanded, venom dripping from every word as her hand subconsciously crept towards the hand cannon holstered on her hip.

Marielle suddenly grabbed Sirius, her helmet melting briefly to show her face as she lifted him off the ground, keeping his face close to hers with malicious force. “If you want a challenge then bring it pissoff.” She grinned predatorily. “I’d be sure to give you a decent taste of your own blood. That being said,” slumping him over her thin shoulder she carried him over to her motorcycle, and with her free hand the woman snapped. The motorcycle shifted out an extra seat behind it and she practically threw Sirius onto it. “Now is not the time for an orgy, you’re right, but when the time does come I’ll be sure to fuck you up with violence.” She gave a dry laugh. and climbed into the middle, keeping Ludelle inside her arms and away from Sirius as she caused the handles to stretch out to her and her helmet to merge onto her head. She mumbled into Ludelle’s ear. “If he gives you trouble let me know and I’ll turn him into a girl.” She turned on her speaker in her helmet again, the sounds of her voice coming through the speakers in the car.

“Problem solved. Now let’s make like a baby and GET THE FUCK OUT.” She revved the engine of her motorcycle and it roared with agreement.

Calder glared at Adéla as he responded, hopefully while she was starting the car. “Are you deaf or just stupid? Sirius Dylan, the turd on the back of Marielle’s bike, is the one that changed Ludelle’s skin to the rubbery stuff it is now, and gave her a beak. He also changed her body’s resting temperature by knocking it down to just over freezing, so her body still functioned but only at an excruciating level of pain, like having severe arthritis, but everywhere instead of just in the joints. Now do I need to come up there and drive? or can we get his hunk of metal moving home, I’d rather not leave Marielle and Ludelle at Sirius’s pleasure any longer than we absolutely have to.” He leaned forward, ready to forcibly swap spot if someone didn’t start the car and get them moving in the next three seconds.

Adéla grumbled, “Preoccupied, and as magical as a rotten potato.” She glared balefully at Calder before finishing her preparations as she linked her suit and bionics with the vehicle - the wonders of technology would never cease. But Calder’s words still stung regardless- she was the magical blank in a world saturated with it, in an organization with some of the most fearsome magic users out there, and she couldn’t do anything. Not a single cantrip. It didn’t matter if she became nigh godlike through said technology, she would always be Adéla, the woman with no magic. She sighed internally before starting the car shaking off the darker thoughts clouding her mind, “And we are go.”

“Ask Sirius nicely and he’ll happily fix that for you...” Calder’s voice was suddenly dark, and oily, somehow offering an extra dose of menace on top of the already sinister words. Sirius could, and gladly would, allow to touch magic, even to become a mage to rival the Stormlord himself, Though there would be… consequences wasn’t the right word, side effects fit better but was far too benign for what would follow. Calder sat back and boiled as he waited very impatiently for them to get back to the tower. As an afterthought he turned back to watch for the inevitable pursuit… again.

Adéla snorted. “I’ll pass. I’d be too tempted to rip his head off.” Her visor flipped down and she called back, “Ready?” Taking off before anybody would’ve had a chance to answer otherwise. She was keenly aware of the weapons accessible to the driver, and immediately armed them, just in case. Pressing the accelerator down, she sped off after Marielle.

Crow sat silently as the car raced after the bike before he suddenly broke the silence. “He’s not Fae, he doesn’t wear a Wyrdmask.” Crow turned to Calder, “It’s the other half, yes?” This was less than surprising considering having more than a single child was pretty rare among Fae. “Seems like he’s pretty fucked up” Crow considered his silent contemplation. Calder had really been the one to place Marielle and Ludelle in danger since he had kicked his brother from the car. Thus forcing Marielle into taking Sirius, a pity that this one was clearly a monster of the highest order. No matter though, there were plenty of monsters lurking in the tower to begin with. Always a bigger fish.. Crow drifted back into contemplation, it was high time to return to the safety of the morgue

Calder gave a hissing chuckle at Adéla’s response, before responding. “That wouldn’t be an isssue misssy, not for him. In fact, he’d probably consssider it a persssonal favor.” Calder’s only response to Crow, was to box the nearest ear. He’d deduced and said nothing more than most vanilla human five years olds could deduce and say. Calder expected better from a man so studied, even if he spent most of his time dissecting, reassembling, and treating corpses. Calder continued to watch behind them for pursuit.

Suddenly Marielle’s voice blasted through the speakers of the car. “Hey guys, I forgot to tell you a little detail about Xav’.” They couldn’t see her grin but they could tell she was through her voice. “Adele, press the button with the ‘UP’ arrow. The fucker can fly.” With that Marielle’s motorcycle wheels contort and the sides face the ground, and before they knew it the machine was floating in the air. “Good luck. You all should follow me the best you can but if you get lost be sure to use the GPS. The coordinates are already locked onto the tower, I made sure of that. Don’t you all fucking die on me or I’ll rip your corpses a new before Crow can say: ‘Yes please.’” With that the woman took off, the two strange new members of their coup in tow.

Adéla smirked, “Don’t need to press buttons when you’re directly connected to the car - I was just getting some good velocity going, I know everything this beauty can do now.” With a sudden lurch the vehicle was airborne, and they sped off through the sky towards the tower.
__________

“Alright, everybody out, the magical flying car express has arrived at the mothership, disembarking, choo choo!” Adéla called to the rest of the vehicle, disconnecting herself from the car as she too left it. “Well, that went better than expected.” She muttered to herself. “I got to kill that motherfucking Warden too - bastard won’t be making more jokes about my ass anytime soon.”

Crow climbed out of the car and stretched before wrinkling his nose at the air in the hangar of the Tower. “It smells like old death and fresh corpses.” The Fae frowned as he peered around the hangar. “Guess I was wrong. There are new monsters.” He gave Adéla and Calder a look, “Probably best to make sure Ludelle and Marielle are safe. I have an autopsy waiting on me and a mystery to investigate, don’t wait up.” And just like that with Vulture reperched on his shoulder Crow stalked off towards the morgue, his head turning to a frow as though he were scenting or searching for something unusual.

Calder slid out of the car, and glanced over towards Marielles’s bike, and moved to help with Ludelle as necessary. He’d have time to find Stormlord later, right now he wanted to finish the mission professionally. And if Sirius happened to give him a reason to flatten him along the way, so much the better. Experience, however, indicated that such an occurrence would be highly unlikely, so Calder didn’t get his hopes up and largely ignored Sirius. His current priorities were getting Ludelle comfortable and restoring her to her own form. He wasn’t above using Sirius to achieve that end, but he also knew that he had no real leverage to get Sirius to do the job beyond the blatantly obvious, which he would not deign to point out.
Marielle was nonchalantly leaning back in her bike, munching on a bag of what appeared to be potato chips. “Yo tank face” She waved Calder over, half of her cheek stuffed with junk food like a hoarding chipmunk. She swallowed and held a chip up to her fingers, the tips of them emitting a candle-like flame to burn the fragment of food to a crisp. She climbed out of her bike and looked far up, glancing over at Raven’s ship. The girl muttered something unintelligible under her breath, her eyes hinting at the violent orange she loves.
“I’ve got a bone to pick with a certain someone...don’t wait up for me. I’ve programmed my shit to go back to my workshop after ten minutes or so.” Her eyes flicked over Calder and her lips twitched to the smallest of smiles. “Wish I could have used more magic, but what can ya’ do?” With that she kicked out her foot, fixed herself on her metallic skateboard and blasted towards the ship, the words: “Cya shit stain!” blasted out of her mouth. Some would find the words extremely insulting, but Marielle added warmth to it, almost endearing.

Sirius’ eyes followed the girl with keen interest until she disappeared from sight and then set on Ludelle. For whatever reason the girl was asleep.. or possibly unconscious. If it wasn't for Calder, Sirius would have assumed she was comatose, but sadly that was too much to hope for under these circumstances. Sirius felt like waking the girl if just to see her reaction to the first thing in sight being his handsome face, but he knew better than pull his brother's tail like that. So he got off the bike and let Calder scoop up the girl in his hands.

“Like a real hero. Or should I say knight? It strikes me as rather ironic that after all the trouble everyone went through, they just left the girl like this. They must really trust our teamwork. That, or they were just using the mission as a chance to show off and never really cared for her. What do you think, brother?” Once the word was pronounced with admiration. Now there was a sweetened note of mockery in it.

Adéla crept up behind Sirius, her armor could be surprisingly quiet when it needed to be, and now that there wasn’t the imminent danger of heavily armed pursuit… She’d never met Sirius before, having spent most of her time in the Tower not meeting, well, anyone. Simply confined to the room she’d been assigned to until something happened that merited her inclusion - such as breaking into the prison. Even then, she barely knew anybody here at all, save for Ludelle, and since she didn’t seem to trust her anymore…

But from her recent albeit brief experience with him, she knew all she needed to. Delivering a brutal power armored roundhouse punch to his head, she spat out a, “Fuck you.” as she did so.

“Aich!” The man exclaimed, grabbing his head and whirling around to look at his assailant. He could taste blood in his mouth – he’d probably bitten his tongue. He stared at the woman in front of him and a smile twitched on the corner of his lips. Of course it hurt but it wasn’t the worst pain he’d felt. If anything, it only made Adéla more interesting in his eyes.

“Gee for some reason I thought maybe you could all get along.” Shard walked into the hangar as Adéla landed the punch to Sirius head. Walking over to the unconscious Ledelle he peered down at her. “Not exactly pristine condition, but I hardly expected as much. I should think congratulations are in order, Adéla.” Turning towards her Shard ignored Sirius. “This is the correct woman yes? It would appear she’s hardly in a normal condition.” Shard waited for the explanation patiently.

As Shard appeared Sirius stepped back and leaned on the motorbike, wondering if his boss wanted him to undo the spell he’d placed on Ludelle sooner or later.

Extending her middle finger in Sirius’ direction, Adéla turned to face Shard. “Indeed she isn’t, thanks to this fucker.” Pointing at Sirius she continued, “We did manage to get her out though, and she wasn’t harmed in the process, albeit rather concerned. Whatever he did to her though, I don’t know. You’d have to ask Calder, I’m as magical as a potato.” She stood aside and let Shard do whatever he felt the need to do, glaring at Sirius.

Christian nodded before he calmly walked over to Ludelle and began examining her carefully. “What was the intention?” Shard frowned, talking to himself as he checked Ludelle over. Turning to Sirius he raised an eyebrow. “Why?” He let the single word hang in the air as he turned from Ludelle. His look wasn’t threatening. Yet.

“Why what?” The man in question cocked an eyebrow. “Why the alterations, why save her or why not kill her outright?”

“Why the alterations?” Shard ignored the fact that Sirius was being highly pedantic and purposefully avoiding the obvious question by using others to cover for it.

“There’s a multitude of reasons. The short story is: this strategy was the best two-edged sword I could think of. The Stygian blade want her dead, I wasn’t able to figure out why exactly unless it’s as simple as “she knows too much”. Anyway, when they framed her they completely falsified her files to make her seem like an individual capable of highly effective offensive magic, thus indirectly requesting she be contained in the highest security wing with no direct contact with anyone and without any opportunity to cast. I was merely complying and twisting their goals to our ends. There was a chance of the Blade attempting a similar raid in which case they’d be confused when they didn’t find the pretty elf they expected in any of the cells, giving us time to react. Beyond that, it’s personal curiosity and, obviously, the desire to keep both my jobs…” His sentence cut off suddenly when he realised he’d just admitted to working in Southgate and was still wearing their uniform. He blanched slightly, cursing himself mentally as he eyed Shard carefully, some semblance of unease flickering in his eyes for the first time.

“Disentangle the spell, then get out of my sight.” Christian all but delivered the comment with a smile as he stood. Suddenly the room seemed an awful lot colder and as though there were a distinct electrical current running through it. “As for Calder. I think that is all. Adéla, my office in two hours. As soon as we’re done here take Ludelle to the infirmary.”

Part of Sirius really wanted to drag this out but the larger part cared about his own skin more than it cared about his mood. Not to say that messing with Christian Highfell was impossible, but for now this was enough. He bit down any smartass comments and grabbed Ludelle’s arm gentle enough to avoid a lightning in his face. The spell was much easier to unravel than it was to create and within seconds the beak, feathers and rubber melted away to reveal a young elven-looking woman with tangled and matted red hair. “Good thing about the coat, huh?” He muttered with a small smile as he got up, glanced at his brother one last time and retreated to his room.

Christian rested his hand on Ludelle’s head gently A gift from your Lady With that he turned and walked from the hanger.

Calder ignored Sirius and was never addressed again except to be dismissed. He hoped Stormlord wasn’t naive enough to truly believe that this was all, but then the man had started life as a half-dragon, and a male half-dragon at that… so perhaps it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t see the threads still being woven. So Sirius had acted to save his skin yet again, and it technically had also saved the life of the woman in his left arm. Still, Calder held no illusions about the fact that her life was just a bonus for Sirius, in more than one sense of the phrase.

Calder stood in the hangar, a moment more, silent and thoughtful, staring off after Stormlord. He would have to see the Stormlord again, but now was not the time for it. So he turned to Adéla, “Sirius will remember that punch, but for him that was an invitation, so watch yourself. If you want to get back at him, give him nothing but oil and take as much as you can from him. Punching him is like punching water, it doesn’t do much in the long run.” With that he turned and move towards the infirmary with Ludelle securely in his left arm and his right dealing with doors and absent minded knights in his path. Calder did a second check to make sure Sirius hadn’t left any surprises or back doors, and to be sure the woman was okay. She just needed rest and plenty of it. He would see that she got it, maybe Stormlord thought Calder’s part was done, but Calder’s part was never done before everyone was back at 100 % and ready for the next job.

The first thing Harn noticed about the man upon entering the library were his soul crystals. He must be a Necromancer. Who else would carry them so openly? he reasoned. He walked over to the man. "Excuse me." he said to get the man's attention. "I see that you also have soul crystals and was hoping to ask you a few questions about them." He laid the five crystals on the table in front of the man, then continued, hoping the man was listening. "I found these while on a mission. They were within Golems, two of clay, two of metal, one of wood. They continued to move even after taking extreme damage, but when I removed the crystals they stopped moving. I believe that one of the bandits that have been terrorizing the village is to blame, and that they are studying necromancy. I need to know if there is an easier way to stop them, so that they can be stopped for good."