I wake up flustered and furious, fighting to beat down the purple in my cheeks. How dare she? How dare-
“You alright, Hattie?” Svelgi’s dark eyes are scrunched in concern.
I put a hand to my face, trying to cool down. What the hell is wrong with that mouse?
“It’s fine. Achillea and Dawn are at each other’s throats. We have some time.” And I have Syrene’s trump card — too complicated to explain to Svelgi, but I should get started soon.
She sits cross-legged on the ground across from me. Framed by the blue sky and lit by warm sunshine, looking adorable.
She picks up the chestplate on the floor beside her and holds it out to me, shimmering in the sunshine. It’s deep green steel-stalk, with an emblem like a flame dancing across it in mesmerising patterns. “For Blaze,” she says. “Thought you should have some fitting insignia.”
I’m oddly touched as I slip the armour on. Everything feels safer.
Even a small force could sweep through our defences here, but we’ll be able to see them coming from all directions. It’s the one advantage to the rolling grasslands around us.
And I’ll use that advantage to try Syrene’s trick — reinforce this place simply by willing it so. I just need some time to focus.
She found a weak point, first. I don’t have her nose, but maybe… I start to feel along the windows, trying for anything that feels different. I’ve just located a pane of glass that seems to flex under my fingers when I hear Indel’s (Indel’s!?) voice echo up the tower, regal and commanding. “Capture the Orc; kill the rest.”
“What was that?” Svelgi asks, shaking so hard she can’t even draw her shortsword.
“Block the door!” I hiss, immediately tuning to my bracer. “Katarina — Katarina, are you there?”
“Seer — our assault is about to begin-”
“Our base is under attack!”
She considers a moment as Svelgi gets a thick vine before the door. “We cannot turn back now, we will not make it. If you can fight free, come join us. Otherwise, I am sorry.”
Can’t say it isn’t what I’d do in the same circumstance, but it’s rough all the same. Svelgi is breathing quick, eyes darting about.
“I- I don’t. I can’t fight,” she says, hyperventilating. I’m scared she’ll pass out before the fight starts.
“It’s okay,” I say, “worst case, we wake up outside the dome, right?”
Her eyes widen and her nose twitches as her tiny breaths comes faster still.
“No- no! That would be- I don’t want to, I don’t want to die.”
The vine withers away, turning brown and sickly before our eyes. The blonde raccoon storms through with a bloody blade in her hand. Her eyes catch me immediately and she surges. I square my feet and prepare to turn aside her charge — but she stops short and raises a hand, bombarding me with fluttering light.
I collapse to the floor, fighting with all my strength to just stay awake. I try to flex my arm, to crawl over to Svelgi, but everything’s just so slow.
When she sees Svelgi still fumbling with the scabbard, the raccoon tosses her sword aside and draws a black dagger from her belt. She slams into the bunny and sends her to the floor, straddling her stomach. I try to stand up, try to help, but all I can do is watch as Svelgi, hands on the raccoon’s wrists, struggles to keep the knife from her unarmoured chest. “Shhh, shhh,” the raccoon coos with her gravedigger’s voice.
“Please, no, I don’t want-”
“Shhhh. It’s a release. You’ll feel good. You’ll feel so good.” The tip of the blade scratches Svelgi’s chest.
“I yield! I yield!” she shouts, shaking her head in desperation.
“Yield to death, sweetling; yield to release.” Her arms flex; Svelgi screams. The raccoon never releases eye contact with the flailing bunny.
“No! Stop! Heal me! I yield!”
I finally get my hand in front of me and seize a bundle of carpet, but when I try to drag myself forward the rug just slides towards me. There’s still time. If I can move, there’s still-
Svelgi’s hands fall away as the blade punctures her heart. Her pleas die in her throat with a horrible gurgling sound; a coughed mouthful of blood sprays the raccoon’s face and stains her white fur stark red. The racoon’s free hand rests at Svelgi’s throat, feeling as the pulse stops, their eyes locked. “Good girl,” she whispers to Svelgi’s corpse, complete with a tender kiss on her frozen forehead. What the fuck? A jolt of hot rage rushes through me.
Indel strides through the door, beaming. “Yes, my love! We are reunited at last!” With joyful leaps she bounds over to me, gathers orange light in her hand, and drives it into my chest.
I wake in a freezing dungeon, hands bound behind my back by manacles. My feet are chained too, forcing me uncomfortably against the wall. My armour’s been stripped. Everything is pitch black until the creak of a door heralds light, a sliver from the hallway, and the Princess Indel.
“My love! My dear, sweet love. It was such a cruel fate to be parted, but now, now at last we are together. The pirates killed one of our scouts, but her bracer was recovered. Do you know what that means?”
I know exactly what it means, but I doubt Dawn will last long against Syrene’s little trick — if I’m defecting anywhere, it’s Achillea. Even then, I want to see how the assault went, first — it could be good news for Blaze.
And frankly, I want to stick it out for Svelgi. I can’t wait to kill that raccoon.
“I take it from your silence that you have other thoughts — I assure you, love, there is no way out. I saw your assault dashed to pieces from the tower. You may be the last one left.”
“You lie.”
“No? Well, my love, you have my permission to see for yourself.”
It’s harder to slip from myself with my rage boiling inside, my desire for vengeance — but I can lock it away to see if she’s telling the truth. I need to know. Without the clear sightlines of the Mystic’s tower, it’s harder to cast myself free — I’ll need an anchor. The first thing that comes to mind is the ornery fox Alterationist, and I find myself slipping into her fur.
I’m Mailis, and I’m fucked.
We’re all fucked, because this bullshit fucking game stuck us in a totally unfair position, and even worse we had our reckless commander taking charge and everybody just lined up behind her. I did too, like an idiot, and now I reap an idiot’s rewards.
Gods, I’m exhausted. I’ve been holding a tunnel through the mountain open for twenty minutes — it was meant to be ten, but then they were waiting for the vanguard, tore them apart (Gods know how, I just heard the screams echoing down). Now I have to hold it for a fighting retreat, but they’re taking their time. “Hurry up!” I scream, soul buckling under the effort of such a high magnitude, high duration spell, orange fur standing on end.
My legs ache. It looked temperate from afar, but once we got down into the slot canyon we found it was blazing hot — armour and fur and sun are a bad combination for a mage already putting everything into her magic.
“You look tired,” comes a mocking voice to my left. I turn my head. The rocky canyon wall assumes the shape of a gargoyle, melting out of the stone. She lands on the floor in the uniform, bracelet identifying her as Copper.
“Fuck!”
They’re close, aren’t they? They have to be. They can save me, if they hurry — if I keep the tunnel open. I back away. It’s okay. Maintain the spell with one hand and defend with the other. She’s in no hurry to get me, at least.
She saunters towards me, a smug grin on her face. There’s the sound of grinding stone as she speaks. “Aren’t you lucky I like to play with my food? Bad habit, but I inherited it from my mama — I’m sentimental.”
“I could yield. You got any spare bracers?”
“What a thought. But what do I get out of it?”
My back’s against the wall, now. I glance over at the wide tunnel — still nobody. She grabs me by the scruff and wrenches me into the air. Lot of strength in stone, it turns out.
Fuck this! Why do I have to do this? Why couldn’t I have gotten Copper in the first place? They had every advantage; they were always going to win. Fuck this!
I slap my free paw uselessly against her head. Wish I didn’t need them.
“I need an answer, vixen.”
“Don’t call me that.”
She shoves my back against the rocks. They bite into flesh like broken glass. “Fuck,” I hiss, still slapping at her — but Godsdamnit if that tunnel doesn’t stay open. And I bet nobody will appreciate it. I bet they’ll come rushing out and that vampyr bitch will just say ‘vhat do you vant, a medal? It ith your duty you did!’
“Don’t like it, vixen? Well, I should be rid of you then.”
“I will not be mocked!” The footsteps echoing down the tunnel give me hope.
“Ah, your friends. You think a few scattered survivors will save you, soft, little, vixen?”
There’s just something about her voice. Her fucking voice. Her quite literally grinding voice. Thinking that just because she can lift me in the air she can order me around — everyone always thinks they can order me around! All day with this! All day, after they stuck me in that stupid castle.
“Fuck you!” I roar, gnashing my teeth. I am a veritable prodigy — I’m here because I’m the best. I’m here because I’m not some stupid mage who can only focus on one spell at a time. “I am Mailis Thecla, and I will not be mocked!”
My paw collides with her head again, but this time my Stonecracker spell crumbles her body to dust, just as the seven survivors stagger out of the tunnel and it collapses behind them.