Fortress Al-Mir

“Possession,” Arkk said, looking around the table. “It fits. The assassins at the Duke’s party also gained glowing eyes once things started going wrong.”

Hawkwood’s tired face twisted into a frown. “Possession is something only ghosts or gods can accomplish. Ghosts tend to shamble about, trying to resolve whatever anchors are keeping them tethered to the world. This doesn’t sound like that…” His fingers tightened into fists on top of the table as he looked to the inquisitors, perhaps hoping that they would reject the notion entirely.

Sylvara Astra sat with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, leaning back in her chair as if asleep. Chronicler Qwol held a wet rag to his forehead, nursing a wound. Despite them having been nowhere near the impact site, he had been struck by a bit of falling debris from the boulder Arkk had dropped on the Evestani bivouac. Purifier Tybalt sat in a squat with his feet on the seat, grinning as he listened intensely to what Arkk had to say of the excursion.

Agnete sat on Arkk’s side of the table. As was typical of excursions where she made use of her abilities, she had returned without clothes. Apart from that, she had made it back safe and sound. Evestani hadn’t managed to touch her and the inquisitors had honored their agreement to essentially ignore her presence. Her presence made the entire room uncomfortably hot to the point where they had to open the window despite it being the dead of winter.

When Astra didn’t react, Hawkwood looked back to Arkk with an even deeper frown. “I hope you are not implying that we are up against a deity. Light protect,” he hissed, drawing one hand down his arm in a protective gesture.

“It is the position of the Abbey of the Light that the gods have departed the world,” Astra said without opening her eyes. “Only the Radiant Light still casts His gaze upon the world, evidenced by our miracles, revelation, and the very sun rising every morning. The Pious of the Golden Order are heretics playing with forbidden magics. Nothing more.”

Arkk shared a look with Agnete. What Astra said was roughly the same as what Abbess Keena preached during her Suun sermons. He had never been all that invested in her lectures but he had paid attention. None of it was ever stuff that mattered to daily farming, hunting, or anything else he did.

It was not what Vezta believed. Arkk was more inclined toward Vezta. Besides her being a pre-Calamity monster who spoke of the [PANTHEON] as if she had personally interacted with at least a handful of its members, he had seen the [STARS]. Things just made more sense with her story, with how the Calamity came about, the statues in Fortress Al-Mir’s temple, and where Agnete’s powers came from. And those of Purifier Tybalt.

Arkk didn’t say so, however. He didn’t need heresy added to the Abbey’s ever-growing list of grievances they had with him.

Besides, there was another possibility.

“Mortal humans can possess others,” Arkk said, leaning forward. “I’ve experienced it.”

He doubted… He hoped that literal gods weren’t directly acting upon the world. If they were… Well, Arkk didn’t hold much hope that even Vezta could fight against the power of the [PANTHEON]. They brought her to this world, after all. They could probably send her back. Because of that, he had to believe that this golden-eyed being was something tangible and fightable. Maybe something like Vezta given its use of the [CONSTRUCTED LANGUAGE], maybe something like Agnete and Tybalt given its spell usage with no incantation. Maybe even something like him, a practitioner of older magic who knew more than he did about how to cast it.

Otherwise, he didn’t know how they could possibly win.

“You’ve experienced it?” Astra snapped her eyes open, leaning forward with a heavy scowl. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

Arkk clamped his jaw shut, not about to admit that he had possessed anyone at any point. Not in front of an inquisitor.

“Darkwood,” Agnete said.

Snapping his fingers, Arkk quickly nodded. “Right. Darkwood. There was a horde of monsters being directed by a spellcaster who could possess those monsters, leading them. He jumped from body to body, always with glowing bright eyes. I spoke with the man once. That’s how I know it was the same person every time.”

“Master Inquisitor Vrox sent me through some old tunnels infested with monsters,” Agnete added. “I can attest to glowing-eyed creatures impeding my progress. After killing the creatures, a being appearing as black smoke emerged before finding a new target to possess. In the final attempt, I managed to burn the being, proving its tangibility. All of this should have been in the report Chronicler Greesom submitted regarding the incident.”

Astra’s red eyes shifted back and forth, searching for something on Arkk and Agnete’s faces. Digging her knuckles into the top of the table, she looked to her chronicler. Qwol gave her a slight dip of his head.

“I see. Well. That is news,” she said, retaking her seat. “However, the information changes little. It just means we know without a doubt that the Golden Order is investigating anathema. Just as I said.”

“As much as a relief as that is,” Hawkwood said as he motioned with his hand once again. “Is there anything we can do about it? What capabilities might this anathema offer them? How do we attack it and defend against it? Are they likely to assault us with new and strange magic now that we’ve destroyed their ritual circle?”

Astra and Qwol shared another look. Arkk and Agnete glanced at each other as well. He wasn’t sure what their little silent conversation was about—though he guessed that they knew something about Evestani’s capabilities that they hadn’t yet said—but for his part, Arkk had a feeling that their excursion had not done nearly enough. Before knowing about the glowing-eyed person, he figured that Evestani’s casters weren’t educated enough to plot out their own ritual circles, thus necessitating the use of the prepared ritual. Anyone could copy a design from a book but certain parts of the circles needed to be adjusted for their environment.

Most of his early attempts with magic blew up either because he put too much power into them or because he failed to configure them properly.

In the case of the boulder-dropping ritual, it the targeting component was the most complicated bit of the array and something that couldn’t be copied from a book.

But if this was possession, it wasn’t the same as his possession. Arkk had reappeared on his feet next to Vezta rather than in mid-air where he had cast the spell. The assassins at the Duke’s party, on the other hand, had been possessed from afar and, when they died, they had not ejected their possessor out at their sides.

Come to think of it, when Arkk had killed the Darkwood Keeper of the Heart, the Keeper had appeared beside the possessed body in a misty, smoky form. That form then rushed off back toward the Darkwood fortress. Had that been the same possession spell that he knew? Or some variant?

It was hard to say. While Arkk considered himself proficient at flinging around lightning bolts and quite adept at summoning lesser servants, he had only used the possession spell three times. He hadn’t taken the time to experiment with it or its limitations. It just wasn’t a spell he liked using.

Give him a slaver to kill and he would pull the gallows lever without hesitation. Controlling the minds of his friends and allies? That, he balked at.

But perhaps it was time to investigate the spell more thoroughly. If his enemies were going to use it, he needed to know what it was capable of, its limitations, and everything.

That would have to wait until he was away from the inquisitors, however.

“I’m hoping that I managed to crush most of their leadership,” Arkk said, finally turning away from Agnete. He wasn’t sure that the former purifier had gotten what he was thinking—any of it—but she gave him a reassuring nod that sent a lock of her chaotic black hair in front of her face.

“Yes. Using their spell against them was quite inspiring.”

“I wish I could have gotten their spellcasters as well but any further and we would have been caught, so I saw the opportunity and took it.”

“Our casters are standing by at the defensive ritual but so far, no sign of any counterattack. Hard to tell in the night using spyglasses alone. What we can see is that it looks like they’re still trying to put out the fires.”

Agnete’s black lips drew taut into a grim smile. She straightened her back and looked directly at Purifier Tybalt. Even with Agnete’s naturally subdued emotions when away from open flames, Arkk could still feel the smug satisfaction at being praised radiating from her.

Or maybe that was just her natural heat.

“What a show, oh what a show!” Tybalt giggled, clapping his hands together. The joy vanished in an instant as he leaned forward over the table, a dangerous look crossing his face. “But while you were traipsing about with your yelling about the beauty of flames, I spotted no less than seven spellcasters who were trying to put you down. One moment, they slung incantations, the next!” He laughed again and pointed a finger toward a pitcher of water on the meeting table. A small inverted sphere formed around it before it vanished with a low reverberation shaking the room. “Detained!” he laughed.

Astra swung an arm, standing as she did so. Her fingers gripped Tybalt’s throat. She didn’t stop there. His chair tipped over with him still squatting in it. He bounced off the ground as his back hit but Astra slammed him back down.

“Do not use your abilities without authorization, Purifier Tybalt.”

The man had a smile in his eyes even as he gripped her wrist with both hands, trying to push her off his throat. Because of the way he had been sitting on the chair, his legs were pinned under him but it was clear he was trying to struggle away.

“Am I understood?”

He grinned and tried to nod his head. He couldn’t speak or move much with Astra’s hand clamped down. She just narrowed her red eyes, keeping him pinned. For a long few moments, Arkk wondered if she was going to kill him there and then. His lips were even starting to turn blue. Around the time his eyes started to roll back, she reached into the pocket of her black coat and withdrew a hard-shelled bracelet. With one hand, she clamped it around his wrist. A faint white glow covered the silver band with letters that Arkk couldn’t understand.

She released him, wiping some of his spittle on his chest, then stood fully.

Tybalt heaved and choked on the ground, sucking in breath after breath. Despite it all, his grin only grew wider. He pointed a finger at her only to freeze as the runes on his bracelet brightened once more. Despite gasping for breath only seconds ago, it looked like he stopped breathing once again. He stared, looking on the verge of tears.

“I apologize,” Astra said, dragging the catatonic purifier to his feet. “I must tend to my team. Perhaps now, in their chaos, it would be a good opportunity to set your casters on the offensive. You do have books on siege magic, do you not, Hawkwood?”

Hawkwood, as stunned by the display as Arkk was, shook his head in a sudden waking from his thoughts. “Yes. Yes of course. I’ve already set some of the scribes to drawing out a few rituals.”

“Good. I will be retiring for the evening. If this golden-eyed being makes an appearance, contact me at once, otherwise, I wish to be undisturbed until morning. Qwol, the door, if you please.”

As the chronicler opened the meeting room door, Astra hooked an arm under the dazed Tybalt’s arm and marched him out of the room. They closed the door with a dissonantly soft click.

Arkk, Hawkwood, and Agnete just stared. A long minute passed before Arkk glanced over to Agnete. “Was Vrox…”

“Not like that,” she said with a small shake of her head. “If I stepped out of line, he would go straight for the Binding Agent. I believe the thought of touching me disgusted him.”

Arkk pressed his lips together in distaste but didn’t say anything more. Hawkwood rose to his feet, gingerly touching the concave divot in the table where the pitcher had been. It was simply gone. Like a carpenter had taken a large hook knife to the wood. Naturally, there was no trace of the pitcher either.

It hadn’t taken Tybalt long to create that sphere. Just a second or so, quicker than Astra could react. Compared to the near minutes he had taken to do the same to the golden statues, Arkk had to wonder what the difference was. Was it exhaustion? He had removed a few statues before Arkk started watching him. Or perhaps it took longer based on the amount of space he intended to detain. That was a particularly sobering thought. If he could remove someone’s head from their body, he could do it rather quickly in that case.

“As much as I appreciate their help earlier,” Hawkwood started, frowning as he removed his fingers from the smoothed surface. “I am not sure I’m comfortable around that purifier.”

“I concur.”

“Same,” Arkk said. “He seems… unstable. Intensely so. If Astra has to keep those bracelets on him to keep his powers suppressed… well, that just seems a whole lot less proactive compared to the ice marble.” Seeing Agnete shiver at the mention made Arkk wince. “Sorry.”

“No. It isn’t incorrect. If he decides to dive into the madness while she is more than a step away from him, I don’t know what could be done.”

“Perhaps they have other countermeasures that we simply haven’t seen,” Hawkwood said, turning away. “In any case, I will see to the spellcasters and their counterattack. By morning, the tables will have turned and we—” He paused, trailing off as he looked down at his hands.

Arkk felt it too. A tingling sensation that made the hairs on his arms stand on end.

Before either could comment, light as bright as the morning sun illuminated the window. Except it should have been the dead of night.

Arkk stared, watching the window for a moment. Hawkwood mumbled something under his breath, a curse or a question.

Agnete lurched to her feet, leaving scorch marks on the table as she slammed her hands against it. The embers in her eyes and facial scars lit up as a rush of heat filled the room. She dashed to the window, spreading her arms wide just as a thundering boom threw Arkk from his seat.

The entire keep rocked and shook. Stone crumbled from the walls. The ceiling disintegrated, shedding bits of pieces into the aether over a few seconds. Everything above was simply gone. The window and wall exploded inward, igniting as they passed through a wall of flames that had enveloped Agnete.

With the walls and the roof missing, Arkk could see the golden beam of light strike Agnete’s flames, deflected up into the night sky toward the east.

Agnete let out an anguished cry. At the same time, Arkk felt the pain over the employee link. The flames snuffed out, followed swiftly by the ray of gold. The whole thing lasted no more than five seconds.

Arkk, dazed but unharmed, crawled out from under the table. The floor, slanted at an angle from the lack of an entire wall of the keep, creaked as he put weight on various planks. He started for Agnete only to recoil before he could get more than a few steps. A haze of heat boiled the air around her body. Just reaching out a hand felt scalding. She had fallen backward at the end, unconscious and missing her clothes entirely. Though she had fallen back into the room, she was still half dangling over the edge of the building, the entire window wall and floor gone. Her life, weakened yet present, thrummed over the employee link. She wasn’t in immediate danger…

At least not from the after-effects of that golden beam.

The table’s weight proved too much for the floor. Two planks crumbled away beneath it, sending the table crashing down to the floor below.

A firm hand closed around Arkk’s arm. “We have to get out of here,” Hawkwood shouted, “before the whole keep collapses!”

Missing a whole wall, it was a wonder that it hadn’t already.

Shrugging Hawkwood off, Arkk grit his teeth and stepped forward again. Agnete was very likely the only reason they were alive, forcing that beam up and into the night rather than straight through the entirety of the keep. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—leave her behind.

The ice marble, kept safe in the cellar alongside the transportation circle back to Fortress Al-Mir, appeared in his hand. He sent a sliver of magic into it, chilling the air and extinguishing the lingering fires around Agnete. Not enough to cause harm.

Her body, scars glowing brightly, was still hot to the touch. Not hot enough to force him back this time. Wincing at the burn against his palms, he hauled her up and over his shoulder. A slight chill, emanating from his pocket, seeped up his side and over his shoulder. It wasn’t much. Arkk didn’t dare pour more magic into the marble of ice while he was carrying her. The cold did help soothe against her heat as he steadied her, making sure he had her in a firm grip.

Only then did he turn toward the stairs.

The stairs were gone along with that entire side of the keep. Hawkwood, leaning over the edge to see the floor below, waved him over before leaping.

Creaking of wood and groaning of stone followed the thud of his landing down below. Arkk had to freeze, off balance with Agnete over his shoulder, as the scorched wood under his feet started crumbling. As the entire section of the meeting room sagged, he stepped forward and jumped.

Arkk landed on the upended table, knees screaming at the weight on his shoulder. He stumbled forward, trying to maintain his balance even as each step made him grit his teeth in pain. Just before he crashed head-first into the wall, a hand clasped against his chest, steadying him.

“Thanks,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“What in the name of the Light was that,” Hawkwood said in response, throwing open the stairwell door. Only attached to the wall by one half-melted hinge, the whole door collapsed to the floor.

At least the remains of the stairs were on the other side. Below, Arkk could see others scrambling down, trying to escape the keep. At the same time, out on the grounds below, he could see others making their way closer, likely intending to help.

“How should I know?” Arkk grunted, testing his weight on the husk of the stairwell. It loudly protested but didn’t give way. It would only need to hold on for a few seconds. Fighting through the ache in his knees, he lumbered down the steps behind Hawkwood.

Judging by the damage, the golden ray had struck only the top portion of the keep. It was a tall keep, standing with seven distinct floors. It towered over the rest of Elmshadow. The one who cast that spell—the one with golden eyes, it had to be—had to have known that they were meeting up there. He had taken off the entire top of the keep and half the floor below it.

Could he cast again?

Arkk hoped not. If he could, they would have little in the way of defense with Agnete out. She had burned herself out deflecting that one beam. Another would surely kill her.

“This is not a siege spell I’ve ever seen or heard of,” Hawkwood shouted, now sounding more angry than fearful. “What in the blazes am I to do—Neil!”

Hawkwood’s chief adjutant stood in the stairwell, directing a contingent of White Company as they made their way down the stairs. He looked dusty and haggard but not injured. At hearing Hawkwood’s voice, he turned and immediately saluted.

“Sir, you’re alright!”

“Get the keep evacuated. Carefully. The upper floors were collapsing. Then get me a head count of everyone who was inside.” Hawkwood grimaced. “I saw Kang and the upper half of Reginald. They didn’t make it.”

Arkk blinked. He hadn’t noticed anyone dead. Then again, when he had jumped down, he had been facing the stairs and hadn’t turned toward the rest of the room.

“Damn it,” Neil swore, slamming a fist into the wall. Despite being stone, it had a little more give than Arkk would have liked to see. “I’m sorry to hear that, Sir.”

“Where are the inquisitors?” Arkk asked, shifting Agnete’s weight on his shoulder. He could feel his clothes turning to ash where she touched him. “Did they make it out?”

“They weren’t with you?”

Hawkwood shook his head. “Left just a minute before.”

“I’ll see if anyone spotted them,” Neil said before turning and shouting down the stairs. He called a few specific names, delegating to others in White Company. “Do you need assistance?”

“Agnete’s hurt. Exhaustion, mostly. She deflected most of that attack.”

“We’ll make room in the infirmary.” Neil stepped closer, reaching for Agnete. “Would you like—”

“No,” Arkk said, wincing at the burn against his neck as he shook his head. The icy feeling in his shoulder crept up his neck in response. “I’ll carry her. She isn’t to be touched.”

“Understood. Make way! Casualties coming through!”

With White Company’s discipline and Neil leading the way, Arkk and Hawkwood made it out of the keep with little trouble. When he turned around, staring up, he could only grimace.

Bright orange flames erupted from the top of the shorn-clean stone, making the entire top of the keep look like an oversized brazier. The keep, while it had been the only thing directly hit by that ray of light, wasn’t the only thing damaged. Debris, likely flaming debris, hand exploded outward behind the keep, setting fire to a great number of buildings. White Company hurried around, throwing buckets of dirt and sand while spellcasters conjured torrents of water.

Hawkwood broke off, moving through the crowd to bark out crisis control orders to his men. Arkk, ice tingling at his side, carefully set Agnete down against the outer walls of the keep. Spotting Orjja, coming to see what had happened along with a small contingent of Company Al-Mir’s orcs, he quickly waved her over.

“Keep her safe,” he shouted over the cacophony of soldiers rushing about. “Make sure nobody touches her. If she wakes, let her know that she is safe and was successful at protecting everyone. Everyone else,” he said, turning to address the rest of the orcs. “Help where you can. Listen to Hawkwood and anyone from White Company. If you see those inquisitors…”

Arkk hesitated. Their departure, once again, had suspicious timing. They weren’t Evestani. Arkk was quite confident in that. That didn’t mean that their chronicler hadn’t somehow received a revelation of impending events and orchestrated events to get themselves away, leaving him and Agnete behind to take the attack. Was it coincidence or deliberate?

“Keep away from them. If they approach, call for me immediately. I won’t be far,” Arkk finished, removing the ice marble from his pocket.

He hurried off to hopefully quell the flames before they engulfed the entire city.