When Heroes Die

“Note: The claim that children are the future requires further investigation. Three specimens failed to provide any meaningful predictions during vivisection, but the entrails of the fourth do show promising results.”

– Extract from the journal of Dread Emperor Malignant II

Yvette followed behind Songbird in one of the back alleys near the front gates of the Hall of Records. Songbird looked odd today. She was dressed in red and blue formal attire and had her red hair hanging loose over her shoulders. It made her appear almost regal.

Songbird shouldn’t look regal.

The cheers of bird call heralded the dawn of a new day. Yvette stopped a moment to watch some of them. The greens and blues of their feathers were pretty.

What rituals would use those feathers as components?

Sustained flight? No, it wouldn’t work. It was a pity the birds were so small. If they were bigger, the plumage would look good in her hair. She felt someone shaking her arm again. Oh, right! Songbird. They had a mission. Yvette flushed and looked away briefly.

“C’mon kid. Taylor’s not here, we can have some fun for once. There’s a Princess for us to rescue.”

Yvette’s attention narrowed in from a country estate to a city manor at the statement. A Princess?

“You told Taylor that you didn’t know what’s in the Hall of Records did you lie to her why did you lie to her Taylor is good and now you’re making trouble for her!” Yvette scolded, her cheeks puffing out.

“S’pose you’re her biggest supporter. You even went and got that badge of hers sewn onto your clothes,” Songbird sighed and looked down at her with wide brown eyes. “Look kid. We can do this without her. If she knew what was in the stuffy old building, she would ‘sist she helps out. She struggles with sharing work. Think of this as helping her out.”

Yvette clenched her fists and thought it over. Taylor was always so busy. Taking notes helped a little, but this was a chance to help lots. Besides, it wasn’t like they were in any real danger, they just needed to distract a few guards and make their way in.

“Fine!” she huffed, “but next time you must be more responsible this isn’t okay.”

The two of them continued on towards the Hall of Records. They were close. It wasn’t long until the walls of the place loomed over them, fifteen feet high. The compound was huge and occupied over a mile of city space. Despite Quentin’s death, the place remained heavily guarded. Over fifty men stood outside the rusted metal gates.

“S’pose you can do something about them?”

What would Taylor have done? Taylor would have simply made the guards forget they were even here. Yvette wasn’t Taylor, though, much as she wished she was. If she was Taylor, then maybe her family would still be alive.

She missed her friends. Ever since they had moved to Rhenia she had been so lonely. She tried making new friends here, but everyone was so different to back home. There weren’t many other kids her age and they were all so stuffy. It just wasn’t the same. Back in Brabant, Alexander and her used to play in the fields outside the manor and chase the sheep around. Although, Alexander was getting annoying now. He teased her about how she chattered all the time. Her ma had never approved and told her not to consort with the peasantry, but she didn’t stop Yvette either.

Ma and Da had told her not to play outside after dark. That it wasn’t safe, especially during Spring, and that she should stay inside. It was so boring inside, though. There was nothing to see or do, and Ma always found her and made her do chores.

So she had sneaked outside. Da wouldn’t punish her, so long as she wasn’t caught. Besides, the sun hadn’t really set yet. It wasn’t really after dark, was it? They were in a large house on the outskirts of Rhenia, close to the mountains and although the sun was hidden behind some trees, and it was sort of dark, it wasn’t actually night yet.

So there!

Satisfied with her reasoning, she scampered between the flat roofed houses that were set apart from their own. Unlike their last home, they were close enough that Yvette could pretend they were in the same neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the other children here weren’t so fun and always insisted on worrying about the Ratlings. It was so lonely. She ran past the other houses towards the stream that was just a little to the east of the town. It was the most interesting feature nearby. Arriving, she let the cool water from the rivulet run over her feet as she made her way deeper in. Leaning down, she started picking up rocks from the riverbed, examining them. Skipping them on the surface of the river wasn’t much fun. It was far too narrow, and she only got in one or two skips, but it gave her something to do.

Yvette dismissed the memory, hiding a shudder. She needed to be strong. Ma and Da would have wanted her to be happy. The priests had told her so. So she needed to smile and pretend everything was okay.

So long as other people were around, and she kept talking, the gloom was pushed back. It distracted her from the memories that she didn’t want to think about. She had tried talking about it with others, but they were dismissive. “That’s just the way of things,” the people of Rhenia would tell her. She had thought about talking to Taylor. Taylor would definitely care, but the girl was sad enough already. Yvette didn’t need to make her any more miserable.

The cool light of the moon fell down on them from above. The guards were changing. Frowning, she looked on. The number of guards had been increased and there wasn’t a gap that would allow them to move.

“Lost in your head again?” Songbird inquired, “the plan, remember? Can you knock them out?”

Yvette shook her head. Taylor had told her that learning how to mess with other people’s bodies was hard, and she would teach her that later. Fire was easy though and was something she already knew how to do. Taylor wouldn’t approve of this. She would say it wasn’t responsible, but Yvette wasn’t a hero like Taylor was, and it was something she could do.

“I can start fires to distract them,” she suggested.

Songbird thought it over for a moment, then nodded.

“Just don’t tell miss broody about it,” Songbird replied.

Looking at one of the buildings down the road from the Hall of Records, she started to go through the process of conjuring an inferno. She reached with her good hand into the pouch on her left-hand side and pulled out an amber gemstone, some glass, and a few pieces of straw. She wasn’t really performing Jaquinite magic any more, although she had started out that way. Everything she did was patterned on how Taylor changed the world.

Unfortunately, that made all of her magic horribly symbolic. Almost every spell had been turned into a ritual. Amber for stasis or duration. She wanted the fire to burn for some time. Glass for clarity. She wanted to create a real effect, not an illusion of one. Straw for fuel. If she had oil, it would work better, but Taylor wouldn’t let her carry that around. All the added details were time-consuming compared to regular sorcery, but Yvette had decided it was worth it. The effects were always amplified far beyond what was otherwise considered normal for wizards.

How should she handle this? Yvette had been studying what Taylor did for a while now and thought she could copy some of her abilities, she still found herself frustrated. She wanted to be able to recreate Taylor’s larger manipulations of the world. No matter how hard she tried, she hadn’t managed to succeed. She had taken a peek at some of Cordelia Hasenbach’s notes out of curiosity and seen how important Taylor really was. If other people could do what she did, then maybe she would be happier? There definitely wouldn’t be so much for her to worry about.

More importantly, perhaps then the next time the Ratlings came, people would be better prepared.

She turned her attention back towards her working.

Oops.

Without paying attention, she had filled in sections to mimic one of Taylor’s effects.

“Um, Songbird?” Yvette whispered hesitantly.

“Yes kid?”

“I might have made a mistake and need a few heartbeats to fix it this can still be salvaged I’m sure of it.”

“Right, sure,” a constipated look crossed Songbird’s face.

Yvette pulled out some silvered glass. It was for reflections or mimicry. Illusions, not a real effect. Then she added and a few drops of Taylor’s blood that she had stored in a vial. Convincing Taylor to donate the blood had taken less effort than Yvette had expected, although asking the older girl for it had been scary. She continued her incantation. The working was reaching its terminus and there were only a few variables left to define. She added an exclusion for Songbird, herself, and the Hall of Records. Being caught in her own spell would be embarrassing. All that was left to define was the intensity of the flames and the size of the affected area.

Movement out of the corner of her eye distracted her for a moment. Oh, it was just another cat. It was a pity she couldn’t heal it. She hadn’t been taught how to. Taylor had thought that she was too distractible, and it wouldn’t be a good idea. Yvette turned her attention back to the spell and realized she had finished it while she had been lost in thought. The spell triggered. The lines in the air before her erupted in shades of chartreuse and vermilion. All the components she had set out vanished.

Yvette’s shoulders slumped as she felt as if she had just been made to run for miles.

Phantom emerald flames erupted everywhere the eye could see. Yvette… didn’t know how large the area she had defined was.

The sound of screams started up almost immediately. They were loud and unpleasant. Yvette shrunk in on herself.

“I asked you to make a distraction, not burn down the city!” Songbird let out a strangled moan.

“The fire isn’t real it’s just an illusion but people will think it’s real because it will burn in their mind like real fire even if they aren’t actually hurt so the city should be fine,” Yvette replied, averting her eyes.

She was going to be in so much trouble for this.

“S’pose this works,” Songbird replied, although it sounded as if she was talking through the neck of a trumpet. “At least the guards are sure to leave their posts and deal with the fire.”

A quarter of an hour had passed and Yvette started to head home. If she stayed by the river any longer, then the sun would actually set. She wiped her muddy feet against the grass as she went, careful to remove proof of her trip. Behind her in the distance, she could vaguely hear the rustle of something in the brush. She dismissed it. It was probably only a bird. The birds here didn’t look as nice as the ones down south. She missed their old home.

Yvette walked past the trees that lined the path outside their home and eased the door open slowly as she arrived, she didn’t want to alert her Ma to the fact that she had been outdoors. It didn’t matter, her Ma was on the other side. Angrily, she glared down at Yvette.

“Would you care to dust the shelves of my mind by reminding me what the rules were regarding spending time outdoors past the setting of the sun?”

“It wasn’t dark yet!” Yvette pouted.

“Rhenia is not safe!” Her Ma shouted back, ignoring her protest.

“Everything’s not safe here. If it isn’t safe, why did we come?” Yvette stomped her foot.

“Had you kept an open ear rather than allow your thoughts to drift up in the clouds, you would know the answer. The trade of blades down south threatened to consume us. I shall be informing your father about your unscheduled excursion. This behaviour of yours is uncouth for a lady.” Her Ma reprimanded.

Oh no, Da would punish her!

Yvette looked at the ground, shifting from foot to foot. She let her lip quiver and then started to plead. “Please don’t tell Da, please. I promise to be good it was only one time I promise please don’t let Da know.”

Her Ma looked at her for a moment, then huffed with exasperation. “Fine, you little warlock.”

The guards stared dumbly at the ominous green flames rising all over the city. After a moment, they cursed. Half of them ran off, their steel plated boots clanking against the pavement. The other half remained behind. Yvette acknowledged that her plan hadn’t worked, but it had thinned the numbers enough that maybe they could sneak past.

“Y’sure the fires aren’t real?” Songbird asked, sounding concerned.

“Of course not!” Yvette replied, affronted.

She was sure Taylor would be disappointed with her for this anyhow.

Songbird eyed the remaining guards thoughtfully.

“S’not like we can fix this if they are,” Songbird muttered. “Can you anything about them? M’not sure if we can sneak past them without being noticed.”

Yvette bit at her lip. This wasn’t the way the infiltration was supposed to go! This would be so much easier if she could figure out how to hide them. Why did the stupid effect have to hide itself from her senses when Taylor used it?

Taylor had been teaching her a lot of new magics. Unfortunately, the easier spells to learn were all lethal, and they were trying not to kill here. What could she use? There wasn’t anything she felt confident enough to cast here, except for maybe…

Yes, that would work.

People needed air to breathe, right? This would do nicely. She wasn’t modifying people’s bodies directly, so Taylor couldn’t complain. What could symbolize the removal of air? Yvette scruched her nose in contemplation. Coming up with an answer was harder than she thought. Then she realized that she didn’t need air, she needed air gone. Emptiness, absence, a vacuum. She didn’t need anything here because nothing symbolized nothingness.

Satisfied, Yvette began to improvise.

Define the region – a sphere – modify the duration, centre the effect around a target rather than keep it static. There! She made a series of complicated hand gestures and squeaked out an incantation, then released the spell. The air around the soldiers was pulled outwards. Suddenly there was a large void surrounding them. Yvette winced. She knew that this wasn’t very nice to do to people. But it would work without hurting them. She was sure of it.

They tried to shout, but no sound came out. Next they started reaching towards their necks and their eyeballs did this icky bulging thing then went pop. She hadn’t predicted that. Maybe she had hurt them a little? A couple of hundred heartbeats later, and they were asleep on the ground. Yvette allowed the effect to fade. They had tried to run as well, but seizing their legs with cords of air stopped that. That worked better than Yvette had expected.

She turned around to Songbird, who was looking at her in concern.

Odd.

“Does that work?” She beamed at Songbird.

Please tell me I did good. Please tell me I did good.

“Sure kid, that works,” she replied. Songbird looked like she had swallowed a rotten egg.

“I’m sure they can be healed I didn’t kill them and I know priests can heal eyes this is fine I promise!” she stammered out defensively.

… She’d messed up somewhere, hadn’t she? Why did she always mess up!

“We’re not telling Taylor about this, are we?” she squeaked.

“We’re definitely not telling Taylor about this,” Songbird agreed fervently.

That was good. Yvette had never had a sister, but she imagined that Taylor was kind of like one. A big, broody older sister who seemed far too unhappy for a hero. They shouldn’t give Taylor more to worry about, she needed to smile more often. And about things that weren’t so grim. When Taylor laughed, it was usually about something awful.

It was nice being around Taylor. Her chattering didn’t seem to annoy her. Instead, it normally made the older girl smile. That wasn’t the case for most people. They ran past the now unconscious guards. Yvette felt a small pang of sympathy for them, but well, they shouldn’t have been helping the Usurper! It was their own fault. Yvette was sure of it.

The cries of the townsfolk outside was the first sign that something was wrong. Yvette blinked owlishly, slowly waking up from her rest.

“-Mount the stairs and find our moon calf of a daughter. The Ratlings have raised their paws against the defenders of this town!” She heard her Da shout.

Her heart hammered loudly in her chest. Ratlings. They were the monsters to the north, from deep inside the Chain of Hunger. Hopefully a Horned Lord wasn’t coming to eat her. The other kids here teased her about that. They told her that they would come for her first, because she was soft and juicy and not from Rhenia at all.

She needed to run and hide!

Fumbling to her feet, she ran out of the bedroom. That was when she heard the crunch of something from downstairs.

Her Ma shrieked. Then her Da bellowed, roaring with rage.

Yvette slid down the bannister in her nightclothes, making her way to the ground floor. The servants were in disarray. She turned the corner and saw her mother lying on the wooden floor in a slowly expanding pool of her own blood. She was gasping for air, struggling to breathe. Across her throat was a jagged red smile.

Her father roared again. He had drawn a blade and was fighting with a furry creature. It stood hunched at about her height on two legs and slashed wildly back and forth with claws. At its feet lay the broken remnants of a crudely made spear. Her father swung down with a meat cleaver, digging deep into the creature’s skull. Then, another jumped over the still thrashing corpse, barrelling into her Da.

Her Da tumbled to the ground, losing his grip on the cleaver.

Gasping in and out, Yvette looked around to see what she could do. She ran down the hallway towards the kitchen, but in her panic didn’t notice another one of the creatures entering through the door at the other end. It pounced on her. She shrieked, falling to the ground as deep scratches were gouged into her arms.

She felt hot, hazy and oh so scared. Everything was going wrong, her own world was going up in flames. She reached out desperately for someone, anyone, to help her and felt something at the edge of her mind. She latched onto it and pushed all her fears into it.

The Ratling that had fallen on her flew back, and everything surrounding her suddenly caught light.

Yvette ran.

Fast as she could blink, she was back at the entrance. The inferno spread unnaturally fast, though. The other Ratlings were gone. Stopping by her Ma and Da she tried to get them up.

“Wake up, wake up please wake up I’ll be good I promise,” she sobbed.

They wouldn’t move.

Come on, come on, come on!

The heat continued to build.

Someone came through the door, she didn’t see who they were.

They picked her up and pulled her away.

No, what about her Ma and Da?

Thrashing, she tried to break free, but they wouldn’t let go. They pulled her out of the room. Slung over the figure’s shoulder, Yvette watched the flames consume their home, and the remains of her family with it.

They made their way past the now unconscious guards. The inside of the compound was quiet, almost unnaturally so.

“We’re not trying to sneak any more,” Songbird hissed. “Can you knock them out?”

Yvette considered the request. It shouldn’t be too difficult. The spell didn’t require any components. Nodding her head like an excited fox, she repeated her earlier working. It didn’t take long for the guards to collapse on the floor.

Without the need to be sneaky, their progress accelerated. They didn’t bother to stick to the shadows and dark corners. Instead, Yvette incapacitated the remaining patrols. Soon they arrived at the entrance.

Songbird ran up to the door and did something to the lock. It clicked and they made their way inside. They arrived in a large atrium with pillars on either side. There was a desk at the end, with large open double doors on either side of it. Rows of shelves could be seen on the other side.

The place was as abandoned as the farmhouse buildings during winter. Shouldn’t there be more people?

“Where are we going now Songbird you told me there’s a Princess to rescue we haven’t seen her yet?” Yvette asked.

“She’s in a different building deeper in. S’pose we’ll need to knock out a few more guards first.”

They made their way through the double doors on the right. Songbird led, and Yvette followed behind. Suddenly, Songbird seized her by the shoulders and pulled her behind one of the shelves. Another patrol was moving up ahead. Ignoring the books digging into her sides, Yvette started muttering once more. They weren’t even fitted into the shelves properly. Who did that?

It didn’t take long before the guards slumped to the ground.

They reached a doorway on the other side. Opening it, Yvette was surprised to find it led outside.

“Why did we go into this building if you planned to go out the other side surely it would have been easier to just go around?” she asked.

“I don’t want to fight every guard in the compound. It’s easier to hide from eyes between the shelves,” Songbird explained. “M’not sure that you could deal with all the guards at once.”

“Why are there so many buildings inside the Hall of Records it makes no sense surely there should only be books?”

“If you were listening when I explained it to Taylor, you would know,” Songbird chided. “It has live-in scribes and housing for them. The building we really want is over there.” Songbird pointed on their right to another heavily guarded building.

Yvette bit her lips. “Are you sure there’s a Princess in there it’s very well protected and I don’t think we can sneak past them how did you sneak past them.”

“I didn’t,” Songbird replied smugly. She puffed out her suit and almost seemed to preen like a bird. “Funny how people talk with the right incentive. S’pose you need to know. Princess Clotilde has her personal guard with her. S’why Quentin didn’t just attack. The reputation damage would see him lose out to the other two. He’s waiting for her to surrender.”

“And she hasn’t starved or died of thirst yet how can she keep on living in there?”

Songbird just gave her a flat look. It probably meant that it was another detail she had missed.

“She won’t run out of water. There’s a supply in there. She’ll prob’ly starve if she doesn’t escape soon. There’s only so much food in the building. Can you take out the guards?”

Yvette said nothing in response. Instead, she concentrated and repeated her earlier working once more. It didn’t take much effort to incapacitate Quentin’s loyal guards. The two of them approached openly with nobody barring their way. Songbird tried to open the door, but found that it was locked.

“S’pose you can blow this up?”

Frowning, she eyed the door. Taylor had shown her a lot of ways to break things. The door wasn’t a person, so breaking it was fine. It didn’t take much work to send a wave of force at it. The door went flying off of its hinges.

Yvette was excited. She was going to be meeting a real hero. Not much was known about her, other than the fact that she once fought the Warlock, but still! The elderly lady she had been living with had been… alright. She was nice to her, but she hadn’t been all there. Still, it would be mean to say that. She was just happy she would be meeting a hero, and one that was apparently quite young.

The local garrison of soldiers had found her shortly after the fire she started. They had headed towards the manor directly after the attack. Being orphaned due to Ratling raids wasn’t too uncommon here, so the guards were almost uncaring… However, they showed a great deal of interest when they learned how the fire had started. War Wizards were highly prized in Rhenia for their ability to help keep the Ratlings at bay, and so she was promptly sent to be housed with some of them.

She was supposed to learn from some of them whenever they had the time, but they were often tired or disgruntled and didn’t teach very well at all. That was all going to change now. Cordelia Hasenbach had recruited a hero into her service, and Yvette had been assigned to her as an assistant.

It had been a while since she had been so excited about something. This was something to celebrate. How many people could say they actually met a real hero?

Smiling, she knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a voice called.

She entered the Chosen’s room and came face to face with a tall, plain looking girl with long, curly black hair. The girl was seated on a chair to one side and drinking a cup of tea. The girl was dressed like a servant in white, not wearing extravagant clothing. Perhaps one of the Chosen's servants? This Chosen was said to be sworn to Compassion. Maybe she just took care of people who were in a bad place. That would explain why an orphan like Yvette would be assigned to her. Still, it surprised her that the girl would be brazen enough to just sit and drink her mistress’s tea like that.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for your mistress, do you know where she is?”

The girl started to choke, then turned her way. Her large eyes fixed themselves on Yvette.

“My what?” She asked, sounding scandalized.

“The Chosen? My name is Yvette and I’ve been assigned as her assistant so can you please tell me about her I don’t want to embarrass myself when I meet her.” Yvette’s babbling trailed off.

The girl smiled for some reason and put down the cup, “Well Yvette, what do you want to know about her?”

On the other side of the door was a group of Clotilde’s personal guards, who were already drawn their blades and levelled them towards her. Yvette wasn’t willing to take a chance on their safety. One short muttered incantation later, and she had hoisted them up in the air.

Songbird let out a choked snort from behind her.

The two of them crossed through the doorway and entered the room inside. They strolled down the red carpet laid out across the entrance hall and into a large, open room. There was a small group of people all seated around. They all looked haggard. Their faces withdrawn. It was clear they had not eaten in a long while, and the stench of unwashed bodies wafted her way.

All of them were climbing to their feet as the two of them entered. Yvette did not feel it was smart to give them that chance.

“So it has come to this. Has Quentin truly fallen so far as to hire the assistance of a sorcerer in an effort to see me brought low?” A woman called out from further in.

“Your Royal Highness,” Songbird gave an exaggerated bow. “While your concerns are prudent, in this case they are misplaced. Would you allow me to shed light on the happenings outside these halls?”

The two of them started up a highly involved discussion. Songbird asked Yvette to free Clotilde’s bodyguards shortly after their talking began. After doing so, her attention began to drift. Princess Clotilde didn’t look healthy. She had sunken eyes and the shakes. It was obvious to Yvette that she needed sleep, a good meal, and the help of a healer. Regardless, they started to escort the Princess out of the compound only a few moments later.

Finally, they made their way out the Hall of Record’s gates onto the streets outside. At a glance, it was evident just how much chaos the city had been thrown into in the time since they had entered.

“Y’know kid, I thought you told me those flames weren’t real?” Songbird asked, pointing into the distance with her index finger.

Yvette looked out into the distance.

The illusory blaze she had started as a distraction had spread. Across the city, the light of more fires rose up into the night sky. Yvette concentrated for a moment and dismissed her illusion. The ominous green flames vanished, but the blackish yellow ones in the distance remained.

Yvette’s fingers twitched nervously as she watched the burgeoning disaster.

Hesitantly, she tugged at Songbird’s arm. “We didn’t do that right?”

Songbird nodded enthusiastically.

“S’right, kid, we definitely didn’t do that.”