“Ready?” I ask, hoping I will be in the next few moments.
Sierri nods and I take a deep breath before opening the heavy steel door separating us from the massacre outside. Wails of despair and cries of pain slam into me the moment I do. I force them into the back of my mind and try to focus on only what’s in front of me. Darting my eyes around for any hint of sky blue and listening for the sounds of metal boots on stone. It doesn’t take long to catch sight of a group of three soldiers hammering on a door across the street, the heavy oak of Bardin’s tool shop.
A flash of movement and a form rushing past me tell me Sierri saw them too and is about to let her feelings be known about the invasion. I sprint after her and make it just in time to watch her slice clean through a soldier’s sword raised in guard. Blades of razor sharp wind bite deep into his armor and cut gouges from his flesh. Without hesitation I slam into the woman next to him before she can assist, my blade igniting with intense heat as it pierces clean through her armor.
Shoddy metalwork, I think grimly as I try to push the fact that I’m killing another person out of my mind. The nausea creeping in tells me it’s not working as well as I’d hope. Gagging on the smell of burnt flesh while I fight.
Despite the success of our surprise attack, we’re immediately put on the backfoot. I have extensive knowledge of forms, but in practice I’m a complete novice. Blades strike me far faster than I can bring my sword up to block and they dodge each of my wobbling swings as if they can see them before they come. Were it not for our vastly superior armor, we’d have been skewered to death a hundred times over. A fact which is cold comfort in the face of the senseless deaths occurring all around us.
We’re wasting time!
In my desperation I forgo any semblance of a fight and instead rush in to tackle the man. His heavy strikes rain down on me but fail to stop my charge and we crash together onto the ground. I force my sword toward his throat as he holds me back with dire panic, but my monstrous strength brings it close. Biting back the sickening stench as the flames sear the skin from his face. His throat scorches over, ear splitting screams turning into a wretched hiss then silence.
The horror of what I’ve just done looms sickeningly over me as I turn to help Sierri, but her wind enchantment has already bled the fight out of her opponent. She finishes his fallen form with a sharp stab to the chest.
“T-that was awful.” She manages to get out shakily through deep ragged breaths.
Before I even have a chance to respond she follows it up with “And we're going to do it again.”
This time I don’t bother trying to respond as I start moving down the street towards the screams. Broken stalls and signs of fighting are strewn about, the destruction growing the further we go.
We find the bodies before anyone else.
My mind must be playing tricks on me as I look down at Lydia, her head two feet from the rest of her. The soft melodies of her harp and beautiful songs, silenced forever.
I spoke to her this morning, I asked her how her day was going, we had made plans to meet up for a drink tomorrow. My blurry vision refuses to accept the view in front of me, the tears rolling down my eyes as I feel my throat closing up. I’m holding her lifeless body before I even realize what I’m doing.
Please be a bad dream, please just be a bad dream. I try to force myself to wake up from this nightmare, but no matter how much I plead I remain trapped inside. Her voice plays over and over in my head, the conversation from the morning, from when she was still alive. It hammers into my heart with spikes of grief, again and again and again.
When the wailing starts I’m convinced it’s coming from me, but I know from my silent sobbing that it’s not. It takes a force of will to pull my gaze from my departed friend and I dearly wish I had not. Sierri kneels over a pair of bodies, she’s shaking and inconsolable and I’m painfully aware of why. Jorn clutching his daughter Sarah as if to protect her, both pierced clean through. Memories of her giggling and offering to pay me in flowers for a hairpin come unbidden and drown me in despair.
How could anyone do that to a child!? I can’t breath, murky water surrounds and suffocates me, dragging me down to the nine hells. I gently place the remains of my friend taking shaky steps toward Sierri and wrap my quivering arms around her. I'm afraid to let her go, I fear I’ll shatter into a million pieces if I do.
A scream echoing breaks through our mourning and it’s only the thought of sparing even one person from this fate that keeps me moving. I drag myself to my feet, feeling the weight of a mountain pressing down on me, but I take one step forward and then another. With heavy hearts we continue down the street, toward the sounds of boots and shattering wood.
The soldiers spot us first this time, standing in the center of the pathway keeping watch. Their shouts of alarm let us know it’s only a matter of time before more arrive. I don’t bother trying to fight like a warrior here, I have no skills to leverage, only pure strength and anger. A burning roiling fury. I slam into the harpy woman despite her desperate hammering of my armor with her mace and crush my blade against her helmet. The metal melts like hot candle wax from the heat and I press harder through the screams as my blade slices clean through. All thoughts of mercy or disgust have fled me, only hate remains.
Sierri’s blades of wind continue to cut bloody gouges in the harpy man, ripping feathers from his wings as his iron halberd scrapes ineffectually off her mithril plate. I have no doubt she’d bleed him out the same as the last one, but there’s no reason to wait. I move behind him and slice clean through his armor with a vicious slash the moment he dodges back.
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I guess he expected his friend to win.
I snort with contempt as he screams in pain. It takes another few slashes to drop him to his knees, and I cut his head off before he can hit the ground. I don’t feel happy, nor do I feel upset about it.
Empty, everything feels empty.
Something slams into me with the force of a direbear and I go skipping across the stone street like a pebble across a lake. My sudden flight is just as quickly stopped when I crash into the stone wall of a nearby house, knocking the air out of my lungs. I hear Sierri scream through the ringing of my ears and vaguely spot a blurry figure approaching me. I check my health and for the first time this night it has dropped, and tremendously at that.
HP: 101 / 194
Almost half of my HP lost in a single blow, the bruising and pain shooting through my chest reflect it. A premonition of death lances through me and I don’t even need an identify scroll to know.
Ascendant.
I manage to get to my feet, but I'm on borrowed time. I don’t know which one it is due to the helmet covering their face, but unless the guards show up in force to stop them we’re dead. They’re going to tear me and Sierri apart and there's little we can do to stop it. I feel a twinge of regret that I ever left the safety of my forge, that I ever believed I could hold up to the force of an army as a crafter. But it’s swallowed by the knowledge that were I to be given the choice again I’d have made the same decision, every single time. I’d rather die than do nothing while everyone I love and care for is slaughtered.
As my vision comes into focus and I see Sierri rushing toward the ascendant in a vain hope of stopping them, I let a selfish desire bubble forth.
Run, please leave me and run.
“RUN!” I shout as I burst out toward the soldier, straining my muscles to their limit as I charge toward my death. A mix of emotions fills me as she keeps running to aid me, having ignored my plea entirely.
My sword never makes contact with the ascendant. The tortured screech of scraping metal pierces the night air as their blade slides along my chest plate, but a wave of pure arcane force passes through cutting deep into my ribs and heart. A numbness creeps in as time slows to a crawl while my body slides across the snow, unresponsive to my will. In that eternal moment on the edge of death my mind races with unanswered questions.
Did anyone make it out alive? Why is the Skypeaks Empire even here, weren’t we trading partners with them? Where in the divines are the fucking guards!?
All of my frantic thoughts die as a scene from my worst nightmares plays out. Sierri, pierced through her heart by the ascendant’s sword and flung away like trash into the wall next to me. I’m too weak to even choke out a cry. I crawl, slowly, desperately dragging my bleeding body over to her. It screams in pain and protest, begging me to give up, but I inch forward a little at a time.
I Finally make it near enough to close my hand around hers, but the lifeless eyes tell me she’s already gone. I beg and plead and pray to any of the divines to bring her back, to hear her say my name one more time. Despite my cries, I never expected them to answer so it takes me by surprise when the weight of divinity crushes down on me once more.
“What will you trade me for her life, child?” His voice echoes out and I know without a doubt in my mind that this is Barthias, the knowledge is etched into my brain by his very presence.
“Anything, please I will give you anything. Bring them back, please bring everyone back.” I cry out, tears I didn’t know I still had coming in hot streaks across my cheeks.
“Becoming greedy now that you have my attention. That is far more than you can afford.” He responds, the words pulsing through my soul and rattling my very being, but they're calm and amused rather than angry.
“Then save her, I don’t care what it costs me.” I shout, suddenly struck by how strange my body feels, as if it’s disconnected from reality.
“I will have all your divine essence then, in exchange for her soul.” When he speaks it presses on me and I can taste the magnitude of what my response will bring. To make a deal with a god, not enforced or created by mere words but by the realm itself. It matters not, I know what my answer will be.
“Yes. Take it, just bring her back.” My soul is torn apart as soon as I accept, everything I am is ripped free and given to Barthias. Years of crafting, of slowly accumulating experience and feats and skills, are torturously peeled from my mind and body. It is excruciating beyond words and yet all I can feel is relief.
Sierri, I’ll see you once more.
The world resumes and I’m once again lying on the ground, my hand clasped tightly around hers as the massacre continues. She doesn’t stir though, her eyes still lifeless and cold sending a panic through my very core.
Barthias! What is the meaning of this!? Before I can curse out the god for tricking me I feel it. Not coming from her body, but from within my armor and suddenly I know no matter how much I wish to deny it. Why, why is her soul in my armor!?
“Her vessel is gone, girl. Nor would it have been worth what you gave to revive her. Her soul is returned, what you do with it from now on is up to you.” The words whisper in my mind as the last lingering remnants of the divine wisp away, leaving only cruel reality.
This isn’t what I wanted! I cry out through my soul, but no response comes back. All that’s left is me and this accursed prison I’ve trapped her in.
It’s too much for me and so I shut everything out. Clinging to Sierri’s body, even though her soul is no longer in it, even when the Midland soldiers tear through the streets slaying those Skypeaks bastards. Vaguely I recognize someone shaking me, but I refuse to budge.
The sky darkens and snow falls around me, freezing my tears and coating me in frost. Again someone shakes me and again I remain holding on to the one person I can’t lose yet is already gone. They don’t leave this time though, a heavy wool blanket being placed over me.
The moon shines down on my still form, the wind and my chattering teeth the only sounds in the lonely night. Frost forms over me and chills my bones, slows my heart, and clings to my skin. Finally it claims me and I stop thinking entirely.
