#like when i rechecked it earlier it was wrapped up so quick

[eddiemelrose]

yk the whole issue of neil not wanting to be associated with declan at all would have been solved if he was made declan's guardian instead of eddie. if there were no eddie fans left i'd be dead but. why split jill and eddie up after making them endgame and leaving neil awol. what kind of ending is that when an easier solution is possible. adrian is a royal who could request a guardian (hence eddie) and with rose and dimitri knowing the truth they could have helped make sure the assignment went through. damn do I gotta think up all these plot resolutions myself.

[time-and-souvenir]

Dazzled is an Understatement Part II

Summary: Curious about what happened to Victor and MC’s after the end of the Dazzling Date? A continuation from Victor’s POV. Part 2/3 of Dazzled is an Understatement. 

FYI: Some NSFW, spoilers for chp 10 and beyond, spoilers for Dazzling Date and as always I chose a random name for MC.

Wordcount: 3053 words.

Notes: It’s crazy to me that some of you wanted more of this fanfic? Lol! Dazzled was supposed to be a one shot but I decided to write a second part to it to wrap it up. THEN I wrote this and decided, you know what? I’m making this into THREE parts 😂❤️Thanks to everyone who suggested this, liked, commented and reblogged the first part of Dazzled is an Understatement! & thank you for being SO PATIENT, reading and supporting my writing ♥️ Part 3 is coming soon! I hope you guys like it❤️

“Yes, yes. I know Goldman. I am aware of that,” Victor replied in annoyance as he sifted through the progress reports of several projects LFG had planned in the coming week. He had spent many hours writing up the perfect proposal for this new company he was about acquire, it was an offer they wouldn’t be able to refuse. Working together with Goldman everything was moving very smoothly, until the company somehow started to get cold feet. For reasons he didn’t understand, and he wasn’t happy about it; the company knew who he was and what his company did, what in the world possessed them to do this?

“We could rework the offer and add in another department they might like, sir. I’ve been looking over their assets again and it would be very lucrative---“

“No. The offer I gave them was plenty, we don’t bend to someone that is inferior to our company, especially a company we are trying to acquire Goldman,” Victor responded, irritation lacing his tone. The more he kept discussing things over with his assistant, the more heated his blood became and not in a good way. Goldman changed tactics and suggested another way LFG could make things work and the ravenette listened intently. He clicked on his email, looking over the different graphics, information on the company’s growth and some articles of the company’s achievements that Goldman sent him. It was a decent size, but with proper funding, patience and the guidance of LFG it would succeed. A new plan started to form in his head.

“Here is what I want you to do Goldman,” Victor leaned back in his chair and started to rattle off what he needed his subordinate to do. Ten minutes later as their phone call started to wrap up, he felt much more confident with what was discussed. The ravenette had always gotten what he wanted, one way or another and this small little company was next. He stood up and stretched slightly, keeping his phone tucked into his shoulder so he could continue to hear Goldman. He walked over to his home office window, the sun setting in the distance. He had been working from his penthouse for a couple of days now, work had become…somewhat distracting.

“I need you to finish up that proposal within the hour, type it up and bring it over with the other data that we’ve discussed. I’ll give you the final approval so you can take it to their office tomorrow,” Victor paused, shutting his laptop closed and turning towards the door of his office. It had gotten rather late and he needed to make dinner. “If that’s all, I’ll see you----"

“Uh actually, sir?”

“Yes?”

“Miss Juliette has been insistent on trying to schedule an appointment with you. She’s been calling me nonstop for the last three days, almost demanding to talk or see you,” Goldman trailed off, sounding nervous. The CEO paused in the doorway of his home office, his breath almost catching. He closed his eyes and a sigh escaped his lips.

“Do she happen to mention what was so urgent?” He asked as he left the room, heading towards his gourmet kitchen.

“She said she needed to speak to you about something important but did not elaborate beyond that. I am sorry, sir. What would you like me to do?” His assistant asked, he didn’t sound nervous anymore instead is tone was curious.

“Do as I said before, write up the proposal and bring me that data in one hour, Goldman. That is all,” Victor snapped and hung up the phone, he set the device down on his kitchen island and ran a hand down his face in annoyance. He had been dodging Juliette’s calls for almost five days now, five days since their date and the night they had kissed. He swore he could still feel the heat from her mouth on his own and the warmth of her skin as they slept together in her bed. His cock twitched at the thought of her wrapped around him, suddenly remembering how soft and wet her mouth felt.

Groaning, the black-haired male shook his head and walked around the kitchen island, going to one of his cabinets and opening it. He took out his favorite glass and went to fetch a bottle of wine, on a mission to pick out one of his most expensive ones. With the way he had been feeling, he might end up drinking the entire bottle. Victor had no idea why he felt this way, not only had Juliette been his long-lost childhood love, they had somehow found their way back to one another and their relationship was starting to blossom. There was no reason to feel down or disappointed by anything, he had finally found her, and everything was falling into place. Then why did feel so horrid about it? He grabbed a bottle of wine from his collection and went back to the kitchen island, searching for a wine opener from one of its drawers. He found what he needed and made quick work of the bottle before pouring himself a glass.

Juliette had made the first move between them, she had initiated and kissed him. The CEO had been so worried to do anything at first, there was a lot that had happened between them and the years they spent apart stacked between them as well. Everything had been exactly like he wanted with Juliette and more, but he didn’t want to ruin it by pushing her into a direction she didn’t want to go into or wasn’t ready for. His little idiot was a strong and stubborn woman, but he had seen the fear and questioning in her eyes sometimes when they were together, so he decided to be careful. Besides, they had all the time together in the world, his evol made sure of that. Closing his eyes, he downed the glass of wine and poured himself another. He was in complete and utter misery. One, he had missed Juliette desperately. He missed talking to her and frankly he also felt anxious not talking to her. Something he would never admit aloud, but it was something that hovered over him like a cloud. Two, how in the world could he face her after the dream he had? Yes, they had kissed and touched on their date and fell asleep together but having that type of dream while she slept next to him was so mortifying.

Victor took a sip of his dream, letting his thoughts consume him for a few moments. He had been so happy she had kissed him first, it gave him the permission he needed that she wanted that from him. It was still hard for him to do anything, let alone truly touch her because he was afraid something would go wrong. It was as if he thought of her as some expensive artwork and if he hadn’t locked up and put that artwork something horrible would happen. Somehow the artwork would be ruined, or someone would try and steal it; but Juliette wasn’t artwork, no she was the precious little girl he had been desperately searching for years and years. She was real and in front of him, but he was so afraid to touch her, so afraid she would disappear.

Sighing, he downed the rest of his and set the wine glass down. Two glasses should be enough for now, he still needed to eat. Shaking his head, he walked over to the refrigerator and opened it. He scanned the different shelves, trying to come up with something quick but fulfilling, it wasn’t too late but still. Something heavy wouldn’t do. Suddenly, the sound of his doorbell went off and he blinked looking up. Victor shut the fridge and grabbed his phone off the kitchen island, it hadn’t been thirty minutes yet and Goldman had already finished and arrived? And he had a key, why in the world wasn’t he using it? All of a sudden feeling a bit annoyed, the CEO left his kitchen and walked towards the entrance of his home.

Once he got there, he paused and opened up his phone bringing up the old proposal for tor company LFG was soon to acquire from earlier. He unlocked and opened the door, stepping aside. “Goldman, I appreciate your quickness, but why aren’t you using your key?” He spoke without looking up from his phone.

“Maybe because I’m not Goldman, Victor.” A sweet, but irritated feminine voice rang out in front of him. The ravenette started to feel his pulse race a bit and he looked up from his phone, trying to hide the shock from his face. Juliette stood before him, her arms across her chest as her foot tapped ever so slightly on the floor. She was so tiny in comparison to him, yet she looked like she was ready to take him down at any moment. Blinking, he shook his head and ushered her inside, thankfully she didn’t put up a fuss as she entered his home. He swiftly closed the door, the sound of the lock filling up his foyer.

“One moment.” Victor looked at her and tried not to stare, but she shrugged and turned her back to him, making her way into his main living place.

Trying to snap out of his shock, he shook his head and dialed Goldman’s phone number. “Finish the proposal, recheck the data and have everything ready to be discussed tomorrow. Tonight, is no longer available.” He spoke with absolution as he heard Goldman start to stutter in disbelief on the other line. Before his assistant could argue or say anything further, he hung up on him. Goldman had dealt with bigger issues before, he would be fine.

The CEO quickly followed Juliette into the living room, where he found her sitting on his couch waiting. She looked beautiful and lovely as always, even with the annoyance rolling out of  her in waves, nothing could stop how gorgeous she was to him. Victor couldn’t help but smile a bit at how she was acting, the woman before him looked like a very annoyed, fluffed up kitten. He sat down beside her, setting his phone on the coffee table before turning to her, giving the brunette his full attention.

“Why have you been avoiding me? My calls?” Juliette spoke angrily, a confused look into her chocolate colored eyes. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this, it’s one thing to ignore me for work but…” She trailed off, her expression suddenly becoming vulnerable. “We had that wonderful date, I thought we had grown closer. I know you didn’t mean to spend the night on purpose, but I enjoyed waking up in your arms. I know you did too, so I don’t understand,” the producer shook her head back and forth before stopping to look at him again. “I don’t understand why you aren’t talking to me.” The irritation she had come to his home with vanished and a look of hurt crossed her face instead.

Gently, Victor reached out and cupped her face. Moving close to her, his fingers stroked her skin and his pulse quickened slightly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” He spoke softly as he leaned down, pressing his forehead against his. Juliette sniffed and he felt her slender arms encircle his neck. His breath caught slightly, and he closed his eyes for a moment, only to open them to find her gaze focused on his own. Without thinking, the ravenette gently tilted her face up to his and pecked her lips against his. Juliette gasped against his mouth and he smiled in return. He angled his head slightly and kissed her once more, deepening it.

“Victor…” the brunette murmured his name and it was as if the spell that been cast on him broke. He pulled away from her, enough to look down at her face. His fingers still lingered on her cheeks and a look on confusion filled her now flushed face. He had to get better grip on himself and his thoughts, his annoying, tortuous lewd thoughts of her. They had just found one another one again and after seventeen years of searching for her, he still couldn’t believe he had finally found her and the little girl who had saved him all those years ago. He couldn’t risk ruining what they had because of his own carnal, selfish desires. Reluctantly he let go of her face and started to pull away only to find the front of his shirt being grabbed and pulled back toward her. He started to say her name but closed his mouth and repeatedly blinked several times at the look on her face. “I am not a doll or a piece of glass. I’m the woman you love.” Juliette pulled him so closed to her that their noses barely were inches apart. Her dark hues kept moving from his eyes to his mouth and something just snapped inside of him.

The CEO wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her neck, he felt himself shaking a little. “Is it so wrong that I want to cherish you Juliette?” He murmured into her skin, kissing the spot beneath her ear. He felt her hands move into his hair, her delicate fingers stroking through the strands. “Cherishing doesn’t mean keeping me at arm’s length or ignoring the fact that we want one another.” Juliette’s hands suddenly disappeared from his head and he felt a gentle nudge underneath his chin, he obliged her and looked at her. She kissed his nose and pressed her forehead against his own, her arms immediately wrapping around his neck. “I love you and I want you.” Victor fought the urge to stop and rewind time, but he also didn’t want to make Juliette have to wait any longer either. His little producer had gotten quite bold, maybe all his heavy teasing and business advice had finally gotten through to her.

“I have always loved you,” He murmured against her mouth before pressing a chase against her mouth and a small murmur was her response, her nails digging lightly into the back of his neck. Smiling Victor kissed her again, sliding his tongue past her lips and into her mouth to meet her tongue. His hands cradled and angled her face up to his as they kissed. Juliette sighed and moaned into his mouth as kept his lips against her own, his fingers stroking the sides of her face. Victor pulled away after what seemed like hours from her panting ever so slightly, his cock throbbing and beginning to harden as he stared at her flushed face and wide-eyed gaze.

“Have you ever done anything like this before?” He asked as his hands left her cheeks and moved down her neck, his fingers tracing her body downward until they rested against her hips. The brunette stared up at him for a few moments not saying anything and he was about to say something when she dug her nails gently but with purpose into his neck.

“Some of it. Does it matter?” She asked holding his gaze and ignoring his hands moved and gripped the backs of her legs, he swore he saw her chest rise and fall faster at the movement.

“Hold on tight to me.” Victor replied and lifted her off the couch making sure that her legs wrapped around his torso. She made a small sound of distress, but he kissed her cheek and chuckled. “I’m not going to let you fall, Juliette.” She adjusted herself a bit against him and once she settled into his arms, she pulled out slightly and looked down at him. Her eyebrows rose when he didn’t move, he just stood there holding her.

“Are you sure you want---?”

“Victor,” She cut him off and one of her hands grabbed his chin and pulled his face closer to her own. Her chocolate orbs seemed ablaze with determination, the same gaze he had seem her do many times before either when presenting a report to him or eating one of his meals. He pecked her mouth and moved his hands from her hips to his ass, squeezing the delicate round. The earlier bravo she had had shown him all of a sudden faded and her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red. Smirking, he kissed her again making sure to press his middle especially hard between the spot of her legs. Her hands dug into his shoulders and she let out a low sound against his mouth. Pulling away, he kissed her nose and started to walk away from the couch and living room and moved towards the stairs. “Just wanted to make sure you know what you’re getting into.” Victor kissed her again, breaking apart only for a few moments to angle his face towards her. He reached the stairs and carefully went up them one by one, his fingers kneading and squeezing the brunette’s ass. Juliette kept letting low moans escape her mouth and into his own, her voice was getting louder with each passing moment and he wondered if she had even realized she was making a sound.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, the CEO carried her down the hallway and paused at his bedroom door. Victor broke away from her lips only to find himself pressing his forehead against her own. His dark hues looking into her own gaze as they looked at one another.

“When we go in there I’m not going to stop, so I need to know…” He paused, reaching up one of his hands and caressing the side of her face. “Are you sure?” His thumb traced her mouth before he leaned in and kissed her again. Pulling back his hand left her face and back down to her side, squeezing her there. His hands tangling in the fabric as he took a step forward, pausing in the doorway of his bedroom.

“I’m sure,” Juliette spoke her voice seemingly out of breath, and he smiled in response. Kissing her deeply once more, Victor moved them into his bedroom using his back foot to shut the door firmly behind them.

[thequeenb]

A Deal With The Devil (part 2)

Pairings: KamilahxMC

"But you will never become anything!!" he yelled slamming his hand violently on the table. I can still hear his screams but it feels like my brain just broke. The tears makes it harder for me to see but his anger was beyond this world

"You think leaving this town will bring food on your plate?? These dreams are a waste of your time and mine!!" I could see the frustration in his movements, the way he runs his hand through his hair, the way his fists hit the wall

I love my father, i do but does he? It felt like i didn't had a choice, when we are born into this world we just love our parents. He is my father, he gave me a life, a warm place to call home but are these elements of love?

Aren't parents suppose to support you? Help you achieve your dreams? No he is your father you love him but does he? When his fists hit the flat surface of the table is that love? Or is it when he hugs you tight when you had a nightmare?

"Its not your choice Dad i want to chase my dream!!" I dared to scream back, i risked everything the moment i did so and when he looked at me with those eyes my heart stopped

He approached me and i couldn't move, i couldn't breathe. He reached his hand out and for a moment i closed my eyes. He didn't hug me, he didn't apologize. Instead i felt his heavy hand on my cheek. No he is your father you love him. It burned like the fire, and it burned down all the forests of dreams and hopes that i had

"Is this your dream? To become nothing??" His sharp voice echoed through my mind breaking my inside. No he is your father you love him but he doesn't. My tears didn't allow me to watch the awful sight of him screaming. But for a brief second as the 100th tear fell from my eye i could see my mother standing by the door

I could tell how scared she was, i could tell she wanted to hug me and protect me but why didn't she? Its her husband she loves him. He finally left the room and just like an instinct i fell against the wall wrapping my hands around my self protectively. He is your father..but that doesn't mean he can abuse you.

But he loves me right?

I cant find the answer to this question until this day. A single tear rolled down my face and i was quick to wipe it before the elevator doors opened. It was my first day in work and i was already ten minutes earlier, i knew that Kamilah would make my life a living hell but she cant compare to that devil i called father once

I walked inside her office as professionally as i could. Of course she was busy with her documents but she put them down as soon as she noticed my presence

"Miss Parker" she spat out coldly but she looked almost..amused.

"Miss Sayeed, i am ready to start my first day" my posture showed confidence but my voice was proof of how nervous i was.

She tried to hide her smile "Quite the confidence you have there Miss Parker"

She stood up pushing a pile of papers on my way and i fought back the urge to gasp at the sight. She smirked knowing what i was thinking, this pile was bigger than my head

"Can you check them and put them in order for me? I dont think anyone cared since 2015"

My eyes were looking directly into hers. I wanted to call her an asshole, i wanted to throw all these papers to her face but i didn't, i have to thank my father for this patience that i have now.

"Of course Miss Sayeed" i said as i watched her move the pile almost effortlessly into a desk outside of her office. She isn't that cruel is she?

Without another word she walked away leaving me behind with all this mess. I sighed sitting back at the chair. I took out my pen and start reading the documents.

After what felt like eternity i looked at the clock across the wall. My hand was so tired it almost felt like i ran a marathon. I sat back running my hand through my hair as tears threatened to escape my eyes

I was so desperate to prove everyone wrong about me that i worked myself out completely. Three hours had passed and Kamilah didn't even got out from her office. How could she do this everyday, is she supernatural or something? I laughed wiping my eyes

As i approached the door i held the files for dear life as i entered. Kamilah almost jumped in surprise

"Well well, i thought you ran away honestly" the look on her face was unreadable. I wonder how many years it took her to master that cold distant character but why would i care?

"It will take more than that to scare me off" i responded as let the files on her desk

"I put them in order from 2015 until 2020 and i don't know who your last assistant was but she was terrible at her job, i corrected some mistakes and i wrote them down in this paper right here" i said handing her a two page written paper

"Now i rechecked it twice but have a look yourself" i said crossing my hands looking at her intense eyes. Something about them changed, she looked shocked, maybe pleased

"Colour me impressed Miss Parker" she said standing up, her hand extended

I looked at it for a second before shaking it. Her grip was tight and firm. Her skin was so soft and warm against mine that it almost felt like i am touching a pouring engineer

"Welcome to Ahmanet Financial" she said studying my features. I tried to hide my ridiculously big smile. There were no words to describe how satisfied i felt with myself, how whole.

"I will see you tomorrow Miss Parker"

"You can call me Amy" i smirked before exiting the door. My heart was racing and the moment i found myself alone in the elevator the happy tears ran down my cheeks.

I finally got to prove to anyone who doubt me that i was worthy, that i was someone successful. I waited years for this moment, where i would shut everyone's mouths once and for all, but i suddenly felt uneasy

I got my dream job, i can finally prove to him that i did something with my life, that i am not a nothing, but what happens after you get what you wanted for so many years?

Now what?

Tag list: @scarlet-letter-a0114 @trouble-with-the-curve @mrskamilxh @vonda-b-real @justahumblepie @amorettemcsky @ilovetaylorswiftforever7 @la-guera-69 @sayeedbound @samgtt700 @wildsayeed @blackphenix9527 @nopenos-stuff @potato-kai-mona-sayeed @thepotatobleh @nydeiri @gavryllo

[oceanmastertrash]

the tides know our names- 14/?

Summary:   After losing the throne to his brother Orm is working with Arthur to try to help Atlantis move forward. A few months after this Elara, part of an ancient order of prescient Atlanteans known as Tidewatchers, has a vision of Orm’s death. Predicting and reading the future through the tides of fate has never been easy but Elara is in for the challenge of a lifetime working with her former king to save his life.

Part: 14/?

Word Count: 4,057

Warnings: action and violence

Read on Ao3 

start from the beginning

“I still don’t like this,” He finally sighed, returning her gaze once more. “But I’ll trust you to get us out of this.”

-

Elara did her best to hide her surprise and gratitude. She could tell this was not an easy feat for him and she wanted so very much to make sure he knew she didn’t take this for granted. She wanted nothing more than to bask in this moment, in this very high compliment of his trust but there wasn’t time for that.

She couldn’t help but smile only a little at him as she did her best to move forward with their discussion, “Okay, so we’re reasonably sure that he’s after you, but since we’re not sure how  he’s tracking us, we’ve got to come up with some sort of way to lure him to where we want him to go.”

“You’re suggesting one of us lead him away and the other be waiting to attack him?” He clarified. If he was going to go along with this ludicrous proposal he wanted to be sure they did it right.

“Exactly. But I could use your help fine-tuning it, you’re better at this sort of strategizing than I am.”

She was flattering him and he knew it, no doubt trying to soften the blow of him agreeing to her idea or perhaps thank him for trusting her. And while what she said was true, she wasn’t exactly useless in such strategizing. With her knack for patterns and predictions she had skill all her own.

He leaned forward, shooting her an almost teasing look, “Let me guess, you think you should be the one to lead him to the ambush?”

She cocked an eyebrow at him, “Yes, because it would be foolish to have the injured tidewatcher be the one attacking instead of the seasoned warrior.”

He just barely kept an eye roll contained. She was laying it on thick but he didn’t mind as much as he should.

“Alright, I think the key here is both to distract and mislead him enough so he doesn’t notice it’s just you he’s tracking while finding a more advantageous spot for an ambush of our own. Think you can sense that from here?”

She cocked her head, “That’s not the traditional use of the tides but it’s worth a shot.”

She closed her eyes and Orm couldn’t help but stare at her, trying not to second guess his decision to trust her. He wanted her to be right and wanted this to work out but he didn’t want her to get hurt even worse. She was one of the strongest and smartest people he knew but there are somethings that just came down to chance and chance could never be trusted.

Elara looked to him again, “I think I’ve got something.”

The cave system led out to series of cliffs and winding paths down to shore. If Elara could get back above the cave system onto the forest floor proper, she could stand a better chance at attracting the attention of the tracker. Meanwhile, Orm could continue through the caves to the cliffs and attack the man from there. Orm also comforted himself that if he heard any explosions or signs of a fight from up above he could climb out of the caves and come to Elara’s aid. It wasn’t a perfect plan but it would have to do.

They found a smaller section of cave ahead of them where the roof was much lower and there were ledges that Elara could could ascend to get up above. Wariness was seeping through Orm as he ran through the plan in his mind again, looking for any way to better guarantee success but he knew they’d already done the best they could. All that was left was to act before they lost their window for surprise.

Orm just couldn’t shake this sense of dread at them splitting up. While it wasn’t especially productive, he felt responsible for her and could only assume that it was a hold over from being king. As king, he’d been responsible for the safety and well being of a whole kingdom but since his flight from Atlantis, his purview of citizenry had been reduced to a kingdom of one. Travelling with Elara was nothing like ruling a kingdom and he would be a fool to try to command let alone rule someone like Elara, but that compulsion to protect had not gone away. Right now, that impulse was especially strong considering she was only up here in harm’s way on his behalf.

He knew that this was their best shot at getting out of this scrape but he wasn’t sure what he would do if something serious happened to her when he wasn’t there to watch her back. As a ruler and a warrior, he’d always prided himself for his ability to distance himself from his emotions to make the hard calls. And yet, doing the same now was harder than it should be.

Elara, meanwhile, was rechecking her bandages which Orm had expertly dressed, and feeling out their path and plan in the tides for any last minute adjustments. She was confident in her decision and in her plan but the execution of it was still daunting. She and Orm had left behind their people when they’d left Atlantis, and something in Elara resisted the idea of splitting from Orm. It felt like once they separated, she’d be truly alone. Elara had to take a breath to steady herself. She had to believe in herself, in Orm, and in the tides to see them through.

She looked to Orm now, trying not to overthink things. He met her gaze calmly and gave her a small nod, as if to reinforce his trust in her. He trusted her enough to believe they could get through this. It was a small thing, but it helped. It made her feel like, even if they were not going through this next bit of their journey together, he was with her in this struggle.

“Give me a boost?” She asked him, tilting her head up to the hole in the roof. There was no point in asking if he was ready, they had to be.

He knelt down, making  a cradle with his hands to give her a step up. She put her foot in place and then grabbed onto his shoulders to leverage herself up, she then very slowly, careful of her injured side, stepped from his hands to the next ledge up. Once his hands were free, he extended one against the small of her back to keep her from tilting back while he held the other out in case she started to tip.

Cautiously she climbed the small rocky outcropping until she stood on the forest floor, looking down to see Orm down below. She wanted to tell him to be safe but worried he might find it condescending, instead she just raised a hand in farewell and said, “See you soon.”

He nodded, swallowing down anything else he might say and simply repeated her, making it sound more like a promise. “See you soon.”

Elara gazed down at him for another few seconds before straightening her back and turning away from the hole to begin her trek to the ambush spot. They needed to be quick about things now.

Following suit, he turned to follow his own path in the tunnels, careful to make as little noise as possible, finding small comfort in hearing the rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs as Elara made her own way up above. For the first part of the journey, he could walk roughly parallel to her and could hear if anything went wrong but in some places the tunnels veered away and deeper under the surface.

Orm could still see because he was used to seeing in the depths of the ocean, but he didn’t linger long enough to make any comparisons between the two. He was swift and efficient, prioritizing speed over everything else. This risky plan would only work if he either kept pace with Elara up above or beat her to the rendezvous point. His tactical mind was always planning several steps ahead and prone to envisioning the worst so that he could plan around it but he was very careful to keep those possibilities out of his mind’s eye.

He couldn’t properly strategize what he would do if he was too late but it wasn’t something he could wrap his head around and still be productive. Following his earlier advice to Elara, he just focused on his breathing as he navigated the winding path she’d laid out for him. He’d worry later.

Elara, meanwhile, was having perhaps more difficulty with her path through the constantly changing and rocky terrain due to her side constantly hitching and stinging with the exertion. The one benefit to their plan was that she didn’t have to worry about how much noise she made. In fact, it was best if she attracted some attention.

The tides gave no indication of pursuit but they had a different energy than she’d felt throughout the rest of the day. Earlier all she’d been able to feel was an angry, uncomfortable buzzing. The tides had been oppressive and intent on making her aware of the threat, but now, while they still hummed and remained taut with the presence of the hunter, it felt less threatening. And that, abstract as it may be, enforced to her that she’d made the right call with this plan. The swells of the tide felt more manageable and it made her feel like they could get through this.

As their paths diverged she found herself latching onto Orm’s tides as she felt him on his own path. She tried to tell herself it was just a precaution but there were nerves there that were hard for her to name.

If this had been a week ago when they’d first come to the surface, she might have expected him to make a beeline for the ocean and return to Atlantis, but she didn’t fear that from him now. He seemed to show real concern and even at times, a deference for her gifts. She liked to imagine that he might care for her but even if that wasn’t the case, he was smart enough not to try to go his own way in this situation, especially considering how against the idea of splitting up he had been. No, they would find each other again.

Even as she thought this, she felt the tight thread of their attacker pulse with his approach. She quickened her pace, it would not do for him to catch up before she was at the appropriate point. Orm seemed to be right on track, but she had to speed up.

Elara’s main concern was that she could sense the approach of the attacker but she couldn’t be completely sure if he was following her or Orm and it was difficult to narrow in on that particular pattern while maintaining her current speed. She let everything go except focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and the tides around her. In this focused manner she could feel the intent of their pursuer and tried to use that to hone in on their location. This, again, wasn’t the traditional use of the tides but sort of a variant of the battle tides Zult had taught her.

And there, there he was, following her progress and closing in. The tides showed that the man had caught her trail would probably catch up with her in less than five minutes. But that was too soon! She didn’t think she’d get to the cliffside rendezvous point for another ten minutes. She dropped the thread of the tides and put all of her efforts into increasing speed. If she could just get their faster, maybe Orm would hear the commotion if she was attacked.

With this in mind, feeling the tension getting tighter around her, she thought of one other option though it was a long shot. Tidewatchers could communicate by mentally manipulating the tides around them and sending images or feelings to other Tidewatchers. If this had been A’bree or Calysa, she wouldn’t have hesitated but she wasn’t sure if Orm would even feel it or know what it meant if she tried to send him a message the same way. Back when she was a novice and first instructed in this way, it had felt exceptionally foreign and hard to pick up in the beginning. It was a skill that had to be honed meticulously through extended awareness in the tides and how their patterns naturally flowed.

Only because they’d had such a heightened awareness and prolonged exposure to each other did Elara even think it stood half a chance. She kept it simple, focusing more on emotions like urgency and danger and then wrapped them around the image of where she saw the attacker catching up with her and then sent them down the tides to Orm. She kept up that routine while running until her side ached. Her injury begged her to slow down but she had to give herself every chance she could for this to work.

She’d been at this grueling pace for a few minutes when she heard the crashing behind her and knew she was almost out of time. She scanned the forest around her for any coverage she could find. The terrain had become hilly and pocked with boulders in places where the tunnel system met the forest floor. She couldn’t hope to make it to the original ambush spot but she could at least make herself less of an easy target. Ducking behind the boulders, she pulled her knives from her boots and strategized.

She covered what distance she could, trying to stay out of view while constantly sending her message along the tides to Orm. The crunching of the underbrush grew louder until she no longer felt like she could risk leaving the cover of the trees and rock formation she was leaning against. Like it or not, this was gonna be where she had to make the most of things. About 12 feet ahead of her was a sudden opening to the caves beneath which would be her goal for her plan. It was a bit of a drop, about 20 feet so she had a reasonable chance of injuring or delaying him if she could throw him in there.

A slight rustle on the other side of her cover told Elara her time was almost up. She focused on her location and her connection to Orm, this time sending the word “hurry” down the line and prayed he could interpret what she’d sent. She adjusted her grip on her blades and tensed for the fight. Then he was there, a man all in black, passing right beside her with his large, unwieldy cannon, his eyes fixed ahead, searching for her. She did not wait.

Elara leapt for the man, and used her one chance at surprise to rip the cannon from him and toss it as far as she could behind them. Then she swung a dagger with her other hand. She may have stripped him of his weapon but he was far from helpless and blocked her knife easily enough.  

She tried again with the other blade and managed to graze his arm before he knocked her back. She stumbled against the rock she’d hid behind but was quick to launch herself off it, aiming to move them closer to the hole.

The shock wearing off, and showing anger at the wound, the man switched to the offensive. It was only through the tides that she was able to keep up with him. She wasn’t especially short but he had several inches on her and with her exhaustion, she could feel the disadvantage more. She’d been trained to use her size to an advantage against large adversaries and she would be using every trick in the book she had. At least he wasn’t so very large. While tall, he was lean, but also built and knew how to fight.

He was quick to catch one of her knives mid-strike and wrest it from her. She allowed him to push her back by several feet because it took them closer to the pit. She tried to keep aware of the small hole behind her, lest she fall in it herself, but it was all she could do to keep up with him. She was worn out already from her hurried trek here and her side burned with each strike and dodge. If the man was tired from his pursuit of them at all, he didn’t show it. His blows were relentless and while she avoided several, he still got in several good hits.

He swung with her knife to her right and while she was able to block it, he surprised her with a sucker punch to the left, hitting her right where the splinter had struck. Air gusted out of her and she couldn’t help her wince of pain.

She didn’t know if he’d known about her injury before but from the way his eyes lit up as he saw blood begin to seep through the bandage, he certainly did now. In any other situation she would have sighed. She didn’t need to be a tidewatcher to know this was going to hurt.

He was a skilled fighter and his strength and size were enough to nearly overwhelm her. She tried her best to protect her side but he still got in another good punch. Her only consolation was they were getting closer to the cave opening but with each strike dealt and dodged, she began to worry she wouldn’t have the strength to get him down there without falling in herself.

They were probably 5 feet from the hole when, while attempting to dodge a vicious kick from the man, Elara stepped back only to lose her footing on the uneven terrain and fall to the ground, sending the knife she had left, flying from her grip. The man made for her with his blade so Elara made a quick roll out of the way, dislodging rocks around her. One rock skittered and fell straight in the hole.

His eyes followed the movement and seemed to finally notice the pit, his eyes narrowed and then fell on Elara with vicious anger as he seemed to grasp her plan. He brought his foot up as if to stomp on her and she clenched her fists and held her bent arms in front of her and, grunting, shoved his foot back with the backs of her forearms.

The action temporarily threw him off balance enough for her to scramble to the side, sitting up from where she’d fallen. She made to sweep his legs out from under him to bring him to her level. He barely sidestepped her kick but was knocked a bit closer to the pit with the move. Before she could try again, he dove for her again with her knife. Using her angle to her advantage, she struck him in the wrist from below and he lost his grip on the knife, sending it up and out of reach. It was too far to be of use to either of them now but at least she’d managed to keep him from using it. They were hardly evenly matched as they were but it helped to tilt the scales just a little bit more in her favor.

Barely deterred by the loss of the dagger, her then brought his arm down on her shoulder. She barely managed to remain sitting but was too distracted by the pain to search the tides for his next move. He continued his lunge with both his hands extended. Before she could block, his hands were around her neck. Her hands scrambled at his, but could find no purchase against his gloves.

“Where is he?” the man finally spoke, grunting as he held her.

Some distant part of her brain commented on the stupidity of starting an interrogation while choking her, but the majority of her was focused more on staying alive.

She made no effort to answer him. Even if she did have full use of her respiratory system, she wouldn’t breathe a word about where Orm was to this brute.

His grip was of steel as she choked and gasped against his grip. She then made to claw at his face, but he was too tall and his arms too long for her to reach his eyes. Finally, her vision beginning to swim, she brought her knee up as hard as she could against his groin.

Finally, he faltered, wincing. It was enough for her use her other leg to kick one of his legs loose, knocking him to the ground beside her. Elara barely had time to catch her breath as the attacker fell. Winded and aching as she was, Elara held no illusion that she could knock him into the cave at this point, she just had to get away from him.

She turned over, crawling blindly forward before trying to stand. The man recovered quickly however and grabbed hold of her ankle, dragging her back down.

She tried to kick back behind her but he avoided it quickly enough and was soon upon her, shoving her onto her back roughly. And then he was on top of her, one arm crossed across her shoulders to keep her down and his knees restraining her legs, lest she try kicking again.

Her hands scrambled at his arm as he brought his free hand down on her injured side. She yelled in pain.

“Where is he?” The man repeated.

She responded by trying to punch him before he moved to hold both her hands down.

“Where is Aquaman?” he shouted, clearly frustrated.

That made Elara pause in confusion, croaking out, “Wait, what?”

The attacker never got a chance to elaborate as he was suddenly thrown off of her. And there was Orm, punching him squarely in the face.The man made to sucker punch Orm in the gut but Orm dodged it with ease. Elara’s sense of the tides was lessened by her weakened state but she could have sworn she detected a storm of rage radiating off of Orm.

Through a combination of fatigue from his bout with Elara and Orm’s strength of battle prowess, the attacker’s reactions were more sluggish, barely blocking or landing any hits against Orm.  He leaned back, looking like he was winding up for a strike but Orm beat him to the literal punch, landing a hit right in the man’s face.

Blood blossomed from the man’s nose and before he could recover, Orm hit him hard in the stomach, effectively winding him before landing another face punch. Elara could see the exact moment consciousness left the man, a second before he swayed and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Careful of her injuries, she sat up and just stared at Orm, some emotion she couldn’t name filling her. He turned slowly to look down at her, holding out a hand to help her up.

Taking his hand, she couldn’t stop her voice from cracking, both from feeling and pain as she said, “You came.”

He pulled her up swiftly and surely, the motion only straining her side slightly. Once standing, she didn’t think, she just stepped forward and hugged Orm. He tensed immediately in surprise but, as her arms wrapped around him, she could feel it as he relaxed into her before, hesitantly, he brought his arms up to return the embrace.

She wanted to ask if he’d heard her through the tides, wanted to say how scared she’d been, but instead she just whispered against his shoulder, “Thank you”

He tightened his hold on her just slightly as he said, “You’re welcome.”

Author’s Note: So sorry this one took so long. I’m so bad at writing fight scenes so it was a struggle. Logistics are hard y’all. Anyway, many thanks and hugs if you’ve made it this far on this journey. Comments are love!

[hellofromthe-otter-slide]

Only Time Will Tell - Chapter 6: Time’s Convert

So, I didn’t die, and this fic didn’t die, so isn’t that exciting?

This chapter delves deeper into how Lena’s machine could’ve messed up so badly, and we get some nice interaction from the entire group.

Enjoy!

Read on AO3.

~

Lena truly thought being in the same room as everyone would send her into an even deeper panic, but she was surprisingly calm as everyone clambered in. Her gaze stuck on an obviously older Kara devoid of winkles and grey hairs but confident in a way that Lena's Kara wasn't. Unlike the obvious split that Lena saw between her Kara and Supergirl, this Kara was like Supergirl and her finally melded into one complete self.

Lena couldn’t help but think it suited her.

Maggie pointed between the two Lenas, a look of disbelief on her face, “Oh my god. You weren’t kidding, kid. There’s actually two of them."

“I knew you couldn’t be trusted,” Liv said, and even though it sounded accusatory, Lena noticed that there wasn't actually any bite to Liv's words.

“It’s not my fault, I swear,” Jules argued, taking a seat at the bar, “Mom brought up that she saw me at the DEO, and then Mama asked why I was even at the DEO and then everything just," Jules sighed and slumped in her chair, "spiraled."

“She’s making it sound like it took a while to get it out of her,” Maggie said, the same cocky smirk Lena recognized from Game Night pulled across her lips, “Three questions in and she squealed.”

“Because Jules can’t keep secrets,” Alex tacked on, smiling fondly at her daughter.

“Hey, I played it off really well in the DEO earlier,” Jules argued halfheartedly. Then she turned on Liv and said, “Also, you spilled too, seeing as Aunt Lena was sitting across from Lena when we came in.”

“I didn’t spill,” Liv shot back, “My mother is a certified genius, so she found out.”

Older Lena snorted, and when everyone turned to look at her, she said, “I came over with Chinese food and found a younger version of myself hidden here.”

“Can we all just agree that our kids suck at keeping secrets from us and discuss the elephant in the room?” Alex asked, gesturing to Lena.

“I am right here, you know,” Lena said, finally feeling at least a bit like herself again, enough that she was tired of everyone talking around her instead of to her, “And I don’t think I really appreciate being referred to as an elephant.”

“You know, Luthor,” Maggie said, coming to take the seat beside the older Lena and wrapping a lazy arm around her shoulders, “I don’t think your personality has changed much.”

“Firstly, Sawyer,” older Lena brushed off Maggie’s arm, nudging her away playfully, “It’s Danvers now, and secondly, she has a point.”

Lena smiled at the familiarity of the banter between the two. She could practically see herself on Kara’s couch, Monopoly or some other board game on the coffee table in front of them, and Maggie slinging an arm over her shoulder to give some playful smack talk even though Lena generally won in the end.

It seemed like her pseudo-sisterhood with Maggie only got stronger as they got older, Maggie seemingly more comfortable with poking fun at Lena and Lena handling it with an eye roll and a quick retort.

“You’ll always be Luthor,” Maggie explained as if it were something serious, “We’ve already got Little Danvers, and then there’s Baby Danvers,” she gestured to Liv, who sighed in defeat, and Lena wondered how many times Liv fought that nickname growing up, “Referring to you as some other form of Danvers would make too many, so I’ll stick with Luthor.”

Older Lena looked like she wanted to retort, but Kara finally moved herself into the group, her blue eyes stuck on the younger version of her wife like she couldn’t believe that Lena was really there, sitting at the table alongside them.

To be fair, Lena was also still grasping with the fact that she was really there, in 2048, surrounded by older versions of the small family she built since moving to National City.

“Do you know how you got here?” Kara asked tentatively, like she didn't know how to talk to Lena or if she should talk to her any different than how she talked to her wife.

“We were just discussing that actually,” Lena said, “And we have some idea, though it isn’t certain.”

“What’s your best guess?” Alex asked, leaning against the bar by Jules.

“That it might possibly be my fault,” older Lena took over, “I’ve been working on a sort of time machine as my personal project recently. You put a date in, give it a DNA sample, and it projects the events of that day onto a screen for you to watch.”

“We think that something must have gone wrong, obviously,” Lena continued, “The date I was pulled from was the same date she used to test the machine today.”

“What went wrong?” Jules asked, “It has to be something major for the machine to mess up this badly.”

“I don’t know,” older Lena said, and Lena could see her older self growing frustrated, “I checked and rechecked the wiring a hundred times. I wouldn’t have tested it if I thought there was a chance at it malfunctioning.”

“Could you have made a mistake?” Maggie asked, and she didn’t even flinch at the glare Lena shot her.

“I don’t make mistakes.”

Everyone took a second, and it was Liv who spoke next. “Is there anyone who would have access to tamper with the device?” she asked, and Lena thought that she looked like Alex in an interrogation, her mind focused on finding the answer and asking the right questions to get there.

“No,” older Lena pinched the bridge of her nose, and Lena knew it was because of the small snnoyance of being asked a question that seemingly had an obvious answer. She did the same thing when questioned about her or L-Corp's participation in any crime that had any trace of Lex. Older Lena let out a sigh before saying, “It’s in my personal lab, so the only people who have access to that room are Jules, Jess, Eve, and myself. All of the locks are biometric, and if anyone else tried getting in, I would be notified immediately.”

“That may not stop certain species of aliens, though,” Kara said, “I mean, J’onn’s shapeshifting is down to the molecular level, and there are plenty of other species that have that capability. They would be able to shift into anyone, including you, in order to make it past the biometrics.”

“Not to mention aliens who can phase through objects,” Liv provided, “With that capability, they would be able to come in from the floor below without being noticed, and there wouldn’t be any data proving a break in.”

“Alright,” Alex said, her demeanor switching to Director Danvers, “We need the list of people who used the biometrics to get into your personal lab,” she said to the older Lena, “We'll also need the security footage and the machine too. If we can figure out what went wrong with the test, we can hopefully figure out how to fix this.” Then, Alex turned to Maggie and Liv, “I need a list of aliens apprehended by the NCPD that would have any capabilities that would allow them to get through Lena’s biometrics.”

“I think I would be better asking around if anyone knows anything,” Liv said, “After all, I know an alien language or two, and it might be a hired job.”

Alex looked like she wanted to argue, but there was something deeper, the knowledge that Liv wasn’t a member of the DEO that she could order around, and she just sighed and nodded. “Be careful, though. And take Kara with you.”

Kara and Liv smiled at one another, the thrum of excitement passing between them like the chance to work together only happens every now and then. Based on the conversation Lena heard earlier, about how Liv didn’t work with the DEO to keep herself from Supergirl’s shadow, she figured that was probably true.

“Jules, you’re with me,” Alex continued giving orders, “I’ll need you helping Brainy out with studying the disturbance and seeing what else we can’t find out about it. And Lena,” Alex sighed, “Younger Lena, you’re with me too. Once Lena,” Alex sighed again, and Maggie laughed softly, mumbling something like, We might need to give you two nicknames, under her breath, “Older Lena, gets back to the DEO with the time machine, it wouldn’t hurt to have two genius Lena Luthors workings on it to fix it.”

Older Lena smirked at her younger self, “To make it easier, I could be Lena and you could be Luthor.”

Lena smirked too, no longer feeling as uncomfortable sitting across from herself, “But then how would Maggie tell us apart?”

“My vote is on Luthor and Little Luthor,” Maggie added in.

“I’ve already got this handled,” Liv said, and she pointed at older Lena, “This one is Mom,” then at younger Lena, “This one is Lena.”

“She’s not our mom, Baby Danvers,” Maggie said.

“How about Before and After?” Jules suggested.

“Before and after what?” Liv asked.

“Marrying Aunt Kara,” Jules said like it was obvious, “Duh.”

“I’m actually apparently from hours before we even started dating,” Lena said, finding comfort in the banter that was so similar to the banter between them in her time.

“We could just call them Workaholic and Slightly-Less-of-a-Workaholic,” Kara supplied, and both Lenas gave her mock-offended looks, older Lena hitting her wife's shoulder with a quick, "Hey!" Kara smiled, first at Lena and then at her wife, her nose doing that adorable scrunch it always did, and Lena felt a weird sort of homesickness wash over her, wishing to see the same smile on her Kara.

“Excuse me,” Alex cut in, looking annoyed at how the conversation derailed, “You know, we have things to do. I gave you all assignments.”

“Sorry, Director Danvers,” Jules said, standing and saluting her mother jokingly. Lena had to hide a smile behind her hand, and she noticed Liv doing the same thing beside her. “Now, everyone,” Jules turned to the rest of the room, mimicking Alex’s body language and looking stern, “No more joking around. Any questions?”

“No, Director Danvers-Sawyer,” Liv said, biting her lip against the smile threatening to break through.

“Good,” Jules put her fists on her hips, mirroring Alex's usual stance, “Let’s move out.”

“Why are you two like this?” Alex asked rhetorically, casting an annoyed look between her daughter and her niece.

“Well, I was raised by Maggie Sawyer,” Jules answered with a shrug.

“And I’m pretty sure I get this from both of my moms,” Liv tacked on.

“Everyone just loves poking fun at you, babe,” Maggie said, getting up from her seat to kiss Alex on the cheek. It seemed to take away a bit of Alex’s annoyance, and she smiled softly at her wife for a quick second before addressing the room again.

“Does anyone actually have any questions?”

Nobody said anything.

“Great. Let’s move out.”

Maggie kissed Alex’s cheek again, saying something softly before leaving the apartment.

Kara turned to Liv, “Civilian clothes or suits?”

“Civilian,” Liv pushed herself up from the table, “There are a few places where they already know me, and I don’t think anyone would willingly say anything to Supergirl or Falcon.”

Kara nodded before smiling, “It would still be faster if we fly there.”

Liv was already running to the room down the hall where Lena noticed a balcony with a shout of, “Bet I can beat you there!” thrown over her shoulder. Kara ran after her, far quicker than any human could move.

Older Lena already had her phone out as she pushed herself up from the table. “Hey, Jess, I know it’s late,” she said, sounding apologetic, “Do you think you could email me the security footage from my office and personal lab?” Lena could hear less and less of the conversation as her older self gathered her things and left the apartment too.

“Come on,” Alex said, motioning to Lena and Jules, “Let’s get to the DEO. The sooner we figure this out, the better.”

[writinginstardust]

Just In Case

Pairing: Ezra Mason x Kady Grant

Request: anon asked  “Hi can you write a smut fic about kady grant and ezra mason ?Thank you very much.”

Warnings: smut is ahead, swearing as per the norm

A/N: so like i’m still bad at smut, i still can’t believe someone wanted more smut from me after the last one i wrote because let’s be honest it ain’t great, pretty sure this is a bit better though so that’s good. They have unprotected sex because pretty sure getting a condom on the Mao isn’t gonna be easy but make sure y’all have safe sex okay?

This originally had more to it but i’ve been really struggling to find time to write this so i left it here. I may write the part 2 but i’m not sure yet, if you want me to then let me know!

Word Count: 1896

*

12 hours before the survivors of the Bei-Tech attacks were set to arrive back at Kerenza IV, Kady Grant was trying to sleep. It wasn’t working out well for her. Her mind was screaming at her to check and recheck everything for the thousandth time, to analyse the plan and find anything that might go wrong yet again. She couldn’t keep it quiet. She needed a distraction.

With an irritated sigh she got up and left the private room she was allowed to use. It was cramped and used to be a storage room but considering how everyone else was living aboard the Mao, she had nothing to complain about.

She slowly made her way towards the hanger where she knew Ezra would be, probably over-thinking everything just as she was. There was a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, other pilots might live or die by his orders. To everyone else it seemed as if he took everything in his stride but Kady had witnessed the toll it was really taking on him. She knew he needed a distraction too.

Finally reaching the hanger, it took mere moments to locate Ezra. He was fussing over his Chimera, talking to a tired-looking mechanic about who knows what. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Kades? I thought you’d gone to get some sleep?” he turned in her arms, face scrunched up in confusion.

“I did, my mind wouldn’t let me though. I can’t sleep without you there.” His face softened and he leaned down to kiss her gently on the forehead.

“Let me finish up here and I’ll come to bed with you.”

“Ez, everything is fine, there’s nothing you can do at the moment. Come with me and let the poor mechanic go to bed, she looks almost as tired as you, …no offence.”

“None taken Kady, I’m exhausted.” She offered the pink-haired girl a grateful smile and left her and Ezra alone.

“Come on, come to bed,” she took his hand and led him back to her little room.

Laying with her head on Ezra’s chest in a bed only meant for one, Kady once again tried to find sleep. Though the steady beat of his heart and his gentle touches lulled her, her mind continued over-working itself and preventing her rest. She let out a groan of frustration and felt Ezra shift beside her.

“What is it?”

“I can’t stop thinking about it, about everything that could go wrong, about all the people that might not make it back, …about you not making it back.” Tears pricked her eyes as she turned to look up at the boy beside her.

“Kades, everyone’s been over this plan a hundred times already, if there was a way to lessen the risk we’d have found it by now. We can make this work, we can get everyone through this. I’m sure of it.”

He meant it, she could see the determination and surety in his eyes, hear it in his voice, feel it in the strong grip on her. She knew he would do everything to make sure they pulled this off but she also knew how relentless Bei-Tech were, how much more training they had. The odds were seriously stacked against them and it was highly likely some wouldn’t survive the assault. She couldn’t bare the thought that Ezra might be one of them.

“I know, I just wish it didn’t have to be you.” Ezra leaned down and pressed a loving kiss to her forehead before speaking softly against her skin.

“I wish it didn’t have to be any of us. But I want to fight, because I’m fighting for you. I can’t not do everything in my power to keep you safe.”

“Just, just promise me you’ll make it back.”

“I promise. I’m not giving up the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m not giving up you.”

And then they were kissing, expressing their love through the movement of lips, the touches of hands, the entwining of bodies. They kept kissing like it was their last chance to do so, in the back of both their minds they knew that it could be.

As the touch of their lips continued both became more desperate for each other and the kiss became deeper and more passionate. Their mouths worked in perfect harmony, tongues exploring and drawing needy sounds from each as hands tangled in hair, brushed cheeks, mapped bodies, committed every detail of the other to memory just in case.

Gasping for breath Kady broke the kiss. At some point she’d found herself on her back, Ezra hovering over her. He moved his lips from hers and traced a line across her jaw before moving to press a line of kisses down her neck, pulling little gasps and moans from her lips. He reached her collarbone and sucked harder on the skin there, intent on leaving a mark. Kady let out a much louder moan at the action which only spurred him on. As his lips continued to mark a path on her skin, Kady grew louder and louder until he eventually had to pull away from her.

“Kades, I love you, but shut up, people are gonna hear you.”

“If you think I care about that right now, you’re gravely mistaken. And if you don’t want me to be loud then stop being so good at that.”

He chuckled and reattached his mouth to hers as his hands began sliding under her t-shirt, dragging the material up her body at a tormenting pace and eventually chucking it on the floor. His lips left hers to leave a trail of kisses down her body, setting her skin aflame everywhere he touched. Lost in his touch, Kady barely noticed the rest of her clothes being discarded and his mouth working its way towards her centre until the first flick of his tongue against her brought her back to awareness with a sharp gasp. Her eyes shot open and her hands flew to his hair, tangling in it and keeping his mouth pressed against her.

Waves of pleasure rolled through her body as Ezra’s mouth continued to work its magic, every flick of his tongue bringing her closer to the edge. His hands gripped her hips to keep her still as she writhed beneath him, slowly losing her grip on reality as she became completely undone. Unable to hold them back, loud moans spilled from her lips as her orgasm ripped through her. Ezra ‘s tongue continued to work against her as she slowly came down from her high and pulled his face away from her when the stimulation became too much.

“…fuck…me…,” it was only a rasped breath, the only thing she could say through the hazy bliss her body and mind were in.

“Yeah that’s next on my to do list,” humour laced his voice and Ezra’s face had stretched into a self-satisfied grin at the sight of his girlfriend so undone by him. Kady wanted to wipe that grin right off his perfect face. So, she did.

Finally recovered enough to control her body again, she rolled on top of him quick as a flash and leaned down to kiss away that smile. Faintly she could taste herself on his lips but she didn’t care. She wanted to see him as wrecked as she’d been moments ago, and she knew just how to do it.

As they kissed she ground her hips into his eliciting a low groan from Ezra that she’d pay to hear again. Fortunately, she wouldn’t have to. As she continued moving against him more groans and sharp intakes of breath greeted her ears, and she enjoyed every last one.

It didn’t take her long to divest him of his clothes and her hands and mouth began thoroughly exploring his body at an excruciatingly slow pace, worshiping every inch of him until he was practically squirming with the need for her to do something more. With a wicked grin on her face she looked up and locked eyes with him as she slowly kissed her way towards where he ached for her to be, stopping only millimetres away and going no further. It was torture for Ezra and it took every ounce of self-control to lay still and wait for her to do something, anything to provide some relief.

Just as he thought he might combust from the tension and need running through him Kady moved and finally, finally, brought her mouth to him. It was only the tiniest flick of her tongue but after all the teasing touches it made Ezra see stars. A loud moan to rival Kady’s earlier ones tore its way out of his throat and she smirked before finally giving him what he needed.

As Kady’s mouth worked him into a state of euphoria, he could do nothing but lie back and take what she would give him. Just before he thought he might fall over the edge Kady pulled away causing him to let out a whine which he’d never admit happened.

“Shut up you big baby, I figured you’d be annoyed if I let you finish then,” she was right.

“You didn’t have to get me that close though, you’re such a damn tease.” He grinned down at her to assure her he didn’t really mind before pulling her up and into a heated kiss.

He rolled them so he was once again on top and checked she was ready before sliding into her agonisingly slowly. Twin groans escaped them as Ezra filled her, the feeling of being so connected heightening their pleasure. At Kady’s request Ezra began to move his hips against her, his thrusts slow and deep, turning Kady into a desperate mess beneath him. He wasn’t far from that himself, holding himself back was excruciating.

“Please…more…please!” Kady gasped out in desperation, her hips bucking up as she pleaded with him to give her what she wanted. And Ezra could never refuse her. He sped up his movements and her hips continued to meet his at every thrust as their desperation for both each other and their release built within them. When finally, it came crashing down on them Kady’s shout of his name drowned out Ezra’s own groans though she was hardly aware of it as her senses went into overdrive and her body was flooded with wave after wave of ecstasy.

It took a few minutes for her to come back to herself and she opened her eyes to see Ezra collapsed on the bed beside her in a similar state of exhaustion. She smiled as she brushed some hair from where it stuck to his forehead. Without opening his eyes, he reached up and entwined their fingers, gently bringing her hand down to his lips and brushing a feather-light kiss on her skin.

Sleepily she pulled a blanket over the two of them, curling her body up against his side as his arms wrapped around her and his hands started tracing patterns on her skin. She tilted her head up and their lips met in a soft and loving kiss which warmed her soul. No more words were spoken between them but the light kisses and gentle touches they shared until exhaustion made them succumb to sleep said all they needed.

[singledarkshade]

Real World

Part Two

Crying woke Rip from another one of his strange dreams.

Jumping out of bed, seeing it was barely 2am, he ran into Jonas’ room grimacing to find Jonas had been sick.

“Daddy,” the little boy sobbed reaching for him.

Scooping Jonas up into his arms, Rip felt heat radiating from the little boy. Soothing his son, Rip ran a cool bath gently bathing the little boy to both clean him as well as hopefully bring down his temperature. Lifting him out the bath Rip dried and changed Jonas into the clean pyjamas he’d grabbed. Taking Jonas into the kitchen Rip gave his son some water and medicine before tucking him into Rip’s bed.

He stripped Jonas’ bed, throwing the sheets in the washing machine, so he could wash them first thing in the morning, before sliding in beside his little boy. Checking Jonas, who was already asleep again, Rip was relieved that he felt cooler already so felt comfortable to return to sleep.

Not that he managed to.

  Wrapping her dressing gown around her Katrina frowned at the frantic knocking on their front door. Opening it she found a harassed looking Michael standing there, “Morning?”

“I’m really sorry to wake you,” Michael rushed out, “But Jonas is sick and I need to pick some things up for him. I was hoping you or Ali could watch him while I run to the pharmacy...”

Katrina held up her hand stopping him, “Give me two minutes to get dressed and I’ll be right over.”

“Thank you,” he sighed, relief covering his face before he disappeared back into his own apartment.

Heading into the bedroom Katrina grabbed some jeans and a t-shirt.

“Who was that?” Ali called from the bathroom.

“It was Michael,” Katrina replied as she quickly dressed, “Jonas is ill. I’m going to watch him while Michael gets some things.”

Ali appeared dressed while drying her hair with a towel, “Let him know if he needs anything to let us know.” Katrina rolled her eyes and kissed her quickly, “I will. See you tonight.”

Heading across the hall Michael let her in almost the instant she knocked.

“Jonas is still sleeping in my room,” he told her, “He’ll probably be upset if he wakes up and I’m not here so I will be back as soon as I can.” “Why not let me go fetch everything?” Katrina suggested.

Michael shook his head, “He’s allergic to a few things so if they don’t have what I usually get I need to make sure I get something...” “Stop,” she cut him off again, “It’s okay. I will be here if he wakes up. Go.”

As he hurried out Katrina had to catch Gideon when she tried to follow Michael out of the apartment.

“Not you,” Katrina chuckled at the disappointed whine Gideon let out, “He’ll be back soon. Let’s get you some breakfast.”

She opened some food for Gideon and settled the puppy in her corner of the kitchen to eat before she went to check on Jonas. Finding the little boy still asleep in his father’s bed Katrina gently rested her hand on his forehead, frowning at how hot the boy was. She hushed him when he moaned slightly but thankfully he didn’t wake up. She found a washcloth and wet it resting it on the little boy’s forehead to help cool him down.

  Rip rechecked the ingredients on the box he was holding before he added it to the basket. He quickly picked up everything else he’d need. Paying for everything Rip headed back to the apartment relieved to find Jonas was still asleep.

“I’ve kept him cool,” Katrina said, “Did you get everything you need?”

Rip nodded, “Yes. I think so. Thank you for coming and sitting with him.”

Katrina frowned at him slightly, “Have you slept?”

“I got a little,” Rip replied with a shrug.

“Okay, I have a few hours before my shift starts so I will take Gideon for her walk,” Katrina told him, “Then I will sit with Jonas while you have a shower.”

Letting out a sigh Rip nodded, “I need to call into work and let the day-care know Jonas is sick.”

To his surprise Katrina hugged him tightly for a few minutes.

“Thanks,” Rip whispered, knowing how fortunate he was that he had moved in across from the two women.

Katrina patted his arm, “It’s not a problem. I’ll take Gideon for her walk.”

  Jonas lay on the couch staring uninterested at the television while Gideon was curled up at his feet. Thankfully his temperature was much lower than it had been and he hadn’t been sick again. It turned out there was a bug going through the day-care so Jonas wasn’t the only one currently unwell.

Rip had managed to get some work done while Jonas slept for most of the day but he knew it wasn’t something he could do for more than a few days.

“Daddy?” the small plaintive cry came.

Crouching beside the couch Rip gently stroked his son’s hair checking his forehead at the same time, “Yeah, buddy?”

“Can I get a drink?” Jonas asked with a slight pout.

“Of course,” Rip picked up the cup of water he had sitting near for his son, “Here you go.”

Jonas sipped the water before curling up again.

“Do you think you could eat some toast?” Rip asked.

Jonas shook his head.

“Okay,” Rip soothed giving him a smile. Looking up when someone knocked, he opened the door to Ali, “Hi.”

“How is he?” she asked.

Rip moved to let her inside, “He’s better.”

Ali instantly headed to the couch and crouched beside Jonas, “Hey, little man are you feeling better?”

Jonas nodded, “A bit.”

“That’s good,” she smiled at him giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze before turning back to Rip, “Do you want me to take Gideon out or watch Jonas while you do?”

“You know you don’t have to,” Rip said.

Rolling her eyes Ali patted his shoulder, “I want to. Why don’t you take Gideon out and get some fresh air. You look like you need a break. We can sit and watch some cartoons while you’re out.”

“Thanks, Ali,” he sighed, “That would be great.” He moved to his son’s side and stroked his hair, “I’m going to take Gideon out for her walk. Ali is going to stay with you for a bit. Are you okay with that?”

Jonas pouted slightly but he nodded. Ali sat beside the boy and pulled him into her lap while Rip got Gideon’s leash.

Walking towards the park Rip was relieved that Ali and Katrina were so willing to help him with Jonas. It was a relief that he had them to turn to, that he could trust them to watch over his son for a few hours every so often giving him a break.

                          *********************************************

  The CCPD was busy with people everywhere when Rip walked into the precinct with Jonas held in his arms. His son was small and Rip didn’t want him to get lost or stepped on by anybody. He’d bounced back quickly from being sick a few weeks before and Jonas was now back to his normal energy levels.

Rip found it typical that the few days Jonas wasn’t running him ragged he didn’t get any extra rest because he was spending all his time worried about his son so he barely slept.

“Where’s Trina?” Jonas asked as they moved further inside the building finding the large room which had a mixture of people who were either at desks or standing around talking.

“I don’t know,” Rip replied, his eyes scanning the room for their friend.

It was Ali’s birthday and they were having dinner with the girls to celebrate, Rip had offered to pick up Katrina after work and they were meeting Ali at the restaurant.

“Can I help you?” an older man appeared beside him suddenly, his face stern with his dark eyes boring into Rip.

“Detective West,” Katrina’s voice came just before she appeared, she had already changed but was carrying a file, “He’s here to pick me up.”

The other man nodded, “Okay, Officer.”

“I’ll be two minutes,” Katrina promised before she headed to an office nearby.

“Are you a policeman?” Jonas asked suddenly.

Detective West’s stern demeanour softened instantly, “Yes, I am. I’m a Detective. Do you know what that means?”

“You solve problems and find bad people,” Jonas replied with a nod.

West chuckled, “That’s as good an explanation as I could give.”

Jonas gave a grin resting against Rip shyly who rubbed his son’s back. He saw Katrina returning with another man.

“Okay, I have one more thing to do and then I will be ready,” Katrina told him.

“Are you a policeman too?” Jonas spoke up looking at the new arrival.

Katrina ruffled the boy’s hair, “This is Captain Singh. He’s the boss of all of us.”

Rip chuckled at how impressed Jonas was by this.

“Captain, these are my neighbours Michael and Jonas Hunter,” Katrina introduced before telling them, “I’ll be just a minute.”

Jonas turned back to Singh, “Do you tell everyone what to do?”

“I do,” the Captain replied, “I make sure everyone does what they’re supposed to but since Joe and Katrina are so good at their jobs I rarely have to.”

“Where do you work?” Jonas asked looking at all the desks around the room.

Singh pointed to the other side of the room, “I work in that office. Do you want to see it?”

“Can I, Daddy?” Jonas asked.

Rip nodded, “Just a quick look, we don’t want to disturb Captain Singh for long. I’m sure he is very busy.”

Allowing Jonas down to walk they followed Singh to his office, Rip stood in the doorway while Jonas was shown the office by the other man. Yelling from behind him made Rip turn just in time to see a man grab a gun from one of the cops bringing him in, he fired into the air and Rip saw Singh grab Jonas pulling him down to safety.

Without thought Rip grabbed a gun from one of the cops standing beside him and fired, the bullet hit the weapon just at the gunman’s hand making him drop the gun swearing in pain. Several of the officers moved and he was restrained.

Rip stared at the gun still held in his hand moving only when Detective West took it from him.

“Where did you learn to shoot like that?” Katrina asked in amazement.

Shaking his head in confusion Rip breathed, “I have no idea.”

  Katrina took the seat beside Rip, they’d returned to the apartment for birthday cake after their meal and Ali was showing Jonas some of her presents.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

Rip shrugged, “I was thinking about earlier tonight.”

“That was a great shot you made,” Katrina told him, “Everyone was impressed.” “I’ve never fired a gun in my life,” Rip replied, “I’ve never even picked one up.”

Resting her hand on his arm she shrugged, “You know it’s a bit like mothers who lift cars off their kids. Jonas was there and your instincts took over to protect him.”

“I’ve never fired a gun,” Rip told her again, “But I’ve been dreaming about it for months now.”

Katrina frowned confused, “What do you mean?”

“Before we moved here I was driving home from work when a truck hit my car while I was sitting at a red light,” he told her, “Thankfully I only ended up with a concussion but I’ve had strange dreams ever since. In most of them I’m trying to shoot at someone trying to get others to safety.”

She squeezed his hand, “They’re only dreams, Michael. You were just protecting your little boy,” patting his arm she smiled, “Come and have some cake.”

Nodding he let her move him trying not to brood over the events in the police station.

                          *********************************************

  Cisco stared at the footage of the police station on the screen, “That was some shot, considering the distance as well as the angle.”

Joe nodded, “That was the general consensus in the precinct.”

“Who is she?” Cisco pointed to the woman at Rip’s side.

“Officer Avery,” Joe told him, “Turns out the apartment you found for them is next door to a cop.”

Cisco shrugged, “I didn’t really have much time to pull this together and this was the best place I could find for them to live. Checking out the neighbours wasn’t something I thought of to be honest.”

“Do you think this will stir up any memories?” Joe asked concerned.

“I’m not sure,” Cisco replied, “Hopefully he shrugs this off as parental instincts. If not then I’ll contact Gideon and see if there is anything we need to do to make sure his memories don’t return.”

Joe nodded and re-watched the footage of the Rip shooting the gun from the man’s hand. He missed the old days before the Particle Accelerator exploded when things like time travel, meta-humans and being able to rewrite someone’s memories were only in science fiction movies.

Part Three

[norihisahyuga-archived]

A Night at the Movies.

Souma Mitsuko/Onuki Keiko Battle Royale 1000~ words. Sfw.

Mitsuko takes Keiko on a real date for the first time.

She doesn’t even know why she invited her in the first place, tongue-tied and wanting a public and neutral space so she could put on a facade and justify it. After all, she can be herself in private but in front of other people? Nonsense. She has a reputation to uphold, after all.

It isn’t as if this movie theater has particularly good memories for her, after all. Her father had brought her here when she was younger, but those memories were distant, half-faded by the passage of time and the unreliability of a child’s mind. She can’t even for sure say what the films they had seen together were, can’t remember when her mother stopped coming with them.

Since then, she’s come here with Hirono and Yoshimi a few times, and she always has to charm their way into the adult-rated films because fifteen-year-olds aren’t allowed to see them. Like this one, for that matter. The trailers had her convinced it’s another cheesy, gory horror flick but that seems like a safer bet than anything else right now. She isn’t sure how she would hold up during anything else and romance movies tend to put her to sleep. Family films make her uncomfortable, the themes hitting too close to home for her to want to examine them on more than a surface level.

It had never occurred to her to ask Keiko if she was comfortable with films like this one in the first place, though. Some girls aren’t. Hirono had tried taking Haruka to this film earlier in the week and Haruka had bowed out during the first half of the movie, too sickened by the body horror and the blood to be able to finish it. Yoshimi refused to see it. And Mitsuko still wanted to, and she had to take Keiko out eventually, right? They couldn’t limit their relationship to school forever, right?

They don’t even look like they fit together, Mitsuko playing with the zipper on the front of her leather jacket thrown over an old t-shirt and a pair of comfortable jeans. She’s wearing her new biker boots, a present from the last man she had schemed and scammed her way through before she ditched that in favor of an actual relationship, an actual chance at something real.

Keiko, on the other hand…

In her cream-colored turtleneck, black skirt, black leggings, and cute pumps, she looks almost dressed up but not quite. She’s pretty, too, always has been and always will be, but there’s something about the way the look complements her features that has Mitsuko staring at her out of the corner of her eye instead of focusing on her popcorn like she’s pretending to do. Every time she turns her head, the lights above them pick out the natural blue tones in her black hair.

“I hope you like horror movies,” Mitsuko says, shoving popcorn into her mouth.

Keiko glances at her, momentarily surprised before her lips soften into a smile and she gives a quick nod. “Of course I do. Imagine sitting down to watch a genre you don’t like.”

“That’s exactly how I feel about it.” Mitsuko rolls her eyes, remembering Hirono’s story of her botched date with Haruka. “Y’know, you didn’t have to dress up so nice just to see a movie.”

That earns her an actual surprised look, Keiko’s dark eyes widening at her, and Mitsuko replays what she had said in her head to figure out what she had said wrong. With most people, she hardly thinks about what she says to them because she doesn’t really care. Even where Hirono and Yoshimi are concerned, she doesn’t really care what she says to them or how she says it. It’s Keiko who’s brought out the urge in her to check and recheck every statement she makes.

“Am I dressed up nice?” Keiko leans back, looking down at her clothes.

“Well, uh, I… Just thought you looked really nice just to come and see a movie.” Mitsuko shrugs, shoving more popcorn into her mouth. “Maybe I’ll take you out to dinner after this.”

Keiko blinks up at her, all long dark lashes and warm brown eyes and Mitsuko can’t quite describe the strange feeling in her chest. “Dinner? I thought we were just going to see the movie.”

“But you dressed up nice for it,” Mitsuko argues. “It’d be a waste if I didn’t take you into the city and showed you off to everyone so they can see how pretty you look tonight.”

“Oh. Okay.” Keiko blushes and ducks her head just as the lights overhead go dark.

“You can pick the place, I promise.” Mitsuko offers her some popcorn and Keiko giggles softly before taking a few pieces, leaning back and looking up at the screen.

It isn’t like Mitsuko is trying to be smooth. It’s not on purpose flattery. She knows how to flatter people into doing what she wants them to do, fluttering her lashes and coating her words in sugar and spice. It just… Comes out when she’s around Keiko, and she can’t control it.

She kinda likes it, though. She likes being able to make Keiko smile, not just the ability to do so but also the privilege of being the only one who gets to do it. When Keiko and Shogo had decided to go their separate ways, Hirono had had to hold her back from jumping in then and there.

Halfway through the movie, she licks the butter and salt from her fingers, wipes her hand on her jeans, and reaches for Keiko’s hand, giving her delicate fingers a gentle squeeze. In answer, Keiko takes her hand back, pushes the armrest between them back and out of the way, and scoots over so she can rest her head on Mitsuko’s shoulder.

Mitsuko balances her popcorn on her lap and wraps an arm around Keiko’s shoulders, keeping her close, feeling the softness of her hair against her cheek as one of the protagonists bites the dust on the screen. Maybe this theater has a good memory attached to it after all.

[strangetalesofnumenera]

Partoss

A light fog rolled off of the river in the cool morning air as Arkwiss checked the straps holding the exploratory party’s supplies to the top of the crawler one final time. He reached out telepathically to Id, the mechanical man who operated the vehicles’ engine as he hopped down into the hatch.

Hey, Id, are you about ready?

Affirmative boss. Refueling is complete. We can now run for approximately one full solar year without interruption if we need to.

Arkwiss looked to Almsqu. sitting at the very rear of the vehicle. Any time they got off, she would be the first one out, checking the area and ensuring it would be a safe spot for the group of villagers they had brought. Every time they climbed back on, she would be the last one to board, providing security until everyone was safe. She was fiddling with her cyphers, checking and rechecking that everything in her tool belt was exactly where she wanted it, adjusting the placement of her pouches, searching for that ever-illusive balance of perfect accessibility and comfort in their placement. He smiled at her, though she didn’t see.

Nir, you’re our pilot today. The call is yours.

The response from the eager adolescent was quick, enthusiastic. A bit more then Arkwiss was comfortable with. Alright. Id, fire it up, let’s do this.

As the engine spun up to a whine beyond the limits of human hearing, Arkwiss admonished his daughter. This isn’t training, and it isn’t for fun. Your primary concern needs to be the safety of our guests. Take it slow, take it smooth. You know how to do this, and I trust you, but don’t let your eagerness take over.

Okay, father. You can count on me.

The six people in the rear of the vehicle were all thrown together as it lurched to a start. The visitors had never been in anything like the crawler before and let out whoops and squeals of delight. As the rolled toward the supposedly accursed valley, Arkwiss let them take turns standing up out of the hatch, watching the land roll by at a speed none of them even knew was possible.

Eventually, after a circuitous route forced on them by the nature of the crawler (one of the passengers joked that it should be called the runner because it moved so fast), they arrived at the Valley of Sins.

Arkwiss had Nir stop for a moment so that they group could climb atop the vehicle and get a better view. Almsqu pulled a flat, square object made of some form of transparent synth slightly larger than her hand from her pack. She swiped a single finger across its surface very carefully before tossing it into the air, where it flew off down into the valley.

Nir, are you getting the view from the cartographer?

I see it.

Good, chart us a course into the base of the valley. We’re looking for anything that looks like it might contain anything useful. In particular, keep your eyes open for any caves or ruins.

Will do.

Arkwiss let the group marvel at the sight for another moment, during which Almsqu sidled up to him.

“It is quite the romantic view, isn’t it?”

He looked into her eyes for a moment, then leaned over and kissed her lightly, drawing “ooh” noises from the other four members of the expedition.

“Okay, guys, I think that’s enough ogling. Let’s hop back in and get going. We’ve got a long day ahead of us and I want to be done and on our way back before the sun is halfway to the other horizon.”

Arkwiss and Almsqu smiled at each other like lovestruck juveniles while the group returned to their seats. When everyone was back in, the crawler set off again. They had made it a little more than halfway down the side of the valley when Arkwiss spotted a cave through the trees and had Nir bring it to a halt.

Nir, Id, wait here and keep the crawler running. We want to be able to leave in a hurry if necessary.

Got it, boss.

Will do, dad.

A low mist clung to the ground as the six numenera hunters dismounted. The entrance to the cave loomed, a disembodied maw among the trees.

As they grew closer, Almsqu moved out ahead of the group. “Halt,” she hissed, her voice barely above a whisper. “I smell something.” She closed her eyes and tilted her head. “Arkwiss, I’m going to go in, wait here until I get back.”

“Okay, I’ll be ready if you need help. Just let me know.”

The seeker nodded and stepped into the opening as Arkwiss got the rest of the group organized. The air inside was damp, warmer than the season would indicate. A rancid smell assaulted her nose, prompting Almsqu to wrap a piece of cloth around her mouth and nose. Not far inside, the cave dog-legged left, cutting off the light from outside. As she pulled a torch from her pack, she noticed a faint amber glow that seemed to emanate from behind the rocks in the wall.

She grabbed a small pick from a sheath on her belt and chiseled away a small chunk of stone. Behind it, the wall appeared to be made of synth, with strange symbols glowing in amber on it. Hammering away at the stone revealed a small panel in the wall. Almsqu carefully removed it, slipping it into her pack and putting the pick away.

The stench grew more powerful the further she delved into the tunnel. A few hundred feet and another bend in the tunnel brought her to a dead end.

A loud thump spun her around.

Tusks framed an eyeless face towering about her. The ravage bear sniffed at the air, then lowered its head and roared, lumbering into a charge.

Almsqu ducked at the last minute, diving between the monster’s massive legs. It slid into the wall as it tried to turn to follow her. She ran as fast as she could, trying and failing to grab a cypher from her belt. It’s breath was hot on the back of her neck as she exited the cave, shouting a warning to her companions outside. She cut sharp to the left with a tuck and roll, twisting herself back toward the beast as she did.

The maneuver confused the animal long enough for Almsqu to take stock of the situation and pull out the detonation cypher she had tried to grab earlier.. Arkwiss was already engaged with another ravage bear, and a third lay dead on the ground.

She activated the cypher as the animal bore down upon her, throwing it at it’s face and leaping behind a tree. The explosion pushed her across the ground until she slammed into a root. By the time she picked herself up, the final ravage bear had been dealt with. She walked back to the group to survey the damage.

One man was dead, impaled on the tusk of the first dead beast, another was bleeding profusely from a horrific gash in his abdomen. The woman, Axiri, lay unconscious where she had been thrown into a tree, but appeared otherwise unhurt. The final member of the team appeared unhurt.

Arkwiss was tired, but aside from a few minor scrapes and bruises, fine.

Id, Nir, we have wounded, bring the crawler, that explosion cleared a path for you to back up over here.

On our way, father.

The crawler pulled around to where they were as Almsqu provided aid to the wounded man and Arkwiss woke the unconscious woman and helped her back to her feet. They loaded the two casualties onto the vehicle, then turned back toward the cave.

“There are cyphers in there, we just have to work for them,” Almsqu stated, pulling the panel from her pack. “If there were any more ravage bears in there, they would have come out during the fight. It will be clear now, and we need those devices.”

Arkwiss nodded his agreement. “Okay, guys, let’s get to work grab as many as you can carry.”

Reluctantly, the other two followed. They spent several otherwise uneventful hours digging, chipping away the the stone, and peeling numenera from the underlying machinery. When their packs were full, the group went back to the crawler.

The ride back to Ellomyr that afternoon was quiet, everybody very conscious of the dead man on the floor, and the second man who might not make it.

Their return was met with cheers and celebration that quickly turned to grief and fear as the body was off-loaded from the crawler. As soon as it was clear, Id emerged from his place in the engine to help the dying man as much as possible, and Nir crawled into the back to assist. A few of the newcomers to Ellomyr were trained as chirurgeons and medics; a runner went to round them up.

Id worked into the evening with the others in what was ultimately a failing effort to save the wounded man. The automaton didn’t know the exhaustion evident on the faces of the others, but he recognized their grief, even if his machine parts didn’t allow him to express it visually.

After parting way with the other healers, he went to get himself clean of the blood. He hated death. It was always such an unnecessary, messy thing. He’d heard of different ways that humans had come up with over the years to avoid it. One of the most fascinating was the story of a man in a nation to the East who called himself the Changing God. Most such stories were only that, little more than rumor, but he would never understand why flesh-and-blood beings didn’t just figure out how to stop dying.

That’s why he made medicines and other useful cyphers.

By the time he had finished cleaning himself, Arkwiss and Almsqu had gone to sleep, but not before thanking him for his efforts. They would figure out what everything that they had found was in the morning. Nir should also have been in bed, but she complained to him that she couldn’t sleep because she kept seeing the dead men every time she closed her eyes.

Id invited her to sit with him in the cool night air, where he regaled her with stories of gods and demons, heroes and villains. He told the stories of the constellations and the myths about them. All stories he had learned from the Datasphere.

As the first glow of morning started to tinge the horizon, Id realized Nir was snoring lightly, leaning against him. Gently he carried her to her bed, careful not to wake her, then grabbed the packs from the previous day.

There was no time to wait to identify the cyphers. The margr horde was coming.

A few days after the fateful journey to the Valley of Sin, the town gathered before the Trilling Shard to hold a memorial for their fallen residents. It seemed like all of the village’s almost 200 original residents had turned out to pay their respects. Arkwiss felt like everybody was watching him—judging him—as speaker after speaker stood up and said their piece about the dead. He didn’t blame them. They had taken him in, welcomed him and his strange family, and given him their trust, and he’d failed them. A few of the newcomers offered kind words to him and Almsqu, mostly those who had experienced this kind of thing before.

Nir had disappeared somewhere with her new friend, the curious little mutant who’d arrived with the self-proclaimed knight, but he didn’t mind. The nano knew that she understood death from a logical perspective, but this was the first time she had really had to deal with it, and it had been a brutal experience for her first time.

When the last speaker had finished—one of the men’s wives—he looked over at Almsqu, who gave his hand a squeeze, silently encouraging him to face the crowd.

Pushing his way to the front, Arkwiss stoically climbed onto the hurriedly assembled stage. The crowd grew silent as he gathered his thoughts, staring down at the elaborate woodcarving that Dora Redmire had made to honor the two men. At long last, he looked out at the crowd. He scanned their faces, many of which he knew from those peaceful first couple of months after his arrival here. There were plenty more that he didn’t know, however. Newcomers who had been drawn here, called to this place serendipitously at the same time, arriving just when the aldeia needed them the most. He had worked with a few of them on the towns defenses, but most were still strangers. He spotted his daughter with Ro and one of Dora’s boys—her oldest? She had so many it was hard to keep track—sitting on the roof of the Redmire home.

He cleared his throat. “I’ve been trying to think of the proper words to say, but I really don’t have any that wouldn’t tell you anything about these two men that you don’t already know. My family and I have only been a part of this community a few short months, but in that time, we have been welcomed into this community with open arms. From the moment Kyrn said ‘Welcome to Ellomyr’ this community has shown us what that word meant.

“In return, we promised to use our skills and abilities to help where we could. At first, that meant hunting, working the fields, making medicine, and fixing roofs. But than Nieten returned from a hunt, and with her came more newcomers, and word of a demon army massing near the town.

“Suddenly, our skills became much more relevant.

“We’ve tried to do what we can to protect this community and help it prepare, but that comes as little consolation to those of you who lost your friends, husbands, sons. So what I will offer is this: their sacrifice was not in vain. The devices that we recovered during the expedition are already being put to use bolstering our defenses. They’ve allowed us to increase the range that the watchtowers can see, set up remote communications between defensive locations, and create energy fields to protect the shelters being constructed as refuge for those who cannot fight. So now it is up to us to honor that sacrifice by doing what people have done since time immemorial, through the rise and fall of the eight worlds that came before, and survive, live, and tell our children of the heroes who bravely gave their lives that we might continue.”

Arkwiss didn’t know how to finish, so he let those final words hang in the air as he stepped down from the stage to find Almsqu waiting for him. As the lovers embraced, another of the newcomers took the stage, the strange mechanical man who had taken it upon himself to be the town’s hero. Arkwiss was tempted to try to prevent him from speaking, but that wasn’t his place, so he deferred to the democracy of mob rule. The crowd would decide if they wanted to listen to what Hiero Sol had to say.

As for them, Arkwiss and Almsqu decided to take the opportunity to break free of the crowd and return home.

A short, sharp whistle brought Almsqu to a stop, raising a hand to signal the others. She looked up, searching for her daughter amongst the branches. Nothing but the soft rustling of branches as the girl climbed higher. She knocked an arrow to her bow and took a knee, indicating to the others that they should do the same.

Nieten duck-walked up beside her. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. Nir whistled to stop. She’s gone higher to get a better view.”

“Okay, I’m going to relay to the others. Let me know when she gets back.”

Nir returned after a few minutes, dropping silently from the tree next to her mother. Almsqu signalled to the others, who circled around the small mound of dirt and twigs the girl was making.

“This is us,” she said, pointing with a knife at a spot near the edge of the twigs. “The trees end about here.” The knife indicated another spot, not far away. “There’s a group of margr just inside the treeline. The way they were moving made it hard to get a count, but it is definitely more than we can handle. A couple of dozen at least.”

“That’s what I saw.” Nir looked at the group. “What’s worse is what I heard. The land looks like it just drops off, probably into a valley, right about here.” She indicated a spot not far beyond the treeline. “I couldn’t see down into it from where I was, but it sounded like the entire horde might be down there.”

Nieten nodded, thinking. “Gilthk, do you think you can burrow your way there and see what’s what?” The diruk nodded. “Good. Just in and out. Poke your head out, see what’s in the valley, come back. Don’t be a hero; don’t be seen. We’re going to take hide up in the branches, but we’ll only wait an hour. If you aren’t back by then, we have to assume the worst, understand?”

Gilthk gave another nod and a hand gesture that he understood before disappearing. Nieten gestured to the trees towering above them. “Let’s climb up. The margr won’t be able to get us up there if they come this way.”

Nir and Almsqu led the way, followed by Biris, Dora Redmire’s son, Cacer, the strange visitant explorer, and Nieten, who went last. As the motley group settled in, Nir scouted ahead, her extra arms providing her an advantage as she moved from one tree to the next.

Almsqu took up a perch next to Nieten. “Things have changed quite a bit since we arrived in the crawler and you warned us of the Iron Wind, haven’t they?”

“Yes. I should have listened to Dora and Brucha. They knew what they were talking about and I called them fools. At least I suppose people will stop asking me to lead to town.”

“Perhaps. If that is what you want, I am sure that you could allow yourself to become just another face in the crowd with the number of newcomers who’ve arrived. Eventually, I am sure Arkwiss and I will move on, and we would be happy to have you, should you choose to join us. But I don’t think so. Over the past months, we’ve seen you accept where you were wrong. We’ve seen you grow and become the leader that your people always knew you could be. You’ve been leading the town’s defense efforts since the moment you saw the first group of margr and jumped in to help battle them off. I think you’re exactly what this town needs in a leader, and I just wanted to let you know that I’m grateful for everything you do.”

With a smirk, she added one final thought. “Besides, the Iron Wind is still out there. It is still a threat.”

Nieten chuckled and hugged her friend. The two had become close in the past months, spending many days scouting and hunting, and Nieten had been teaching Nir how to use a sword, something neither of the girl’s parents knew how to do.

It wasn’t much longer before Nir returned, followed shortly by Gilthk. The group climbed down from where they had been perched when the rock-man emerged from the ground, forming a circle around him and the impromptu diagram Nir had made earlier.

The diruk grabbed six pebbles, indicating to the group that the small stones represented them. He placed the rocks in a small circle near one edge of the dirt hill Nir had constructed, then reached down, scooping out a deep trench that circled half way around the mound. Into the trench he began to pour small rocks, until it was filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of pebbles, and still they fell from his hand.

Nieten nodded. “This can only mean that the margr are upon us. Diruk, you are our best bet for warning the village. I need you to tunnel back to them. Do not stop for anything until you have reached the watchtower. Let them know what you saw, and that we are coming as fast as we can.”

Gilthk nodded and disappeared once more into the ground. “Okay, everyone, weapons ready, we run until we reach the town, but we stick together.”

Everyone drew their weapons, recognizing what was at stake, and what failure could mean.

And they ran.

The margr seemed to come from nowhere. Ten of the towering, hairy abhumans emerged from the trees ahead of the group as they ran.

Wasting no time, Cacer fired a bolt from her crossbow that caught one of the beasts in the throat, nearly tearing its head off. as Almsqu fired an arrow that flew clean through one to embed itself in the face of the one behind it. At the same time, Nir brought her hands together, loosing a flash of energy. It seemed to have no effect until a third just stopped where it was, eyes rolling into the back of its head and blood trickling from its nose, ears, and eyes, and crumpled to the ground.

Six on five were much favorable odds as the creatures closed the distance, but Nieten was the only true fighter with Gilthk travelling ahead.

The lead abhuman lifted a nasty-looking spear and roared something in a choking, guttural language that sounded more animal than human. The rest of the group spread out, surrounding the small band of scouts.

It was a short-lived victory, however, as the other brought around the bone club it carried to hit her in the side. She felt ribs crack from the force, and the wind was blasted out of her. Coughing and gasping for breath, she expected to die.

Nir charged the nearest, deftly dodging the things spear as she grabbed it’s legs. She only came up to its stomach, but height only mattered when an opponent was on its feet, and her four limbs made quick work of toppling it. The thing swatted at her as she climbed atop it, sending her flying, her ears ringing, but not before she managed to bury her knife in it’s chest and leaving it to choke as its lungs filled with blood.

Cacer slung her crossbow and drew a sword. It wasn’t her preferred weapon, but she didn’t have time just now to spend reloading as one of the smaller—relatively speaking—of the margr charged, spear out, in an attempt to impale the Outsider. She stepped deftly to the side at the last minute, swatting the hideous-looking weapon away as she drew her opponent’s measure. Enraged at the maneuver, it spun, quickly changing its momentum to follow the spear. Coming around in a long, sweeping arc, Cacer was surprised by its speed and agility, and took the weapon through and arm as she tried to dodge. Thinking itself victorious, the margr let go of the spear to try and grab it’s prey, but Cacer, recognizing her opportunity was ready, cutting the things arms off when it got too close.

Almsqu quickly fitted another arrow to her bowstring and let fly, not even taking the time to aim. It grazed one of the margr, who howled with pain and surprise as two of the beast-men closed in on her. She dove between the two, twisting her body as she did to come up facing them, already nocking another arrow. The surprise move worked, and the two stopped where they were until they realized she was behind them. It didn’t take long, but it was more than long enough for her to fire the arrow up into the chest of one. The arrow impacted with such force that it lifted the abhuman to its toes and sent it tumbling into the other, throwing that one off balance. The explorer wasted no time flipping the bow around and smacking the second one across the face with all of her might. It made a wet popping noise as it connected, and the creature fell over, half of its skull caved in.

Nieten found herself face-to-face with the largest of their enemies. It stood nearly a head taller than she, and was covered head to toe in tawny, matted fur. It lifted its spear cautiously as the experienced warrior fell into a fighting stance. The hunter recognized her danger; this margr was smarter than the others and would not be easily taken down, and knew she had to finish the fight quickly. A quick feint to the left failed to fool it, and she quickly realized that it was following her weapon and not her, giving her an idea. It was a stupid idea—a really, really stupid idea, she had to admit—but it was her only one against an opponent so much larger and faster than her.

Nieten threw her prized, glass sword into the air.

The gamble paid off as the margr’s attention followed it up. Quickly, the warrior drew a long hunting knife and plunged it under the creature’s chin.

Biris was the least experienced of the group. Truth was, he’d never fought anything bigger than his siblings. He’d done some training with Hiero and a few of the other newcomers, but it became quickly apparent that he was out of his league as one of the margr approached him. He wondered for a moment if the beast wasn’t laughing at him as it approached. He raised his spear defensively and fell into a fighting stance like Hiero had taught, but the thing deftly avoided his strike as he stabbed at it and grabbed the tip of the weapon. The boy tried to pull his weapon from the monster’s grasp, but it held firm, and used the inexperienced fighter’s momentum to send him flying into a tree close to where Nir was just standing back up.

Biris watched in horror as the thing flipped the weapon around let fly at the four-armed visitant. Without thinking, he pushed himself up, leaping for the projectile. His inexperience cost him as he missed his target, instead taking the spear through his chest for his efforts.

Nieten pulled the knife from her opponent just in time to watch Biris go down. Screaming in fury, she charged at the  unprepared abhuman, grabbing her sword as it came back down. The vicious creature spun around with surprising speed to face her, but not fast enough as she brought her sword down in an overhand chop that cleaved its head in two, killing it before it had time to register that it was dead.

Nir was the closest to their fallen comrade and dropped to a knee next to him. Thankfully, the spear had missed his heart, and he was still alive. She could hear the blood filling his lungs with every breath. Before she could call to the others for help, though, another horrifying sound filled the air, accompanied by a vision none of them would ever forget: dozens more margr, making a strange clicking, popping noise, were coming over the hill that the group had just come from like an approaching flood.

The companions tightened up together and waited for the same death that would surely destroy their town.

A strange tugging sensation and a shout of pain from Nir drew their attention away from the approaching horde. Nir was on the ground hunched over, her face inches from the dirt. One of her arms supported her off the ground, while two clutched her head as though she had a nasty headache. It was the fourth arm, however, that was interesting outstretched toward a strange image of a grey field under a swirling sky just hanging there, suspended in the air like a painting. The image was one of the strangest sights any of them had ever seen. Any but one, however. Cacer recognized the Door immediately for what it was.

“Hurry everybody,” urged the strange woman, “our young companion has provided us a means of escape, I suggest we take it.” The others looked dubious. She urged them to hurry and stepped through, not entirely sure what she would find on the other side.

Almsqu and Nieten looked at each other for just a moment before moving. The warrior reached down and grabbed the wounded Biris as she stepped through, while Almsqu grabbed her daughter.

From the other side, they looked back at the oncoming horde as the portal closed behind them, sealing them into the strange place. Nir had lost consciousness, blood trickling from her ears and nose, and Almsqu laid her gently on the soft, grey ground, as Nieten did her best to help Biris.

“Cacen, where are we? You know what it was that just happened, don’t you?” Almsqu moved to stand next to Cacen. The landscape ahead of them was flat and a uniform grey color. Each step felt like walking on a think carpet of moss, or a firm mattress filled with feathers. Their sky was manifest chaos; just swirling eddies absent even the nothingness of the darkest black. Even the two seasoned adventurers felt like that death at the hands of the margr was a preferable fate to whatever waited for them in the chaos above their heads.

“I don’t know. Outside, somewhere, I believe.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because it was an opening like that one that brought me to your world.”

Almsqu looked at her sideways, “you mean you come from another world?”

“Yes, one outside of your understanding of reality. I have been searching for a way to return, but it eludes me.”

“But it didn’t have anything to do with Nir, right?”

“No, I have been on your world for quite some time.”

Almsqu nodded. “So you don’t know how to get us home?” Nieten joined the conversation as she stepped over to them.

“No. I would guess that Nir is the only way that to happen.”

“I see. Well, I’ve made the boy as comfortable as I can. It will be a miracle if he lives.”

“Don’t disregard the power of the people still in Ellomyr. I don’t doubt that someone could save his life.” The group grew silent at the mention of the town, unsure if it would even still be there when they returned.

Eventually, the group managed to get a bit of sleep.

It was Nir’s voice that woke everybody. She was panicked, trying to scream but unable to make enough noise as she looked at the sky. Almsqu, Nieten, and Cacer followed her gaze upward, recoiling in horror at what they saw.

The sky was alive. Some sort of creatures, either too small or too far to make out any detail, swarmed like a cloud boiling in from the horizon. Deep in their midst, something lay hidden, just beyond the edge of perception, more of an impression which their minds could not comprehend than an actual observable thing. All they knew, gazing at it’s terrifying approach, was that it was hungry.

Almsqu grabbed Nir by the shoulders as the things grew ever closer, spinning her daughter to face her instead of the oncoming doom. “Nir, love, don’t look. What we need is for you to help get us out of here, okay?” The girl nodded in understanding. “Good, do you remember what you did to bring us here?” Another nod. “Can you do it again to get us home?”

Nir nodded a third time, closing her eyes and stepping away from her mother. “Okay, I can do this, mother. Just give me a minute to find the right Key.”

Almsqu looked at her quizzically, not understanding what she meant, but stepped aside anyway, trusting her daughter’s ability. When blood started trickling from the visitant’s ears and nose, Almsqu had to sublimate her urge to  protect her child by making her stop doing…whatever it was she was doing. Her trust paid off though, when the girl reached out with two hands, as though she were gripping a pair of door handles. It might have been their imaginations, or the sound of the oncoming swarm, but they almost swore they heard an audible click as Nir turned her hands and gave a slight push, opening another portal.

This time, they were looking at home.

Almsqu turned to her companions. The creatures were nearly upon them now; she could make them out, like hideous insects, all legs, fluttering wings, and chittering mandibles. “The way is open! Hurry!”

Nieten and Cacer grabbed Biris as they rushed toward the exit, pulling each other along in their stumbling panic as they fled. Once they were through the location, Almsqu put an arm around Nir.

“Okay, they’re through. Time for us to go.”

The girl seemed impervious to outside events, like she had become unaware of anything that was not the portal. Almsqu pushed and forced her through the opening as the things grew ever nearer, finally tripping through it to fall flat on her face in the shade of the Trilling Shard.

The group only had a few moments to relish the fact that the town still stood before realizing that they didn’t make it through alone. One of the creatures flew through immediately after the mother and daughter team. Almsqu, Nieten, and Cacer each drew their weapons, forming a tight ring as the thing flew in circles around them, looking for an opportunity to move in for a killing blow. A couple of times it tried to make a move toward one of the children lying prone, but each time the three warrior women moved to intercept.

After a few moments, Nir pushed herself up to her hands and knees, and shot a look of pure hatred at the beast. She screamed a stream of obscenities her mother wasn’t even aware that she knew as she pushed herself to her feet. Then, with an evil look on her face, she screamed at it, reached up a hand, and twisted.

The front half of the insectoid thing didn’t appear to register for a moment that it’s rear half was gone. After a moment, though, it’s brain caught up to the rest of it, and the part that was still flying fell dead to the ground. Nir followed it down, falling drained to a kneeling position.

Dora Redmire came rushing out of her house, screaming at the sight of her son.

“Dora. Dora!” Nieten yelled into her face, getting her to pay attention. “Hey, we need to get some help for Biris or he is going to die. Run and fetch a healer and bring them back here. We have to go report in, so it’s up to you.” When Dora didn’t move Nieten put her face just inches from the older woman’s and screamed, “Go! Now!”

That seemed to sink in, and the woman turned and fled in search of a healer for her son. Nieten turned to the others. “Something is off. We’ve been gone hours. The attack should have happened by now. We need to go find the defense and figure out what is going on here.” The woman turned and headed off in the direction of the watchtower.

Cacer looked down at Nir inscrutably, “When the danger has passed, we shall speak more of your power, should we both still live.” She followed Nieten in the direction of the watchtower.

“Nir,” the young visitant looked up at her mother, “I need you to listen to me.” Almsqu moved to a discolored brick in the low wall surrounding the obelisk. Removing it revealed a steel and synth rope connected at the other end to a hidden door in the ground. When she had pulled it open to reveal a ladder descending into the darkness, she continued. “There’s shelter and safety in the tunnels under the city. When the attack begins, Gurner Fron is going to be bringing the children, the sick, and the old to hide down here until its over. They’re going to need you to protect them if the margr get in.”

“But I’m supposed to help you on the walls.” “I know that’s where you want to be, but this is where we need you. Please, there is nobody else who do this., Hiero said he’s going to send Ro to help you, okay?”

Nir started to protest, but stopped herself. Protesting would accomplish nothing, and if this were the plan, then she was needed here. “Okay. I’ll do it. We need to wait for everyone else to get in before we send Biris down, though. We don’t want any of the other children stepping on him when they go down.”

Almsqu nodded. “You’re going to have to get Ro or one of the others to help you, then. I have to get to the walls. Can you handle that? Are you good?”

Nir nodded, looking up at her mother with tears in her eyes. As the strange girl held back the terror, Almsqu thought about just what it was what was asking of her daughter. There was no time to get sentimental as the two embraced, but the older woman kissed the younger on the forehead and stepped away.

“I will find you when the fighting is over. I promise. Just stay in the tunnels and you should be safe.”

With that, Almsqu followed their previous companions, unable to bring herself to look back.

As she departed, Nir made her way to Id’s store, just on the other side of the square.

He could hear them coming from his position atop the rampart. The clicking, chittering noise sent a shiver of discomfort down his spine. Scouts had reported first hearing the noise the day before, but it had become audible on the outskirts near his home that night, and by morning it was echoing through the town, sending the people into a frenzy of hurried, last-minute preparations, expecting an attack to come at any moment. For the first time, Arkwiss was grateful that Kelem and his group had left; the last thing anyone needed right now was someone causing a panic.

The nano-wizard stood near the massive numenera weapon that had been found in the Valley of Sin by one intrepid expedition. They, like his own voyage, had suffered losses, as had most of the journeys into the accursed place, but the thing they had found had validated the sacrifices of all those who had perished in the valley. He and a pair of the other sorcerers had figured out how to make it spit fire, ice, and lightning to great effect, and they would take turns operating it during the battle, ensuring that it saw continual use until it stopped working altogether.

One of the glaives, a promising young man who had proven himself a more than capable warrior and an even better strategist, had had the genius idea of mounting it atop the crawler, giving it both mobility and range. He had even volunteered to pilot the thing—he and Almsqu had agreed that Nir wouldn’t be anywhere near the fighting unless the battle went poorly, much less piloting the vehicle—and a few of the wrights had given it armor and a system that would allow it to run without Id at the controls, freeing his mechanical friend to put his own skills to use elsewhere.

It pained him that the battle would likely be the last time either of the machines would be useable, and he hated to see them used for such purposes, but it was a small price to pay to protect the lives of those he had grown close to over the past several months.

He reflected on everything he had seen and experienced in the time he had been in the village as he awaited the return of Almsqu and Nir with increasing anxiety. They had departed before the sun crested the eastern hills with a small team to try and determine how long they had before the margr horde fell upon the city in all of its horror. That was several hours ago, and he knew it might be several more before they returned, but that knowledge did nothing to allay his fear.

At one point, somebody brought him a few bits of gallen jerky, his allotted ration as the town braced itself for the worst, should it survive the coming days. He forced the food down, knowing he would need his energy for the battle to come, even though he was not hungry.

It was shortly after the sun had reached its zenith when the rumble of earth just inside the gate alerted him to the return of Gilthk. Not making any assumptions, but fearing the worst as the reason the diruk would return without the others, Arkwiss rushed to the stairs that led down from the palisade. He took them several at a time with his long, bounding strides, eager for news.

Using a combination of waving hand gestures, a pile of dirt covered in twigs, and pebbles, the alien explained what he had seen. The margr force was on the move, not far now from the town. Arkwiss let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding when the rock-person informed them that the rest of the reconnaissance party was on their way back, but that they had sent him ahead in case anything happened, so that the town would at least get the information.

When the debriefing had finished, runners were sent to alert the town to drop what they were doing and assume their assigned battle positions. Arkwiss had just returned to his position when Nieten and Cacer came from the direction of the Trilling Shard, followed a short distance behind by Almsqu.

Arkwiss rushed back down the stairs, again.

“What’s going on? Why have the margr not attacked?” Nieten’s query came as something of a surprise.

“Umm, because it hasn’t been that long. You guys haven’t been gone very long. It’s just past lunch, you were only out a few hours. Now, why are you coming from that way? I’ve been waiting for your return all morning.”

“That’s not possible, we were gone for nearly a full day. Your daughter seemed to open a door to another world, we rested there for several hours alone.”

Almsqu interrupted them. “Okay, it doesn’t matter. All that’s important is that we’ve arrived in time to warn you. Has Gilthk returned yet? We sent him ahead in case anything happened.

“Yes, he was just here, we’ve sent runners to spread word for everyone to get ready.”

Almsqu and Nieten nodded. while Cacer walked off in the direction of her position. Atop the wall, a young man whistled down at them; when they looked up, he was waving a signal torch.

Almsqu, Nieten, and Arkwiss ran up the steps as fast as they could and looked out at what had once been peaceful fields surrounding the aldeia, What they saw this time was one of the most terrifying things any of them had ever witnessed. In the distance still, but clearly visible now and drawing ever closer, was a teeming mass of fur, teeth, and crudely fashioned weapons.

The horde had arrived.

There had to be some extra medicine somewhere. Over the past couple of days, everything in Id’s little shop had been moved to strategic points in the defenses where it would be useful, but surely something remained. Nir searched every nook and cranny that she could think of to no avail. Finally, just as she was headed back to the square, she saw something poking out from behind a workbench.

Not worrying about breaking anything, she grabbed the table and tossed it aside, revealing the small spray emitter. It wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, but it would have to do.

Rushing back to where Biris lay, Nir wondered where in the world the healers were. Surely Dara had been able to find one by now?

Then she saw them. Gurner Fron and a small team of assisstants were leading a small army of children, the elderly, and those incapable of fighting right to where she was waiting.

“Nir! Than’ th’ numenera, you’re alive, chil’!” As the children began climbing down into the darkness, Gurner swept her up in a hug so fierce she almost dropped the device.

“It’s good to see you, too.” Nir returned the embrace, then pushed herself from his grasp and gestured to her fallen comrade. “Biris is hurt. Dara went to find a healer, but she hasn’t returned.”

“I’m sorry, girl, but there won’ be a healer. Th’ mar’r are here. All of th’ healers are takin’ there place with th’ defen’ers.”

“Skist,” muttered the girl, drawing a surprised look from the old man. “Fine, I suppose if that’s how it has to be. Once everyone is below, can you help me get him down?”

“Sure, we’ll do what it takes to keep him alive.”

“Thanks.” She turned and looked about at the commotion as people rushed to their positions. “Have you seen Ro? My mother said she was going to be coming to help.”

“No, I can’ say that I have. She’ll be here though, Hiero promis’ to sen’ her, an’ there are few men I trus’ to keep a promise more than that robot.”

Nir nodded at the old man, knowing that, if there was anyone she could trust absolutely to keep their word, it was Hiero Sol, Champion of Starlight and Defender of Humanity and Ro, the indomitable little mutant girl who had become  her closest friend.

When the last of the line had disappeared into the blackness of the tunnels, Nir grabbed Biris under the arms, while Gurner grabbed his legs. Together they dragged the young man to the hole and somehow managed to lower him down the ladder, pulling the door shut behind them with one last look around for Ro. The bottom of the tunnel smelled foul, and there was some sort of muck clinging to the bottom. Even the walls glistened a putrid green color in the light of the glow-globe someone had lit. Gathering the shirts from several of the older boys in the group, Nir improvised a matress and laid Biris down on his side the way Nieten had done, careful to keep him off of the slime that seemed to coat everything. She pulled out the little sprayer she had found in Id’s shop.

“Okay, Biris, I can’t promise this will work, and it will probably hurt, but it’s our best hope of keeping you alive until the fighting is done, okay?”

He nodded, barely conscious through the pain. Nir pulled back the bandage that Nieten had improvised. The wound underneath was an angry red, streaked through with ugly black bolts of lightning shooting out from the center. Almost immediately, thick black blood began to ooze out, and she could hear in his breathing as fluid began to pour into his punctured lung. The girl had seen medicine like what was in the device used before. It would emit a fine cloud of tiny machines that would  cover the wound and begin the healing process, all she had to do was spray it in the general vicinity of the injury and depress the trigger.

She shoved the tip into the wound as deep as she could and squeezed.

The response was nearly instant; the sound that came from Biris’ mouth could not accurately be described as a scream. Nir wondered if any human voice had ever made quite such a horrible sound before as she tried to hold the screeching, squirming boy steady with her four arms.

A couple of the other children—she thought they might be his siblings, but it was hard to tell in the dim light— offered to help. Together, they held him still long enough for her to finish administering the treatment. He passed out as she withdrew the tip of the sprayer and reapplied the bandage.

A few moments later, the creak of the door drew her attention up the ladder. Nir fell into a fighting stance as a small silhouette filled the opening.

“Wow, it is really dark down there. Are you there, Nir? Hiero sent me to help.”

Nir sighed with relief. “By the Shard, Ro! You terrified me, you beautiful slying seskii.”

The younger girl laughed as she climbed down, hugging her friend upon reaching the bottom. “I was beginning to get worried until I saw Cacer and Nieten. I knew that they wouldn’t just leave you behind.” “I’m fine,” replied Nir, pulling away and gesturing toward the wounded boy. “Biris is hurt, though. I gave him some medicine, but he needs a real healer.”

Ro nodded as Gurner Fron made his way back from somewhere down the tunnel. “Come on, everybody. There’s a safe room ahead for us t’ hide in. We got supplies aplen’y there.”

The pair gestured for him to lead, and Ro went with him, while Nir followed at the rear, carrying Biris and making sure none of the children fell behind. The tunnels seemed to wind for an impossibly long time, with other tunnels feeding more refugees into their group. Finally, the tunnels emerged out into a large underground cavern. The smooth walls and floor of the massive space were lined with synth; the roof held up by massive stone pillars. A constant low rumbling noise echoed in the space that someone identified as water flowing behind one of the walls in the back.

When everybody had made it inside, Gurner showed Ro and Nir how to close and seal the heavy metal door, then showed them to the cache of cyphers that had been hidden there in anticipation of their needs. Among the devices were a case of explosive devices, weapons including spears, daggers, clubs, and slings, even a handful of crossbows, a pair of large-scale shield generators, and even a pair of simple automata wielding nasty looking solid light swords and spears. The real prize, however, was a small, square piece of synth with a piece of glass covering one side. As soon as Nir picked it up, several projected images appeared in the air above it, revealing views of several different places where access to the tunnels could be obtained. By reaching out and twisting the image, she discovered that she could change the view between several different options showing different views of the tunnels. The weapons were passed out to the people hiding in the underground space. Few had ever held more than a knife, but Nir and Ro insisted anybody who could lift one received a weapon; any defense was better than no defense if the margr made it this far. Ro placed the shield generators where they would be able to block the doorway and prevent entry, giving two of the oldest children quick instructions on how to use them, and strict orders to activate them without question if they were told to do so—even if it meant trapping her and her friends outside.

After that, all there was to do was wait. Nir was tempted to tell Ro about the expedition, and the strange, horrible insects they had discovered in the strange place they had wound up, but it didn’t seem like the time. Instead, the two sat in silence just outside the door to the cavern, leaning on each other. The irony was not lost on either of them that the two had both been ostracized by the other youths, and were now likely their greatest hope for survival.

It didn’t take long for the sounds of battle to reach them. Dull, thudding explosions shook the tunnels and sent goopy chunks of dirt falling on the heads of those taking refuge. Not long after, it seemed, a more audible explosion echoed its way to them, followed by a snapping, popping noise. Nir and Ro readied themselves, waiting for the inevitable.

The first margr to come around the final corner caught an explosive cypher to its face. The thing’s head simply disappeared in a spray of blood and bone, and the energy from the blast set the two trailing it on fire. The flailing beastmen managed to set more of their brethren ablaze, stalling the onslaught long enough for the pair to activate the blade-wielding robots that someone had left for them, just in time for them to engage the rearmost members of the group, who had simply pushed the ones ahead of them on fire into the muck and trampled them in their drive to destroy.

The machines went about their work to great effect in the narrow passage. Nearly a score of the margr came over the tops of the smoldering corpses of their companions, but the automata cut them all down. The pair of machines ran out of power shortly after the last of their opponents was shut down, and simply stopped moving with weapons still outstretched. Nir attempted to dislodge the weapons they carried to no avail, but together, the pair  managed to position them where they thought it might create the biggest impediment to any more enemies that might be coming.

The young team barely had a moment to catch their breath when more of the creatures could be heard coming down the tunnels. Warning those inside the cavern to raise the shields if the margr arrived before they returned, they grabbed the case of explosives and set off toward the noise. As soon as the creatures saw them, they broke into a snarling charge. Blindly, they threw the weapons behind them as the ran back toward the cavern, knowing that every one was bound to hit the seething horde.

Helping each other along, the two mutants managed to put some distance between themselves and their foes by the time they reached the cavern, screaming ahead to alert those who were waiting for them. Moments after they made it through the opening, someone raised one of the energy shields, cutting one of the creatures neatly in half. The rest piled up against the barrier futilely, and everyone watched in horror as those closest to it were crushed to death by the pressing mob.

Nir turned to Ro, kneeling next to her small friend and looking her square in the eyes. “Ro, do you remember what I was doing when we first met?”

“You were practicing opening your Doors.”

“That’s right, it seems so long ago now, doesn’t it?” Ro nodded. “Do you remember why I was practicing with my Doors?”

“Of course, you wanted to use them to save the village.”

“Yeah. I can’t do that, but I can try to save the people in this cavern. In order to do that, though, I’m going you to help, okay?”

“What do you need?”

“I’m going to have to open a bigger door than I ever have before, and I’m going to need a much different key than before to do what I’m going to try to do, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it open. I need you to get everybody ready; as soon as it’s open you get them through as quickly as possible.”

“Okay, I can do that.” The younger girl set off, alerting the others to be ready and enlisting the help of those she thought would be of assistance.

Nir came running as the boy operating the shield generator hollered at her. The device was almost out of power and wouldn’t last much longer. She had him leave it and helped move the other device to the center of the room where Ro was gathering everybody. A pair of the older members of the group grabbed up weapons and what remained of the explosives and stood by the entrance, promising to do their best to hold back the swarm for as long as possible.

Thanking them for their sacrifice, Nir activated the second shield generator, raising a bubble of protective energy around the group. As the group watched, the first barrier collapsed, and the old couple immediately began hurling explosives through the portal.

Nir hugged Ro tightly. “Whatever happens, protect them, Ro. I trust you.”

Ro hugged her back, equally as hard, “we’re going to be fine. We have a plan, and if we stick to it, everything will be okay. It’s a good plan.”

Nir nodded as she took a step back and closed her eyes. Blood began to trickle from her nose and ears, even her eyes, as her forehead furled in concentration. After a few moments in which the group watched with horror the way the margr overtook the elderly couple, savagely ripping them apart, Nir raised her hands together. The whole cavern shook, bits of stone and muck falling from the ceiling, and the girl spread her hands, opening a hole in reality like a large set of double doors. Nir opened her eyes to see where she was sending them, giving a nod to her friend when she found herself looking down at the aldeia in the distance, a twisting spire rising up near its center. Flames burned in many parts of the town, but it was too far to make out any real details.

The cavern trembled, making it hard to stand for beast and refugee alike, as Ro wasted no time ushering the group through the opening. Children and elder ran screaming through as the shield generator collapsed. Rocks fell on the group as they pushed their way into the portal. Last through was Ro, pulling on one of Nir’s four arms.

The older girl had not yet made it through the portal when it vanished, leaving the young mutant holding no more than a severed hand.

Almsqu ran to the watchtower. The structure soared into the air. On a clear day, the most eagle-eyed of watchers said they could see out to where the world curved below the horizon. Her sight wasn’t that good, but she was perceptive in other ways, with almost an extra sense for danger and tactics that would prove useful.

When she reached the top, the veteran explorer fit the strange helmet over her head, buckling the strange mouthpiece over the lower half of her face and lowering the synth-glass visor. Someone had found the item in the Valley of Sins. The device contained some sorcery that would allow her to focus her senses on distant parts of the battlefield, allowing her to monitor anywhere she saw a need for the town’s forces to focus their energies. One of the wrights had even built a small attachment that would allow her to project her voice to anyone she could see.

Getting used to it had been strange, but she had been practicing fairly consistently, and was now good enough that she could quickly switch her focus, or just use her normal senses if she needed to defend herself. So it was as the margr crested the last hill.

She leaned her bow against the wall of the watchtower and looked at her two companions.

“Look, guys, I know I should probably say something…inspirational? But I’m not very good with words. I’m sure Hiero would have a speech prepared,” they chuckled at the thought of the odd mechanical knight giving a rousing speech, “but I’m not some great hero. All I can say is that, if we all do our jobs well, and don’t let fear get the better of us, we’ll win, okay?” Both of them agreed.

Marik couldn’t have been more than 16, but she had proven herself to be a deadshot with a crossbow and wielded a specially designed weapon that would allow her to fire at great distances. Her goal would be to try and pinpoint the margr leaders and take them out. If enough of their leadership were decimated, one of the glaives had said the horde would likely disolve into infighting as they tried to establish new command, tearing itself apart.

Ramben, on the other hand, was nearly useless with a weapon in his hands, but had a way of keeping machines runnning longer than they should otherwise. His skills would be invaluable in manning the strange, self-firing weapons—someone had called them “turrets”—that had been mounted in the tower.

She pulled out the new explosive devices that Id had designed, with their strange, long tail and tiny motor, and grabbed one in each hand. “Okay, guys, here they come.”

They crashed against the palisade below like a living tide, flowing over everything outside of the wall.

Marik began firing into the mass, taking careful aim before each shot, while Ramben got the turrets firing. Almsqu started throwing explosives with little regard for aim; there were so many targets that each bomb was sure to hit one.

Every time she witnessed a change in the margr horde’s movements, she relayed the information to the squad most readily positioned to respond. With hope, she watched as the strange, towering numenera weapon that one determined group had brought back was put to effective use, carried around the battlefield on top of the crawler with Arkwiss and a pair of his fellow wizards using it to blast fire, ice, and lightning at any who came too close to the gate.

So it went for what felt like an eternity, until a large explosion from the west drew her attention that way. She watched in horror as a section of the wall collapsed. Defenders rushed to fill the gap, but she dozens slipped past into the town. There were not enough defenders available to respond, so she prayed silently that they didn’t find the tunnels.

She was just asking Ramben to focus the turrets on the gap in the wall when she felt the tower shake violently. As the structure collapsed below her, she had time for a single prayer, that her family would be safe.

Then she hit the ground, and everything went black.

Id had seen things most people wouldn’t believe as he traveled all across the Steadfast and Beyond with his friend and maker. He’d been to the Lands of Dawn, where he had encountered the Emerald Magus of Bruul, climbed the Ghost Mountain to visit the Lily Queen, and met one of the most amazing humans he knew. In the Rayskel Cays, he’d witnessed the ascension and retreat of the Slavering Falls. Once, deep inside of an old world ruin, he and his companions had activated some sort of a lift that had descended into the planet’s core, a beautiful sight unto itself.

In all, he was satisfied with the life he had led in his few short years. He knew he probably didn’t have a soul, not that he’d ever been particularly interested in religion before that moment, but he was okay with that. In fact, the only thing he regretted, as he watched the margr horde descend on the aldeia that had become his home, was that he had never recorded his experiences anywhere outside of his own memory. The things he had done that many would have thought impossible. The things he had seen that most people wouldn’t believe.

Yes, he reflected, the Ninth World was an amazing, beautiful, wonderful place. It was a shame that all of those moments would be lost.

It was a selfish, thought, he knew, but he couldn’t help it. He supposed that, faced with their impending destruction, all creatures must be a bit selfish. That was the nature of evolution, after all, was it not?

He pulled himself out of his reverie and watched the clicking, popping mob of goat-men approach the wall.

As soon as they were in range, he started firing his modified explosives into their ranks. He watched in mild horror as bodies were exploded, limbs destroyed, heads removed, and still they came. Archers slaughtered them in scores, firing at a frenzied pace thanks to the lack of a need for real aiming, and windriders overhead dropped even more explosives into their midst, and still they came.

Near the main gate, Id saw the crawler rumble into action. He barely recognized the thing that he had once been a part of. Heavy plates of synth armor clung to its sides, studded with spikes and blades. The front had been fitted with s scooping device of sorts, designed to funnel any soul unfortunate to find itself  caught in front of the oncoming vehicle underneath its wheels. The strangest sight was the towering weapon that had been mounted atop it, however. The ancient weapon—it clearly was a weapon, regardless of what Arkwiss might say—stood atop its back, one of the nanos charged with operating it frantically working the controls. Arkwiss and the other sorcerer hurled bolts of energy and ancient numenera devices into the horde that did everything from summon strange creatures to ravage their numbers, to create holes in reality through which the abhumans disappeared by the score.

He had just applied a tourniquet to a young woman who had just lost her arm to a rather vile-looking spear when a snarl from behind him drew his attention. A rather small margr was just cresting the top of the pallisade, pulling itself up and over with a growl. The goat-headed thing was naked except for tufts of coarse fur scattered about its body, and dragging a spear nearly twice as long as it was tall.

The margr charged at him with a howl, swinging the weapon in a long arc around its head. The haft of the weapon caught him in the side, nearly sending him tumbling from the wall. When he tried to grab ahold of it, his opponent pulled it back with surprising speed. He sidestepped the stabbing thrust, but heard a sickening squishing noise from behind him. He knew what had happened even before he turned to look at the spear sticking through the head of the woman he had just saved, bits of bone and brain matter clinging to its serrated tip.

It’s just a child, he thought. How vile are these creatures that even the little ones are possessed of such viciousness?

As the margr struggled to pull its weapon from the corpse, Id ran, slamming into it with all of his weight. It tumbled from the wall, but not before managing to find a grip on the machine man’s armor and pulling him over the side with it.

One of Id’s arms was severely damaged when he landed on it, mangled to the point of uselessness.

A squad of defenders came to his aid, helping him back to his feet and offering to escort him to wherever he needed to go. It was a moot point, however, as an explosion from the west rocked their position. A report came from Almsqu that a section of wall had collapsed and the margr were pouring through. Their group linked up with others as they headed to the breach, hoping to intercept the invaders before too much damage had been done.

As the group of defenders rounded a corner, they found themselves face to face with a small army of the enemy. Still, there was something to be said for the ferocity with which humans would defend their homes. The group, nearly 50 strong by that point, charged right into their enemy’s ranks, felling three of the creatures for every one of their number that fell. Still, it wasn’t enough, and their numbers dwindled.

Id wasn’t much of a fighter, but he was able to throw explosives and other weapons over their heads and into the crowd streaming into the breach. Someone else saw what he was doing and joined in, then another. He knew that there were margr in the city, past their lines of defenders, but he and the others somehow managed to hold out long enough for a couple of nanos to arrive and begin using their magic to seal the opening in the wall.

Confident that the tide had been stemmed, Id set off on a new mission, leaving the still-fighting defenders behind. He made his way cautiously toward the Trilling Shard at the center of town. The towering pillar was singing, he thought. with a voice like a beautiful chorus. It reminded him of a choir he had once seen on a visit to Nihliesh. The funeral for Arkwiss’ mother had been a beautiful, sad affair for the popular, beloved woman, and a group of mutants wearing strange helmets had sang as her body was fed back into a machine that would convert it into fuel for the ancient machines at the city’s heart.

He found the door that led down into the tunnels below the village; the ones where Nir was supposed to be guarding the aldeia’s children and infirm. His only goal now was to prevent the creatures from finding their way down.

A small group of abhumans entered the town square and were blown into the air when Id tossed an explosive into their midst. He only had a handful left, so he had to make them count. His hopes disappeared, however, as he as he misjudged a toss into another approaching group, and it sailed over their heads to explode near the back of their ranks. He didn’t even have time to throw the next one before they were upon him; he just activated it in his hand.

He thought he could hear the Trilling Shard grow louder, inviting whatever passed as his soul to join it, as the world disappeared in a flash of light.

The crawler rumbled to life. To his ears, so familiar with its inner workings for so long, it sounded like a sick, dying thing, not the great machine he had helped build all those years ago. It didn’t even look the same, all covered in armor and weapons. He hated any time machines were twisted into instruments of death. There was something twisted about human nature that, once that event horizon was crossed, all they seemed to see was a weapon. Perhaps it was for the best that this was likely to be the end of the vehicle.

Once the others were on board—a young nano-sorceress who called herself simply Void and the half-man, half-machine Staram—he closed the rear door. The trio climbed atop the vehicle, where their charge awaited operation as he signaled to the pilot of the vehicle that they were all on board.

The numenera device stood nearly five feet in height. It’s reflective octagonal shape seemed to be one solid piece that always showed a perfect chromatic negative of whatever reflected in its surface. A strange, flanged nozzle of some sort stretched the entire height of the device, giving the impression that it had maybe been designed to affix to another piece of some much larger machine.

Together, the three mages had figured out how to operate the device. There was a small, circular section on the top, and one on the rear of the device, that reflected a normal image of whatever was in front of it. They had discovered that, by touching it in specific ways, they could get it to discharge fire, ice, or electricity—or any combination of the three—from the opening on the other side. It was capable of other functions, but none were as useful to their purposes as the discharge function they had discovered.

The nano-sorcerers wrapped themselves in the harnesses that would hold them fast to the top of the crawler no matter how rough the ride got. The plan was to move about the battlefield, hurtling their magical energies, small numenera devices that had been salvaged from the Valley of Sin, and the arcane energies of the ancient device in to the margr horde as they saw needed. Almsqu would be in the watchtower, as well, monitoring the ever-changing battlefield and directing them where they might be most helpful.

The press of the margr horde was mind-numbing. The group watched in horror as the gate opened just enough for the crawler to drive through, revealing several ranks of the abhumans already crushed to death in the press against the walls. As their corpses fell through the opening, dozens more were met with an immediate and deadly barrage of magic and arrows while they scrambled over the bodies of their fallen with little or no regard for the dead. Even more fell with the sickening noise of bones being crushed under the wheels of the crawler as the glaive who had been given the task of operating it—an older man named Kryashka—forced a path through the tidal force of the creatures.

Outside the walls, the margr were so thick that Arkwiss questioned if the crawler ever actually touched the ground. The weapon spewed death into the horde, and the crawler rolled over both the living and the dead, but still they came. Quick work was made of the goat-men in the immediate vicinity of the gate, and those nearby learned quickly to avoid the rumbling death machine, which allowed the defenders within to begin sending our sorties to try and strike back, but as soon as they moved off in search of a new target the mob closed in behind them.

The margr might have been yovok. For all the resistance they mustered, the three nanos were death-gods, leaving nothing but bodies in their wake.

Void tapped him on the shoulder; it was his turn to man the weapon. He threw the singularity bead he had prepared, pausing just long enough to watch it disappear, warping reality around itself. Half a dozen margr simply vanished, and all of those around them looked like they had been pulled apart in the aftermath.

Arkwiss felt unclean as he manned the weapon, putting it to use killing margr by the score. People tended to think he was just some ignorant moralist, but nothing could be further from the truth. He recognized the necessity of what he was being forced to do, he just hated it. This particular device didn’t have any real intelligence that he could detect above anything he would expect from an animal, but he knew—he Knew—that it was not meant for this purpose. What he was doing with it now was a corruption of its true purpose, even if he didn’t know exactly what that was supposed to be.

The explosion echoed across the battlefield. Even from his position at nearly to opposite end of the battlefield it was impossible to miss the section of wall that had just fallen. He looked at the other two, and all three had the same thought.

Void hollered down into the hatch. “Kryashka? Darling?”

A gravelly voice responded. “I see it. Brace yourselves.”

The vehicle rumbled and growled as the old warrior pushed it to the limit of its capabilities. Arkwiss didn’t know what happened, or why, but he suddenly found himself floating, weightless. Time seemed to slow as the weapon spun around, bathing his companions in deadly energy. Both fell before it’s fury, and then something struck him in the side of the head, and he knew nothing more.

Arkwiss came to to the rumble of the engine, gradually growing aware of the fact that he was in the crawler. He couldn’t move very much, but that was because he was strapped down. Why was he strapped down? The answer became obvious when he suddenly found himself weightless. The vehicle slammed back into the ground, and everything came rushing back to him.

The battle.

The wall had fallen.

The weapon.

His companions, awash in killing energy.

He could hear the sounds of battle from outside.

He managed to free himself from the straps that held him in place. Carefully, he pushed himself into a sitting position. Hid head hurt, and there was something sticky in his eyes. When he put his hands to them, they came away covered in blood. That explained that. He pushed his head up through the hatch to get a look around.

Staram manned the weapon, firing blasts of energy into the margr horde. His flesh parts were seared and melted in places, but the machine half seemed to be holding him together. Void, too, stood firing into the mass of goat-men. From his angle, she at first seemed relatively unscathed, but then she turned, revealing horrible burns, flesh sloughed off in places revealing the muscle and sinew beneath, clothes melted onto her skin. He didn’t know how either of them were still standing, but was grateful that they were.

Arkwiss could sense that something was different about the battle. It took him a moment to figure out what, exactly, it was, but then he realized; they weren’t firing indiscriminately into the horde any more. No, they were now loosing bursts of energy more carefully, deliberately. Pushing himself fully onto the roof, he buckled himself into position again as he stood, uncertain of his footing through the pain in his head.

Void put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

He looked across the battlefield. Countless margr lay dead or dying, and the ones that lived were in full route. The reason why was evident to the north when he saw the reinforcements that were even now pushing through the margr ranks. Somehow, someone had managed to get through to Kelem and his group.

Nobody had seriously blamed them for leaving; everyone understood their reasons, though the resentment and bitterness were real. Still, here they were, returned at the 13th hour to aid their kin.

The crawler itself was bolstering the ranks of the defenders, who had now come out onto the battlefield en masse. Still outnumbered nearly two-to-one, the seasoned warriors and townsfolk alike fought with a renewed vigor, inspired to save their home from the vile invaders.

Before long, the two groups had come together, splitting the enemy force into two parts: those with a fairly clear path to run away, and those caught between the army and the wall. Nieten climbed aboard the crawler to get a better vantage and started shouting orders. Arkwiss wondered why Almsqu wasn’t directing troops and looked back toward the aldeia to see the awful truth: the watchtower was gone.

By the time the two forces met, the margr numbers had been decimated, their leadership destroyed, and the remnants of the horde in full route. It was quick work to crush the ones who had been caught between the Ellomyr army—and it was indeed an army now, with Nieten and Kelem at its head, giving orders and directing squad movements— and the wall.

Small detachments were sent after the remnants who fled, but Arkwiss declined to join them. The watchtower lay in ruins, the bodies of defenders scattered about the crater that had once been its foundation. The upper portion lay some distance away, a pile of rubble and synth containing the body of the young woman that had been assigned to man the structure with Almsqu.

It took another hour of searching before Arkwiss found his beloved, lying broken amongst the remains of what had once been a storage shed. It appeared as though she had landed on its synth roof hard enough to punch through the top of the structure, weakening it enough for it to collapse on top of her.

The explorer was alive, but barely. Her body was twisted at an extreme angle, and bones protruded from her leg.

The nano screamed for help as he picked up her limp form, desperately searching for a chirurgeon.

At long last he found someone to help, and he waited impatiently as they gave the woman a quick once-over. He needed to get her taken care of, but he also knew he needed to find Nir and Id. This long after the battle, he should have already at least heard something, and then he did. While the healer worked on Almsqu, he overheard a report that there had been some sort of explosion near the Trilling Shard.

They had found pieces of what seemed to be a synthetic person, but it would take some time to figure out how they were put together to know for sure. Additionally, while there were dead margr piled up around what seemed to be the center of the explosion, it had also collapsed the entrance to the tunnels. There were reportedly scores more margr dead in the confined spaces, but a few were still alive and putting up a fierce resistance.

Arkwiss just sat there, listening in shock, when a cheer rose up from outside. Gurner Fron had been spotted coming down out of the hills with the ones who had been hiding under the city.

Making sure that Almsqu would be okay, he rushed outside to meet the survivors. The look that Gurner gave him when they saw each other spoke volumes, then Ro showed him the bloody thing in her hands.

At first, his brain refused to process the thing in her hands. He stared at it, disbelieving, until the girl spoke up.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s still alive, and she’s going to need this.” He just looked at her, dumfounded. “Just because she didn’t make it through the Door doesn’t mean she’s dead. She is Nir after all.”

The nano just nodded and thanked her, taking the severed arm and made his way back to the makeshift hospital, leaving it behind. He found the bed that Almsqu had been moved to and leaned over her still form, watching the rise and fall of her chest just to confirm to himself that she was still alive. He closed his eyes, composing himself for a moment, before leaning over and kissing her on the forehead.

“I don’t know if you can hear me,” he whispered into her ear, “but I have to go find Nir and Id. I fear the worst, but I have to make sure. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Before leaving, Arkwiss found the healer who had helped Almsqu leaning against a wall on the outside of the structure. The middle-aged man looked older than his years and ready to collapse from exhaustion, clearly haunted by what he’d seen. He hated to interrupt the man’s brief respite, but he had to.

“You know,” began Arkwiss, “I don’t think I caught your name before.” He offered the other man his hand.

“Siylias,” replied the doctor, taking it. “You brought the woman who fell from the watchtower, right?”

“Yes. Thank you for everything you did for her. I lost Almsqu once, I don’t know what I would do if I lost her again.”

“Well, we all have our role to fulfill. I’m just glad I could help.”

Arkwiss nodded. “I suppose that is true, but I need your help one more time.”

“Let me know and I’ll see what I can do.”

“My daughter and my friend are missing. I have to go find them, but I don’t want Almsqu to wake up and be alone. Could you sit with her while I’m gone?”

“I suppose I could do that. I don’t think I’m going to be of much use to anyone else today, anyways.”

“Thank you, it means more than you know.”

“Be careful out there. There are still a lot of hazards, and they say there are a few margr left somewhere.”

Arkwiss nodded and waved as he walked away.

It didn’t take long to identify Id’s remains. Parts of the machine man were scattered about the square, testimony to his tragic fate. A small crater at the center of the ring of destruction led down into the tunnels under the town.

The bodies of the margr were beginning to smell, adding to the pungency of the slimy tunnels. The sound of fighting drifted back to Arkwiss as he picked his way through the bodies.

The small group of abhumans had made it into the large chamber where Nir was supposed to be. A handful of the town’s defenders were preventing them from breaking out, but the group was neither skilled enough nor equipped to enter the room and fight them properly.

Arkwiss, exhausted from the days fighting, opened himself up to the nano spirits. He had expended too much of his magic and needed a rest; the tiny machines that permeated the air flitted just outside the edges of his ability to reach. He did, however, sense the devices scattered about the feet of the invaders. With the last of his energy, he activated them, then dove behind the wall, signaling to the others to find cover, as well.

The explosion shook the tunnels, raining dirt and chunks of the already damaged walls and ceiling down on their heads. Elsewhere, the sounds of collapsing tunnels came racing back to their position. It accomplished their goal, though. All of the remaining margr were dead.

Entering the chamber, Arkwiss surveyed the damage. Large chucks of stone and slabs of synth littered the room. Near the door, the bodies of an elderly man and woman lay shredded, viciously torn apart. The pair had gotten theirs, though; both still clutched weapons slick with blood, and several margr lay dead about them from nasty wounds.

One of the others called his attention to the center of the room.

Nir lay pinned beneath a large piece of synth, bleeding from where it had struck her in the head. One of her fine wings was extended from her body at an awkward angle, and another was bent in two. One arm ended in a bloody stump. It took three of them to move the piece from her, but she groaned when they did, proof that she was still alive.

Tired nearly to the point of collapsing, the group carried the girl from the tunnels.