Ryn of Avonside

I had half a dozen terrified civilians sheltering inside my dome when Adam and Duncan dropped down onto us. The mage mark did not, apparently, give a shit if the floor was missing. Groaning, they picked themselves up and looked around in dazen confusion.

“What the hell is— agh!” Adam said, but he cut himself off with a scream when one of the creepy demon things breached the surface of reality beside him.

Long, spindly red arms whipped out, lightning fast, and wrapped around his forearm. As soon as it had a solid grip, it tried to pull him back below the surface, but the large boy growled and activated the anchor spikes in his boots. Loud explosive pops sounded as they rammed down into the heavy wooden floorboards, and combined with the powered mechanical help of the suit, he managed to reverse the situation.

Seeing itself lose the tug of war contest, the demon tried to disappear back under the surface of reality. Unfortunately for the demon, it had angered Adam, and he grabbed hold of two arms. With a roar and a sizzling whine of magitech motors, he pulled the monster entirely out of hiding and slammed it down to the ground. Finally, we got a good look at the beast that had terrorised us for three or four minutes now.

It had a vaguely humanoid shape, with three arms extending from each shoulder and two legs jutting from its pelvis. The head was by far the most horrifying part — an orb with tiny, beady eyes and massive, soft, bleeding lips that failed to hide a chaotic jumble of teeth. Attaching that demon goldfish visage to the body was a thick, short neck — just long enough to allow minimal movement.

Drawing a long knife from his belt, Adam drove the blade deep into its neck, then wrenched it sideways. Wispy dark red magic sprayed out of the wound, but before it could coat anything it faded from view.

“They bleed, they can die!” Crowed the armoured man, raising his knife in one fist. Magic blood wisped off it in streamers.

“Priority is the people!” I called. “See what's happening outside. Is this localised or is it the whole town?”

“Right,” Adam agreed, searching the room for an exit. “Duncan, let's go.”

“Lead the way, my guy,” said the other heavy in our party.

Together, they rushed over to the closed taberna door and tried the handle. It shuddered, but refused to open, so Duncan just put his shoulder through it. It burst open, spraying wood out into the street.

“Okay,” I said in ghraial to the scared, huddled civilians around me. “I’m going to…”

I faltered, realising that I had options. I could potentially just take them all into my grove, where they would be safe while we figured out what was happening. However, letting a horde of complete strangers into my grove felt… dicey.

“We’re going to head outside, okay?”

An older, matronly looking woman stared at me with desperate fear in her eyes. “Why, we are safe here, yes? We could just… stay here.”

“We need to head outside so we can save more of the town, if they need it,” I said apologetically. “I want you all to have a town to live in once this is over.”

She looked like she really wanted to tell me off and to keep me here, but she didn’t say anything. I think the fear of me being a mage was keeping her in check.

With Grace’s help, we carefully walked over to the door as a group and exited the taberna as spilled lamp oil and the ruptured hearth began to set it on fire.

Outside, the scene was similar. At least three buildings further down the street were burning ferociously, and screams could be heard in every direction. Still holding the dome shield around me — and burning my magical reserves as I did so — I led the way down the street towards the main square of the town.

We found chaos. Multiple demons were busy trying to drag people away into whatever twisted hell they came from. A few hadn’t bothered with the whole person. They’d just removed the heads.

“Grace,” I called, turning to look at my girlfriend. “I’m passing the shield to your aura, is that okay? I’m draining too much energy by maintaining it.”

“Absolutely. I’ll take pot-shots from inside it— I think it gets bigger when I power it anyway,” she said, with a harried, wry smile.

Touching her hand affectionately, I dropped the shield and then immediately cast it again into her aura. The new dome slammed down — its diameter having doubled. The power of the shield, when I tested it with a finger, appeared to be perhaps twenty percent more effective. We weren’t after power, though, we were just trying to keep as many people covered as possible. Something about the nature of the shield itself was keeping the demons from manifesting inside it.

To the civilians who were in the dome, and those who’d seen the safety of the shield and were entering it even now, I said, “This is Ser Grace Woodward, we’re the Order of Eleos. She will protect you with the shield while I go out and attempt to stabilise the situation more.”

Several folks like the older woman looked like they wanted to protest, but nobody actually said anything. I didn’t wait for them to get the courage. I just shot straight upwards into the sky, using my telekinetic powers to push me almost twenty five feet into the air.

With that vantage point, I was able to see the town more clearly. Fire ate at many of the buildings, and between houses I could see townspeople fleeing their invisible attackers. Even from this distance, I could see there was no coordination. People were just running with no goal in mind other than distance from the last thing that scared them. They needed somewhere to go.

Holding my hand up, I summoned a ball of light into my hand and fired it up a dozen more feet. Then, I pumped as much power as I safely could into the spell. Warm golden light bathed the nearby buildings, creating an obvious landmark that could be seen from anywhere in the town.

When I allowed myself to float back to the ground, I caught sight of Eilian down the street we'd come from. Her sword shone with green light, and with a lightning-quick flourish, she severed multiple grasping limbs from a demon.

“Eilian!” I called, then realised I had a spell to further get people moving.

Raising both hands to my mouth, I summoned the aid of another spell. Rippling duckweed rolled up over my hands from under my armour, and suddenly my voice was five times its normal volume.

In Ghraial, I shouted, “People of the town! Come to the main square. We are mages. We will protect you.”

When I landed properly inside the dome, Eilian popped into existence beside me. “Wise plan, Lady Ryn. Any idea what the fuck these things are?”

“I was hoping you might have an idea,” I winced.

Both of us paused what we were doing to blast an enterprising demon as it tried to decapitate a fleeing family. Eilian’s ranged slash of energy and my bolt of fire sliced, then punched a burning hole through questing limbs.

“It’s like they have their own Nameless Garden, but they can shift their position and see through into this plane of existence,” said the obrec woman as she lowered her guard.

I nodded and flexed the hand that was pumping magic up into my ball of light. “Exactly what I was thinking… but let's do the research after we save the town.”

An hour later, and the demons stopped appearing. Most of the town was huddled inside Grace's dome of protection, while the local guard was posted up around the edge in a tight formation. With the shield at their backs and their comrades vigilant beside them, the demons had a hard time pulling off their ambushing moves.

I was in the middle with Grace when a wiry, tanned older man with a hooked nose pushed through the throng of people, flanked by two guards. The older guy was wearing Ghraiga military armour too, except it had some gold accenting the sky blue portions, and there were a few extra decorative plates added to make it look more formidable.

“Mages,” he said with a harried, grateful smile. “By the great Ghrai himself, we are lucky you were passing through.”

“You aren't wrong,” I said, glancing at the rest of my group to see what their impressions of the guy were. Duncan and Adam looked tired and disinterested in him. Eilian was eyeing him with a quiet vigilance, though.

“I am Satrapion Darios Heliandros,” he said with a very slight bow. “Who might I have the honour of speaking to?”

“It's Greek!” Duncan suddenly blurted in English.@@novelbin@@

I looked at him with a frown, then turned my attention back to this Satrapion dude. “I'm Rynadria, these are my friends and squadmates, Eilian, Grace, Adam, and Duncan. We are with the Order of Eleos — a recently created… I don't know the word for it yet, but we are organised fighters who try to help people. We share a common thought that we have to follow.”

The older dude took a minute to parse what I was trying to say with my limited vocabulary, then smiled. “New to the empire then, I take it? For a Nameless Garden mage to still be grappling with our language, you must be very new.”

“We are…” I agreed, a little sheepish. “Tell me… which word of your names is the title and which are your actual names? We know of the title of Jagdar, but that's about it.”

He grimaced and glanced at one of his guards. “A Jagdar is from the local Reti people. It is a hereditary minor lordling title. In the history of the empire, they have been conquered recently, and thus have not adapted to more civilised practices. As for myself, I am a Satrapion — an appointment afforded to me for my distinguished service in the emperor's armies. My children will not inherit the title when I pass, although the prestige of the appointment in our family will forever be noted in the lineage archives.”

“Thank you for explaining,” I smiled, although the way he referred to the Reti rubbed me the wrong way. I guess it made sense that an empire as big as this one didn't have much respect for local custom, though. Empires had a habit of crushing that sort of thing.

He nodded. “My pleasure. Now, you have not yet spoken to our magistrate to note your passing. Might I offer a piece of advice?”

I winced. If we had to report to every town's magistrate as we passed through, I was going to lose it. “Sure, Satrapion.”

“I understand that mages can hide their nature with various glamours and such,” he said, and his gaze just barely flicked to his guards. “I am led to believe that standard practice for your kind is to hide your nature unless absolutely necessary. This way, the burdensome bureaucracy of the empire doesn't slow you down too much. We were aware of your presence when you disembarked from the barge, you see, and it would've been quite the headache to have a pair of mages and a warlock so publicly pass through without any record of their intentions.”

“Right…” I nodded, as I began to suspect how the empire worked. “If it's not a… social misstep, can I ask if things similar to what you're suggesting are common in other areas of life in the empire?”

He chuckled and to my surprise, his guards also fought back wry smiles. “Why yes, Lady Rynadra, many, many other aspects of life will interact with the bureaucracy in that manner. Don't let the magistrates hear you say that, though. They can be… zealous.”

I laughed. Okay, I could work with this. “Thanks for being so forthright.”

“It is the least I could do for your actions here,” he said, gesturing to his scared, huddled townspeople. “As for the most… well, if you believe the attack to be over, we could retire to my manor to discuss matters further?”

I looked at my friends, who apart from Eilian, hadn't really understood much of the conversation. “Sure, that would be good.”