“Anna, I can’t ask you to help me with this, so just set me down right at the edge of Deepwood and I’ll take care of the rest,” I patted her on the shoulder.

  “Fuck that and fuck you, of course I’m helping,” she all but snarled at me as Kulta wheeled around, taking us to the edge of Deepwood.

  “Thank you,” I smiled, shifting Kaine’s cape on my shoulder as it started to slide back down.

  “You can thank me once that thing is dead,” Anna snorted, jumping off before Kulta had even fully landed. “What are we looking for?”

  “A little green weed,” I said, jumping off Kulta after she’d landed. “It looks like a shephard’s crook, but a full circle on the top.” I said, searching the undergrowth, looking for the illusive plant.

  “This?” She popped her head around a tree, holding up a tiny Mirrorweed.

  “Yes! It’s really small, but it might work.” I ran over to her.

  “I’ll see if I can find a bigger one in case that one doesn’t work.”

  “Perfect,” I said, channeling a teeny bit of mana into it. Luckily it didn’t require much at all and I had enough to manage this at least. I’d barely even gotten enough mana into it to even use it when all three of my fae friends popped up.

  “Rivi!!!” Egen squealed, flying straight to my shoulder.

  “Hey Egen!” I laughed as she hugged my neck.

  “You still really don’t need to use those things, not sure why you bother.” Raflessia rolled her eyes, coming to land on my other shoulder, but stopped, tugging at the cape wrapped around it. “What happened? It’s only been two days,” she unwrapped my arm and she and Cereus combined their mana to heal it. I shifted uncomfortably as the muscles, tendons, and skin knitted itself back together, fighting the urge to scratch at it.

  “Thank you,” I sighed in relief, once it had all been healed.

  “You clearly didn’t call us here for no reason, so what’s up?” Raflessia asked, watching as Cereus healed a few random bruises and cuts on my arms.

  “Well, I actually need your fire magic and possibly a dragon or two,” I shrugged.

  “For the hydra?” Cereus asked.

  “Yeah,” I nodded.

  “Actually, Mira came up with a better idea,” Cereus said, opening a fae portal behind her. “Mira, come on.” Cereus beckoned.

  “Hey,” Mira said, stepping through the portal, pulling her witch hat down lower over her eyes to block out the sun more. “The hydra and the chimera came from one of the caves near my house, but I wasn’t sure if the kingdom would want our help or not,” she shrugged, leaning on her broom.

  “They might not, but I do. I can’t in good conscience let it continue its rampage and I’ve been told to do what I need to in order to stop it,”

  “How do you propose we go about it?” Mira asked, looking over my shoulder at the monster in question.

  “If we have two people cutting off the heads of the hydra, we could have the two of you follow behind them and burn the neck as soon as you can,” I rolled my shoulder trying to work the stiffness out of my newly healed muscles.

  “Sounds like a good enough of a plan to me,” Raflessia shrugged.

  “Agreed,” Mira nodded, laying her broom on its side in the air before sitting on it sideways.

  “Kaine and I can handle cutting off the heads, what will you do Riv?” Anna asked before turning to climb back into the saddle.

  “I was going to see if Serenity would shoot fire arrows, take out some of its eyes at least. I can help her with that now that my arm is healed.”

  “Aren’t you still out of mana though?” Anna asked, pulling me into the saddle behind her again.

  “Yeah…” I sighed, my shoulders slumping as I realized not for the first time just how useless I was without magic. I couldn’t shoot a regular bow with fire arrows, I’d shoot everything but the hydra.

  “Well, whatever, we’ve got a plan, let’s go!” Anna said, as Kulta took off. I grabbed Egen off my shoulder and held her to me in one hand as I held onto Anna with the other. Raflessia held onto Cereus as she flew after us, Mira bringing up the rear on her broom.

  “Anna, drop me off by the gate, I’ll let Serenity know what the plan is,” I yelled over the wind.

  “Okay, I’ll let Kaine know too,” she nodded and Kulta started her descent, heading towards the gate.

  “I’ve got you,” Egen said, wiggling her way out of my hand. I let her go and she flew behind me and grabbed onto my shirt at the back of my neck. I jumped and she used her magic to hold my weight as she carried me to the ground beside Serenity, who was leaning against the railing on the bridge.

  “Hey, there you are,” Serenity perked up, waving.

  “Hey, do you think you can shoot the eyes out on the hydra?”

  “Of course I can,” Serenity scoffed. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll see if I can find another fire mage willing to help,” I shrugged. “Beyond that, I’m kinda useless right now without any mana.”

  She gave me a satisfied smirk before taking aim at the hydra.

  “From this far away?”

  Her smirk turned into a glare before she turned away from me, focusing on her task.

  “Sorry… I’m not trying to doubt you, it’s just… you’re amazing,” I said quietly, turning to head into the city. Clearly something was up between her and Shalana and I just keep adding to the problem. I felt bad, knowing my own turbulent relationship with my sister. Serenity and I had started out on good terms and now it was already rocky after only a day.

  Egen stayed behind as I ran through the streets, dodging crowds of people milling about. I was headed to the Astral Order headquarters when I ran passed a blacksmith hammering out a red hot sword. I stopped abruptly, struck by an idea.

  I turned the corner and sat on top of a crate behind a building and pulled out my tome and pencil, hastily sketching a sword, adding flame runes to the blade. I needed mana to make the blade work, but if I could find the black market in time…

  I jumped down and sprinted down the side streets to Pearl Lane, hoping they still had their wares and the Astral Mages hadn’t wiped them out. The storefronts and even the insides of the stores were all clean and bright, exactly like the street name suggests. However, the merchants were well-known black marketeers who traded goods in Deepwood frequently. Monster parts for potions, runes, plants, whatever they needed, we provided. I’d once gone on a job collecting Witchweed from the swamps in exchange for ether potions. As far as I could tell, nothing had changed, but there were hardly any people out and about on the street and a lot of the stores were boarded up.

  I knocked on the door of the perfume shop and stuck my head in, looking around. “Rose?” I called.

  “Back here!” A muffled voice called from the back.

  I stepped into the shop and shut the door behind me, looking around. I picked up a vial of perfume and sniffed at it. I jerked it away from my nose before I sneezed and set it back down, walking further in.

  “Sorry about that, what can I do for you?” Rose asked, coming out of the back.

  “Hi, um… I don’t know if you remember me, but Elidyr always-”

  “Oh! You’re Elidyr’s sister, right?” Rose said, shoving her short red hair behind her ear. “I assume you’re not here for anything diabolical, are you?”

  “Of course not.” I said, trying to remember the phrase. “I’m just here for… soup?”

  “First time, huh?” Rose winked. “I’ve gotcha. Just going based on assumptions here, even though you know what they say about assumptions, buuuut… hmm… Ether, right?”

  “Yes please. Just one is fine.”

  “Nope, two. One for now and one for emergencies.” Rose nodded to herself ducking into the back again.

  “How are you still open? I would’ve thought Elidyr would’ve had you shut down, on account of her knowing you and all that.” I looked around at the various potions and perfumes she had on display still, getting impatient. I didn’t want to leave them fighting the hydra for too long.

  “Ha! She still owes me. I guess I’m lucky in that regard. They got all the rest and they would’ve gotten me, but she stepped in,” Rose stepped out of the back, two yellow Ether potions in her hands. “Now, I don’t think I need to tell you this, but don’t drink both today and don’t get caught with them either.”

  “And don’t mention you for any reason.”

  “Good, here. Drink up.” I pulled some gold out of my book where I’d shoved a few hundred for emergencies. I’d once tried creating my own gold, but it turned out to be counterfeit, so I gave up on that idea years ago.

  I passed her a couple hundred gold and took the potions, shoving the second onto one of the pages, hoping I’d remember where it was at. I popped the cork off the other one and chugged the lemon flavored potion, feeling my mana refill instantly. I made a face and shook my head.

  “What, too sour for you?” Rose snickered, as I passed the empty bottle back to her to reuse.

  “I just don’t like lemons,” I shrugged, flipping to the back where I’d drawn the fire sword and pulled it out, flames erupting along the blade almost instantly.

  “Woah! Put that away!” Rose hissed.

  “Sorry!” I squeaked, shoving it back into the book. “I just wanted to-”

  “I don’t care what you wanted to do, I have a business to run,” she snapped. “Now go, Back to whatever it is you were trying to do,” she shooed me off.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Sorry, thank you again,” I said as I tried to walk nonchalantly out of the store, as to not attract any unwanted attention. I ducked into the nearest alley and walked quickly down another street before I climbed the side of it onto the roof.

  I went to summon my dragonfly wings but stopped, when I felt the same presence from the throne room.

  “Sage,” It snarled.

  “What do you want?” I turned toward the mages’ headquarters. “I’m no sage.” I shook my head.

  “You have HIS mana! The accursed green of the Water Sage. The one who tried to bring me low. I will have my vengeance. Mark my words little human. My revenge will be sweet.” The voice faded, but not before trying to toss a curse at me. I barely managed to block it before it hit me.

  “Damn,” I muttered after hurling over the side of the building into the street below, glad no one was down there. I wiped my mouth and sat down, cleansing the curse from myself. I was extremely glad most of the curse missed me. I really didn’t want to know what the rest of the curse would have done.

  I wiped the sweat off my forehead and summoned my wings, taking off. I flew as quickly as I dared, hoping I didn’t draw too much attention to myself as I flew over the city. I stopped by Serenity and silently handed her my bow. She looked at me in surprise before taking it from me, setting her wooden one down.

  I flew off, opening my tome and taking the fire sword out. I flew straight into the mass of swirling heads, slashing at the nearest one that moved. I didn’t see Kaine anywhere, but Anna was on the other side, Raflessia burning the necks as soon as Anna cut off a head.

  Luckily the sword worked as well as I hoped it would, cauterizing the neck as soon as it sliced through the flesh and bone. There were still a lot of heads left, a tangle of snapping and flame and ice spitting heads like spaghetti. I took a few more heads out before one managed to snap at me, catching my foot in its jaws. I cut its head off and pried the jaws off my ankle, kicking the neck stump in annoyance.

  I lunged midair for another head when I saw Kaine lying on the ground, Max’s white fur a bloody mess beside him. Another head snaked around, snapping at me, before I hacked it apart too. I flew straight up, away from a mass of heads coming for me and flew over to Anna, helping her with another tangle of them.

  “Gods, how many are there?” I asked, hitting one with my sword like a baseball bat before Anna cut the head off and Raflessia burned it.

  “I don’t know, but Kaine’s down and Raflessia’s getting tired.” Anna said, as Kulta dodged through another tangle.

  “What about you and Kulta?” I asked, kicking one head away while I slashed another one.

  “We’re fine, we could keep going for a while longer,” Kulta whinnying in agreement.

  I saw Cereus and Mira out of the corner of my eye on the other side of the hydra. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I turned around, watching as a wall of fire arrows came raining down towards us from Serenity.

  “Look out!” I shouted, doing my best to dodge the arrows, forgetting that they would just go around us.

  The hydra wailed deafeningly loud as the arrows pierced its scales, burning it on impact.

  Cereus whirled in a circle, spinning her sword around her as the hydra halted its attack for the moment, slicing off a good number of the heads before the flames went out.

  Mira sent a massive ball of witchfire into the middle of them for good measure.

  I went to attack another one when it was taken out, a blur shooting passed me, taking out several of the heads in quick succession.

  “Looks like we made it in time,” a voice called from behind us.

  The blur turned out to be an elf with a flaming axe. I took out a couple more heads before I turned around, squinting at a woman on the back of a golden spectral dragon, her golden armor glinting blindingly in the morning sunlight.

  “You, pay attention!” a samurai barked, taking out a snaking head as it snapped at me, the woman in the golden armor throwing a ball of fire at it.

  “Sorry…” I muttered, going back to slashing at the remaining heads.

  Cereus and Mira took out a few more and we looked around, checking to make sure none were splitting into more.

  I landed next to Kaine and Max, checking to make sure they were still alive. Max mewled pitifully, licking at Kaine. I rolled him onto his back and gasped at his shredded skin, hanging like ribbons, his organs threatening to spill out of his stomach.

  I knew it would take a miracle to save him and luckily I had one… I hurriedly flipped through my tome, looking for the spell. I ended up ripping some of the pages in my rush to find it, but find it I did.

  I lay the tome on his stomach and placed my hands on the circles I’d drawn, the runes lighting up silver. “Oh lily of the valley, dragon’s breath, and the stars above return the life that was lost to the soul before me.” I thought of the incantation, repeating it a few times for good measure. I watched as the mirage of a flower appeared in front of me, growing from the book itself, and a dragon flew out of the book to land on the flower. Tiny stars appeared around the flower as the roots of the flower snaked around, tangling around Kaine, healing his wounds.

  It was doing its job, but the spell was draining my mana quickly. Too quickly. I wasn’t going to release the spell anytime soon, however. I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn’t look to see who it was.

  “Here, let me help you with that,” the woman said, walking to kneel opposite me, placing her hands on mine, adding her mana to the spell.

  Kaine groaned in pain, his wounds knitting together too slowly for my tastes.

  “Eldritch, we could use your help over here!” the golden woman called over her shoulder.

  “What’s in it for me?” He asked snidely, landing effortlessly on his feet behind her.

  “Eldritch…” she growled.

  “Fine, Marigold, fine,” he shrugged, adding his mana to ours from where he stood. His was a dark color, almost black, and I balked at it, forcing myself to not pull away.

  “Huh, you feel it too?” Marigold asked, looking at me, her golden eyes glinting in the sunlight.

  “The darkness? Yeah…” I glanced at him.

  “I’m an ancient dark elf, fear me,” he grinned, his teeth sharpened to a point, almost like a vampire’s.

  “Quit with the theatrics, Eldritch.” Marigold rolled her eyes. “It’s true, he’s a dark elf, but he’s a giant teddy bear. Don’t let his attitude fool you. I’m Marigold, by the way.”

  “Captain Marigold?”

  “Ugh, yeah. The one and the same, why?”

  “I’m Rivienne.” I said quietly, watching as Kaine stirred again.

  “I know.” Marigold winked. “I’m excited to be back finally, the next two weeks are going to be a blast. I only have to watch you and Serenity. See how you fight, see how I can incorporate you into my squad. We can finally catch a break.”

  “Are you supposed to be telling her?” Eldritch asked.

  “Of course not, but she already knows most of it, I’m sure. No one can keep secrets around here,” she snorted.

  “Guilty.” I shrugged.

  “If you told Serenity, then perfect. Saves me some trouble.”

  “I haven’t told her everything.” I was getting ready to let go of the spell, but suddenly my mana pool was flooded with that same cold water current mana again. “Who-”

  “Who’s mana is that?” The samurai behind me drew his katana and stepped forward.

  “I don’t know. This is the second time this has happened,” I looked wildly around. Kaine was still out of it, Max was licking his own bloody paws, Cereus’s mana was like a cloud, Raflessia’s felt like a humid afternoon after a bad storm, Egen’s felt like a forest fire burning with intensity, and Serenity’s felt like the sunset. The only other person I wasn’t sure about was Mira.

  “Where were you the last time it happened?” Marigold asked, moving a hand to pull Kaine’s shirt away from his wounds, watching as they knitted closed.

  “Deepwood.”

  “I see…” she trailed off, her eyebrows scrunched.

  “What is it?”

  “As long as whoever it is is helping you, I don’t see a problem, but… not knowing who it belongs to is quite troubling, especially in times like this.” She shared a look with Eldritch who nodded once. “Well, whatever. It’s a problem for later. For now we’ll just consider them your guardian angel. I need to meet with Elincia. Eldritch, help them here. Rai, go rest up. Rivienne, tell Serenity everything. And I do mean everything.” She looked at me meaningfully.

  “Yes, Ma’am.” I nodded in place of a salute.

  “Don’t call me Ma’am. Makes me sound old.” she shuddered, pulling her hands away from mine, before she stood and strode away.

  Kaine coughed, rolling onto his side, grimacing.

  “Kaine!” I grabbed my tome as it slid, doing my best to keep the spell going.

  Cereus fluttered down, holding an injured Mira, Anna not far behind them.

  “Oh gods, Kaine!” Anna hurried over, Kulta leaning down to nibble on the grass nearby, whinnying in frustration at the blood-soaked ground.

  “He’ll be okay,” Eldritch said, kneeling across from me where Marigold had been.

  “Damn…” Kaine muttered before closing his eyes to rest.

  “Release the spell and let me see.” Eldritch told me.

  I pulled my hands back, letting the magic fade. Slowly the roots drew themselves back into my tome along with the dragon and the starlight disappeared.

  I helped Eldritch gently roll Kaine onto his back again and Eldritch pulled his shirt up, examining the scars that now littered Kaine’s stomach.

  “He’ll need to see another healer tomorrow and rest for a few days, but he’ll be alright. We’ve done all we can for now.” Eldritch stood and strode away, Rai silently following him behind him.

  “Well, I guess that makes me the senior officer…” Anna muttered, looking at the empty field around us. She suddenly hurled her spear away in anger. I watched as it lodged itself into the ground a good distance from us. “Those COWARDS!” She shouted to the sky before putting her hands on her knees, angry tears pouring from her face. “The least they could do is help get our dead home.”

  Kulta walked over to Anna and nudged her shoulder. Anna straightened up and buried her face in Kulta’s neck, sobbing.

  I let her be, and scratched Max’s nose.

  I watched as Cereus healed Mira’s arm where she’d been burned as I grabbed Kaine by his shoulders. Max scooted closer to Kaine and lay his head on the ground. I pulled Kaine over and managed to push him up onto Max’s back.

  I sat down heavily after the exertion and leaned back, looking up at the late morning sky. Wishing it would rain. Wishing the sky would mourn the dead too. Hundreds of people were killed by these two lone monsters. Knights, civilians, hunters alike. Hardly any were spared and the rest had fled, back into the safety of the city walls. I took a deep breath and stood, making sure Kaine wouldn’t slide out of the saddle. I tried to climb into the saddle behind him to make sure he wouldn’t fall off, but Max snarled at me, so I backed away. Max took off and flew to the city.

  I turned and looked at the mountain of hydra carcass, wondering what we should do about it, when Mira spoke up.

  “It’s only a matter of time,” she walked over to Anna.

  “A matter of time before what?” Anna asked, taking a deep breath.

  “Deepwood Forest is stirring. These monsters came from there, it’s only a matter of time before worse ones come out to play, wiping out the rest of the cowards. It’s become a survival of the fittest.”

  “That’s not what I want,” Anna dry sobbed. “I just want them to do their jobs. They left us. They left us. Again!” she wailed.

  I stepped forward and she pulled me in for a hug, burying her face into my shoulder. “It’s not fair. We’re given a bad name because of the real cowards. My entire squadron died from not getting backup a few months ago, and my new squadron is dead because they couldn’t get backup this morning. The fresh-faced recruits were sent in and most of them turned tail and ran too.” She cried for a few moments longer before she pulled away and took a deep breath, wiping her face. “Sorry, I’m just really gods damned angry.”

  “Riv!” I turned as Serenity ran over, my bow in her hands. “Did you see that?” She said excitedly. “I used magic!” Her face fell when she saw Anna, who was still trying to pull herself together. “What happened?”

  “All of this,” I motioned to the field around us. “We’re out here alone. No one to help with anything.”

  “Ah, yeah… they ran past me right before I shot the spell. Oh, a Lady uhh… Ralila? Left a message for you.”

  “Oh, that’s Princess Igraine.”

  “Ah, well, she asked for you to come to the palace as soon as you could.” Serenity said, passing me the bow back.

  “No, you keep it. You handle it better than I can,” I grinned earnestly at her. “Oh, you should come to the palace with me. I still have my entire story to tell you.”

  “I think…” she sighed. “I think the spell was a one-time only thing. I’m not good with magic like my sister,” she shrugged.

  “I can teach you, if you’d like. I wasn’t good at it either until I learned a different way to look at it.”

  “Not until magic is unbanned,” she rolled her eyes. “Anyway, sorry for snapping at you earlier. Jealousy and all that.”

  “I’m sorry for doubting you,” I held my arms out, not sure if we could hug it out or not.

  She hummed a short laugh before giving me a hug. “At least we can figure out a better way of fighting together, now.”

  “True!”