The Forsaken Hero

My stomach rose and fell with the sway of the Azure Wing, the prow cutting through the writhing black clouds like ocean surf. Rain lashed across the deck, pattering harmlessly against my wards. The droplets glittered like diamonds as they fell, refracting the light of the Effulgent Dawn burning bright overhead. I held Luke’s hand with one of my own, clutching the crook of his arm with my other, holding close enough I could rest my head on his bicep. His shoulder would have been more comfortable, but I couldn’t quite reach that high.

”We can go inside if you’d rather escape the wind, ”Luke said, extending his free hand through the ward, letting the rain run against his skin.

”No, it’s too stuffy in there. The windows don’t open.”

He shrugged. ”If you say so. Are you sure you’re not just trying to escape the commander?”

”No! I mean, um...maybe?” I groaned, rubbing my horn against him. A habit I’d taken to recently. ”I already told him everything I saw. Why doesn’t he believe me?”

Luke chuckled wryly. ”Probably because you’re always so detailed and specific. And accurate. If he can account for just one more group of Risen, that’s one less variable to guess about, and a few more lives saved.”

”But I barely even saw anything about the Risen. They’re all cooped up in the cities, just waiting.”

”And that’s exactly what we needed to know.”

”I still don’t see why that means we should move out without the rest of the army. There are only ten thousand of the Last Light Company, and some fifty-odd thousand demons. That’s nothing compared to the Risen.”

”And ten skyships, give or take a few. Don’t forget those.”

His chuckle irked me. I looked up, frowning at him, but his smile only widened.

”The skyships are the most important part,” he continued, ”We can eliminate the vast majority of the Risen without ever closing in.”

”I don’t like it. Being on board a skyship during battle is bad luck,” I muttered, looking down, scowling.

”Just because you’ve crashed every single time doesn’t mean you will this time, right?”

”Some things don’t have to happen, but they do anyway,” I said, sniffing. ”There were a thousand different paths against the arbiter, yet we ended up on the only one that had me falling from the sky. Again.”

”Didn’t you also say it was one of the few ones we actually survived?”

”I don’t know which is worse.”

Luke chuckled lightly, giving my hand a squeeze. ”The only bad path is the one that takes you away from me.”

”Oh, you’re just saying that.” I sighed, unable to help a smile tugging at my lips. ”But thanks.”

I leaned up, rising on my tiptoes and kissing him on the cheek. He tried to turn his head at the last second, but I was quick, avoiding his lips and darting away again, blushing furiously.

”I’ll get you some time,” he said, patting my hand with a grin.

”It’s not funny,” I mumbled, staring at the ground.

”No, it’s adorable.”

Whatever ease I’d felt disappeared as I hunched my shoulders, tail swishing across the deck. It was frigid wet against the soft ridges, causing me to jump. But I jumped all the higher when a cough sounded behind us, spinning around, face crimson.

”F-Fyren!” I squeaked, half-hiding behind Luke.

The demon wore a frown, staring at Luke with fiery eyes. ”This is no time for leisure. Xiviyah’s life is in your hands.”

”Relax, demon,” Luke’s voice was just as callous. ”Just because she didn’t notice you approach didn’t mean I was oblivious.”

”I wasn’t,” I muttered, looking down, tail twitching even harder.

”We’re approaching the first city. The Risen number some two hundred thousand, by our estimates,” Fyren said, folding his arms. ”With any luck, we won’t have to make a move, but be prepared.”

”Of course.” Luke’s hand crept to his sword hilt. ”I doubt any of the liches here can fly, but if they survive the bombardment, we’ll cut them down.”

”Zephyriss and her storm demons are running perimeter. Just watch for any that break through. And Xiviyah, the Life Hero asked me to tell you she’ll want to trade after we finish up here.”

”Okay, I’ll be ready to take the spell,” I said, nodding.

He gave me a small nod back and ignited, causing the deck to darken under his boots. Raindrops hissed as they evaporated inches from his skin, forming a small umbrella of dry air around him. As he flew away, I sighed, leaning against Luke.

”He really startled you this time, didn’t he?” he asked.

I nodded. ”Sometimes, when I’m with you, it’s like...well, it’s a little embarrassing to say out loud, but it’s like there’s nothing else out there. It’s just us.”

We settled into silence, staring over the front of the ship. It had been two days since Bethiv and Aerion had come up with a plan of attack, using my visions and whatever information they had obtained from the demonkin spy. Apparently, he’d had very little information beyond the fact that there were demons in Ornth. And demonkin, though their numbers were dwindling rapidly. Apparently, without an apostle to keep their appetites in check, the demons were oft to snap up an unsuspecting mortal. We still had no answer as to how they survived the Back Mist.

The plan had been simple. With the Risen concentrated in the cities, they were prime targets for the elvish mana cannons. As such, the skyships had forged ahead of the Devoted and the Last Light Company, protected by the light of R’lissea’s Effulgent Dawn.

”Evertown sighted!” a lookout on the prow beside us called, alerting the rest of the crew.

Soldiers swarmed over the deck as the clouds broke, revealing a large city sprawling over the hills below. The landscape was muted and gray, darkened by withered groves and rotting fields. Villages and hamlets dotted the surroundings, devoid of any signs of life.

From above, the city was a haphazard mess, twisting with roads and alleys like an overgrown garden. There was a wall around it, perhaps forty feet tall, with larger, more fortified structures in the center, forming a sort of keep. Black Mist choked the air, buildings rising from the flowing fog like reeds in a swamp. Everywhere I looked, the streets and courtyards were clogged with Risen. They were piled on each other, shambling about in incoherent masses. They didn’t seem to be doing anything, just existing. Suffering.

At an unspoken signal, the skyships spread out over the city, holding altitude some half mile above the ground. Soldiers took positions on the railings, drawing bows and gathering their mana. The mana cannons hummed to life, charging the air with the scent of ozone.

”Can it really be this easy?” I wondered.

He shrugged. ”I don’t see why not. The Risen aren’t actually intelligent; they’re like the dumbest scions. Like shooting fish in a barrel.”

”Fire!” the command rose across the sky, and the mana cannons roared. I flinched, fingers curling into Luke’s sleeve as the blast shook the ship, the deck vibrating violently beneath my feet. Streams of pure white light erupted from the crystalline spurs, streaking into the city below. The angle was too sharp for any ship to fire directly beneath them, so they worked together, targeting regions beneath adjacent ships.

The first lance struck half a breath later, causing a brilliant flare in the middle of a market square. The explosions expanded, obliterating hundreds of Risen as they consumed street after street, leveling the area of a small village. The shockwave continued half again as far, liquifying decaying organs and causing the bloated bodies to rupture and burst from the inside.

And then the second lance struck, and then the third. Buildings, walls, and towers crumbled beneath the onslaught. The explosions overlapped, churning together in a literal sea of frothing light. I watched solemnly through it all, as even the black mist evaporated, its delicate weave disrupted by the sheer magnitude of mana.

The bombardment continued for almost ten minutes, cannons firing again and again. When at last the call came to cease, I turned away, hiding my face against Luke’s arm. We were cleansing the Risen, but it was just as easy to imagine this scene playing out over an inhabited city in some other land. An entire city erased: every wall, garden, and keep. Gone. Thousands dead in a matter of seconds.

”Marvelous,” Luke murmured.

My grip on his arm tightened. ”How can you say that? It’s...terrifying. War isn’t supposed to be like this. How can there be hope when everything’s...gone?”

”I wish we had more of those ninth-level cannons. We could make the heavens themselves tremble. The gods of creations turned against them. They would know fear, Xiviyah. True fear.”

”But...they wouldn’t hurt the gods. Maybe their servants in mortal worlds, but...you would just be killing mortals.”

”Their believers. Those who would give them faith are a resource to be drawn on. That’s why they’re perfecting the Heart Crest. I would burn a thousand worlds to deny them that victory, and this weapon is equipped to do it.”

”They don’t work with infernal mana.”

He looked at me, a cold look in his eye. ”Yet.”