The Forsaken Hero

I didn’t stay to watch my friends for long, looking them over as they gathered around Grace. Once it was clear they’d survived the battle without injury, I passed back into fate. There was no particular pull, nothing fate was eager to manifest to me, so I drifted according to my curiosity, tracing the trails of mana the ley lines left behind to the apostles and demon lords scattered across the southern continent.

I found Evla first, feeling the closest to her out of any of them. She had arrived in the heart of the Fire Kingdom, a capital I’d only heard about from stories Alex shared around the banquet tables of the Divine Throne. It was dry and arid, with the same desert lands as Blacksand. The city was a chaotic mess of sprawling streets and single-story buildings. Even the walls were low, the towers barely thirty feet tall. Fires burned in every sector, their thick plumes of black smoke vanishing into the starry night.

Streams of refugees fled the city through every gate, hounded by packs of scions. Evolved demons wandered the streets, many towering over the fortifications themselves. There was still fighting around the palace in the center of the city, but the defenders were outnumbered and demoralized. Evla herself overlooked the battle from the sky, flying with a clumsy replication of the art Luke had learned from Ernyst. She was watching the last vestiges of humanity crumble, but her face was set in a light scowl. As the palace gates shattered, she barely reacted, instead glancing at the horizon. Her lips drew in a tight line.

”You’d better not do it, ” she muttered, crossing her arms. ”The plan be damned. A single battle wins no war, so don’t throw everything away for it.”

I followed her gaze, but saw nothing in the darkness. Whoever she was talking about was far away.

After Evla, I glanced through other battlefields. Constance and his horde had struck a military hub in the southern Cervox Empire, reclaiming land that had once belonged to the Beast Kingdom. Edrin and Kislee, the apostles of air and insects, had crippled the church’s defenses across the entire eastern part of the continent. They were furthest from Radia and would likely take months to battle their way through hostile territory toward us. But their mission was to split the continent’s resources in two, not rejoin us for the final assault.

Not that we had a final assault anymore. Radia still stood, the crown jewel of the continent.

The demon lords were equally success, all poised to collapse on the Divine Throne. Their hordes wreaked more devastation than any of the apostles, attacking without regard for collateral or strategy. They blazed trails of death across the land, tireless marching from city to city, leaving nothing but blood and fire in their wake.

At last, I turned my attention north, to the final army led by Hag herself. But as I shifted to the city she was supposed to strike, I found it dark and quiet. Flickering crystal lights burned in countless windows, echoing the stars’ glittering refrain overhead. Soldiers patrolled the walls, casting vigilant looks out into the darkness.

Something was wrong. My frown deepened as I shifted closer, my sense of unease growing. Where were the demons? Where was the battle? Had Emlica sent them to the wrong place?

No, that couldn’t be right. My confusion grew as I found the cathedral. It wasn’t even in the city, but in a large settlement just outside its walls. The air hung heavy about my soul form as I glided down the streets, looking around. The windows were dark, the chimneys empty. A thick haze hung over the town, like morning fog, but...wrong. The cathedral itself had fallen in on itself, but the shard was gone.

I let out a gasp as I flew over it, finding a gaping hole where the rest of the settlement should have been. The houses had been reduced to rubble, the low walls blasted across the farmland outside. Only now did I understand the soldiers’ vigilance on the wall. They weren’t watching for an attack; they were waiting. Waiting for a horde that had fled the moment it arrived.

I descended into the ruins, searching for any sign or clue as to what happened. Bodies littered the rubble, but claws and teeth had torn few. Their skin was gray and sickly, their eyes hollow and pale. Trickles of blood ran down their bodies, leaking from their lips and eye sockets. Their corpses were contorted in pain, their limbs splayed out in unnatural, impossible angles. Like they’d broken themselves trying to escape something buried deep within.

It was a ghastly sight, causing my stomach to curdle. I didn’t linger long, vanishing back into fate before I discovered whether my soul form could throw up.

Hag was gone. I tried searching for her in fate, focusing my mind on her slimy, wart-covered face, but to no avail. Every time a picture began to form, it scattered into nothingness.

With no further leads, I could only turn to the final apostle. As I pictured Jessia’s face, my stomach twisted with dread. I hadn’t heard from her since the day she tore open the scars of my heart some weeks ago. No one had.

I didn’t really expect to find her, and was surprised when a vision formed. Like gayron, she hadn’t partaken in the invasion and had no force with her mark. But as the scene stabilized, my chest tightened. Infernal mana filled the air, thick as any of the demon lord’s hordes.

I stood on a craggy hill overlooking a valley rugged with ridges and knolls. Mountains rose behind us, with storm clouds massing around their peaks. A light sprinkle chilled the air, while jagged flashes of lightning lit the stony cliff faces above.

I turned about slowly, not recognizing the area, and my gaze rested on Jessia. She had her cloak drawn tight around her, obscuring her hands in its folds. Her eyes glittered beneath the cowl, focused on a single, humanoid demon standing before her. My breath caught.

”What are you doing here, apostle?” Hag asked, her forked tongue snaking out, tasting the air.

Jessia took a step forward, and I was surprised to see Hag retreat one, keeping the distance.

”Oh, nothing much. Just looking around.” Jessia’s loose, carefree voice felt out of place amid the storm.

A crack of thunder made me jump, the lightning illuminating Hag’s face for a moment. She uncurled her hands, her claws catching the light before it could fade.

”Best be careful, child,” she hissed, ”you’ve no one to protect you out here.”

Jessia shrugged. ”Your power is best served in the shadows. I doubt you have the strength to prevent me from going as I please.”

Hag glowered at her. ”Just spit it out already.”

Jessia looked up sharply, her eyes focusing on the demon lord. ”I heard some interesting things the other day. I wonder,” she advanced, circling the demon with a sway in her step.

Hag followed her with her eyes, but didn’t turn to face her.

”Where does your loyalty truly lie?” Jessia wondered, ”Are you truly devoted to the cause?”

”Don’t patronize me, whelp,” Hag spat. Her spittle sizzled, a black spreading as it soaked into the ground. ”I have fought for this for thousands of years. I won’t be mocked by one who was only born a few seconds ago.”

”I suppose we’ll see once you meet him. Come, follow me.” Jessia spun abruptly, vanishing up the ridge into the mountains.

Hag hesitated a few moments before following her. I tried to do the same, but as they disappeared into the shadows of a narrow valley, the vision shivered. A steady pressure grew on my soul the deeper I went, until, at last, the vision broke apart.

I sat motionless in my soul space for a long time after that, staring at nothing. Something had pushed me out of fate. From its power, it was equal to Silent Stars. But no one but the church had something like that.

Or the demon horde, who had taken my spell when I offered it. That sent a shiver down my spine, especially because it couldn’t have been Hag. She seemed just to be getting there, so none of her horde’s mages could possibly have erected it. If Jessia was involved, I didn’t want to believe it came from the church. I still didn’t understand why she’d confronted me in the first place, and now this.

But if it wasn’t the church, that could only mean one thing.

”Oh, Fate,” I whispered, rubbing my horn. I was too tired to think about this right now. What mattered was that Jessia and Hag were up to something together. I had a feeling the loyalty they spoke about wasn’t to Luke.

Dwelling on it would only cause my head to hurt, so I gave up on wandering fate and let my mind slip into true sleep. Luke and Fyren could figure everything out in the morning. For now, I needed to rest. It wouldn’t be long before we marched on Radia, and I’d need all the strength I could get.