Derek Ward

Following the Daemon War, human sorcerers and wizards experienced a dramatic fall from grace. Their once-respected status in society eroded rapidly due to the challenges posed by a world increasingly devoid of natural magic. The scarcity of this vital resource forced practitioners to resort to despicable methods—most notably, rituals involving bloodletting or the forging of agreements with demons. These practices, viewed with a mix of fear and revulsion, deeply tainted the perception of human magic users. In contrast, elven magic wielders faced a less severe reckoning. Those inclined toward arcane pursuits found refuge within the Sacellum. – Scholar Olani Mak, “Reflections on Magic in the Post-Daemon World”

PALLUS

“Get Selene to the hospital!” Pallus barked. “Everyone else, get to the roof!”

“Bring Selene with us,” Princess Illana ordered. Her face was hard, and the fire of command was in her eyes. There was something comforting in that commanding tone.

“You heard the princess. Everyone get to the roof!” Morelli was the first up the stairs. Rin and the princess followed. Sonya and Robar helped Selene and Marteen to their feet. The Capitol Army officers, including the general, brought up the rear.

Pallus squinted against the bright sunlight as Morelli threw open the door. Pallus walked to the edge of the roof and froze. A crater dozens of yards deep and easily half a mile wide now dominated the landscape. That entire part of the city was obliterated. No buildings. No streets. No people. Only bare, brown earth. It took a moment for Pallus to realize the crater was right where the Capitol Army and the Purists were in fierce fighting. Right before that deafening noise and everything going dark.

“What under the Goddess did that?” Princess Illana asked breaking the silence, her eyes never leaving the crater.

“An explosive like what you use in your cannon?” Sonya asked Rin. He shook his head.

“If it was an explosive, the surrounding buildings wouldn’t be standing. Except for the crater, there isn’t any other damage.” Pallus focused on where Rin was pointing.

“Those towers were glowing before the flash. Magic, maybe?”

“The Goddess would never allow her Grace to be used for something like that!” Pallus snapped, carefully not looking at Rin or the other humans.

“Neither would the Protector,” Umbretti said.

“Could the God of Iron do this?” Pallus asked Rin.

“Could He? Probably, but that would mean talking to Him. Purists aren’t going to talk to the dwarven god. My money on this being the same kind of magic Shafford used in the Badlands,” Rin answered with a strange, detached tone.

“Demon magic?” Sonya asked.

“To cause that much damage, there’d be a named demon causing carnage down there, and at least two demons here asking for help. No, the demon I talked to said Shafford was using a different kind of magic.”

“This had to be what Shafford was talking about,” Morelli said.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘what Shafford was talking about?’ When did you talk to Shafford?” Pallus asked.

“Last night,” Rin answered.

“You actually saw Shafford? Last night?” Sonya asked, flabbergasted. “Why didn’t you kill him?” Rin looked down at the princess.

“Because we could either kill Shafford or we could save the princess,” Morelli answered for Rin. “Ranger Acciaio decided it was more important to ensure the princess’s safety.” Rin avoided everyone’s gaze and hugged the princess closer to him.

“So, how did Shafford manage something like this?” Pallus asked.

“Natural magic,” Robar answered. Everyone looked at the cleric. “From what Hero Acciaio described previously, Shafford used a ritual in the Badlands. Rituals are needed to cast spells in a specific order. The towers must be foci to gather up the small amounts of natural magic in the city. That’s why all the spun buildings are dark. That was the first step. As for all those dead? Their deaths would have released enough natural magic to fuel whatever other steps in the ritual they needed.”

“How do you know all of this?” Sonya asked.

“My grandfather was a sorcerer. He died during the Daemon War,” Robar answered, “There was a copy of the Saantoja Luonnon Taikaa in his library. I read some when I was a child.”

“What under the Protector’s eyes is the Santy Luwan Tikki?” Rin asked, mangling the Elder Elven. Pallus recognized the language, but he didn’t know it well enough to translate the words.

“Saantoja Luonnon Taikaa,” Robar said, “Or, in your world, Regulas Naturalis Magiae.” Rin cocked his head as he recognized the Old Republic

“Rules of Natural Magic?” Princess Illana asked. Robar looked surprised the princess knew the translation.

“Yes, your highness. The sorcerers of the past learned specific rules needed to use natural magic efficiently,” Robar answered, “The Saantoja Luonnon Taikaa was the main tome on how natural magic worked.” Robar looked out at the crater.

“If the Acolytes used a ritual, what was it for?” Sonya asked.

“Can’t you feel it?” Marteen asked. “Look at Selene. For Light’s sake, look at the Sacellum.” The temple’s sapphire glow was gone, leaving the building a dull blue.

“What does the Sacellum have to do with Selene?” Pallus asked.

“Seriously, can’t you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

“The nothingness. Just like the Badlands,” Marteen answered. “I can’t feel the Goddess. Not the tiniest bit.” Pallus froze. He felt an uneasiness since the Observatory went dark. Now, he felt the full brunt of the emptiness in the back of his mind. He staggered but quickly caught himself. The other elves around him were terrified as they realized they were feeling that same emptiness.

“I’ve seen what happens,” Marteen said. “The moment we walked into that land. Those who were strongest with the Goddess couldn’t handle the emptiness. It ripped them apart.” He looked down mournfully at Selene.

“People like her just…die. The rest of us? The emptiness will consume us. Sooner or later, we’ll all go insane.” For the first time since he met the swordmaster, Pallus understood the nightmares that haunted the swordmaster.

“That explains why the Pursits brought those humans,” Umbretti said. The Republican colonel pointed towards the main Purist camp. A few hundred humans were forming ranks armed with muskets, swords, and halberds.

“Where did the Purists hide them?”

“In plain sight, Colonel,” Umbretti answered. “I’ll bet ther were the officers leading the Purists. It would explain how they learned how to properly use muskets.”

“What group of Protector scorned bastards would ally with the Purists?” Rin asked.

“They look like Southlanders,” Morelli commented, looking through a spyglass, “Plenty there who’d be willing to come here for coin and a chance at looting Lisandra. With most of your army gone, and who knows how many of your people like Hero Onale, they don’t need much to get into the Inner City.”

“All of this was just to draw our army into a trap?” Pallus asked, incredulously.

“They may have taken out my troops here, but we can still defeat them!” General Lopanes exclaimed, “I still have fifteen thousand troops–”

“On the other side of dead gates, General,” Princess Illana interrupted. “Look around you. Everything powered by magic isn’t working. Well, almost everything.”

“What do you mean?” Pallus asked. Instead of answering, Princess Illana walked over to Selene. Kneeling next to the cleric, the princess placed her hands on Selene’s head. The princess’s face screwed up in concentration. The barest hint of a glow surrounded the princess and Selene before the princess collapsed. Rin caught her head before it hit the hard crystal of the spire. Selene stopped whimpering and opened her eyes.

“I can feel Her again,” Selene said weakly. “I can feel Her touch again.” No one said a word as Robar helped his wife to her feet.

“You saw it, didn’t you?” Princess Illana said, looking up at Robar. The cleric swallowed and nodded. “I thought so. I felt something from you. When I…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes closed.

“What did she feel, Robar?” Rin demanded.

“My magic sensitivity flared when she pulled together that bit of magic,” Robar said.

“She used magic? On Selene?”

“The princess broke the spellform cutting Selene off from the Goddess. Now that I see how the princess did it, I can do it as well. The Crystal Blood was always reputed to be strong with natural magic. I never understood what that meant. She just created a spellform just by thinking what she needed.”

“How did I do that?” Princess Illana asked, letting Rin help her to her feet. “Why haven’t I been able to do that before?”

“Your highness, that’s something we can discuss at a later time. We need to focus on stopping the Purists from taking Lisandra,” General Lopanes said. He looked out at the Outer City. “I don’t know how many troops I have still alive out there, much less if any of them are able to fight.”

“The Crystal Guard is compromised,” Pallus said, “The paladins are probably in the same condition as Selene.”

“Can’t the Crystal Blood do what she did for all of the paladins?” asked one of the staff officers.

“I don’t think I have enough strength to do that for enough paladins to fight that many mercenaries,” Princess Illana said.

“There may be another way,” Robar said. “In the Liopasto there is supposed to be a room known as the Amplification Chamber. The sorcerers used it for complicated spell work. Those towers mimicked what the Chamber is supposedly capable of doing. If the princess and I cast the spell there, it may be enough to break the Purists’ spellform for the entire city.”

“Where is this chamber?” the princess asked.

“Deep in the Liopasto. We’ll need Selene. There are monsters in the Liopasto beyond what we reclaimed for the hospital. Natural magic can hurt them, but we need her to call on the Goddess’s Grace to kill them.”

“Monsters? What kind of monsters?” Princess Illana asked.

“One approached Selene when we were doing our initial exploration of the Liopasto for the hospital. She thought it was a ghost at first. It led her all the way to the Liopasto Library by the time I caught up with them. Then, it changed into this horrible form.”

“Did it ask her for a shard of her soul?” Rin asked. The elves looked puzzled by the question. The humans gasped.

“I don’t know,” Robar said, “Sorry, things happened very quickly.”

“Yes, the monster asked me if I could give it a shard of my soul,” Selene said weakly. “I thought it was odd, but then, we were too busy fighting for our lives. Why?”

“You survived your first fight with a demon,” Rin answered.

“Why are demons haunting the Liopasto?” Princess Illana asked.

“Don’t know, but that isn’t something we need to figure out now. Selene isn’t in any condition to take on more demons. I’ll make sure you and Robar get to this chamber.” Rin turned to Morelli. “Get to the embassy. I need all the obsidian, silver, and star-iron in the armory. Meet us at the Liopasto.” Morelli paled but saluted and dashed down the stairs.

“We still need to fight these new Purist soldiers,” Pallus said.

“As soon as her highness breaks the spell, I will have the remains of the army fall back to the Aponte Wall,” General Lopanes said. “We have enough soldiers still able to fight to fend off those human Purists if we are reinforced with whatever paladins, volunteers, and Crystal Guard that are still able to fight.”

“Rin, can you protect them from these demons?” Pallus asked.

“I’ve been fighting demons for the last seven years,” Rin said. “I wouldn’t let Illana anywhere near them if I couldn’t protect her.”

“Good,” Pallus said, “Selene, you need to rally and lead the paladins.”

“They won’t listen to me, Pallus,” Selene said. She was still weak but looked much better.

“They will if you’re the only one giving commands,” Pallus said. “Especially when you tell them they will be the ones to break the Purists.”

“What do you mean?”

“There should be enough of us still able to fight to hold these human Purists at the wall long enough for Princess Illana to break the spell. Once she does, the paladins will need to cross the Wall at the Silver Gate and swing around to flank them.”

“Yes, a couple hundred paladins suddenly flanking them would smash them,” General Lopanes said, with a wolfish grin on his face.

“What about muskets?” Marteen asked, “The humans have them.” He pointed out where the Purists were still marshaling troops.

“Lieutenant, send up the flags for scavenging retreat with the rally at the Gold Gate,” General Lopanes ordered. “Any of my troops still out there will bring what muskets and cartridges they can find.”

“We have some more at the Palace Armory,” Pallus said. “Ammunition, at least.” Pallus hated those cursed things and hated even more that this battle prove they would stay in the Empire.

Well, every time the Empire tried to resist change, it led to tragedy, Pallus admitted. It was time for him to face that fact as well.

“General Lopanes, you will be needed here to direct the overall battle,” Pallus said. “You will know when to send in the paladins. The Heroes are needed on the Wall.” Pallus grimaced inside as he saw Sonya’s concerned look at Marteen – and the buried love in those brown eyes