“My lord,” Korel called out. He stepped carefully around the spilled blood and knelt on the stairs, bowing before his master.


    “Bring her to me. Bring my sister to me, Korel,” Dorian commanded. “It is time to complete our conquest.”


    "Ahem, my lord,” Korel said, his voice trembling. He still bowed his head, but shifted his weight from side to side. “She seems to have vanished. Perhaps she was killed in the confusion of the fighting…” Korel raised his head as he spoke, trailing off when he caught sight of the burning fury in his master’s amber eyes.


    <hr>


    Townsfolk gathered in the living area above the garage. Gorman still hadn’t tried to go into his bedroom, or if he had, he hadn’t mentioned the sealed door.


    Elion sat down on a stool at the edge of the room. Keyla slouched in the chair at her workbench. The other townsfolk filled the remainder of the room, sitting on the couch, leaning against the wall, or, in one case, pacing back and forth. Gorman stood at the front of the room, reviewing their plan.


    Snickers curled up in the corner, lying on a blanket Keyla had placed there for him. Elion rolled his eyes. The cat was probably the only one around here that would be able to get any rest.


    A small device projected a map of Aterfel on the wall, and Gorman used his finger to draw on it like a whiteboard.


    “The plan is simple,” Gorman said. “Each of you accurately execute your assignment, and like a well oiled machine, we will break free from this nightmare.”


    The people in the room shifted, but everyone watched intently.


    “Scout Team,” Gorman said, “Led by Sophira, will be our eyes in the sky.”


    Sophira straightened. She was a lean, dark-skinned woman. She wore a tank top which revealed her muscular shoulders.


    “You’ll slip out first,” Gorman continued, “under cover of darkness. Make your way here.” He circled a ridge, between the town and the bridge. “Make your way through the woods; you’re going to have better cover there and will be less likely to run into large groups. Track the movements of scavengers, and signal when you think we have a good opening. Bring a drone.”


    Gorman tossed a small chip, flipping it into the air and catching it in his hand. Teal circuits glowed on a black, shiny surface. Elion recognized it; he had seen something similar in Gorman’s room. “This is something I’ve been working on,” he said. He walked across the room and pressed the chip to Sophira’s temple.


    Pale green light flickered beneath Gorman’s fingers as the chip adhered to Sophira’s skin.


    “You can use this to communicate,” Gorman explained.


    Sophira shuddered, her eyes rolling around aimlessly. She shook her head, blinked, and then focused on Gorman. She held a hand to her head. “I can hear you,” she said.


    “And I you,” Gorman said with a grin.


    He turned back to the map.


    “Bomb Team is Zayven’s team. You’ll take all the fastest vehicles we have, and go directly to the bridge when Team 1 gives the signal. The engines will be loud, and attract a lot of attention, so you’ll have to go fast. Get to the bridge maintenance house.”


    Gorman walked to the short, wiry man with curly blond hair. The man’s left arm was robotic, with three oppositional grippers on the end. Gorman placed a chip onto Zayven’s head. Elion wondered if anyone else noticed the flash of clearly-not-Artefin magic.


    He caught Keyla’s gaze. Her nose curled in disgust, eyes wide with disbelief. She turned away, hiding her expression.


    “Overwatch Team will be Jaxen’s.”


    A tall, muscular man with dark hair standing in the corner nodded grimly.


    “You’ll go with Zayven’s team through town, drawing fire and engaging the enemy so that they can go more quickly. When you get here,” Gorman marked a fork in the road on the map. “Go up to this hill and set up a defensive position. You should have a good angle on the run from the bridge to the shard from there.”


    Jaxen also received a communication chip.


    “Distraction Team, led by Kile, will try to draw the infected away.”


    Kile, the man with a newly replaced leg, sat on the couch. Gorman fused a chip to Kile’s forehead and continued talking. “Take loud stuff, slower vehicles. You’ll do a loop around town, like this.” Gorman drew the loop on the map. “Depending on how this progresses, you can circle back around and hole up in the tower, you can join up with Scout Team, or you can join Overwatch Team here.”


    “Bomb Team, once you secure the bridge maintenance house, you’ll move into phase two. Get the bomb out and load it onto the cargo hauler. Lower the bridge. Hole up at the bridge, drive the hauler down into the Shard. Overwatch Team will deal with any infected that try to stop the hauler, and Scout Team will watch the road to the bridge.”


    Gorman scanned the room. “Any questions? No?”


    He stood quietly for a moment. All the team leaders stood up.


    “Good. You can all hear me. And each other?”


    Silence.  They must be communicating telepathically somehow,  Elion realized.  Through those chips.


    Gorman broke the silence. “Good,” he said. “I wish I had chips for everyone, but this will do for now. Go gather your teams and fill them in on the plan.”


    The leaders of the Aterfel Guard filed from the room, heading down to the garage.


    “Keyla,” Gorman said. “I want you with Scout Team. You’re fast and a good shot.”


    “Yes, sir,” Keyla answered.


    “And Elion, you’re with the Bomb Team.”


    Elion pointed at himself, surprised. “Me? I—”


    Keyla shook her head slightly, and Elion cut himself off.


    “You might draw fire, and I understand that you can take a few shots in your Ascended state.”


    Elion fought back a yawn, wondering what time it was. How long until the skyskimmer came for him?


    “Sure, okay, I’ll go with the Bomb Team” he said. Elion did not want to miss his ride. But he also wanted to help; if they could destroy the Shard before the Skyskimmer came, that would be good for Keyla. He also wanted to give Kasm some Ascendency stones. And he needed to avoid suspicion from Gorman for as long as possible.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I’ll probably be on a skyskimmer out of here before the fighting starts, anyway.


    “Meet with your teams, then try and get some sleep,” Gorman said, and left the room. Elion and Keyla watched him walk down the hall, past the door to his room. Did he notice anything amiss? He continued down the hall to the garage, without trying to enter his room.


    Elion met with Bomb Team down in the garage. Zayven had assembled 4 other members of the Aterfel Guard, including Domas. They gathered in one of the bays, checking over their equipment, vehicles, and discussing contingencies. Zayven’s hair bounced around as he spoke, gesturing vigorously with his hands


    The ATV that would carry the bomb was a 6-wheeled cargo hauler with two seats and a large flat bed. It was the only vehicle large enough to comfortably carry the bomb, even if it wasn’t as fast as the motorcycles and dirt bikes that the rest of the team would be riding.


    Zayven and another man checked over the cargo hauler, looking for elements crafted with Artefin power. Since the distortion field around the Shard interfered with Sentinel powers, they wanted to make sure nothing vital on the cargo hauler would break apart on the approach to the shard.


    Elion took a seat beside Domas. “They’re going to drive the bomb into the Shard?” he asked.


    “They will drive to the Shard, unload the bomb, and then drive back,” Domas said. “That’s why they’re checking the cargo hauler, they want to know what’s going to break down on it when they drive into the distortion field.”


    “Looks good Tharnen,” Zayven said, checking a clipboard. “We can replace some of this stuff, and do some welds over the Artefin joins. It should work.”


    "What about the rear suspension?” Tharnen asked.


    “It’ll be a rough ride, but if we secure the frame, here, and here,” Zayven pointed out the locations, “Then it should hold together.”


    Elion watched the two men as they prepared to make the necessary modifications to the vehicle. “What happens if they don’t do any of that?” Elion asked.


    “Those pieces would just fall apart,” Domas said. “The power holding them together would melt away. When the Shard first appeared, a few scouts went to check it out, and their guns crumbled to pieces in their hands. I thank Artefin that I didn’t drive out there to take a look. Sentinel power is the only thing keeping me alive.”


    Like the gun that I accidentally ruined,  Elion thought.


    “So you can’t go with them to the Shard,” Elion said. “Why are you on Bomb Team?”


    “Same reason you are,” Domas said. “We’ll wait and hold the bridge. Your power doesn’t work in the distortion field, does it?”


    “I haven’t tried,” Elion said. “But I guess not. I mean, why aren’t you on Distraction Team or Overwatch Team?”


    “I’m not fast enough to keep up,” Domas said. “But I can keep pace with that old cargo hauler just fine.”


    “Elion, right?” Zayven approached Elion. “You’re a Knight?”


    Elion nodded, immediately on high alert, unsure of where the man was going with this.


    “Can you shoot?” Zayven asked.


    “Yes. I’m an okay shot.”


    “Good,” Zayven said. “If you have to use your sword, things have probably gone very wrong. We’ll have you on Domas.”


    “Got it.”


    “Is that okay with you Domas?”


    “Roger that,” Domas said. “But just one rider; my differential starts acting up if I’m weighed down too much.”


    “That’s fine,” Zayven said.


    “What’s the plan?” Domas asked.


    “It’s actually pretty simple,” Zayven said. “We saddle up here in the garage. Wait for Scout Team’s signal, then Distraction Team will go. After 2 minutes, we bee-line for the bridge and hold the maintenance house. We load the bomb up onto the cargo hauler, then deliver it to its final destination.”


    Elion nodded, and wondered how much they were counting on him. If Zev’s skyskimmer came for him, he was going to have to abandon the team. Maybe it would be better if he could get one of his own vehicles to ride? But Zayven had already moved on.


    Elion scanned the room. People filled in the spaces, lying on the floor between shelves, sitting on tables. Nearly everyone seemed to be nursing an injury of some kind. Elion looked for Kasm, and saw him helping bandage up a boy’s hand, still trying to help heal people.


    Kasm is going to overdo it.


    He saw Keyla with Sophira’s Scout Team, along with Tael and another man. Zev had said to watch for the skyskimmer, but Elion couldn’t do that from inside the locked down tower. What if the skyskimmer didn’t come before the assault? Should Elion join the attack? Everyone expected that he would.


    He could go watch from the top of the tower, in the Threnody Core room, but he’d still have to get out of the tower somehow. Besides, he didn’t want to be around when Gorman realized that his safe had been raided.


    Keyla would take the blame for that. She seemed confident that she could talk her way out of it, but Elion still worried. His thoughts turned to Gorman.


    What is he doing with those communication chips?  Something about them seemed sinister. Maybe Elion was just overthinking it, seeing lies in everything Gorman said now.


    He pushed the thought away and crossed the room, lingering just outside the small circle formed by Scout Team.


    Scout Team, formed of Sophira, Keyla, Tael, and a man Elion didn’t know, prepared their equipment. Keyla worked on a couple of small drones, capable of relaying a video feed back to the operator. Sophira and the man were syncing their comm devices, and Tael worked on his rifle.


    “Hey,” Tael said, noticing Elion. The boy followed Elion’s gaze to where Keyla sat, then grinned. “Ohh,” he said smugly. “Do you think she likes your golden underwear? And your tiny sword?” Elion blushed even as he scowled.


    “Knock it off Tael,” he said. “I’m not… It’s not like that. I’m not in the mood.”


    “Not in the mood for Keyla?”


    “Shut up. I…” Elion trailed off when he noticed that Tael’s eyes still watched Keyla. “You’re jealous,” he said.


    Tael blushed this time.


    “Isn’t she too old for you?” Elion asked. He guessed Keyla was about two years older than Tael.


    Maybe in a place like this, where there aren’t that many people, age doesn’t matter as much.


    Tael grimaced, squirming in his chair. “She treats me like a kid,” Tael growled.


    “Maybe because you are,” Elion said. The quip tasted bitter as it fell from Elion’s lips, and Tael’s face darkened. He had no reason to pick on the young man. Elion pushed past and tapped Keyla on the shoulder.


    His heart pounded in his chest as she turned to gaze up at him. Behind him, Tael kicked over a bucket and stormed away.


    “What’s wrong with him?” Keyla asked, gazing over Elion’s shoulder.


    “Oh, probably just stressed,” Elion said, wiping his brow. He leaned in, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “How are we going to get Kasm out of here, to plant a cend? He’s going to make himself sick trying to heal everyone.”


    “Give it an hour,” Keyla said. “We’ll turn out the lights soon, let people try to get some sleep. I’ll open a side door.”


    Elion yawned as she spoke.


    “Maybe you should get some rest,” Keyla said. “I don’t think anyone is up in my room right now. You could get some sleep and I’ll find you when the coast is clear.”


    Elion went upstairs to Keyla’s room. There were a few families already gathered there. The lights were out. A child whimpered in the darkness, and Elion thought he saw three people on the bed.


    Oh well,  Elion thought.  It’s not like I was going to be able to sleep anyways. Not with everything going on.


    Instead he paced, wandering around, keeping an eye on Gorman, wondering when the man would realize he’d been robbed.