《Sentinel and the Witch (D&D 3.5)》


 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 1

    Thana Mourningjay


    Wake up, get clean, exercise, stretch, meditate, pretend to pray to the Lady of Life, think, consider, plan. I had to get out, I had to escape, there was no other choice. Meals came when they did, normally painfully plain, but food was food, and I needed energy if I was to live. This was my day, watching, listening, trying to find some hole in the defenses of this blasted prison. I needed a chance, just a chance to get out, they''d denied me any hope, and so I''d have to find my own.


    Day in, and day out, this was how things went. The guards, mostly priests and paladins, didn''t like to gossip with us too much, they wanted us to reflect on ourselves, and come to the conclusion that they wanted by our assigned time. Of course, with the sword above the neck of every prisoner on this block there was good reason to.


    The Life''s Judgment they called it. You didn''t get forever here, years perhaps, in a few cases decades, depending on your crime, and then you went before it. It was a spell, a massive, potent thing carved into the so-called Room of Judgment If you were good, truly good, repentant, truly, really repentant, or by some fluke innocent ''The Lady of Life'' would see it, ''she would smile upon you'' and your sentence would end, you''d be fully healed and released by the spell.


    If you failed, well, I''d heard the screams more than once. The spell would burn you, waves of fire would fall one after another until you were no more. Your death would be recorded and the jailers of this prison would admonish the other prisoners to learn from your folly.


    My day was fast approaching, and before it arrived I needed to get out of here, I needed to flee this place, this city, this country.


    Today though, something new happened, something different. Different things were good, different things might give me a chance. The first large different thing had nearly gotten me free, its failure had sent me right to the top of The Tower, but it was a near thing.


    A man was being introduced to some of the prisoners, a new guard, mid to late forties, maybe early fifties, and boy, was he different.


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°You''re no paladin, and certainly no priest,¡± the small voice said.


    The girl stood in her cell, looking far more put together than those around her. There was a look in her eyes, a mix of intelligence and desperation, pain, anger, but not the disregard for others that so many around her showed. She wasn''t broken or sad either, just.. like an orphan ripped off the street. Long black hair hung limply down over her eyes as she spoke.


    She was young, very, very young, fifteen if a day, so much younger than the others on this level. It boggled the mind that she could have done something that would end her up here, between the worst of the worst criminals who''d ever been captured alive.


    That was all striking, but the most striking bit was the shackles. A long chain of greenish metal, adamantine if I had to guess, inscribed in runes. Long enough for her to move freely, but that wasn''t the point. Those were for mages, and not cheap at all.


    ¡°Mind your manners Mourningjay,¡± Supervisor Flint commanded, eyes flicking to the outer door in a clear threat. If he wanted he could shut her in, keeping her from hearing, or talking, to anyone.


    ¡°Just an observation sir,¡± she said lightly.


    ¡°Your time making such observations would be better spent in prayer.¡± The paladin who led my shift was a gruff man, but from what I''d seen fair, and when she stepped back into the main part of her cell, kneeling by the small alter there he didn''t close her in as he''d threatened.


    I waited until we were well away from her cell, and any of the others before I spoke. ¡°Deaging magic? She looks like she''s just a kid. Kinda reminds me of my niece.¡±


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    ¡°No, the girl''s age is her own so far as we know. Doesn''t make her any less dangerous though. She''s twice cursed.¡±


    I drew in a breath. ¡°Damn, not lycanthropy or anything though?¡±


    ¡°Nothing contagious, I''m not in on all of the details but she when she manifested magic it came out as some nasty, nasty stuff. How much you know about mage-craft?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Not much,¡± I said, unfortunate, but true.


    ¡°Well, I''ll spare you details that wouldn''t make any sense then. Basics are don''t let her touch you, particularly if she manages to get those manacles off. Truth is, she started as low-level, just another unfortunate whose magic got out of their control as a child. We see those a lot, but she killed, and you know the law. Expected her to go through her Judgment and go home, then she made an escape attempt last year with some others. We lost over a dozen men.¡±


    My blood froze. ¡°You''re telling me that kid took lives like that?¡± She''d looked... not innocent, but nothing like that.


    ¡°Not her, but some of those she made the gambit with.¡± He sighed. ¡°It pains me to say it, but we''d put a priestess in with them, she was just under investigation after an incident. Everyone thought she was innocent, but the law is the law. The hope was that she''d help minister to some of the girls there in that block. She didn''t though, she led them in the attempt, heresy or something had taken her.¡±


    ¡°She''s the only girl on this level, the others are somewhere else,¡± I observed.


    ¡°Warden''s doing. Some of those girls have already faced their Judgment, some weren''t involved in the killing and ended up in the medium levels. Between whatever she said to the warden after it and her magic though, he sent her straight up here,¡± the paladin explained.


    ¡°So what? Her Judgment can''t be that far off if she''s just here for accidental killing. We keep her locked down tight until we release her?¡± It was a bit odd, most of the people on her level were the worst monsters we had, not really expected to repent.


    ¡°Hate to say it, but the warden doesn''t think she''ll make it through. I''ve never seen him wrong, even if all of my senses tell me that she should, if he thinks she won''t, she probably won''t.¡±


    I stopped, stunned. ¡°She''s... but she doesn''t give off the kind of air at all does she? I mean, it wouldn''t make sense...¡± The idea of a girl like that dying screaming in agony seared itself in my mind, and I pulled back.


    ¡°Like I said, never seen the warden wrong,¡± my superior told me. ¡°Look, there''s always a first, and I hope she does. You want to spend a bit of extra time trying to convince her repentance is the way, go ahead, part of the job anyway.¡±


    Thana Mourningjay


    ¡°Afternoon Guard Greyson,¡± I said.


    ¡°Mourningjay,¡± he replied not unkindly. ¡°Good sleep?¡±


    ¡°Good enough. You can call me Thana you know? I won''t tell.¡±


    ¡°Policy Mourningjay, policy. Don''t want one of the priests to see me doing that now would you?¡±


    ¡°Fair point,¡± I conceded, ¡°Least you don''t have a stick quite as far up as they do, if you catch my meaning.¡±


    ¡°I''m sure it escapes me,¡± he chuckled.


    We''d been at this for a couple of weeks now. He''d spend more time near my cell, talking and trying to convince me that I needed to feel bad for the things I''d done, as if I didn''t, and me trying to learn what I could about him. From what I''d seen there might be a chance here, if not for him to outright help me, perhaps I could get him to at least look the other way for a bit when I moved.


    ¡°Mind if I ask you a bit of a personal question?¡± I inquired.


    ¡°Depends on what it is, but ask.¡±


    ¡°Why in the world are you here? I mean, you seem like a decent guy and all, and I saw how you dropped Grimtooth the other day, so I know you can handle yourself, but normally they don''t put anyone who isn''t firmly a divine caster up this high.¡± It was something that''d been bugging me for a bit now.


    ¡°More of us mundane guards being brought in. They need the priests and paladins at the front,¡± he said, a bit grimly. ¡°I''m the best qualified, seeing how I worked in one of the outlying jails for years.¡±


    ¡°I''d heard there was a war, with Coria right? Is it really going that bad?¡± I asked with real concern.


    ¡°It''s not going great. They keep bringing in monsters and the like to bolster their lines. Terrors for regular soldiers, but something that those blessed can deal with.¡± He sounded regretful about it, like he wanted to help. ¡°Mind if I ask one in return?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead,¡± I answered, I didn''t mind, I was trying to get closer to him anyway.


    ¡°How''d you end up here?¡± That at least was one I could easily answer.


    ¡°It was an accident. My older brother... drank, a lot, and when he did, he got violent. I... I didn''t mean to hurt him. Okay, I did, but not kill. My magic manifested and just... just lashed out when I did. It wasn''t pretty. I still see it sometimes when I sleep, a nightmare I can''t forget.¡±


    ¡°You sound like you do truly regret your actions,¡± he said gently.


    ¡°Of course. Look, I won''t say I liked my brother, or the rest of my family for that matter, but I didn''t want that. There''s only a few people in the world who deserve that,¡± I said, a bit taken aback that he thought I wouldn''t.


    ¡°You don''t like your family?¡±


    ¡°Mom and dad made it pretty clear at the trial that I was no child of theirs. When I tried to apologize dad quite literally spit in my face. We haven''t talked since,¡± I bitterly answered.


    ¡°I''m sorry, most people at least get a few visitors. Is that why you tried to escape?¡±


    ¡°I can''t talk about that,¡± I quickly answered. ¡°And I can''t tell you why, please don''t ask again.¡± If that conversation got overheard before I was ready to try again, I might well meet my end. ¡°I will say though, that I''m sorry for the men who died. I... I am sorry for that.¡±


    He left and I turned to the little altar that every cell had. I didn''t actually pray much, the warden, and the other high clergy I''d met had seen to it that I really couldn''t stand any of Vitala''s most stringent followers. I wondered if she was like them, or different. I kind of hoped she was different, but those were the people she heaped gifts on, so maybe she wasn''t.


    I''d considered praying to some of the other gods, but honestly I didn''t know enough about any of them. There were some real boons they could grant if they were inclined, but if you went against them... not so good for you. The dark gods were of course not something I wanted any part with, though if I was being honest, some of them might accept me. Their cost was just too high though, and I didn''t have the kind of hate for most people that they seemed to embody.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 2

    Thana Mourningjay


    I awoke early, to the sound of bells. These weren''t the normal ones, the ones that they played on a daily basis from all of the temples and the like, but deeper, rung with more vigor, alarms. With care I rose and moved to the little window in my cell, hauling myself up to look at the early morning skyline. Fires dotted one edge of the horizon, fires that were spreading slowly.


    It''d been two weeks since I''d learned that the war wasn''t going great, but I''d not expected things to be this bad. Perhaps my informant hadn''t either, or maybe he''d not told me just how bad. It changed things though, because there was no way I wanted to be in this prison if a siege began. Who even knew how they''d respond to that.


    Carefully I reached down under my bunk and grabbed under the edge, trying to get the little bit of grease I''d saved from my food. It wasn''t much, but if I could just get these chains off I could make a move. The time for waiting had passed, now I needed to act. I also felt the few things I''d managed to gather over the years that were worth much to me. A bit of one of the religious candles they''d given us for one of the holidays, tied up and half-burnt in a bag with my most valuable possession.


    The best way to keep a mage locked down was shackles like I was wearing, but next to that, keeping them from any materials for spellcasting was a good move. It had been hard, receiving it from one of my former friends as she was taken to The Room of Judgment. Carving the sigils that came to me unbidden into it had also been a chore, but I knew that it would be the basis for the most useful of my spells should I need it. My best spell was now something I might use, a spell I wished I had had before was now within my grasp.


    The girl in question had once helped me, and didn''t believe that she would survive. I was pretty sure it was from one of her toes, chopped off and wrapped up, then slipped into the back of my dress when she hugged me on the way by. Only accompanied by the words ''Give them hell.'' She hadn''t survived of course, and her screams as they killed her echoed through the halls of our floor.


    All through the sunrise I stayed near the window, in part to hide what I was doing, in part to see what was going on. Men were flooding the walls, and more than a few to the base of The Tower, that bode poorly. Even from here I could see the spells flying over the defenses. Balls of fire and light whirred, with deadly intent through the cool air, sometimes met with counterspells mid-flight, sometimes bouncing off the city wards that hadn''t been dispelled yet. Few struck true into the city proper, but those that did made fires and shattered buildings. From my vantage point I could see some of those fires moving unnaturally, surging forwards towards the brigades trying to put them out.


    Breakfast, a normal occurrence here in The Tower, didn''t come. Instead a voice I''d only heard a few times, but could never forget rang out through the spells of the building.


    ¡°The city is in great need, as such, any prisoner willing to face The Life''s Judgment now and serve in the defense may call upon one of the guards, success in this endeavor will lead to a full pardon,¡± the warden declared.


    The stir in the air was palpable as a few, but only a few, on our level began to call out to the guardsmen here. It was sad to say, but being among the worst of the worst meant that few thought they''d survive the ordeal; I of course knew I wouldn''t, but that was another thing entirely.


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    Quickly the guards got to work, we were the most dangerous, the worst, and if we could be brought to bear against the enemy we might be a real boon. The first of the men to call for his Judgment was rushed down the hall to it.


    My shackles projected a field of anti-magic, meaning I couldn''t feel it, but I could see the shimmer in the air as his time came and went. There were no screams, no begging from the room at the end of the hall and through the doors. For they''d placed the seat upon which men were freed or died here, on the topmost level above the rest, where those who might need it most could hear the results of failure.


    There were failures, but not many. Only a few sets of screams of agony came through till lunch as man after man and woman after woman was led to the chamber in a line. Those that did though shook everyone, and a few of the volunteers began to fear for themselves. I wasn''t too sure what to think of that.


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°What''s going on!?¡± A familiar voice called as I pulled the man beside me along. He''d asked to go to his Judgment and we were in a bit of a hurry.


    I''d just gotten in, and the groups of men formed as fast as they could from the former prisoners had shocked me. In the atrium several were being unshackled, holy symbols of Vitala hung from their necks as a priest gave them a quick blessing, praising them for both their bravery and repentance, declaring that as a group their sentence would be over the moment the siege was repelled. A runner was there to meet them, to lead the now freed men and women to the walls where they were needed most.


    ¡°We''re under attack Mourningjay, they must have marched through the night and on more hidden roads. We need everyone who can fight. Look, I know you fear it, but if I''m any judge of character you should volunteer. It will free you from this place and I''m sure the goddess will look kindly upon you trying to help,¡± she was obviously in full panic, eyes wide.


    ¡°Guard Greyson, it''s not the judging I fear but the...¡±


    ¡°NEXT!¡± roared one of the paladins, drowning her out.


    ¡°It''s my curse, please, I need help,¡± she begged as I pulled the man forward, there was no time, though I did want to help her if I could.


    Beside me the chanting of the prisoner, and those in front and behind interrupted any further thoughts.


    ¡°Oh merciful Vitala, Lady of Life, please hear my call. I know what I did was wrong, my actions tainted by my own dark desires. Wholly do I reject that now, and beg your mercy, that I might show my hope to do better. Please lead me through this ordeal, please let me have a chance to protect this city and the ones I love.¡± The man beside me prayed until we reached the Room of Judgment, where I helped a paladin get him into the chair.


    Trying to protect the ones you loved was a good act, almost innately, and such an act was being committed to all over this prison. In some cases men had tried to deceive us, to escape their confines, but most accepted that they had a chance to save the city and their families if they gave themselves fully to the light. It was enough to save so many, and empty so many of our cells.


    Once he''d been fully strapped down we backed away and the paladin began to speak. ¡°May Vitala judge you prisoner,¡±


    The massive inscription on the floor began to glow, and the spell took effect. The man''s prayers intensified as the wave of energy washed over him, halting for a brief moment. If he was evil, truly evil, that would be the end of him now, but after a brief hesitation the magic passed. A second wave of healing mana slammed down, purifying the man of ills and making him look up in ecstasy as the goddess'' power washed over him.


    ¡°Normally I would congratulate you more fully, but time is of the essence my friend. Well done, go, and serve as our sword and shield now,¡± the paladin told him, as we removed the restraints, and led him the the exit.


    One did not enter and leave this place in the same way, it would be improper to not change here. Someone had felt so strongly thus that they''d actually enchanted the door to be one-way. The exit was a straight shot down though, leading you to the atrium. Of course, if you made it through your Judgment, you were no longer a prisoner, no longer someone who belonged amongst those awaiting theirs.


    At last check we were already halfway down the prison, working our way from top to bottom for the volunteers. The numbers only got larger with each floor we went down, and soon all thirty would be cleared of those unafraid to face the goddess. Those nearest the ground floor almost all asked us to take them as we passed. Most of these were petty crooks and criminals, almost none expected to die should they go before The Life''s Judgment.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 3

    Thana Mourningjay


    I could see from my window how things were going, and they were going poorly. Poorly for the defenders of Liria, and poorly for me. The attacks were actually going swimmingly, but that led to a whole host of problems, if potential help. The Tower, this tower was the highest security prison in the country, and while only the upper ten levels were serious dangers we still represented people the powers that be decidedly did not want free.


    I knew instinctively how to use my magic, even if I''d only ever manifested it enough times to count on one hand, and I knew that I had nothing that could keep me from going splat should I fall. That was of course if I could get these manacles off, a prospect I was struggling with.


    The guards were in a near frenzy, but that didn''t mean that I was ignored. If anything I was having to deal with almost constant people passing by my door. I couldn''t well go with more obvious methods of attempting to get the chains off, but there might be a solution soon if I could get the right person.


    Greyson was luckily the one set to give us food, he was rushig to get it all out, even if it was just a small loaf of bread.


    ¡°Wait, could you close the outer door?¡± I asked. ¡°I need to use the chamber pot and I''d rather every single man in the prison not see me.¡±


    It was partially true, I really did need to pee and the fact that there was a line going by my cell was rather more embarrassing, but really I wanted the privacy.


    As I looked on I could tell a few things. I could tell he believed me, that he totally bought the excuse. Sadly, I could also tell that it wouldn''t be enough, he needed another push.


    ¡°That''s a punishment, not a request Mourningjay, and you know it,¡± he responded, trying to keep to procedure.


    ¡°Asshole,¡± I said with a smirk.


    He snorted laughter once through the grim set. ¡°Fine, and you''re not getting dinner.¡±


    Turnabout was fair play after all, and I had asked for it. If things went to plan, by dinner I would be gone. I didn''t bother to hide my smile, my bet had paid off. He wanted to help me, he wanted to be kind and give me the propriety that most men felt ''innocent young girls'' deserved. I wasn''t the most innocent person in this prison though, and abusing his feelings of ''rightness'' to save my own life didn''t bother me in the slightest.


    I gave it a couple of minutes, actually doing what I said I needed to and giving a solid count to one thousand before I got to work. The manacles had to go, there was no getting around it, and if I wanted to make it, they would be coming off, regardless of the cost.


    Milo Greyson


    The day was an absolute disaster as the prison was cleared as quickly as possible. We still had a good few people left, but they were quickly clearing out. The main delay was the resetting of the spells needed to judge prisoners. It wasn''t immediate, taking nearly a minute each time someone went through.


    We went on well through midday, the sun beginning to move downwards in an arc by the time we reached the minimum security prisoners. Some expressed that they didn''t mind immediately going to their Judgment, but expressed fear that they would be less than useless in the defense. The warden, upon hearing this from one of the supervisory guards informed us that it would be acceptable for them to act as aides to the army instead, as more helpers, even non-combatant ones, were needed for any defense.


    That of course led to a fresh wave of recruits. By late afternoon we''d finally made it all the way back to the minimum security prisoners, but that was when the runners came from below.


    ¡°The walls have been breached, guards are to return to their floor immediately and ennact the Towerfall protocol. Those who''ve already volunteered to be judged are to be exempted by order of Warden Lightstone.¡±


    I rushed back to the top, to my own station, where I was met with Supervisor Flint and the others. For the first time today, there was no line. The paladins had been going all day and looked absolutely ragged, I was more than exhausted myself as our leader led us to the room we used to keep our supplies.


    ¡°The messenger said Towerfall, but I''m unfamiliar with that one. Don''t think we covered it in the basic training,¡± I told him as he moved over to the storage lockers.


    ¡°It''s one of the failsafes. If The Tower should ever come under danger of being taken or destroyed all criminals above level twenty are to be executed summarily,¡± Flint responded grimly as he pulled out shortspears and swords and distributed them.


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    My blood ran cold. ¡°That''s...¡±


    ¡°It''s what must be done. I know you''re new, but certainly you understand that? The people here represent the worst our nation has to offer, we cannot risk a mass escape.¡± His voice was grim and eyes hard.


    ¡°Of course, of course, I understand. I just didn''t expect it today,¡± I sighed.


    He gave me a slightly softer look. ¡°I''ll take care of the girl; don''t worry, I''ll be quick, she won''t suffer.¡±


    The others looked at me. It was well known that I''d been doing all I could for young Thana, trying to get her soul ready in the hope that she would make it. It seemed I''d failed, something I''d have to live with, if only I could have convinced her to volunteer earlier perhaps she''d be out right now, doing some good.


    ¡°No, I''ll do it. A friendly face may make it that much easier on her,¡± I said, fixing him with a stern gaze of my own.


    Flint clapped me on the shoulder, ¡°Good man. I know you believe she had a chance, if it is so I''m sure she''ll be welcomed into the divine realms when it is done.¡±


    The paladins blessed weapons. It wasn''t much, but it would make our grim work that much easier, and faster for those we must now send to the afterlife.


    Several of the prisoners tried to fight when they realized what was happening, more than one producing a makeshift weapon or the like. It mattered little, because we controlled the doors. Between those and the ability of the blessed warriors they fell one by one. I felt numb as we worked our way down the line, to the only door I knew would give me nightmares.


    I had to take a moment to steady myself as I opened it. I''d shut her in earlier at her own request and never gotten back. That seemed cruel now, not letting her have any conversation for those last few hours. Perhaps at least it had dulled the screams a bit. She was sitting on her bed, covered in her blanket, eyes sad.


    ¡°I''m sorry kid, I hate that it''s like this, but it is.¡± I could feel Flint behind me, watching.


    ¡°Mind if I tell you then? The truth?¡± She asked before continuing. ¡°The truth is, I never feared the wrath of Judgment, but the healing.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± That made no sense.


    ¡°I''m cursed, dad built our house over a graveyard. All the necromantic energy effects you, in my case made me manifest necromancy, and also caused me to react to healing like an undead,¡± she calmly explained.


    ¡°That would mean...¡±


    ¡°The healing spell at the end of The Life''s Judgment would cook me into charcoal,¡± she said.


    ¡°That''s not true, it can''t be...¡± I stuttered, unable to process.


    ¡°Why don''t you ask Flint?¡± She suggested.


    From behind there was a sigh. ¡°You know I hate when you do this. How many have you led astray? This is your third isn''t it, or fourth?¡±


    ¡°Is it true?¡± I asked the paladin, taking my eyes off the girl for the first time.


    ¡°In a sense. The laws of magic as we understand them do indicate that that little walking heresy should die. If she had true faith in the goddess perhaps there would be an intervention, but certainly not as she is.¡± The man now looked at me with cold eyes.


    ¡°Walking heresy?¡± I asked incredulous.


    ¡°Well, what else would you call a girl whose very body rejects life yet continues to live? If word of those like her spread it would cause discord amongst the faithful on how they exist, because they shouldn''t. Now, it is time to do your job guardsman.¡± His hand fell to the blade strapped at his side.


    ¡°Wrong, all wrong. You seek to kill a child for the crime of being born somewhere she shouldn''t have? Call her very existence a heresy? You are the one who has erred,¡± I declared.


    ¡°If the goddess wanted her to live, she''d have sent a miracle,¡± the man said, finally drawing his sword.


    ¡°I am standing right here. Thana, stay behind.¡± Without hesitation I turned to the man who should be the one fighting for good and righteousness, drawing both my sword and the buckler I kept on my hip.


    Flint was younger than I, and trained in the manner of a divine warrior, but he was greener. From the way he moved, the way he talked I could tell that he''d never seen battle, real battle, against other men. Perhaps he''d killed some monsters, but monsters weren''t the same. He who struck first often struck the final blow.


    I snapped forward like lightning as he took his stance, my sword, the one supposed to slay an innocent, went towards him like a flash. The magic that had been placed upon it to help with the executions now striking out at the would-be executioner. Catching him better than I could have ever hoped in a situation like this.


    He screamed in pain, ¡°To me! Kill the betrayer!¡± Then the man threw his own blow, which was sloppy, skidding off my shield with a screech and shower of sparks.


    ¡°Duck!¡± I heard from behind, and, instincts taking over, obeyed.


    Above me sailed what appeared to be a pillowcase, landing true in the side of Flint''s head. It didn''t seem to hurt him too greatly as it passed to land on the ground some five feet behind, regardless of the heavy noise it landed with. Smart girl had filled her pillow with something hard, ostensibly to try and beat me to death with.


    Our fight continued, he dodging my blows as he began to speak, a prayer in some language I didn''t understand. Whatever it was it didn''t succeed, and that failure seemed to shake the man to his core.


    I wasn''t alone though, and his words were met by others. Thana spoke, again, some incantation, followed by, ¡°Help beside you.¡± At her words black smoke coalesced into a skeletal form, a warrior to join in our fight. Sadly the thing was inept, but having someone to cover that side would help regardless, I knew well how to fight with other shieldmen beside me. She shouldn''t have been able to cast, but today appeared to be a day for the unexpected.


    Another pass and I landed another strong hit on him, leaving him spitting blood. With a scream of ¡°DIE ABOMINATION!¡± he tried to hit the skeleton, only for his weapon to bounce harmlessly off the creature''s bones. The skeleton, weak as it was, continued to be mostly a shield to me, and I smiled as I realized what had been in the pillow. Another item joined us flying from behind, this time a bowl, which shattered on impact and added a lovely cut to Flint''s face.


    The undead summon evaporated back into smoke as I buried my blade in the man''s gut. He looked confused and pained. Good, he could now understand what he was putting on others. Sadly I had other problems.


    There were five guards on shift on this floor right now, along with the now bleeding out Flint. Two were going up against a prisoner. My guess was they''d been trying to execute him and he''d taken advantage of the clear fight to make his own bid at survival. The other two however were headed this way.


    One was another paladin, Leo, the other a priest by the name of Senton. In a fair fight it would be tough, but I was going to be anything but fair if I could.


    ¡°Got another of those skeletons in you?¡± I asked behind.


    ¡°On it''s way, but they don''t last long.¡±


    In the few moments we had we tried to form the best line we could just outside the cell. I didn''t like the idea of being locked in should one of them manage to close the door. The priest went straight to the fallen man and failed to do anything, unable to parse why his magic too failed in the critical moment.


    Leo of course didn''t bother with me. Taking the damage he had to to get past me and to Thana, where he lashed out with his blade. The girl screamed as he struck her, but the damage wasn''t fatal, even looking less than it should have been from the blood.


    I made him pay for it, plunging my blade deep into his less protected back as Thana grabbed his face. In less than a second it was like his veins were turning black where she''d touched and flowing away. He screamed as he joined his superior on the ground.


    ¡°You okay?¡± I asked as I advanced towards the priest, who''d now risen and pulled his own blade.


    ¡°Will be,¡± she gasped in clear pain.


    My clash with the clergyman was short. He was not the trained warrior that the other two had been, or that I was. Even though the second undead similarly dissolved without scoring a single hit I didn''t need him for this.


    When it was done I saw that the other combatant had similarly prevailed. Catching the other guards with their pants down had seemed to be just what he needed to pull through. He did look rather rough though.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 4

    Milo Greyson


    We came to an uneasy truce with the currently escaped prisoner, a hulking man who went by Crusher. I wasn''t sure if I could take him, and though Thana had managed to make the injuries over her body evaporate like it was nothing, I knew she had limited magic. We''d need all the help we could get if we were to make it out alive. My turning on the staff put me quite firmly in the side of those who''d be killed without mercy now.


    Crusher''s first act was to free the man in the cell beside him. Opcan strode out with a bright smile and a high class accent. His manacles announced loudly his profession.


    ¡°Why thank you Crusher,¡± he said as soon as he was free, giving the larger man a bright smile. ¡°I do so appreciate you dealing with those men, I''d rather not have died horribly today.¡±


    ¡°Mmm,¡± the brute nodded.


    ¡°Now Mr. Greyson, since I suppose calling you ''guard'' would be rather impolite now. I don''t suppose you know where I might find the keys to these?¡± He held up his hands. ¡°Or perhaps the young lady might inform me how she got her own manacles off?¡±


    ¡°Lots of pulling and a bit of grease. Ripped the top couple of layers of skin off I hate to inform you,¡± Thana answered.


    ¡°I believe Flint had a key, being that he was in charge of this level and all,¡± I said.


    While he was rummaging the larger man spoke low, looking at Thana. ¡°Been awhile since I had a woman...¡±


    ¡°It does not do to eat unripe fruit my friend,¡± the mage responded as he tried several keys.


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    With a sigh Opcan took a different approach. ¡°I''d rather you leave her alone. Don''t worry, when we get out I''ll take you by the red light district and see you have a good time.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± the brute easily agreed.


    ¡°Hey, mind letting the rest of us join the freedom party? I''d rather not die here either,¡± one of the other prisoners, Grimtooth, said.


    ¡°No worries friend, I''ll be letting the rest of you out; just as soon as I have a bit of insurance.¡± He smiled again, a political, conniving thing. ¡°Ah, I do need spell components, and the bodies as well. Mr. Greyson, if you don''t mind taking the young miss to find those while I do a bit of setup?¡±


    Thana Mourningjay


    Milo, because I was absolutely not calling him by anything other than his first name now, had managed to turn a losing situation into a complete win for me. For him... not so much, but maybe we could make this work out in the end? I didn''t know, but I''d worry about tomorrow after I survived today.


    We went into the guard''s storeroom together and while there he gave me a hard look. ¡°Look kid, those guys are bad news. If we''re making it out of here we need to play nice, but don''t trust them. Opcan particularly, he''s a manipulator if ever I''ve seen one.¡±


    ¡°No worries there, the guy gives me a bad feeling, and his buddy is worse, the way he looked at me, like I was just meat...¡± I shook a bit involuntarily. ¡°But far as I can see we want the same thing right now, to get out of here. Assuming that''s what you want.¡±


    ¡°It is. Maybe we can slip away in the chaos after the battle. For now, take a sword, might need it. Components are over here, not sure if any of it is stuff you''ll need though.¡± He passed me a weapon and I grabbed one of the smaller chainmail shirts, tossing it over the simple dress they gave me to wear in here.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Milo''d brought the manacles in, and I couldn''t fault him for that, being that an antimagic field could be useful in all kinds of ways. I was staying well away from them though. Since I''d gotten them off it felt like I could breathe. I had to stand a bit away from them for the full effect, but it was like someone had buried me in the dirt and now I was finally coming up to fresh air.


    The spell components were in boxes, one for each of the priests and a couple spare. It was all very organized and regular, so I grabbed one for myself, along with one of the priest''s reference books, and another for Opcan. My acquisitions, along with a bit of the rations in here went into a makeshift bag.


    He''d been well down the line of cells from me, so I couldn''t say I properly knew the man, having only spoken to him once or twice over the distance. He kept mostly to speaking to those nearest from what I heard, and was rather a fancy boy.


    When I returned he was smiling again, organizing several of the bodies into shapes.


    ¡°Ah there you are my dear, and with spell components. I daresay I only hope they have what I need, though I have doubts. Come, come, I''ve something to show you.¡± He motioned me over and when I hesitated continued. ¡°You wound me sweetling, if I wanted to harm you, I would have done it already.¡±


    Slowly Milo and I went over to where he was working. The former guard was on edge, and I could feel it too. Crusher had armed himself from some of the dead paladins, and was now smiling as he swung a sword a bit.


    ¡°Not sure what I''m looking at here,¡± I said as I passed over the box of bits and bobs, the weird things people needed to make magic work.


    ¡°Well, I was quite excited when I saw you using the Art. I had no idea you knew necromancy my dear, such an interesting branch, though I''ll admit I''ve only ever dabbled. Ah, but I digress, this is the beginnings of a variant on the staple of any necromancer, the spell Animate Dead.¡± He really liked the sound of his own voice, and to call me pet names, creepy, but if it got him working with us...


    ¡°Um... forgive me, I can''t cast that one, but doesn''t that require black onyx? They''re not likely to keep that in a prison run by priests to the goddess of life, are they?¡±


    ¡°Quite right on both accounts! Ah, but you''ve missed an important fact. You see, many necromantic spell components can be substituted with... here it is!¡± He pulled out a small bag, dumping the shiny stones into his hand. ¡°Smoky Quartz! Little known, but very useful for the practitioner who might want to hide their spells, eh little Thana? Normally used in inks and the like, so it''s not even suspicious.¡± He was all smiles again and wiggling eyebrows. ¡°Mind helping me? Just put this one in the mouth of that one over there while I take care of these.¡±


    There were two main piles here, each with four bodies. I noticed that the wounds were all arranged to point to the central figure, the one who''s mouth I was shoving a shiny rock into.


    ¡°The wounds are important?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Wonderful question! Yes indeed, this variant needs lots of blood. By focusing on having it flow into the central body we can use a standard spell to make something much better. Though they are a bit costly, so I''m not sure I''d recommend them for day-to-day usage. Normally you can only make zombies and skeletons, you see, but for a bit of blood one might make a very tough undead.¡± This time he even patted my back. It took all I had not to shove magic in his direction to make him hurt.


    He cast the same spell several times. The first two he rose up the main two creatures, the blood visibly flowing into them like some kind of revolting river, making the bodies swell while leaving the donors little more than husks. He then recast the spell to make a couple of the donor bodies into skeletons.


    ¡°That''s pretty impressive magic,¡± Milo said from my side. He''d kept close though the whole interaction.


    ¡°Why thank you. Out of curiosity, are you able to take one of those skeletons? Just as a trial?¡± Opcan smiled as he presented his challenge.


    I leaned towards one of them, a weaker one if I were any judge, and looked into its hollow eyes. I could feel the animating force as I reached out with my mind, and instinctively I pushed. ¡°Obey,¡± I said.


    There was a flit of resistance that left instantly, my suspicion being that it was the other necromancer''s will, hidden deep. Once it was gone though there was little here.


    ¡°Obey,¡± I repeated, and felt the resonance. The undead who''d been beginning to move now froze, and I could feel the connection to myself form, a way to control it.


    There was a brief stint of clapping. ¡°Magnificent! Ah, you''re learning so fast. Is that your first minion? How lovely!¡± After heaping praise he went back to smiling. ¡°My dear, I know your friend there is a bit hesitant about joining with Crusher and myself, but I''d like to extend a personal offer. Come with us, with your talent we''ll be able to control even more minions, and everyone''s chance will be better. Mr. Greyson is welcome to come along too of course, but I rather think you''d do well to become my apprentice. What do you say?¡±


    I took a few moments to parse out my thoughts. ¡°My apologies sir, but I don''t really know you, becoming your apprentice right now seems a bit of a leap. I''d also like to get out of here on our own if that''s okay? Though I do thank you for the quick lessons... er, how do I return this skeleton to you by the way?¡± I tried to be as polite as possible, but my education on that was really lacking.


    ¡°Oh, I''m sad to hear that, but I quite understand. Should we meet again on our exit, or afterwards do know my offer for tutelage stands. As for the skeleton, keep it, a gift if you will.¡± He turned to his companion. ¡°Crusher my dear man, mind helping me release the rest of these fellows? I think it''s about time for us to leave.¡±


    I backed off as they started to go to the cells and Milo leaned over to whisper in my ear. ¡°You''re sure you control that thing?¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡± I said.


    ¡°Good, come on. We need to make tracks quick, some of those men he''s letting out might not be so gracious as he''s been.¡±


    We hurried to the supply room to quickly arm our boney new companion before heading to the far end of the hall, where the Room of Judgment was located.


    ¡°Um...¡± I nervously said, nearly stopping.


    ¡°Relax, we''ll avoid the center where the spell is. Just need the secondary staircase. It also locks from inside, fallback in case of riot.¡± I was glad he was willing to explain.


    ¡°Like the one we may have just started?¡± I asked.


    Behind us I could hear the mage raising his voice. ¡°Alright lads, who wants to go kill some paladins!?¡±


    They all let out a cheer right as we passed through the door into the Room of Judgment

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 5

    Milo Greyson


    While I activated the spells sealing the door and shoved a bar into place Thana was carefully making her way around the spell circle that took up most of the middle of the room. She had the bag with the anti-magic shackles in it, pressed up against her chest as she took the long way around.


    ¡°It won''t turn on if it''s not activated,¡± I pointed out.


    ¡°Yeah, and if something goes wrong and it does activate on me I''ll puke up my organs,¡± she retorted. ¡°Though I suspect the shackles would stop it.¡±


    ¡°They would, we have to remove them when we send people through,¡± I confirmed. ¡°Made the paladins real nervous when it was done. Hand bindings and gags were the usual for it.


    I had no compunctions walking across the floor of the room. My actions today may have been in flagrant violation of the law, but in this case, the law was wrong, horribly wrong. As I neared the door I stopped, picking up one of the holy symbols of Vitala that we''d been distributing to the prisoners who were being released. It wasn''t a cleric''s symbol, but a simple necklace, large and visible.


    ¡°Tell me Thana, are you a follower of Vitala?¡± I looked down at the symbol in my hand, a ring, always unbroken, twisted to form four lobes around the center of it.


    ¡°She objects to most of what I am Milo, or at least her followers tend to. I''m not one to show disrespect though, and in my younger days I prayed a bit; less so recently.¡± A waffling answer, but one I understood. I imagined she might well object to me killing those men, or releasing the others.


    I came over to her and carefully placed the symbol over her head. ¡°You are the last of the prisoners to willingly pass through the Room of Judgment, after going through an ordeal which you, beyond all expectations, survived. Do not make me regret this, and while you wear this symbol, show proper respect to its owner.¡± The necklace didn''t burn or harm her, and even when she touched it carefully there seemed to be no harm, I felt that encouraging.


    ¡°I''ll probably have to cast something if we run into trouble, and I imagine she won''t like that, but I''ll do the best I can,¡± she said quietly.


    ¡°That''s all any of us can do.¡± I led us to the stairs as we started moving down.


    ¡°If they find out what really happened we''re both dead, you know that right?¡± She asked.


    ¡°We''ll worry about what challenges we face when we face them. On that note, we need to move now.¡±


    ¡°Right. One question, you know that keeping undead around is... frowned upon by the church right?¡± She pointed to our third.


    ¡°You took control of him from another, you didn''t make him yourself. Also, when it''s done, assuming we make it with him, we can give him a proper burial.¡± It was pushing it, and would really, really irritate others, but with the situation... it was understandable.


    The Tower was thirty stories tall, the top ten being the maximum security prisoners. Below that were offices, interview rooms, and floors with lower security offenders in them. The top was the important part so far as the nation was concerned, a good place to dump, and potentially reform the worst people we had into something useful. The medium and lower security prisoners were local only. If you''re building a prison you can easily make it bigger, and someone had wanted the excuse to make the building absolutely massively tall.


    ¡°So think the Corians will come for The Tower? Why would they care?¡±


    ¡°That a joke Thana? The Tower is the tallest structure in this half of the city, nearly the whole city. High ground will give them a place for siege engines on the roofs, arrows from the upper floors, ha, even using it to watch our movements inside the city. From a military point of view it''s good there. Also, while keeping people in and keeping people out aren''t the same thing, it is already strongly built and well set up for a temporary fortress. They''d also get the prisoners we didn''t loose, potentially a source of troops. Opcan up there is a danger to us, and if some Corian commander asked him, he''d turn on the nation, smiling the whole time.¡±


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°So we slip out if we can. If I need to I can run some messages or something, no problem. I doubt they''ll need me to if the wall fell I guess. Will you come with me?¡± The last part sounded hopeful.


    ¡°Maybe, let''s see what happens first,¡± I responded, it was unlikely, but today seemed a good day for unlikely things.


    ¡°Thank you by the way, that''s the first really nice thing anyone''s done for me in a long time.¡±


    ¡°Your welcome,¡± I said as we reached another small landing that indicated a floor was passed. Five down, twenty or so to go.


    Each landing had a door, arranged so that one could only enter this staircase. Those were generally hidden behind the guard''s rooms on their floor, or otherwise restricted so that prisoners couldn''t get anywhere near them. This staircase was for those who''d served their sentence, or those who were not here for one, not the prisoners.


    The landings also had slightly larger windows then the rest of the corridor, enough to see how things outside were faring.


    Thana Mourningjay


    The city was... in chaos. We hadn''t gone far down, just enough to give ourselves some breathing room, but the window here showed it all.


    From this high the people were like ants, running to and fro like their hill had been upset. Well, at least our people were. The enemy was inside the gates, a metal clad figures pushing down the streets like the grasping appendages of an ooze. One was headed straight here, though from the angle I couldn''t tell if they''d made it yet.


    ¡°What happens if they make it to The Tower?¡± I asked. ¡°Is there like, a policy for that?¡±


    ¡°Don''t know, there''s probably something though.¡±


    It was around this time that several projectiles arced up from places within the enemy ranks, peppering the walls of the prison with loud crashes. One came close to our location, too close for my comfort.


    ¡°We need to move,¡± I observed, and with a quick look we returned to our descent.


    We''d made it not even to the next floor down when we saw what had struck the building. On the landing there was a massive stone in the shape of an egg, still disgorging its former occupant. It was some kind of black goo that pulsed and spread.


    We also weren''t the only ones trying to use this staircase, as several guards were trying to hack and slash at the monster that was making its way into the building. It wasn''t going well for them at all, their weapons hissed and sizzled as the plunged them into the... thing, which in response to their attacks seemed to let pieces of itself fall off, where they continued fighting the men.


    Most of the inky black mess was moving towards the nearest people, the ones in combat with it, as they made a fighting retreat downwards. One or two pieces however had taken different targets. A couple were sliding into the door on this landing, pushing themselves through as the metal hissed and blackened, large sections of it falling away as they seeped into the hallway beyond. Another was slowly making its way up the stairs, towards us. The last was thankfully very small, perhaps the size of a dog.


    Milo moved forward, sword in hand, and taking a stance.


    ¡°No, didn''t you see what it was doing to their weapons? Keep it off of me but otherwise I''ve got it.¡± I stepped up and focused, letting my energy flow into my hands as he threw backwards the bag to keep the field of dead magic away from me.


    I slapped the thing, hoping it wasn''t undead, and lucked out. My touch burned away some of it, and while it wasn''t much, it did decrease in size. Its response was clumsy, that was good, it meant that we might be able to deal with these one small bit at a time. Clumsy or not though, more than that would be a disaster waiting to happen.


    My next slap at it was far better, closer to the middle, and a horrible mistake. As I smiled at the large void that melted away in the goop it surged, pseudo-pod slamming into me and splitting to wrap around my chest.


    I wasn''t alone though, and before it could do much more Milo let his sword slam down, the blade began to melt as it plunged in, but it was enough to sever the piece that had me, and destabilize the rest. As the fragment of the creature died I stumbled.


    The ability to heal myself may not have been smiled upon by my captors, but it was absolutely my favorite thing. I could, albeit slowly, repair any injury I took by focusing my own magic into them. The power was called negative energy, and being a living conduit for it had at least a few advantages.


    ¡°Are you okay!?¡± The man asked, clearly seeing that I''d taken a hard blow.


    ¡°One moment,¡± I wheezed, pushing my own power back into myself as I ran my hands over several burns and what felt like a cracked rib.


    It took time for me to repair the damage it had done, while I did he looked on.


    ¡°Is it burning?¡± He asked as he discarded his ruined blade.


    ¡°No,¡± I returned as the pain finally faded. Then I looked down, ¡°Ugh, gross,¡± The remnants of the monster were currently dripping down my only outfit and seeping into the armor I''d taken. They didn''t look to be damaged by it, but it was disgusting.


    ¡°You sure?'' He asked again as I tried to wipe, or shake away, the worst of the goo.


    ¡°Yeah, I can heal myself, but we don''t want to fight one of those again, they hit hard.¡± The very fresh memory caused me to wince.


    Down the stairs the sounds of continued fighting drifted upwards. Seems the other guards were similarly struggling with the bulk of the monster. There were also sounds of screaming coming from the doorway where parts had passed through, though more panic.


    ¡°Up is out, so, down or through?¡± I asked, he knew this part of the building better than I.


    A loud pained scream came up from the stairs. That seemed to cement his opinion on the matter.


    ¡°Can you do the slow falling spell?¡± He asked, looking out the gaping hole the monster delivery egg had smashed in the wall.


    ¡°Sorry, no.¡±


    ¡°I vote through then, most of it went down.¡±


    ¡°Seconded,¡± I said, passing over the sword he''d had me take, it was pretty useless in my hands anyway.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 6

    Warden Lightstone


    I kept an eye out my window, watching the battle below. Oh how I wanted to be down there in the thick of it, but as the commander I needed eyes on what was happening, so I might call for what needed to be done.


    The Corian force was still testing us at the outer fence. The madman responsible for this oversized monstrosity they called a prison had at least had good defensive sense, and had given us a small outer wall. We let the low security prisoners, and those who had behaved well in medium rest in the field it created on holy days, the fresh air reminding them what they could have after their sentences were done. Now it served the purpose for which it was built, a killing field should any try to take this place.


    ¡°Tell the archers to be ready. I furthermore want the low level supervisors here now so I can run them through the information I''ve gotten on the current Corian tactics. Also get me the heads for each section so we can prepare.¡± Those three didn''t much like each other, but being that they''d be important in enforcement of this we needed them ready. Thorin the high security head should be done with the executions soon at any rate, and then all of his men could be reassigned to defense.


    My instructions to the runner was interrupted by another. One of the junior paladins serving here as part of his training. ¡°Sir! Sir Thorin needs reinforcements on twenty-nine, there''s been a riot.¡± He huffed, trying to catch his breath.


    I sighed, it was one of those things that had been a risk. No warden had ever initiated the Towerfall, no, I had been the first. It pained me, those men, and the few women, it wasn''t their time to die, perhaps, perhaps some of them might have seen Vitala''s mercy.


    ¡°Details,¡± I commanded.


    ¡°Unknown sir, I''m passing on all I received.¡± We had to alternate where the stairs were for the floors, only the one staircase going from the atrium to the very top, so having messages passed was an unfortunate need sometimes.


    ¡°Get ten men and send them up through the staircase to The Room of Judgment, and send ten more to Thorin. We''ll pincer them in place and end this quickly.¡± I passed over a keyed stone for delivery, it would allow them to exit into the top floor; an extra fail-safe just in case.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Moments later the bombardment began, it was at the least rather short. Somewhere between and dozen and two dozen projectiles hit us, and my men, having already been briefed, should have been able to handle it.


    Should, but my briefing had been wrong. I now understood why the wall had fallen as I looked at the blackened sword sitting on the table of the meeting room.


    ¡°Ochre jellies do not do that,¡± one of my aids said, and he was right.


    ¡°The thing sir, it wasn''t brown, it was...¡± the soldier giving the report hesitated, clearly disturbed.


    ¡°Black, it was black, I know.¡± I''d done my fair share of monster slaying in my younger days, and read more than one bestiary.


    When I''d heard that the Corians had begun tossing ochre jellies into our armies during the battles I was surprised, it was a rough tactic, but one dealt with straight forward enough. Draw your spare weapon and hit the damn thing if in melee, split it and take off the smaller ones first, but try to toss spells or arrows if you were further away. That was what I''d told my men to do if they saw any oozes. The weight of knowing I''d sent my men to their deaths settled upon me like a lead weight.


    My secretary joined us next, she looked grim. ¡°Warden... two more reports.¡±


    ¡°More of the oozes?¡± I asked grimly.


    ¡°Yes sir, the group you sent up to The Room of Judgment through the atrium stairs encountered one. Two survivors, heavily injured, but they reported seeing someone approaching from the other direction too, perhaps some fleeing the riot, two guards and a prisoner, marked as having gone through Judgment,¡± she explained.


    ¡°Perhaps they survived as well, the second?¡±


    ¡°Thorin sent word, the rioters are using undead,¡± she whispered the last word.


    I froze, there was only one known necromancer in The Tower, and she wasn''t supposed to be anywhere near powerful enough to make any undead. If she was, if I''d missed that, and if she was loose, we were in far deeper trouble than I could have anticipated.


    Most had never encountered a caster of her particular persuasion. Wizards were well known, as were the sorcerers. Warlocks were lesser known, but well feared. There were a few others as well, men who could steal spells from others, casters who obeyed obtuse laws to make elemental magic, mages specializing in war, or illusion, or half a dozen other things.


    She''d never have the raw combat ability of most of those, or many of the tricks that each one manifested with ease. No, what she would become if she got to the point of making her own walking corpses was a plague. She had the potential to become a wave of death that slaughtered the weak like grass before the scythe.


    I''d seen one while still in training, one of those dealers in death. A horde of the dead had wiped out several villages, and we''d been dispatched to take them down; we did, and then he made more. Then we did again, and he made more. The man could control an obscene number of walking corpses and sent them at us like a flood. Many were released not even controlled, just pushed in the right direction.


    He managed to sneak into cities and release his creations from the inside, graveyards, slaughterhouses, even a butcher shop once became his source of troops. Only through a lucky break finding his source of black onyx was he stopped, the bane of so many obsessed with the undead, and the reason the possession of it was so very regulated.


    My mind wandered briefly back to the day I''d told her that I had executed the heretic priestess who''d tried to break her out. I heard her screams of rage as she learned that the woman she''d trusted and who''d cared for her had been beheaded, her promises that I would reap what I had sown. All that and I''d created piles of dead prisoners, perfect materials for a necromancer to ply their trade.


    ¡°We need to burn every corpse, and I need more men,¡± I rasped out.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 7

    Thana Mourningjay


    ¡°So... what are you planning to do when you get out of here?¡± I asked.


    We all three were taking turns trying to pry the door open, with hands until we remembered that Milo''s previous sword was now pretty much useless. It didn''t serve that well as a crowbar either, but it was worth trying at least.


    ¡°Seriously?¡± He asked with a raised eyebrow.


    ¡°I have a finite number of small talk subjects here Milo,¡± I replied.


    ¡°Okay, fine, fine. Well, the first thing I''ll do is probably go home.¡±


    ¡°Gonna rub that in aren''t you?¡± I wasn''t all that sour about it, but it did twinge a bit.


    ¡°I have a finite number of answers here Thana,¡± he joked as he pushed on the piece of metal.


    ¡°Fair.¡±


    ¡°I''ll also probably look for a new job, since, well... What about you?¡±


    ¡°I''m going to find a way to eat candy until I get sick. After that... not sure, head for the border maybe.¡± He stopped pushing briefly to look at me. ¡°I haven''t had anything sweeter than the odd piece of fruit in years, don''t give me that.¡±


    ¡°At least you have achievable goals, that don''t involve hurting anyone.¡±


    ¡°Not gonna lie, I considered killing my parents for a long time, but I don''t think I will.¡± Honesty seemed a risk, but there were reasons not to lie.


    Now he did fully stop, turning towards me. He took my chin in his hand and made me look up at him. ¡°Thana, don''t even joke about that. That''s not something you''ll ever come back from.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, but it''s the truth. I really hated them for a while there, but now I just have a hard time bringing myself to care. Not sure if that''s worse or not,¡± I said.


    ¡°That''s harsh kid. I don''t know all of what went down between you, but you should try to forgive them. If for nothing else than the fact that it will lessen the burden on yourself.¡±


    ¡°Well, door first, then escape, forgiveness can come along when it does. Honestly I don''t think the skeleton is helping much,¡± I observed.


    ¡°They''re not very strong normally,¡± he replied.


    ¡°You''re strangely relaxed about all of that, Mr. Bones being here and everything, you know?¡±


    ¡°I am not at all relaxed about it, and his name was Perry Redthorn, which I know you know. We had drinks together a few times after work. He had a wife and kids, so I''d appreciate it if you didn''t disrespect his corpse. I just have bigger problems on my mind right now.¡±


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    ¡°Like the door,¡± I opined.


    ¡°Like the door, and the ooze monsters, and the actually evil spellcaster trying to murder his way to freedom. Also the guards who are almost as likely to attack us as help us, and the army nearby.¡±


    ¡°Those are fair points I guess,¡± I agreed. ¡°Door first though, I think if I try to worry about all of that at once I''ll just sit down and cry, and that won''t be helpful at all.¡±


    ¡°You''re right,¡± he said as the door finally popped itself open. ¡°Let''s go.¡±


    Milo Greyson


    We made our way carefully out into the floor proper. The door here had been sealed both magically and physically, only able to be pried away because the black goo monster had done so much damage in its passing. Following its path wasn''t that hard, and something I wanted to do. It would be better to at least know where it was rather than it finding us.


    We passed cells, some empty, some with bodies, some with the dissolved remains of whoever had been there. The trail led us down one of the side halls.


    ¡°All these people,¡± I said, shaking my head at the amount of death.


    ¡°They''re gone now, these are just... shells,¡± my companion said.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°These, these bodies, they''re shells, like you find from bugs? The person isn''t here, its gone, they''re not people anymore, just shells. Look at them, look at their eyes, they''re empty. Its sad, but they''re not suffering here.¡±


    ¡°Is that why you don''t care about Perry?¡± I asked, finally understanding her point on it a bit.


    ¡°Is Perry there? You knew him better than me, look at him. I don''t see anything that looks like a person,¡± she responded.


    So I did, I looked at the walking corpse of, well not a friend, but a coworker. There was light in the eyes, hate-filled and real, but... it wasn''t a human light, more like a fire that just wanted to consume.


    ¡°No, Perry''s not there. Are all undead like that?¡± I asked.


    ¡°No, some of them are definitely still themselves. I asked one of the priests, which made him really mad, but that''s what he said. In the ones like zombies, skeletons, and stuff they''re not the same person, even if they retain some of the same habits, the soul is gone. In some there''s there sort of weird half-state, they''re not the same person, but they remember a lot about their former existence and are you know, smart and have kind of a different soul or something. Some of the really scary ones like ghosts are still themselves though, just changed by the process. However, these aren''t even undead, they''re bodies.¡±


    ¡°That''s an interesting perspective Thana, but I thought you''d barely done any magic.¡±


    ¡°I did, but I had a cat, Scritches. It... I killed it accidentally, the first bit of magic I ever did. Hurting my brother was also an accident, but that came later. The cat got back up, and I could control it. I could feel it wasn''t the same cat though, Scritches was gone. He would come and cuddle with me, but that creature wouldn''t. I sat there and wept for a bit, and the whole time it just stood there still, becuase I hadn''t given it an order.¡± She frowned for a second. ¡°Never told anyone about that before.¡±


    ¡°What did you do with it?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Huh? Oh, I put it in an old wooden box and buried it in the woods near my house.¡±


    ¡°After you killed it again right?¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°After you killed it again, right?¡±


    ¡°Look, I was like ten...¡±


    I rubbed my head. ¡°There is a random undead cat buried out in the woods, just... just there.¡±


    ¡°What, you want to go and dig it up and do something about it?¡± She asked.


    ¡°I think we''re obligated to. You can''t just leave undead laying around. Of all people I think you would understand the consequenses of doing something like that. Do you want more kids to go through what you went through? More of them to get magic they can''t control and end up somewhere like this?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± I was glad she sounded truly apologetic about that.


    ¡°Then after we get out, we go deal with Scritches,¡± I said.


    ¡°Okay,¡± she agreed.


    ¡°Look at it this way, now you have a plan with what you want to do, you know, other than eat candy until you get sick.¡±


    We''d come down one of the side halls as we followed the trail of the ooze. Unfortunatly it ended here. There was a small hole in the wall, probably belonging to a now melted mouse or rat, and the monster was gone. There''d been multiple trails earlier, but either the multiple oozes had merged back together, or were following the same path.


    ¡°I have a feeling this whole building is going to be infested by the time this is over.¡±


    ¡°I mean, it already had rats...¡±


    ¡°Do you hear that?¡± I asked.


    She perked her ears, but remained pretty still, as did I. There was a loud noise of metal on metal and boots on stone as a troop of men came up the stairs. Had we beelined it there rather than following the ooze we''d have come face to face with them, but now there was a wall of cells between us. I could only hear them because of the wide halls and the fact that they were both loud, and nearby.


    ¡°Four more floors,¡± a voice said.


    ¡°Envy those guys who got the straight shot up,¡± replied one of the others.


    The stairwells were intentionally on opposite sides of any floor, to keep anyone from quickly going from top to bottom or vise versa unless they were in the sealed staircase. Who could say how many floors this group had been running up.


    ¡°Both of you shut up, and keep your eyes peeled,¡± a final member of their group said.


    We stood there until they''d gone up, and then kept still for awhile longer.


    ¡°What do we do?¡± Thana asked.


    ¡°Keep going down, and out of line of sight of the stairs until we get near. They know about the riot now, so we may end up coming face to face with a group of guards. Don''t attack unless I do, just keep back and act like you''re following my directions.¡±


    ¡°I am following your directions,¡± she pointed out.


    ¡°Good, then you''ve got plenty of practice.¡±

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 8

    Milo Greyson


    Our descent from the twenty-fifth to the twenty-fourth floor was a bit of an issue. While the upper level had been devoid of any living prisoners, this one was not, and that could raise some issues. Roughly half of the cells were open, clearly the executions due to Towerfall had already begun, but not completed. All the guards were similarly gone, but there were no signs of fighting.


    I could sense the fear rolling off of Thana behind me as I stalked down the hall, trying to look like I was in full control of the situation. If we appeared normal, perhaps these men wouldn''t try to sell out our presence for their lives. If they knew what was going on, they would for sure try to, doubt it would work regardless.


    ¡°Eyes forward, and keep that thing in line,¡± I said harshly. I''d had to take such a tone often with prisoners, and so I treated her like one that was being disciplined now. It would work better in the long run.


    ¡°Yes sir,¡± she squeaked, and I was unable to tell if I''d actually surprised her or not; excellent.


    I watched every crevice, regretting that I had not developed much in the way of training my senses. The people here were cowering at the back of their cells, some hiding as we passed. One looked out though, and met my eyes.


    ¡°You there, have there been any signs of monsters on this floor?¡± I asked.


    ¡°You gonna slit my throat if I tell you to fuck off?¡± He returned.


    ¡°No, but if there is you might be dissolved alive in your cell. Not the way I''d choose to go. If there is I might be inclined to do something about it.¡±


    ¡°That where all the guards went?'' He asked.


    ¡°Answer my question prisoner,¡± I said, brushing him off there.


    ¡°No, nothing I''ve seen. Wait, please, you guys gonna finish what you started?¡± I could feel the fear in the last question.


    ¡°I hope not, but it''s beyond my power to make that call. Try praying, it might just save you,¡± as I finished talking I turned and left, the girl trailing behind.


    We didn''t say another word until we''d reached the staircase, as we descended she spoke.


    ¡°Why did they seem so scared of me? Aren''t you the scary one?¡± She asked.


    ¡°... your perception of things is all wrong. What did you know about casters before you were one?¡± I asked.


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    ¡°That they were rare and could kill you and all your friends,¡± she squinted as she spoke, trying to think that far back.


    ¡°Precisely, most of these people are used to priests and the like, but someone like you out and free? Terrifying.¡± It was hard to make explanations while keeping my tone the same.


    ¡°You don''t act like that, none of the guards do,¡± she said.


    ¡°I know what you are, and as you said, I''m the scary one. Now, eyes straight, we need to know what we''re dealing with.¡±


    I slowly walked the same route on the next floor, not speaking, not answering any of the questions a few other prisoners dared to ask. All of them were scared, and rightly so, it looked like the culling had been interrupted at various points by all the guards getting called up. Ostensibly to deal with the ongoing riot and roving slimes.


    Only one other runner passed us, and he was going at speed. The fact that we took the side halls meant that he didn''t see us, and with how hard he was going, he didn''t hear us either. All in all it was going well. At least until we reached the stairwell to twenty-two.


    As we were going down, a unit of men was coming up, looked to be about ten, hard to see as they were all packed in. They hesitated as they saw us, and one stepped forward. We could try to fight them, but it wasn''t a winning move. Our best move now was to hide among the guards, if we could, and could find some manner to escape, that would be ideal. The symbol necklace, the fact that I''d taken the lead all led up to this moment.


    ¡°Explain,¡± the man simply said, I recognized him from a few of the meetings and trainings, but didn''t know his name.


    ¡°We came down from thirty, through the back stairs. Monsters got into the stairwell there and rather than try to fight them all the way down I decided it would be best to pass through the floors. There''s a riot up there, we were going through The Room of Judgment about the time it started. I managed to seal the door there and we certainly need help, but all the guards on these floors are missing.¡±


    ¡°I was talking about the abomination at your back,¡± he growled.


    ¡°I managed to take control of it from a necromancer up there,¡± Thana said quietly.


    ¡°I was not asking you, do not speak out of turn again,¡± the other guard said coldly. I saw her wince and bow her head a little, but otherwise kept quiet.


    ¡°It is as she said,¡± I confirmed after he''d had a moment.


    ¡°Hmm, I am going to cast a spell, neither of you resist,¡± he said.


    As a presumed act of good faith, Milo tossed over the anti-magic shackles, which would have served as a protection had he kept them. The paladin smiled a bit at that, happy for the move.


    He pulled out a scroll and uttered a small prayer. I felt the magic flow over me, and as instructed I let it pass. It appeared Thana did the same while clenching her fists in worry, as we weren''t attacked.


    ¡°Girl answer me, did you truly pass through The Room of Judgment?¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, it was an ordeal, but I survived,¡± she said.


    ¡°Did you create that undead?¡±


    ¡°No sir, I''m incapable of such things.¡±


    ¡°Did you participate in the riot?¡±


    ¡°No sir,¡±


    ¡°Do you bear ill will towards anyone in this building?¡±


    ¡°I don''t like many people, but I don''t want to kill anyone here if I can avoid it.¡±


    ¡°Have you ever used magic against the guard here? Or blackmailed him, or manipulated him?¡±


    ¡°I have tried to get him to be nicer to me, and once got him to close the outer door to my cell when I wanted privacy and needed to use the chamber pot. I haven''t cast any spells on him though, or anything malevolent.¡±


    ¡°What are your motivations right now?¡±


    ¡°Survival and being free,¡±


    ¡°Guardsmen,¡± he said turning to me. ¡°Do her answers comport with what you know?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡±


    ¡°What kind of monster was in the stairwell?¡±


    ¡°I''m not entirely sure, some kind of black puddle... thing.¡±


    Both of our answers had been true, but she''d managed to deceive him none the less. That seemed to calm the man significantly, and I could see his muscles, previously tensed for battle, loosen. It occurred to me that I really should be paying more attention to her so I wasn''t tricked.


    ¡°The only problem is the undead. I can''t believe you kept it,¡± he said as the magic faded, the feeling slipping away.


    ¡°I''m not thrilled with it either, but we needed more help, and it can be destroyed later,¡± I explained.


    ¡°That''s not a terrible argument, but it will lead the charge next time we meet an opponent; to make sure of it.¡± The way he said that made it clear that wasn''t an argument. ¡°As for now, I still have concerns, but those can wait until after we''ve survived this. Lead on, we need to head back to join the battle against the rioters, and whatever beasts are still wandering around.¡±


    Well, that wasn''t what I wanted, but at least we weren''t attacked as the group of soldiers followed behind, not willing to give us their backs as we headed back into the fray.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 9

    Thana Mourningjay


    I was unhappy, quite unhappy, that we were being dragged back into the battle upstairs. Nothing good was going on up there, and it wasn''t near what I really wanted right now, which was to get out of here, preferably with Milo. I didn''t have a lot of people I''d considered friends, or even that friendly, so I hoped it would work out well for us. Being in combat with those maniacs was not that.


    My displeasure was unfortunately short lived however, as we didn''t even make it back to twenty-five. As we approached the stairwell there several guards came down in a very poorly organized retreat. At first they panicked when they saw us, trying to reform before they realized who was at our back. Then they quickly made their way into the formation, slipping past we three who were leading.


    As they fell back to tend to their wounds with whatever they had, be it magic or simple bandages another pair made their way down. It did not please me that I recognized both of them.


    The brute from my floor, Crusher, was locked in combat with the head of the high security section of the prison, a formidable paladin by the name of Thorin. I could barely follow their quick blows, but it was clear they took very different approaches to fighting.


    Thorin or Sir Thorin, as he was often referred to, was an exacting fighter, ducking, weaving, thrusting quickly and precisely. It was like watching art as his silver blade wove in and out. He wore more armor then most of the other guards, as his position allowed him to, and it too was cleaned to a shine. It was clear to see from the bruises and cuts on his face however that he''d taken several attacks already.


    Crusher on the other hand seemed to be living up to his name. Each blow he struck was thunderous. They were fast, but without the flow of his opponent, more like someone trying to bash an opponent to bits. If I had to guess, he was overall the weaker fighter, and lacking armor didn''t help.


    Unfortunately for Sir Thorin, someone had cast some spells on Crusher. The paladin''s blade bounced off of a shield of force, and the brute nearly got him, a blow only being parried away by a hair''s breadth. It was clear that while the escaped prisoner had also taken wounds earlier, none he had seemed to be bleeding at the moment.


    I let my minion move forward, trying to bring it around to strike at the berserker, or at least threaten his back. I was by default near the front, having been sort of herded by the soldiers behind. That was a bit of a risk, but it kept me from the middle of their midst, and Milo at my side.


    As the fight continued the source of the buffing spells strode down the stairwell like he was on a brisk morning walk. He stood behind two of his bloated undead, with a man holding several wands to the side. Wands that probably came from either the guard rooms, or the bodies of dead guards.


    ¡°Oh Thana dear, there you are, and you kept my gift,¡± he said casually. ¡°And look at this, with guards rather than killing them, what a change for you and your little friend.¡±


    ¡°Sheep-fucking whoreson!¡± I screamed, not even bothering to look back as I moved.


    Milo was with me, not having missed what the man had done. In less than ten seconds he''d completely burned our chances at hiding among the guards before making our escape. There was a snide smile on Opcan''s face as we moved, the battle between the paladin and his lackey was between the two groups, and it was clear what he expected.


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    We didn''t have a choice, and both of us knew it. Trying to lie at this point and return would just get us interrogated under truth magic, then promptly killed. That left one route to survival. While Milo covered me, my skeleton switched targets, threatening the holy warrior instead of the brute. I began to chant and focus.


    The paladin was having none of it, and his backstroke ground the skeleton against the wall. It was still functioning, but only barely. He then went on the defensive as he was now truly surrounded.


    A ray of negative energy shot forth from my hands, striking the back of the paladin''s armor. It didn''t do any damage, and wasn''t designed to. Instead the next time he clashed with Crusher it was clear that his physical strength was lesser, the blow nearly taking the sword from his hand even through his expert parry.


    Behind I heard the fresh and injured guards begin moving.


    ¡°Oh dear, that''s far too many, and now that my cute little friend is out of the way...¡± the spellcaster snapped out a series of syllables and pointed, something resembling a yellow spark flying from his finger and down the hallway in an arc.


    I was not particularly well versed in magic, and didn''t need to be to recognize that spell when it went off. The blast of hot air and *THOOM*, followed by the brilliant red and yellow flash screamed what it was. A few of the guards screamed, either having survived the fireball, or been just outside its range as it consumed the others.


    ¡°NO!¡± the leader screamed, his head turning slightly towards his men.


    I didn''t know if it was good or bad that Thorin fell in that moment. His distraction was the only thing Crusher needed to finally land true, his looted weapon managing to sweep and split the knight''s head from his body. It tumbled through the air as his body turned, spurting blood in a fountain, that of course coated me in red.


    The hot splash of the paladin''s life-blood was another horrible layer on a day that had for a few moments looked like it might just be positive in some small way. It joined the cloying black goo, the layers of sweat, and whatever oil they used to keep the rust off of the chainmail here, which I was fairly sure was rancid.


    Upon seeing their leader fall, the last of the guards broke and ran. Without him they had nothing that could stand against the riot, not in their state. I even heard weapons strike the ground, dropped from hands in terror and haste.


    ¡°After them,¡± Opcan casually said, motioning. Several of his men surged forward in pursuit, past us and the dead, and onward after their prey.


    ¡°Now, what was that you were calling me? After I took the time to make sure you''d get out of my spell none the less?¡± The mage said as he sauntered forwards.


    I had to spit out a bit of metallic fluid before answering. ¡°Perhaps I was a bit rude. I wasn''t expecting you to destroy our current escape plan, my apologies.¡±


    ¡°Understandable, I don''t suppose you''d reconsider joining our little brigade?¡± He smiled at me again, looking like the cat who''d caught the canary.


    ¡°If I say no are you going to kill me?¡± I asked.


    ¡°You? No, of course not. Your friend...¡± He let it hang in the air, surrounded by his people as he was.


    I looked at Milo and he frowned. ¡°Work together until we get out of this mess?¡± He asked, looking for details.


    ¡°Just so, I will expect you to pull your weight of course, and follow my directions,¡± the sorcerer said.


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°We''re out of options kid,¡± I said, not liking the situation, but I didn''t want to die, and I certainly couldn''t fight everyone here. One way or another we were going to have to deal with the fact that the other staff now knew we were in no way on their side.


    ¡°Fine,¡± she said. ¡°Sounds like we''re in.¡± She sounded furious as she turned, moving over to the skeleton and reaching out to touch it.


    The undead there was falling to bits, so many of its bones shattered and splintered that it was a wonder it could even move. As her hand sat upon it though bits and pieces moved back into place, others reformed. It wasn''t immediate, but it was working.


    ¡°I''ve been having to hold some of my minions in reserve due to damage; are you able to repair them too?¡± Opcan asked her, eyes hungry as he watched what she was doing.


    Either she didn''t know or didn''t care that she was showing him she was even more valuable than he''d known. There was also the possibility that she did know, and was showing him for just that reason. The man was clearly the leader of this bunch, and having his favor would go a long way to getting us out. His undead would also be good soldiers the next time we clashed with the guards, because we were going to be doing that.


    I sadly was put to work letting loose those on this floor who''d survived, including the man who I''d questioned less than an hour ago. He chuckled the whole time I was unlocking his cell. I wasn''t the only one as many sets of keys had been gathered by the riot, we all knew we needed to move fast, and to move with as many people as we could get.


    ¡°Looks like my prayers were answered,¡± the man said as I opened the door.


    ¡°Lot of that going around today. See if you can find a weapon; I doubt we''ll be here much longer.¡±

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 10

    Milo Greyson


    This band of merry criminals was moving fast, and that was part of the success. It looked like Opcan, while not a military man, was no fool. Generally speaking there seemed to be a handful of roles here. Every new joiner was given one, and sent to his respective area.


    The first were the outriders, the fastest and most aggressive men were put near the front and were running down, killing every guard, paladin, and friend to the defenders they could as fast as they could. We all knew that there was no time to spare, and letting our enemies form up against us would be a mistake we might not survive. Instead we''d surprise them by getting through the cells faster than they realized, outpacing the runners and estimates as much as we could.


    Behind them were the heavy hitters, followed closely by the support. If the men blitzing down the halls couldn''t take a choke-point they fell back, letting them deal with it. It was primarily Opcan and Bruiser doing the big damage, with a few other big brutish types and some skeletons backing up the former. Thana was placed here, beside a man who was being delivered all of the wands and scrolls as we moved, along with most of the spellcasting components. He was sifting through them, using the items to heal up the big guys.


    The bulk of our group was releasing everyone we could, growing the problem as big as possible. A couple of bigger guys here were sorting the new recruits into the sections, pointing them to where they would go if they wanted to live. There were also quick-fingered men braking into all of the guard rooms to gather equipment, anything that looked useful really.


    Then came those deemed mostly useless, they were carrying the stuff. Anything that could maybe be used, including all the bodies that could be managed, was here. If someone didn''t quickly take it, this was where it ended up. It looked like Opcan thought he might need lots of it before the final push, so it was being brought along.


    Finally came the rear guard. Someone knew their stuff, because a number of well-built men, often a bit older though, were here. They were making sure everyone kept moving, and that nobody could ambush us and slaughter the bulk of the group before we could respond. There were even a few scouts among the rear, running back upwards periodically in groups to check of anything out of place.


    I''d been releasing people fast as I could for the last couple of floors, till one of the leaders of my section came by, jerking his head towards the front.


    ¡°Boss wants you over there with him,¡± the half-orc said gruffly.


    ¡°On it,¡± I replied, the general mood was that while most everyone was a right bastard, they all thought following the man who could throw fireballs would work out best. In all honesty it was a pretty good assessment, so long as the magus didn''t sacrifice them, which I expected he would.


    ¡°The young lady simply insists that you serve as her guard, regardless of how much I tell her it''s unnecessary,¡± he said flatly as I approached.


    ¡°I trust him,¡± she said, and I resisted the urge to smile a bit.


    ¡°I''ve told you I''m far stronger than he is,¡± Opcan said.


    ¡°Well aware of that, but I don''t particularly trust you.¡± She was busy repairing the stomach of one of his undead, it must have been struck at some point.


    ¡°I''ll have to work on that then. Until then I suppose, you''ll serve as her bodyguard. I''ll be quite put out if she comes to harm, keep that in mind.¡± His tone to her was kindly, almost gentle, if a bit creepy, but to me he was cold, that was quite understandable.


    I fell in beside her, keeping an eye out for threats. She still was the girl I''d saved, and I couldn''t say I''d have done much different in her position from what she had. Hopefully we could make it through this. The only thing that really bothered me was that the necklace I''d put on her not so long ago was gone. She no longer felt the need or desire to wear the holy symbol of Vitala.


    Thana Mourningjay


    Milo and I had made good progress on our own, faster then this group was, but I had to admit, these guys were going quick. Before I knew it we were at the twenty-first floor. It hadn''t even been an hour since I joined them, the guards simply couldn''t respond to all of their problems right now.


    One of the forward runners came back, he''d taken a stab wound to the gut and looked horrid. The man with the wands went to patch him up while he gave his report to Opcan.


    ¡°Mrgh... they''ve barricaded the stairwell down to twenty, spears between interlocking shields or some kind of wood barrier. No was through I could see.¡± He was sweating as the wand man poked the stick at him, a faint glow coming from the tip.


    ¡°How''d they know?¡± The spellcaster asked him, looking down.


    ¡°One of their runners got away from us, quick bastard. Suspect they were sending a bigger team after their others didn''t report back though. Looked like their little barrier was still being built when I got there.¡± His breathing was settling as the healing took hold. After that he gave a few of the technicals on the construction, nothing that I really followed well.


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    ¡°Good job reporting back.¡± Opcan turned to a runner. ¡°Bring me whoever looks important, we need to talk.¡±


    ¡°Problem boss?¡± Crusher asked, looking over to him.


    ¡°A few, but nothing we can''t deal with. Thana, don''t suppose you have something that could deal with their barrier?¡± He didn''t look that hopeful, but asked regardless.


    ¡°Not even close,¡± I responded.


    At his look to the healer the man scoffed. ¡°I''m practically useless without a spellbook. At least I can use these trinkets, but even those are less than one of their casters could do.¡±


    ¡°If we find one it''s yours, but I doubt we will my friend. Know at least that you''re a vital part of this operation. Without you all this would be so very much harder.¡± Opcan complimented easily I realized, he wasn''t wrong, but he heaped praise on those who he thought were useful to him, more if they were doing what he wanted.


    People started to arrive in a few small groups. They all looked around at us.


    ¡°We''ve stopped, so I assume there''s something we need to talk about?¡± One of the men said, respectful, if only barely.


    ¡°There is, the guards have set up a barricade, and from what I''ve heard a strong one at that. I could use magic to break their ranks, but doing so would leave me without enough spells to respond should we suffer a counter attack. I think we soon will, based on the fact that the sun is on its way down. They''ll come in the night, using the darkness to hide until they''re near, then strike.¡±


    ¡°So, what do we do?¡± One of the others asked.


    ¡°My suggestion is that we rest and replenish ourselves. Come morning we''ll have fresh spells to throw against them, and I have a one or two that could bolster our men with little effort tonight.¡± Opcan stroked his stubble as he went over the options. ¡°We can barricade up both sides of this floor after moving all of our men and supplies here, rest, and then attack when we''re ready. Fighting through the night was never an option anyway.¡±


    ¡°They''ll get to rest too, and they''ve more men than we do,¡± another pointed out.


    ¡°Men the warden can''t bring to bear,¡± Milo said, leaning against a wall. ¡°Lightstone is between a rock and a hard place right now. Most of his best men were killed or sent off to defend the city, which failed. As for using prisoners against us, he won''t, we''d give a better deal to them then he is. He''s also got to keep a lot of his in reserve just to look after the prisoners he''s definitely using against the Corians.¡±


    ¡°How many could he use?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Right now? I''d say he couldn''t bring more than two-hundred against us at once, if he were willing to risk everything. Bigger issue for us would be him sending a force to attack from above. The back stairs have an opening on twenty-five he might be able to get through, and it wouldn''t surprise me if he can unseal all of the old doors if he wanted. Might also place spies in cells on some of the lower levels to get close to our leaders.¡±


    ¡°I don''t deny that it is a risk. Our enemy will have time to rest too, and perhaps someone will send him reinforcements, I cannot say. What I can say is that if we continue we''ll all be fighting at half strength, as we''ll start losing men much faster. We''ve already proven ourselves their superiors, if we come back stronger tomorrow I think we''re in a much better position. Unless someone has some other idea they could put forward?¡± The sorcerer asked the crowd. There were sounds of worry, but nobody had anything better.


    ¡°Good, sleep sounds nice,¡± Crusher nodded with a slight smile.


    ¡°Since I''m going to rest I think I might provide us all with something to help us. If we escape we''ll all be noticed almost instantly, the prison clothes, the prison look, the shoes.¡± I looked down at my own shoes, thin slippers that basically only served to keep me from slipping or getting my feet too cold. ¡°To solve that, and provide everyone with something I think will make us all fell a bit more ourselves...¡±


    The caster plucked out a gem from his pocket, neither too big nor small and found a spot between some walls. Uttering words as he reached up a beam of light stretched between the stones, solidifying into a solid post. From it more of the magic dripped down like a river, leaving behind a glow in the air. As the light faded, stacks upon stacks of clothing were revealed, hanging there waiting. After pulling several off he moved away, letting everyone else take their picks.


    ¡°You can make clothes?¡± I asked in near disbelief.


    ¡°Odd spell isn''t it? In my younger days I often found myself in need of such things. Not a powerful spell, and requiring such an expensive gem to use it means you can''t really make any money from it, but I''m still fond, reminds me of my youth, and a good reward for everyone right now.¡± He spoke as he handed out clothing to myself, Crusher, and the medic.


    ¡°I have no clue how to put these on...¡± I whispered, looking at the multi-layer outfit I''d been handed. It seemed to include a full set of undergarments, and high boots, all of good make.


    ¡°The inner layers should be below the outer ones. I''m sure a clever girl like you can manage. Ah, and to quote an old friend who was, like you, of the feminine persuasion, ''When other options for protection are unavailable, chainmail makes an excellent foundation garment.'' since it doesn''t seem to impede your casting in the least.¡±


    Opcan kept casting as he led us over to the guard''s storage room. As I watched a fog began to drift down one arm, circling around as it roved over his form, leaving him looking freshly washed.


    ¡°I remember that one, one of the first things you learn. Heh, all the girls in town loved it, always clean and smellin'' nice,¡± our medic said.


    ¡°Oh where are my manners, Harkan, would you like?¡± He said offering his hand out.


    ¡°Much appreciated,¡± the man accepted, and I watched the same fog cover him, with the same results.


    ¡°Thana? If you don''t mind me saying, you could use it.¡± I only waffled for a second before nodding.


    The sensation was odd, a sort of, buzzing, mixed with the feeling of rain on the skin. Feeling it move across me was just weird, but the results... I had to try not to sigh in pleasure as the funk of the day just fell away, cleaner than I''d been in I didn''t even know how long. Even my teeth felt amazingly clean. Only one thing bothered me about it.


    ¡°Strawberries?¡± I said, sniffing a lock of hair.


    ¡°The spell can sometimes leave a scent behind, it should fade with time,¡± he lied, clearly understanding that he''d overstepped. Even when he was trying to be nice, he too often came off just slightly... wrong. ¡°Crusher?¡±


    ¡°Nah, like the smell of blood and sweat,¡± the brute said.


    Milo wasn''t even considered, not surprising.


    After we all changed, luckily separately, I noticed the clothes. Opcan and I both had much nicer clothes than anyone else, far, far nicer, and we matched. If you''d gone to a seamstress and asked her to make us matching outfits, these might well have been the results. Both were a mixture of dark grays, blues, and black, mine with a calf-length skirt, as opposed to his trousers, and both sporting subtle embroidery. It even came with a sort of cloak, which looked great but wasn''t really what we needed in this situation. The high boots were perfect though, comfy and very stable.


    Harkan our healer had an outfit of similar cut, but of a reddish color which fit well with his complexion. His however were lacking a lot of the details, those instead replaced by a multitude of pockets. It advertised that while he was a caster and worthy of respect, he also was of lower status, and was sub-par to us. Either the man missed the dig at himself or didn''t care, because Harkan seemed thrilled.


    Everyone else ended up with comfortable-looking well-made traveling clothes. There were a few of the common colors, with variants on thick-soled boots. They too seemed happy, some undressing and redressing right in the hall, a few though looked towards me with envy or other dark emotions. Milo on the other hand kept on what he had on, seeming satisfied with it.


    As we ate in the falling darkness I turned towards Milo, smiled, and said. ¡°Oi, look who got dinner.¡± Before shoving a bit more of the dried berry bar into my face.


    It took him a moment to register what I''d said, then another to cross reference it with his earlier declaration of punishment, then the chuckling began. Nobody else got it, but that was fine, because I found it hilarious.


    After that I mentally ordered Mr. Bones, because Perry was dead, to defend me, then crawled into some freshly magically cleaned bedding in the storeroom and passed out. I was on third watch and wanted all the sleep I could get.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 11

    Thana Mourningjay


    I was awoken by a commotion, a series of loud booming noises, followed by a wave of paniced yells. It took me seconds to process the first as I jumped from bed, looking for threats. The threat wasn''t hard to find.


    One of the cells had been breached, a globe, broken down the middle sat there, sides ajar but connected by the thinnest central holder, rope or leather, something else perhaps, its gooey occupant now spilling out of the shell and into the hall around. A man had been sleeping in that cell, and was currently screaming as the creature pulled him in, black slime grabbing and pulling him into itself. Sevveral men were drawing weapons.


    ¡°Don''t attack it, it will destroy your swords!¡± I yelled.


    The item user Harkan appeared to my side, similarly stirred as I was. ¡°If we can get it back in I may have something. Your skeleton maybe?¡± I caught his suggestion and only partially accepted it, sacrificing a long term minion might have to happen, but I''d rather not if I had other options.


    I felt the magic begin to move through me as my hand pulled up into place, fingers moving, dancing along the lines of it as it spewed out of them, forming a perfect weave of power in the air. I loved casting, it was like touching reality, like a drug that wasn''t from outside, but in. I knew the words, they came in dreams, or by nature, forming because that was just how the magic moved, like whistling a tune but with speech.


    As I watched the spell went off, and black mist began to coalesce within the broken halves of the delivery shell. Within a few seconds a new skeleton stood there, huddling inside as its bones creaked.


    The ooze wasn''t smart, and it was pretty well done with its meal. It didn''t have the brains to know that the skeleton wasn''t a real creature, but one made of magic, and it didn''t have the brains to see the trap. As soon as the screaming stopped and the last of the poor man it had consumed was pulled in it turned back to its prison.


    ¡°You two,¡± I said, pointing at two of the men nearby. ¡°When it goes in, shut the shell if you value your lives, you''ll only get one chance to do it right.¡± I turned to several others who had picked up what looked like hunks of chain or wood to use to fight. ¡°You lot, back them up.¡±


    The monster flowed after the fresh meal so close, and one that wasn''t even running. It slinked back into the shell and at my nod the men I''d designated bolted forwards, slamming on either side of the shell.


    Harkan already had a scroll out as they moved, and read it out in clipped tones, the paper lighting up with brilliant blue light. The symbols on the vellum sheet detatched themselves, and flew towards the sphere, where little bits of the ooze still sat outside. The magic started at the bottom, near instantly flowing, making the broken stone whole once again. As it moved, the tendrils got pushed along, finally meeting at the top where they were sucked inside with a squelching noise.


    The men holding it fell back laughing from the nerves and punching one another on the shoulder.


    ¡°I can''t believe that worked,¡± one commented.


    ¡°Or that we''re alive,¡± the other chuckled.


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    ¡°Not him though,¡± the first responded, motioning to the trail of gunk that was the man who''d been too close.


    ¡°Sucks for him,¡±


    ¡°What''s going on here,¡± An agitated Opcan said as he approached. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°They sent an ooze bomb, we put it back in the box,¡± I informed him. ¡°Where were you?¡± I could see Milo approaching from behind as well, looking relieved.


    ¡°Scouts reported a force trying to pincer us, between my spells and another of these.¡± He motioned at the sphere. ¡°They''re no longer an issue. Good work everyone. Now to dispose of this thing.¡±


    ¡°I''ve got an idea on that,¡± I said smiling.


    Milo Greyson


    ''The bastard had definitely been planning to kill me.'' I thought for the hundreth time.


    He''d ordered me to the back barrier, while he was going up. I didn''t know how he was going to do it, and was still trying to figure out my escape route when the Corians attacked. They didn''t know it, but I owed them one for that. Their move had thrown off his plan so bad he''d abandoned it for the time being. That was only temporary though, he was sure to try again.


    I could have told him no, but he''d have just killed me for disobeying him. I could have run when he turned, but I suspected his men at that barricade were also ordered to kill me if I ran. It was a bad place, and I was still surrounded by enemies.


    All for the girl, that''s what the greedy sorcerer wanted. He wanted her to join him, to work for him, to give him the power she might one day have. I was the fly in the salve though, since I wanted her to be free, happy, and not slaughtering innocents. She of course knew that about both of us, and why she trusted one, and rebuffed the other.


    ¡°Hey guys!¡± the subject of my thoughts yelled down the staircase as the sun struggled to push the the first of its light into the sky. ¡°I um... I found some contraband!¡±


    ¡°Oh is that so?¡± Returned a gruff voice. ¡°Well why don''t you come down here and give it to us?¡± He was loud too, louder enough that even well down the hallway I could hear him.


    ¡°Ooookkkkkaaaayyy!¡± she called in a sing-song voice.


    I heard Opcan casting, but I had my own job to do. I began to push, hard as I could, and I wasn''t alone. There was a team of us, in unison throwing our all into rolling the granite ball as fast as we could. It took a few seconds to get it going, but get going it did. As we moved I saw our barricade being pulled away and to the sides with haste, the pre-work to make it easy to move already done.


    The magus loosed his spell as soon as he had sight, sending it behind the spear-wall of the guardsmen. They barely had time to register it coming before the orb launched over the top of the staircase, gaining feet of air and hurtling like a meteor into the barridade of the defenders.


    Sounds drifted up, screams of surprise and pain, calls for help, and a lot of vomiting. The only noise to join them was the sorcerer, who was giggling like a little girl.


    ¡°That was the most beautiful thing I think I''ve ever seen,¡± he said. ¡°It''ll need a moment or two to cook before we go in.¡±


    I fell in in front of Thana, who''d somehow gained two more of the weak undead warriors as the assualt began. The first wave was undead, since nobody really cared about them. The lines of skeletons were sent just as soon as it sounded like the screaming was fading. There weren''t many, but they were backed up by angry prisoners who hated their keepers on a good day, and after being sentenced to die were now out to return the decision back upon the deciders.


    It was a slog, battles were always a slog. We charged, pulsing forward to shatter their resolve, taking what we could while preserving our own. The men they were sending against this rebellion now were lesser guards. They were like me, old military men, or those who''d taken this job instead of service there, not priests, not casters, not paladins, or clerics, just common men with weapons. These men were what was left after so many of the strongest had been felled, and they now fell too.


    The undead were basically doing a circle, go forward to do damage, return to Thana to be healed, go back forward. It kept the limited number we had from faltering, and with the fact that they felt no fear, and were hard to damage it was a good tactic. They broke lines even if they took blows that would gut a human, letting our men in to finish the job while they were rejuvenated.


    An hour or two in, someone got smart, and brought forward some crossbows. That was why I was here. I''d cobbled together a monstrosity of a tower shield, ugly, but huge, and used it to catch the bolts going for the squishy girl behind me. She yelped as the first few landed, unused to taking fire like that, but it was of no worry, with all her defenders only skilled marksmen stood a chance at a clear shot.


    ¡°They''re here! There here! Two bigguns!¡± Shouted someone from up front.


    It was a signal, a signal I''d been left out on, behind me came the voice of our child necromancer, filled with power and resonating. ¡°YOU WILL STAND FIRM!¡± She declared, and a wave of dark power burst forward.


    A heartbeat later came a pair of potent male voices, also resonant. ¡°ABOMINATIONS IN THE SIGHT OF VITALA, BEGONE!¡± they answered in unison, a torrent of holy energy surging to meet it.


    My hair stood on end as the forces battled. Thana was weaker, that was clear, but her empowering had done at least part of its job. As her magic was pushed back most, but not all, of our frontline fled through the rest of the soldiers, running away, but not destroyed.


    The gap revealed two men standing tall in shining full plate. It appeared the heads of the medium and minimum security sections had finally decided to join the fray.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 12

    Thana Mourningjay


    I worked my hands into sigils, fingers splaying and turning as if on their own, building the power that would come soon to fruition. While Milo had been busy dealing with other parts of the group this morning Opcan had passed over some more skeletons and explained some of the spells we were likely to see should any of the major players show up to fight.


    One of these was luckily easily enough destroyed by one of my own spells, luckily because it was a large area buff and getting rid of it would really help us overall. I was working on that right now, though I knew it would be an uphill battle to push away their magic.


    As I cast the paladins closed in on us, cutting through everyone in their way as their crossbowmen took aim and fired. Bolts whizzed past me, trying to pull my attention away from my magic, one wooshing through my hair and nearly giving me a free ear piercing, but I persisted.


    My effort paid off, and like a bubble their protective spell popped, drifting away into nothingness.


    ¡°Drop her!¡± The paladin advancing on our group shouted, pointing. His partner had gone to deal with Opcan and that circle of enemies. All around them lesser fighters on both sides were involved in the melee, though doing little.


    Behind I heard Harkan reading some scroll, and flubbing it, cursing as the magic refused to bend to his will. Ahead I saw Milo ready himself to be my shield, setting his barrier in place and holding it firm.


    I rushed out a second casting of my spell and it was lucky I did, as a hail of bolts shifted onto my location. I thought one coming near on the first volley had been bad, but on this one I felt the fletchings of two literally brush me and cause my skin to sting in their passing. Three more went wide, striking the floor or other combatants. One final one hit true though, like a streak of lightning it flew, ripping through my new clothes, my armor, and my very tough flesh like paper in, and back out the far side, where it stuck, sending a wave of agony through me.


    ¡°Someone kill those assholes!¡± I screamed as my knees buckled, sending me grasping onto Milo''s back, I held there like a child as I willed the skeleton behind me to rip out the offending projectile.


    ¡°You alright!?¡± The guardian asked me, clearly alarmed at my scream.


    ¡°Gruugh!¡± I moaned, gritting my teeth as the undead ripped out the bolt from my insides, the pain a wave.


    Someone on our side managed to get off magic, because I felt it roll over us, strengthening, empowering those around me not a moment later.


    ¡°Hold on kid,¡± he replied, apparently knowing understanding that I was conscious.


    The paladin must have hit us at that point, because I heard the blows striking against Milo''s shield, powerful strikes that only his formidable defenses managed to rebuff. We were struggling, these two leaders were a harder punch than out little mob had fought so far, and not falling easily.


    I pushed my hand against my open gut wound and pushed, with a wave a pleasure the pain faded, and I nearly sighed in relief. It was at roughly at that point that another crossbow bolt lanced through my calf.


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    ¡°I wanna go home,¡± I whimpered, realizing that I didn''t even have one as the words left my throat.


    It must have been louder than I thought, because the voice of our enemy snarled. ¡°Pfft, not so fun killing now is it?¡±


    Milo Greyson


    I nearly saw red as the paladin snarled. The girl was still young, so young, sometimes cruel? Yes, sometimes she was. Sometimes led down the wrong path? That too was normal for the young, but she hadn''t wanted this, hadn''t desired to hurt these people. She just wanted to live, as all people did.


    I knew this man, Kilig, the head of the low security section of the prison, and I''d not really liked him. He seemed too far up in his own arse for me, but at least until this point he''d also tried to keep order in his area. If he was going to be like that then, well, fuck him.


    The skeletons and I all let loose on the bastard as he taunted her, and for a miracle one of them managed to strike him. His return blow crossed my face, leaving a trail there, but I''d survived worse. At least the ranged attacks were slowing, though I had to flick up my eyes to reveal why.


    Thana wasn''t the only one tired of those guys peppering her, and it seemed that a few of our heavy hitters had decided to do something about it. They were currently wrecking havock on the other troops while our groups dealt with the strongest of the paladins. All of their ranged fighters now had much more immediate problems to focus on.


    Another pass while our caster continued to fix herself up and it looked like everyone had severely underestimated the undead. While his focus had been on me, who he viewed as a much bigger threat, they scored even more hits against him, armor or not.


    ¡°Enough of this!¡± He roared, blood covering his shining armor.


    For a moment the man''s blade shone brilliant white and he struck at the two undead. Somehow missing the first before obliterating the other in a wave of holy energy and pure muscular effort.


    There was a snapped series of syllables behind me and for a second I thought I saw fear in the Kilig''s eyes, then he shook minutely and it was gone.


    ¡°Try harder witch,¡± he growled.


    ¡°Okay,¡± she responded with heavy breaths, her final undead moving to fill the hole he''d left.


    We fought another pass, him trying to kill the undead he now came to realize were a threat. He was stronger by far, but quantity had a quality all of its own. Failing to destroy either this time, he tried to step back.


    I then saw something that surpised me. As her skeletons moved forward to keep the press little Thana danced forward, coming near to the warrior.


    ¡°You''re not going anywhere,¡± she declared, and there was a little *Pft* sound as a visible wave of energy blased off of her.


    Kilig''s eyes went wild with pain and he tried to strike her down one last time before we all fell upon him. It was for naught though, she stood through his blows, clearly injured, but still awake enough to watch as her minions tore the man limb from limb.


    As that was going on I grabbed her and physically hauled her back away from the fighting. I was supposed to be her bodyguard and she wasn''t making it any easier getting up close to a potent paladin, so I solved it for us both. I did notice that as soon as they''d made Killig slightly shorter her undead followed, carrying the grisly trophy.


    She was back to her normal self as we made our way to the point where Harkan was tending the wounded. He had a gaggle of people and wands, and was doing all he could for them as fast as he could. We''d only been there for a few moments when the skeletons who''d fled the first wave from the sight of the holy men came back at a run, right back to where they were supposed to be.


    ¡°Heal Milo,¡± Thana said to the man after we''d been waiting for a couple of minutes. She and her minions were now back in fighting shape.


    ¡°There are others...¡± be began, but seemed to notice the two skeletal heads snapping in his direction and the still dripping, decapitated head of Kilig making a wet *Plop* as it was dropped into a pool of its own fluids. ¡°but some surely take precedence over others.¡±


    Nobody said a word as he began to tend to me, because nobody wanted to piss off the small, angry necromancer whose wounds seemed to just knit themselves back together. A few people waiting in line stared though, and some of them very nervously.


    I suspected that Harkan here had been ordered not to heal me, but I said nothing as he mended my wounds with one of the magic items. Opcan still wanted me dead, and bringing attention to that fact before I could solve it would only cause issues.


    ¡°Harkan, quickly,¡± the man seemed to know when he was being thought about, and appeared, carried in the arms of one of his creatures. ¡°Ah, Thana my sweet, there you are. Would you mind?¡± He pointed at the monster carrying him lightly and she began her grim work of putting it back together.


    ¡°How are things up there?¡± I asked, motioning forward.


    ¡°Oh, could be better, could be worse. I wasn''t expecting the warden to send both of them at us at once. If he''d come too we''d have been sunk, but this... might just be a winning move for us,¡± the sorcerer opined.


    ¡°Your right, there''s little left that could stop this mob, at least on his side. What about the Corians?¡± I didn''t even acknowledge his attempts at my life, it would only give them power.


    ¡°We''ll need to make contact with them when we get low enough, but of course they''ll want us out, and I don''t believe any of us want anything else, do you?¡±


    ¡°Well then, soon as you''re ready I suppose we go back in, eh?¡± I smiled, meeting the warden might be just the thing to both distract everyone, and deal with this asshole once and for all.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 13

    It was often said that one should take care, because he who ruled death had a sense of humor. As the adept crawled from the pile of corpses he mused upon that. His vision was blurred and shaking, his legs refused to function. The few spells he''d had left he''d already cast upon himself to stymie the bleeding gut wound, enough to keep him alive, but only just.


    The rioters had been inept at checking the bodies for signs of death, or they simply didn''t care, and this man had somehow slipped between the cracks. He prayed, begging the goddess of life for aid, for some help, but he sensed none. No he sensed something else entirely.


    Upon the upper floors there was a palpable tang in the air of blood and death, and to those who listened, the faint sound of a young man laughing. This bode poorly, poorly for the adept, poorly for The Tower, poorly for everyone. Legends spoke of the laughter, the Laughter of Veteo, the younger twin of Vitala and God of Death.


    He wasn''t evil, not like the dark gods, but that didn''t mean that his jokes were kind, particularly to those who served his sister. Veteo cared not if you were good, or evil, or strong, or weak, death came for all. The kindly and gentle often found that his servants, or in some cases the deity himself would laugh and joke with them about the fun parts of their lives as he led them to their destination. The evil were laughed at, being told how exactly they''d erred, and lambasted for it.


    There was movement at the edges of the adepts blurred sight and he turned to see a small slime, one of many, slip out of a crack and fall upon the pile of corpses. As he drug his broken body away, the creature feasted on the carrion, and it began to change. It grew, and split, and the color went from pure black to mottled with green, with bits and pieces of the many bodies poking out here and there.


    In a panic the man crawled, trying to escape, trying to get away from whatever that thing was becoming, but it was all for naught. He was still far from the stairs when the creatures, now many more than the first, finished their meal and mutation and began pursuit of the nearest living thing.


    As the wave of slime rolled over him, crushing, breaking, burning, it barely paused. The adept''s body was spat back out as the oozes prowled forward. Then it stood up, flesh dripping from bones and walked after them, the footprints in its wake bubbling ever so slightly on the cold flagstones.


    Thana Mourningjay


    We were blazing though the floors, only barely stopping to open up the cells as we went and release more of the prisoners. That was important, because we still wanted the numbers, but it was slowing us down.


    ¡°Fuck it,¡± Opcan eventually said. ¡°Give the keys to the back-line and have them crack the cages, we can''t waste more time on this.¡±


    ¡°May have needed the rest, but the bastards screwed us bad,¡± Harkan observed, looking into the nearby empty storeroom.


    Over the course of the night it looked like every single storeroom had been stripped. It was a smart move in case we managed to break their line, but one that wasn''t good for us. It meant that there were no more weapons up for grabs, no more easy to get armor, and no extra magical items for us to steal. The goodies we had were all the goodies we were going to get. Add to that the fact that their last stand this morning had taken so much out of us and we were struggling. Heck, some of the first floors we''d taken after that battle hadn''t even had any prisoners on them, the whole lot having been evacuated in the darkness.


    The only thing I''d gotten in the last little bit was a small bag of gold and gems, another of Opcan''s ''gifts'' so that I had money when we left. It wasn''t worth jack until then, but I did intend to buy an obscene amount of sweets, so it would eventually serve a purpose.


    Milo looked at me. ¡°Ideas on materials?'' he asked.


    ¡°Frankly no,¡± I responded. ¡°It''s weird though isn''t it? There''s nobody here, other than a few more barricades with bowmen that ran after the first volley there''s just nothing. It''s like they''re handing over The Tower.¡±


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°They aren''t, no way they''re just rolling over,¡± I responded. I''d only met the warden a few times, but he''d made an impression, and from that I knew he''d do what he could to stop us.


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    There was also the fighting outside. From the windows we could see that there were still men on the courtyard walls, and the fighting was fierce. The cagey old man was up to something, we just didn''t know what yet.


    ¡°Let''s keep going,¡± I leaned and whispered. ¡°And be ready to try and escape, something''s up. Keep a spell or two in reserve if you can.¡± She nodded and we continued with the descent.


    Their plan got even more confusing as we broke down below the tenth floor. All of the minimum security prisoners were gone, every one. I wasn''t even sure where they were moving them all. It seemed insane that so many could just disappear. Were they putting them in the lowest floors? There was no way even the guards could arm that many people.


    It wasn''t until we got to the fifth that we found our first sign of people. There was a stout looking blockage before the hospital wing, the best built I''d seen and the most armed. It wasn''t even in the way of us, but we stopped regardless.


    ¡°Don''t attack!¡± A voice, feminine yelled from behind the makeshift wall. ¡°We''re no threat, just leave us be.¡±


    ¡°That''s a lot of weapons for not being a threat,¡± one of ours yelled. The sorcerer wasn''t giving them his direct location, seemed a good way to get a belly full of bolts.


    ¡°We''re protecting those too injured to move, please, just leave us. If you pass by peacefully we won''t be any threat to you, on Vitala''s name!¡± I couldn''t see the woman, but for almost everyone who worked here that was a pretty strong oath.


    ¡°We will send a representative!¡± Opcan had one of his proxies yell. ¡°If you''re only the injured and their guard we''ll pass. If you lie you''ll all be tortured to death.¡± Afterwards he gave me a sinister smile, to which I only nodded. I was clearly the disposable canary in the coal mine.


    I began to step forward, only to be joined by my ward. She didn''t ask, didn''t say anything, just moved up beside me. I could see the mage grimacing behind us as her undead stood nearby, waiting for their mistress to return.


    Past the ranks of spear-men who stared at us like we were a mix of the worst trash and death incarnate we found the door to the infirmary. It was clear instantly that they''d planned a tiered defense of that door, and also that they''d spoken the truth. The guards here were younger and looked terrified, most were also sporting wounds all along their bodies. All the beds were taken, some wounds we''d probably inflicted, some looked like they were from the Corians or their monsters.


    ¡°Milo? Milo Greyson?¡± The head of the infirmary said as we entered. ¡°What, what in the world are you doing with those barbarians?¡± She took a few seconds to look me over before her eyes fell on the one beside me. ¡°And you...¡± she looked conflicted. ¡°I suppose all the undead are your doing?¡±


    ¡°Nope, can''t cast that spell. All of that mess is Opcan.¡± The healer''s lips pulled back a bit in disgust at that name. ¡°Yeah, I feel the same way, but being that he seems the only direction out of here that doesn''t involve me being killed I''m dealing with it.¡±


    ¡°If you tell him we''re no threat I might be able to speak to the warden, perhaps there could be some mercy,¡± she tried to bargain, not that she was a threat.


    ¡°The warden can put on all his heaviest armor and jump headfirst into the nearest cesspit for all I care. That said,¡± she went and poked a few of the people, seeming to look for illusions. ¡°While the majority of the staff of this place make me want to puke, killing you lot seems like a waste of time.¡±


    ¡°Not all of those here are bad,¡± I pointed out to the girl. ¡°But I do agree that the paladins have lost their way. What I''ve seen in the last two days has been cruelty from them that I''d never have expected, and coldness which should never have been. If it hadn''t been so, perhaps all of this would never have happened.¡± I left it at that, not truly willing to tell this woman that I was responsible for the whole mess.


    I did feel that guilt though. It was my stopping the execution of Thana that had released the first ripple that had become the wave of death that it now was. How many had died because of that choice? Far too many for me to guess, and more would yet in all likelihood. Would I change it though, knowing what I know now? I was unsure, because I still believed the girl didn''t deserve to die. How to reconcile that with how many other undeserving had died was the issue. Perhaps I could have found another way.


    ¡°I-I''m sorry you feel that way Milo. Will you ask them to pass by though? We can''t fight that many and these men are helpless.¡±


    ¡°Why not heal them?¡± I asked, a bit confused on that point.


    ¡°Because I''m out, there''s nothing left! Every healing scroll and wand on every floor has been used already and all of our casters are empty or damn near it! Do you know how many died fighting the Corians yesterday? Or your riot for that matter? There''s nothing left, nothing at all!¡±


    ¡°I''m sorry,¡± I said, eyes lowered. ¡°We''ll tell them you can stay.¡± I shot a glance at Thana.


    ¡°I already said I was fine with leaving them,¡± she said, shrugging.


    As we turned from the relieved cleric to the door the sound of yelling rang out from the hall, followed by the sounds of battle. I was the first to turn back around, back upon the woman in charge.


    ¡°A trap?¡± I asked with a growl.


    ¡°After all that, after we were willing to just go on by and leave you, you pull this shit!?¡± Thana hissed.


    ¡°It wasn''t!¡± She said, raising her hands. ¡°I swear it, it wasn''t!¡±


    Warden Lightstone


    I led my men in prayer, our heads bowed and each voice repeating calmly. All here were volunteers, each man had offered to stay, to give his life in this place. Around us the atrium echoed. It had been hardly an hour before that the last of those I could evacuate to the upper floors had taken the sealed staircase, and I now prayed for them.


    We were all going to die, all of us who''d stayed behind accepted this fact. Either the prisoners loosed would take us, or the Corians, when they finally got tired of playing around and broke in. They hadn''t yet, even though I''d been pulling men back; my guess is they were prepping to deal with our final stand.


    What few prisoners had been on the lower floors were to be taken up to their Judgment, and that would be that. Most would survive if I had to guess, and they, along with those freed earlier in the battle and what guards had escorted them had but one final order from me.


    Surrender. When the Corians came as they must, all of those above would surrender, lay down their arms, and live. The prisoners were forgiven once they''d seen Judgment, and that was that.


    My group had only one order as well. The maximum security prisoners, those who''d led this revolt, the necromancer, they had to die. We couldn''t let them out into the world again, allow that disaster loose against anyone, they all had to die, there could be no other end. We would die with them, but in doing so we would protect the world to our last breaths.


    There was a sound and the door to the staircase up, a door that was supposed to be sealed from the inside burst open. A woman, one of the prisoners who''d been aiding us nearly fell out, her eyes wild with fear. She bolted as soon as she found her feet, heading for the exit door at a sprint.


    ¡°RUN!¡± She yelled as she passed, disturbing our prayer and drawing all eyes. ¡°RUN!!!!!¡± Before she''d even reached her hoped point of egress another appeared, equally panicked.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Towers Fall Chapter 14

    Thana Mourningjay


    Oddly enough, the priestess spoke the truth. I didn''t want to believe it, but as the riot we''d been part of broke and just ran it became very clear that this was no trap of theirs, they didn''t use undead. There was a wave coming down the hall, rushing forward as it saw people, and tried to end them. I assumed our forces had stood against it, at least for a time, but it didn''t matter, they fell.


    I gave my last two skeletons the command to go fight zombies and turned from the hall. There was nothing more I could do out there, at least without going out myself. It was sad that Mr. Bones/Perry wouldn''t get a proper funeral, but at least he''d no longer be undead.


    ¡°We need an exit,¡± I said to Milo, truly worried.


    ¡°The back stairs should run through... right over here,¡± he said with the calmness of one who''d seen war, pointing at a curved secion of wall.


    ¡°It''s sealed, what are you going to do, break down the wall!?¡± the head of the healers replied, panicking.


    ¡°I''ll need a couple men and the biggest piece of wood we''ve got,¡± was his answer, given with grim determination. ¡°Thana, can you do anything about them?¡±


    ¡°What!? No, not if I had a week could I stop that many, not to mention whatever is making them.¡±


    ¡°I knew you lot were using the undead, but this is insane,¡± one of the men bringing the improvised battering ram into place said.


    ¡°Not us,¡± both Milo and I chorused.


    ¡°Opcan can make some, and I can control a few, but nothing like this!¡± I explained, ¡°There are dozens out there, at least!¡±


    I joined in the attempt at removing the wall, hoping to speed the process just a bit.


    The improvised battering ram started to break down pretty quickly, but there was little we could do about that except replace it. Everyone not backing up the spearmen or unable to move grabbed up similar implements and were all trying to find a weak spot, including the priestess.


    It took over a minute, but after much bashing a stone finally fell out, the mortar failing under our continued assault. In the stairwell we could hear people running down, some screaming, but it availed us nothing, none would talk and we didn''t have time. I only thanked my luck that the men who''d bricked up the stairwell had done a poor job of it, or we''d have probably failed.


    After one block fell though, another joined it, then another, and another, each missing stone weakening the structure more, until there was a hole a couple of feet across there. It was barely big enough for us to fit into if we squeezed, which would soon be a neccessity.


    The first line at the hall had failed, and the spears were reforming at the door itself.


    ¡°They keep coming!¡± one of the men yelled, terrified.


    The stampede down had stopped, and as the smallest person here I quickly pushed my way into the stairwell. It was dimly lit, and very empty, though there were sounds from both up and down.


    ¡°Safe!¡± I yelled back through it.


    Milo and the priestess soon joined me, along with some of the other healers. One by one the injured were being passed forward, helped out. A few of those who could walk were helping them down, down and away from the fighting.


    It went quick, but not quick enough. The second line of defense fell, and the spears retreated again, forming a clump around the little opening that would be their only chance at escape. The undead filled the room quickly, pushing in and grabbing up those they could reach, tearing at them until they moved no more before turning to the still concious men and charging.


    A soldier lost his nerve and turned, trying to dive through the bashed out section of wall, and that was it. The opening in their line let it come quicker than it might have, but there was always only one conclusion, the zombies pushed forwards, grabbing and tearing. The man who had tried to abandon his post blocked our sight for but a moment.


    ¡°Please, please, no!¡± He screamed as a cold hand pulled him back into the hospital. Behind him I could see something oozeing into the infirmary, sucking in the fallen and spitting out dripping undead.


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    ¡°We need to go!¡± I yelled to Milo and the priestess, the only two who''d stayed to this point.


    ¡°No arguments,¡± the man said as we all turned and started our descent.


    As we did I saw a zombie trying to crawl through the open hole and spoke. ¡°Stay where you are.¡± The undead stopped and looked at me. ¡°Temporary plug,¡± I explained when my newest companion did too.


    We helped the injured as we could, speeding along the group. As we did the sounds of battle from above got closer and closer. Finally we saw them, a ragged group of guards trying to hold back the wave, a fighting retreat down the stiarwell that wasn''t going well for them.


    The priestess turned in their direction, we were close, so close to escape. ¡°Be cleansed,¡± she said, and several seemed to collapse into piles of viscera and dust.


    ¡°Abliged ma''am,¡± one of the soldiers said as he finally had a moment to breathe.


    As Milo and I kept carrying an injured man I heard her repeat herself several more times. Each she tried to use to stem the flow, a flow of death that had no desire to stop.


    ¡°I''m out,¡± she declared as she returned to join us, terror in her eyes as she tried to help with our burden.


    Milo began to turn, looking back towards the fighting men.


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°Milo, no, please don''t, you''ll die,¡± Thana said before I could act, pulling me with her as much as she could.


    ¡°I can''t leave them,¡± I said, we were less than two floors away, she could still make it.


    ¡°Please, I don''t have anyone else, please, don''t,¡± she begged, and I could see the pain in her eyes. ¡°Don''t leave me alone.¡±


    I faltered, and in that second a zombie grabbed a guard.


    ¡°Turn on your fellows!¡± she commanded, and the undead released him, instead grabbing another zombie. ¡°You idiots, run!¡±


    Enough of the undead were either now fighting those trying to descend or stunned and kneeling that they did just that. They took our burden and we all ran.


    Soon enough the dead had passed, or killed all those she''d managed to stop and she had to repeat herself. After one more repeat performance she gasped. ¡°I''m out too. Only one thing left. Whatever you do, don''t attack anything, anything you hear me! And don''t let them touch you.¡±


    Thana rattled off a series of arcane words, one hand working into symbols, and she touched two guards and the injured man. Then repeated the process, sweat dripping from her brow as her hand passed over her own body, the priestess, and myself.


    Finally, finally we made it to the atrium, and it was in shambles. Everyone was trying to get out, except a unit of paladins who were bogged down trying to keep them from opening the doors. They didn''t understand the danger, and the terrified mob didn''t care to explain, instead pouring over them like a tide, dying in droves, and ripping the bar from the door.


    Opcan and his brute were engaged with Warden Lightstone, and appeared to be losing badly until someone else plowed into the fight. The sorcerer, not one to miss a chance, cast, and those two winked out from sight. He began looking around, eyes settling upon me, no, the girl behind me, and charged with a furious glare in his eyes.


    Warden Lightstone


    ¡°Stop, wait!¡± Our head healer Linea said as she tried to interpose herself, having no time I pushed her from my way, angling to get the girl and her turncoat ally. ¡°She helped us save the injured, stop!¡± the priestess roared.


    At the same time the necromancer also screamed. ¡°DONOTATTACKHIM!!!¡± as fast as she could, stopping the traitor''s hand from even drawing his sword even as I unleashed a flurry of blows upon him, drawing crimson blood.


    Odd, very odd, some kind of trick perhaps? I danced back several paces, eyes scanning for some issue.


    ¡°She helped us, they deserve mercy!¡± the priestess continued.


    ¡°The law is clear,¡± I declared. ¡°There will be no further mercy.¡±


    ¡°But!¡±


    ¡°Tend the wounded, for if you get in my way again you shall share their fate.¡± I could brook no disagreement here, not with so many already escaping, already prying the doors open, this one had to die.


    ¡°Go,¡± the little monster told her. ¡°Go.¡±


    ¡°I''m sorry,¡± Linea said, before turning to run herself.


    ¡°You sure I can''t fight him kid? He looks pretty tired already,¡± the warrior wheezed, and he wasn''t totally wrong.


    ¡°Don''t attack, not even once,¡± she said.


    I narrowed my eyes. ¡°Surrendering now? Very well, lay down your arms and I shall grant you a quick death.¡±


    Thana Mourningjay


    ¡°Fuck you asshole,¡± I told the man.


    ¡°You still think you have a chance? Your friend will die, and you will die, that will be the end of it. You cannot defeat me,¡± he said, moving back into a fighting stance.


    ¡°I''ve already defeated you,¡± I retorted.


    ¡°By refusing to fight?¡± he laughed.


    ¡°By refusing to break the spell shielding us from the eyes of the undead,¡±


    He looked briefly confused, until the first zombie rushed him, wrapping itself around his torso and knocking him from his feet, others joined it immediately.


    ¡°BEGONE!¡± he roared as they piled on, and many of them did just that, evaporating into pieces.


    They were replaced almost instantly, the dead had arrived from the back stairwell. Judgement was coming for those who''d tried to serve it out, and it groaned and rotted. The warden roared more, destroying more of the dead, but it was too late, they were already piling in. On the far side of the room the defenders against those descending from the main prison area were also falling, the horde pulsing over them like a wave.


    ¡°I warned you you would reap what you''d sown!¡± I yelled at the man as he struggled, being buried under the mass of moving corpses. ¡°So reap Lightstone, reap!¡± It was rather cathartic. I did at least resist the urge to laugh manically as his screams started to gurgle.


    ¡°Thana, door!¡± a hand on my arm pulled, and I turned, seeing our exit clear.


    ¡°Right!¡± I said, cheering as we ran.


    My excitement was soon dampened as we left the building. The courtyard was in chaos, most were fleeing, a few of the archers were shooting at either the running people or outside. The wall was crumbling in places, nearly gone in others.


    The undead were hot on our heels, searching for more life to consume. They poured out of the tower, how many were there? Too many, it looked like a massive portion of the prisoners, even those who''d joined the defense, were now part of the horde, and there''d been thousands of prisoners.


    We began to crest a small hill of rubble, and it was clear all was not well. The Corian army wasn''t shoulder to shoulder, but rather behind mounds and pallisades, dug in for the short siege of this place. We could run at them, but in a moment of inspiration I pulled Milo to the side, curling us up out of the way by an overhanging bit of masonry.


    The Corian soldiers looked confused, very confused, until they saw the first zombie. The monsters poured out and into the men who were almost certainly partially to blame for them.


    It began to rain as we left our hiding spot, and for the first time in years I felt it against my face, just a few taps, here and there. The soldiers were quite throughly busy, and the dead unaware of us. So we ran, ran through the small gaps in the warring factions, ran for the city where we might find shelter, ran for freedom.


    We ran, and we ran, and we ran, probably ten minutes through side streets and back alleys. Milo pulled me along, seeming to know the way. I loved it, the feeling of the breeze, the unfiltered gray light coming down from above, with no roof in the way, even as the rain gained in strength. For the first time in years I was outside, outside, and I was so happy.


    Milo was hurt, even if he could still run he would soon need tending to. It didn''t look fatal, but he still brought us to a stop in a small vacant lot. While he caught his breath under an overhang I walked out into the overgrown weeds, looking straight up. I let the drops of water from the sky flow down my face, and soon they were joined, melding with tears of joy.


    ¡°How you doing kid?¡± My friend asked.


    ¡°Free,¡±

 Sentinel and the Witch- Interlude 1 Chapter 15

    Milo Greyson


    Regardless of how happy it made me to see the kid doing well I was still in quite a bit of pain, and the healer we''d been using was either dead or now running. There were a number of problems right now, problems that we''d have to deal with in short order or things might well get worse.


    ¡°Kid, we need to move,¡± I said after letting her take a few minutes to play in the rain, long enough for me to catch my breath.


    ¡°Okay, where to?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I need to get patched up, and we need to figure out what''s going on. The Corians are still running through the city, doing who knows what, and eventually the army will show up to oust them. We need to be scarce before that happens.¡±


    ¡°So a doctor or something? Do you know where one is?¡± she said, concerned as she looked at the wounds. My mail had taken the brunt of it, but I was still pretty roughed up.


    ¡°No, anyone good will have been taken by one of the armies. I know somebody though, but we need to make a stop first.¡±


    After taking a quick look out on the street to check for any patrols I led her out again. Things were quiet, which meant that most of the fighting had settled over the last day or two. I suspected that the Corians had taken the city, but until I got hold of someone who knew more there was no way to tell.


    We didn''t have to go far to come upon the small stairwell leading up to a second floor room. I didn''t have keys with me, but at this point it didn''t matter. The door was easy enough to force, and we slipped in.


    ¡°Should we really be breaking into people''s homes?¡± Thana asked as she pressed the door shut.


    I winced as I laughed. ¡°After everything you''re worried about that? Don''t though, it''s my place. There''s food over in the kitchen, grab a bite while I pack.¡±


    A couple of makeshift bags were easy to throw together. Any man worth his salt had some cordage on hand at all times, and my military days had long taught me the things I needed for a trip. A change of clothes, a few tools of the trade, and the chain shirt I''d taken all got rapped up into one of the blankets and tied into a stiff bag.


    My uniform and the sword I''d taken had to be abandoned, they bore marks of our home The Theocracy of Liria, and in no way did we want to be mistaken for part of their military right now. It was a shame, since the material was thick on the clothing and the blade was well made, but that was how it was. Instead I put on a fresh set of clothing and pulled from under my bed a trunk I thought I''d never open again.


    The lid was covered in thick dust, the hinges scraped, the thinnest layer of rust on them keeping them from opening as cleanly and easily as they should. On the inside though, all was as it should be. My armor, weapon, and shield sat there as I unfolded the fabric, looking as if it had been only yesterday that they''d been placed inside.


    I''d never had the money for a proper suit of full plate, but over the years had managed to save up for bits and pieces and cobbled together a respecable set of banded mail. My shield was plain, the livery of my unit having been stripped away after retirement when I briefly considered a career as a mercenary. It would protect us now, even if it pained me to think about how it should have looked. The sword gave off the faintest light, a gift from an old friend who I might soon be seeing once more.


    My hands still remembered every strap and clasp, every tightening and movement. Years had gone by but still I could put it on, through the pain and the exhaustion I could become like I once was. It didn''t fit quite perfectly anymore, small adjustments were needed here and there, but it reminded me of the old days.


    ¡°There''s not much to eat here...¡± Thana said as she came over to my room, and froze in the door. ¡°Are you leaving?¡± Her eyes rested on the pack, and the armor.


    ¡°Yeah, and I''m hoping you''re coming along kid. We need to get out of the city, the country too. Word of us might have gotten out, even if the authorities aren''t coming for you today, they will soon. Me too, since I helped in the revolt, sooner or later. I''m not risking the thought that maybe nobody who knew who were were didn''t make it out, or will conveniently forget our presence,¡± I explained.


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    ¡°Oh, I was worried for a second you might...¡± she seemed afraid to even give word to her thoughts.


    ¡°Leave you? I won''t lie kid, you worry me, and the higher ups at The Tower seemed terrified that you would become a force to be reckoned with. You also don''t know shit about shit. So what do you say? I''ll do all I can to keep you safe and from becoming a monster, and you lend me a bit of strength, and promise to learn what I can teach,¡± I offered her a hand.


    ¡°Deal,¡± she said with a smile, taking it. ¡°Do you think I will become a monster though?¡±


    ¡°Kid, I can say this, the big difference between monsters and heroes is how they act. It won''t be power that makes you bad, but allowing that power to corrupt. We''ll worry about that later though, for now let''s get things packed.¡±


    She would be carrying most of our food and water, and a lot of the odds and ends. By the end of it her pack was larger than mine, though not really heavier. With that and a couple of old cloaks we moved out.


    ¡°Where to next?¡± Thana asked, looking up and down the streets like I''d told her.


    ¡°My sister lives a few blocks away, no priest, but she worked as a nurse, still does sometimes. She''ll know how to bandage me up so I heal quicker,¡± I explained. ¡°Also a good chance to tell my family where I''m heading.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡±


    It wasn''t quite dark by the time we got there, and I was relieved when my brother-in-law answered the door. He was around the same age as me, and sadly balding badly, but he smiled when he saw us and rushed us in.


    ¡°Damn Milo, I was afraid you were dead, things being like they are,¡± he spoke for only a few moments before his eyes went to my companion, then wide as he looked over her.


    ¡°Amy here? Things didn''t go to plan and I need someone to bandage me up.¡± I winced as I hugged him in greeting and he must have noticed.


    He quickly led us to their living room, their own house quite a bit larger than mine, and disappreared while I pulled off the armor I needed to for my sister to get to the needed spots. She appeared moments later in a rush, a small bag at her side. She too took a look at Thana and frowned, reaching out to check her first.


    ¡°Are you hurt dear? That dress...¡± There were in fact a few cuts in the otherwise new outfit, places where she''d been struck with arrows or swords, and faded stains from the blood.


    ¡°I''m fine, Milo got hurt after the healer got separated from us,¡± she explained, as vaugely as possible.


    ¡°You''re soaked child. SAMIRA!¡± she said, before yelling up the nearby stairs.


    My niece quickly made her way down, black hair trailing behind. She and Thana could''ve been sisters.


    ¡°Mom?¡± She said, looking a bit confused. ¡°Uncle Milo-oh,¡± hesitating as he saw the cuts and blackening bruies covering my ribs and stomach.


    ¡°He''ll be fine, take our guest and see if you can find her something to wear while her clothes dry off will you? And set her up a place to sleep in your room,¡± my sister rattled off, hardly looking as the two left.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said as she started to clean me up.


    ¡°Spill it,¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°Did you think I wouldn''t notice? She''s in brand new clothes that look like they belong at a damn banquet. You were supposed to be at The Tower, where in the world did you find some noble''s daughter, and why did you bring her here?¡± she asked quickly, angry gaze not brooking any disagreement.


    ¡°It''s complicated, but I ended up saving the kid. She hasn''t got anyone, so I''m going to try and get her to safety. A lot of it you don''t need to know, in case someone asks you under truth magic. Needless to say though, we''re leaving town as quick as possible.¡± I didn''t want her dragged down if someone did decide to come after us, even if it pained me to hide things from her.


    ¡°You''re a mess little brother,¡± she sighed. ¡°Fine, where''s the family estate you''re taking her to then?¡±


    ¡°Not one, we''re headed to The Free Cities. There''s a mercenary troupe there named Rolond''s Rangers, if you can get a message to them, it should find me.¡± I reached down, laying a hand on her shoulder. ¡°Look, with things like they are, you might want to leave the city too. Lloyd has family out in the countryside right? Go stay with them, because when the army shows up, it''s going to be ugly.¡±


    ¡°We talked about that last night, we''re leaving in the morning. If you''re heading to the cities we could travel together for the next few days. My Lloyd is brave, but he''s no soldier, so,¡±


    ¡°No worries Amy, we''ll come.¡±


    Thana Mourningjay


    ¡°Wow, these are nice,¡± Samira said as we hung up my outfit in a corner of her room.


    ¡°Thank you, yours is more comfy though,¡± I said, pointing to the light house dress she''d let me borrow.


    ¡°We should go check on mom, she''s pretty stressed right now,¡± she observed, and at my nod we did just that.


    This house was cozy. If my memories were serving me right it was a bit nicer than the one I''d grown up in, but it felt warm, like a home. We rejoined Milo and his sister and she promptly pulled me off to the kitchen while sending her daughter to make sure all her things were stored.


    ¡°Here, you can do the carrots,¡± she said while handing me a basket of the vegetables and a knife I knew I would struggle to use.


    Cooking was something I''d once helped with at home, but that had been years ago. The prison didn''t exactly want to hand us over potential weapons, particularly not once I''d been sent to the top floor, so I was very out of practice with all of my housekeeping abilities. It showed, and the look my poorly shaved and chopped carrots were given confirmed it.


    ¡°So, Thana right? How exactly did you and my brother meet?¡± she asked sweetly.


    ¡°A man was trying to kill me and he stopped him,¡± I said, not caring to go more into it than that.


    ¡°That must have been horrible; I''m glad the two of you made it out safely.¡±


    ¡°I suppose it was, been a bit busy to think about it,¡± I stopped and looked off, seeing some of the dead we''d been exposed to over the last few days. Flint''s death didn''t even breach the top five of horrible experiences.


    ¡°Ah, right, right, Thana, I hate to ask, but he''s not been... inappropriate with you has he?¡± At my raised eyebrow she continued. ¡°Not touched you any way you wouldn''t want to be? Nothing like that right?¡±


    I was more than a bit taken aback by that. Did she not trust her own brother? Also, ¡°Gross, he''s like, as old as my dad.¡± My expression must have said it all. ¡°No, nothing like that, not even close. All he''s done is try to get me out of a bad situation.¡±


    ¡°Oh I''m so glad, not, well, you know. Men are sometimes not as they should be,¡± she finally said.


    ¡°Often not great, yeah, but Milo seems okay.¡±


    ¡°I was just a bit worried, a young girl in this kind of a bad time, an older man,¡± she began.


    ¡°Please stop,¡± I said flatly.


    ¡°Right, right. Do you like stew?¡± she asked, changing the subject as quickly as possible.


    ¡°Yes, stew is good.¡± It was one of the foods in The Tower that was heavier in meat, and well beloved for it.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Interlude 1 Chapter 16

    Thana Mourningjay


    The world around me was chaos, but I was placid as a lake. That was mostly because I''d been asked to stay out of the way, but hey, everyone had their time, and I was apparently really unhelpful here. Really, really unhelpful, enough so that even Milo had told me to find somewhere to sit quietly.


    Which was fine, since I hadn''t done my morning meditations or exercises, something I did launch into. My own things were packed already, few as they were, and my routine made me feel sort of normal. I could even do it in the small courtyard they had in the back and be outside at the same time, which was the best thing ever. There was a breeze here, and the gentle sounds of birds, which grated eventually, but were still so different that I loved them.


    Even if it was sometimes annoying, or tiring, or just a bit much the world outside of The Tower was so alive. There was color, and flavor, and sounds, so many sounds and sensations that I couldn''t take them in fast enough, couldn''t feel everything all at once. It was quite overwhelming, but beautiful.


    ¡°You ready kid?¡± Milo eventually said, coming out to where I was stretching. I''d learned in prison that any exercise was good exercise, and it kept you busy.


    ¡°Yup!¡±


    ¡°Ah, bit of a question. Where was your hometown?¡± he asked a bit hesitantly.


    ¡°Blackfield, to the northeast of the city about a day''s walk, why?¡± I asked, worried.


    ¡°Well, we''re headed that way anyway, and I thought you might want to stop by there.¡±


    ¡°I have nothing to say to my parents right now Milo. In a few years, maybe, but not right now.¡± It wasn''t so much that I hated them, just that I wanted nothing to do with them.


    ¡°There''s also the matter of your cat, the one you told me about. I was serious when I said we couldn''t just leave it there, someone could get hurt,¡± he explained with a sad, but serious look.


    I was a bit nervous on that account. I could still sort of feel the connection, the years and distance never breaking it, some sort of strange bit of magic. It didn''t do much for me, as I was too far to give commands, but it was there, a sort of reassurance in bad times. I frowned as I thought of it, knowing he would want to destroy Scritches, but nodded. We really couldn''t just leave him there.


    Milo''s family had a small cart with a donkey attached to the front, in which was most of their important possessions. Some things had to be left of course, and those were packed up and locked down as well as could be done, but as we left I could tell that his sister and her family were scared.


    It was our warrior who decided the marching order. He and Lloyd, took point, walking on either side of the donkey, the latter having been given the spare chain shirt. I walked just behind the cart with the other women of the group.


    ¡°You look tough,¡± Samira said, making a small punching movement.


    I laughed. ¡°Thanks for the shirt by the way, hate to ruin my only dress.¡±


    ¡°Eh, it was old and needed to be turned into rags anyway. Uncle Milo said that having someone with visible armor near us would make people think twice too. Though I''m sorry we couldn''t find you a good weapon.¡±


    I smiled at that, because I was the weapon. My hands, my body, my magic, these were my weapons, not a blade or a cudgel. ¡°I''m sure it''ll be fine,¡± I said, letting the improvised spear thunk on the ground.


    Lloyd had an old shortsword, a normal item for any man to own, while both Amy and Samira had only daggers, the common self-defense method for anyone, women particularly. They wouldn''t do much against an armored soldier unless you got lucky, but were more than enough to dissuade a man from bothering you.


    ¡°And thank you for the blade Mrs. Amy,¡± I said once again, pointing to the old dagger of hers that was now serving as part of my improvised spear.


    ¡°Every woman should have something dear,¡± she answered. ¡°Shame that you lost your weapon.¡±


    ¡°Oozes don''t play games,¡± I said sagely.


    ¡°So you actually fought a monster? What are they like?¡± the other girl asked. I knew she was about my age, but she seemed so much younger.


    ¡°They hurt,¡± I responded, thinking back to the attack I''d taken.


    ¡°Enough you two, we''re coming up to the gate,¡± her mother said.


    We weren''t the only ones trying to get the heck out of the city. There was a small group here, looking to where the gate was and trying to get through. There were several such gates around the city, but we''d chosen this one because it was farther from the fighting than the others. The Corians had taken about half of the city in total, and were working their way around to the main structures. They were content to ignore random people so long as you didn''t present as a threat, which running civilians certainly didn''t.


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    A few harried guardsmen were here, trying to look for people of import and large stashes of valuables. They were content to take their time, even if everyone wanted out. The walls and gates were now firmly under Corian control, with only the inner districts still able to hold against them.


    Our turn came and we were quickly stopped. The leader of this little troupe was giving Milo a hard look.


    ¡°Not going to defend your city old-timer?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I did my part when I was young, the city is fallen, and I''m getting my people out,¡± Milo answered calmly.


    ¡°You could stay, we need good men, and you''ve got the look of a man who''s seen fights. Pay''s good, and your family here would be safe,¡± the guard offered. It appeared they were still trying to recruit.


    ¡°If I say no are we gonna have problems?¡± Milo asked.


    ¡°Well... if you were a younger man maybe, but as a gesture of good faith, suppose I can let a man take care of his kin.¡± The guard gave a smile and waved us through.


    Before we could pass though I felt someone grab my arm. ¡°Hold on there miss,¡± one of the other guards said, looking me over.


    ¡°Something wrong there?¡± their leader asked, looking over.


    ¡°Look at the dress there Sargent, they threw a ratty old shirt and some armor over it, but she''s no peasant,¡± said the man who''d grabbed me.


    ¡°Ah, I see. Now lass letting through some common folk just trying to get out the way is one thing, letting a merchant or noble daughter out is quite another,¡± their leader said, coming over. ¡°Now come with us miss, don''t worry, we''ll not hurt you, make ransoming you back to your family a bit more trouble if we did that.¡±


    I leaned in, ¡°I''m no noble, and no merchant, and my family doesn''t give a shit about me,¡± I whispered in his ear. ¡°What I am is a mage, who has no love for Liria or Coria. You let me go, and I''ll go, quiet as that, but if you don''t... Your men may get me, but not before I get the two of you. Because I am NOT going back in a cage.¡±


    With a small flex of will the man who''d grabbed me yanked back his hand, hissing through his teeth as the bit of magic I''d released flowed up his arm. The other soldiers were closing in, but this was a small gate, and there were only five here. I could see the man counting, trying to figure the odds that they could put me down before I killed him, and quickly coming up short. The fact that the man who''d initiated all of this was shaking and spitting blood, barely keeping on his feet helped.


    ¡°Back in a cage?'' he said as he motioned his men to back off. ¡°Fuck me, you''re an escapee.¡± He was whispering too, not wanting that to get out.


    ¡°Maximum security, and I had to kill a lot of people to get out of there. Consider that my service to your army if you want, but get out of my way. Either that or we fight right now, your choice.¡±


    It took him a few seconds, but then he looked up, yelling at his men. ¡°Let them through,¡±


    ¡°But sir, Jordan!¡± one of his men said.


    ¡°I said let them through soldier,¡± he repeated.


    Quickly we all pushed through the gate, the soldiers still on edge behind us.


    ¡°We need to go, now,¡± I pointed out as we sped down the nearest road at a brisk walk. ¡°Before he finds his balls and reports this to his commanding officers.¡±


    ¡°You had to attack him, why did you have to attack him!?¡± Milo said as he pushed the pack animal to the highest speed he could.


    ¡°I am not going back in a box Milo, never, not ever again,¡± I hissed.


    ¡°Sorry what!?¡± his sister asked, scared.


    ¡°I''ll explain in a couple of miles, run first, questions later,¡± her brother answered.


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°You''re telling me you brought a murderous prisoner that you released into my home,¡± Amy hissed.


    ¡°They were going to kill her, and she didn''t deserve to die,¡± I sighed.


    ¡°And how do you know that Milo? Were you there? Who told you to decide!¡± my sister nearly screamed at me.


    ¡°They admitted it Amy. It wasn''t that she did anything horribly evil, she just reacts badly to healing. If she didn''t she''d have been freed, but they were going to kill her for it. I couldn''t...¡±


    ¡°You don''t have to save every lost lamb you find Milo, she''s not some helpless little bird, and she''s not Petra!¡±


    *SLAP*


    ¡°Mom!¡± Samira yelled, rushing over, to her fallen parent.


    I looked down at my hand, mind reeling as I realized what I''d done. My sister was sprawled out on the ground. I''d hit her, hard and with steel gauntlets on, not even thinking about it. My sister looked at me with pain in her eyes, and anger.


    ¡°Amy, I-I''m sorry.¡± I began to reach for her, only to find her husband there, interposed between us with his small sword drawn.


    ¡°I like you Milo, I trusted you.¡± Lloyd looked hurt, and a bit afraid, but determined. ¡°Go, just, just go.¡±


    I turned and began walking, pain welling as I realized how much I''d screwed my own life up.


    ¡°Come on kid,¡± I managed, trying to hide the tears beginning to well up.


    Thana followed and we walked in silence. She pretended not to notice the fact that I''d pulled up my hood to hide my face, letting me do as I must. Hours passed and we changed roads, even cutting through the brush a few times or doubling back to throw off any pursuers.


    After I''d calmed down and stopped to wash my face in a stream she finally spoke.


    ¡°What happened back there?¡± she asked.


    ¡°She brought up my wife,¡± I said, looking into the flowing water.


    ¡°You''re married?¡±


    ¡°I was, when I was younger; died in childbirth, her and our daughter, and, it broke me kid.¡± I struggled, not having talked about this many times. ¡°Could have been worse, luckily I was never much for drink, or it really would have been. Still though, I spent years just sort of, lost, not knowing what to do.¡±


    ¡°I''m sorry, I can''t even imagine what that''s like.¡± I felt a small hand land on my shoulder.


    ¡°Thanks. Now I''ve fucked up and the last family I had left hates me.¡±


    ¡°That one I do understand. Unlike me though, there may be a chance they''ll forgive you, not today, but one day,¡± she sounded like she hoped it really was true.


    I looked at her, and realized that having someone hate you was something she really might get.


    ¡°Was it wrong you think, doing what we did?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Milo, I just wanted to live. I''d like to help people, but I''ll tell you the truth, I don''t really care what they think of me, or about hurting people who want to hurt me, or about corpses or that kind of thing. I know most people think it''s wrong, and maybe it is, but I don''t care. I''ll do what I must with what I can. If I can help people on the way I will, but most people won''t want my help, and I know that. So if you want someone to tell you what''s wrong or right, it probably isn''t me,¡± she said, looking at the water as well. ¡°But I don''t know what else to do but try, try to live and not cause too much damage, and maybe do some good on the way.¡±


    ¡°Guess I''ll find someone else to ask then,¡± I grumbled.


    ¡°Probably a good idea, but not a priest of Vitala, most of them are horrid, that much I do know.¡±


    That got me to chuckle a bit. ¡°I still like to think she isn''t, but the paladins were certainly a bit lost huh?¡± I scrubbed my face again and began to look around. ¡°Alright, let''s camp just on that hill there. Having water for tomorrow morning will be nice.¡±


    ¡°Alright Milo, you know more about this than I do.¡±


    As we set up camp I considered. She was right that today really wasn''t the time to try and mend things. It was all a little raw, and I''d really messed up. When we got to The Free Cities though I''d send a letter to my sister apologizing and begging her forgiveness. I''d give her space though, if she didn''t want to see me again, well, so be it, but I would hope, for that was all I could do.


    We set out fairly early the next day, after Thana going through her morning routine and complaining loudly about how bad her feet hurt. Suppose not walking anywhere far for years would make those a bit soft. I still felt bad, but, there was just a little light in this darkness.


    Before we managed to get to her hometown we found a temple at the side of the road. It was small, and well back from the path. It was also bright and open, and surrounded by graves.


    ¡°That doesn''t look like a temple to Vitala,¡± Thana observed.


    ¡°Because it''s not, it''s one to her brother Veteo.¡±


    ¡°I''ve never been in one. Should we go and pay our respects to the dead? Never did get to give Perry a funeral.¡±


    ¡°Not the worst idea I''ve heard. His priests are a bit, well, you''ll see.¡±


    We turned to the path, and began walking towards the temple. The doors seemed to smile and welcome us as we approached.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Interlude 1 Chapter 17

    Thana Mourningjay


    The temple to Veteo was bright, open and fairly nice if I had to compare it to other temples I''d been in. The d¨¦cor was simple, but there were benches, and places for lighting incense beside them. Near he front there was a small box of such, a cheaper variety, and another for coins to be deposited in payment for it. The incense was sold at cost, something to burn while you spoke to the dead. People had, and could, just steal the pleasant smelling sticks, but it was considered very distasteful, and rather foolish to steal from a temple, what if some higher being was paying attention?


    I wasn''t sure exactly how my money translated, but I had some, and we were here for me, so I dropped a gold in the box and took the requisite number of sticks, handing a few to Milo.


    ¡°Do you not have someone you would like to pray to as well?¡± I asked, before turning and heading to one of the many sanctuaries here.


    He didn''t follow, which matched with what I knew. A priest might come to greet you or pray with you, but it was considered rude to intrude on people during religious events.


    I found one of the many altars here and stuck the incense in, lighting it with a nearby candle. I didn''t have the magic to do something like that sadly, and began to speak.


    ¡°Perry Redthorn, I am sorry, sorry that I didn''t get to give your body to your kin, and sorry that you never got a proper burial. I did mean it when I said I would give you one, as you were known to Milo, but it didn''t happen. You may not have liked me, but thank you for the aid.¡±


    There was shuffling behind me but I didn''t bother turning right now, as I wanted to set up the rest of the offerings for the dead. I counted one for each of the zombies that I''d taken control of, and lit it, offering a small thanks and apology for not seeing them to their graves.


    When I was finished I turned, and saw an old man there, lightly stroking his beard.


    ¡°Those are rather odd prayers young lady,¡± he said, motioning over to one of the benches where we might sit.


    ¡°I didn''t exactly know them,¡± I replied, taking his offer.


    ¡°And yet you came to pray for the dead, and wished to see them to their graves, why?¡±


    ¡°Because I said I''d see to it that the first got buried, and he never did,¡± I answered lightly.


    ¡°Odd, what about the rest, who were they?¡±


    ¡°Don''t know, they were undead I ran into, seemed right to at least light some incense for them.¡±


    The priest looked concerned. ¡°Undead are quite dangerous, and consorting with them equally so. We do not take the same stance that Vitala''s people do, but it is illegal in this land, and as I said, dangerous.¡±


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    ¡°Huh, and what is the god of death''s stance on undead?¡± I asked, I''d never gotten a full set of his strictures, only the most general of information, so it seemed reasonable to just ask.


    ¡°Veteo doesn''t care. The fact is though that the creation of undead is an evil act. Evil acts can be done in the service of good or without other malice, and depending on the type and manner of creation that would change. We are encouraged to take a more middle path, doing what brings joy, neither being overly harmful, nor overly focused on trying to right every wrong in the world.¡± He scratched his chin for a moment. ¡°In other terms one might say Veteo cares about how you lived and died rather than what happened to your body. If you had a good life, and had fun, and tried not to cause too much pain to others who didn''t deserve it.¡± He laughed at a thought. ¡°Though I assure you he does support screwing over those who do.¡±


    ¡°So he''s not going to what, demand part of our life for messing with the dead?¡± I asked, interested in what the man had to say.


    That got me a true laugh. ¡°Everyone whose ever spoken to him seems to believe that he doesn''t care how long we live or exist. Everyone dies, today, tomorrow, a thousand years from now, we all die, all of us, and he''s there for when we do. Why would he need to rush things or want ''part of your life''? It all comes to him in the end.¡±


    ¡°Would you mind telling me more about your god?¡± I asked, only to watch the man smile.


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°Have I lost my way my love? Is my soul tainted now?¡± I asked over the burning incense.


    ¡°You know it''s considered rather rude to put your burdens on the dead,¡± a voice called out to me.


    I quickly turned to see a young man, one might even call him a boy, sweeping the floor a few feet behind me. I hadn''t heard him, or noticed his approach.


    ¡°Spooked me there friend,¡± I said, pulling my hand back from where it had gone to my sword.


    He laughed, ¡°I get that every now and then, but my comment stands. You should tell them about the fun times, not the burdens. Anyway, I doubt your soul is tainted, people who get that way generally don''t think about such things. Though if you wanted you could check.¡±


    ¡°What just look at it?¡± I asked. ¡°I always heard it was dangerous to do stuff like that.¡±


    He smiled as he spoke. ¡°Oh it can be, there are definitely paths you shouldn''t go down, but what I''m talking about isn''t one of those. There are methods to feel your own soul, and eventually use its power. Just don''t go doing that demonic shit and you''ll be perfectly okay.¡± I noticed he wore the simple robes one normally found on a priest, unmarked and dark gray.


    ¡°Its power?¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, souls are powerful buddy, that''s why so many things want them. There''s so much potential and energy bundled up in there. Even gods use them, that''s why they care about mortals. They want the souls, the worship too; we''re not talking about that though, we''re talking about sensing your soul, different stuff.¡±


    ¡°And you''ll what, teach me to do that?¡± I asked the guy.


    ¡°No,¡± he snorted. ¡°For several reasons, but I''ll tell you how to learn. There''s a book, Meditations on the Soul, by Lobern Strongfoot. Give that a read and try out the techniques in it. That''ll help you figure out if your soul is ''tainted'' or anything.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, I''ll keep that in mind,¡± I said as nicely as possible.


    ¡°I mean it, it''s a good book, and if you have any more soul problems, you might well find help in a temple to death. Ah, please excuse me though, I''ve got some other things that need taking care of.¡± The young priest swept the dirt into a small dustpan, gave me a nod, and turned to leave. ¡°Messes everywhere, some that actually need cleaning up, ha!¡±


    I noticed as he left that the stick had burned out, so I lit another and found a spot on one of the benches. I spoke to my wife, as much as I could, about the happy moments in our lives, the good times, the funny stories. Told her I still loved her, still tried to keep doing the right thing, even if it didn''t always go the way I thought it would. As the smoke burned down again I felt well, like I''d actually had a full conversation with someone I loved.


    When Thana reappeared she had a small book in her arms. She too looked to be in a good mood.


    ¡°Where''d you get the book?¡± I asked as we headed towards the door.


    ¡°The priest gave it to me. He''s nice, told me a few things about their beliefs,¡± she said as she put more coins in the offering box. ¡°I''d feel bad taking this without leaving them something, even if he said it was free,¡± she explained.


    ¡°So the book?¡±


    ¡°The main teachings of Veteo. It''s super small isn''t it?¡± She must be comparing it to the absolute tomes used in Vitala''s worship.


    ¡°I guess so, but don''t go flaunting it about till we''re out of the country. Veteo''s worship might not be outlawed, but it certainly isn''t popular in some circles. His priests have a reputation.¡± At her raised eyebrow I continued. ¡°They like to give Vitala''s clerics a hard time, basically whenever they think they can get away with it.¡±


    ¡°Surprised nobody''s tried to remove them,¡± she mused.


    ¡°They deal with funeral services, and fix really evil problems if they come up. That and nobody wants to see if they could actually irritate death himself doing it.  Easier to just tell the people in the back row making fun of you to shut up.¡±


    ¡°Okay, that is great,¡± she said, laughing.

 Sentinel and the Witch- Interlude 1 Chapter 18

    Thana Mourningjay


    ¡°Here we are,¡± I said, looking over the village with rather mixed feelings.


    ¡°So this is where you grew up?¡± Milo asked. ¡°It looks quaint.¡±


    ¡°Mmm, I never went to town much though. We''ll need to get out to the house to see anything I remember much of.¡± I led him around the town proper an up a hill, not bothering to look back.


    ¡°We''re near your home. I know you don''t want to see your parents, but it is a good chance to. You might not get another,¡± Milo said, clearly not understanding just how distant we were.


    ¡°Next time we''re here I will, if we ever come back. Right now there''s no point, they''d either get mad or try ot call the constable. I don''t fancy killing the man, but if he tries to arrest us I will.¡±


    Milo frowned. ¡°It bothers me how easily you are willing to do that.¡±


    ¡°It''s not easy Milo, it''s not easy at all. I don''t want to hurt him, it''s just that I value my life over his. Perhaps the current one is a good man, or a bad man, or whatever, I don''t know. What I know is that if we''re taken in, we will almost certainly die. It''s why I haven''t objected at all to going to The Free Cities. We won''t have to make that choice at all.¡±


    ¡°Maybe you''re right, still...¡±


    ¡°If a bandit attacked us, would you hesitate?¡± I asked.


    ¡°That isn''t the same,¡± he declared.


    ¡°It''s not different to me. One would take all of our things, kill you, then probably rape and kill me. The other would take all of our things, cause us completely different kinds of pain, and then kill us too. We''re beyond the point where I can make peace with Lirian government Milo, way beyond it. You need to realize that you''re in the same boat too now, they''ll kill you just as sure as they''d have killed me.¡±


    ¡°Thana...¡±


    ¡°Look, I''m not saying we should try to hurt anyone, we shouldn''t. I just want you to understand that our lives are more valuable to me than those of someone I''ve never met.¡± With that I kept walking, I wanted to get this done with.


    I recognized the road, the trees, the smells and sights of the path we were taking. It had been so long, and some things had changed. There were a few more houses in the village, a little more growth. Some of the bits of the road didn''t match perfectly with my memory, but when we got to the creek that cut through the trees, and the little stone bride that crossed it.


    From there it wasn''t hard, follow the winding ribbon of water until you got to the big rock, which wasn''t nearly as big as I remembered, then turn to your left. Up the bank and beneath an old oak was a stone, a stone that had no business this far from the creek. Moss had grown over it, turning the marker green.


    I could feel the presence of the undead down there. It pinged lightly in my mind, as it always had. The sense didn''t tell me much, just that I had an undead, and it was mine. I could even feel the difference between this and those I''d taken from Opcan, or even the summons. It was a different sensation, a permenant and strong one.


    ¡°Here,¡± I said, moving the rock out of the way, it seemed so heavy.


    We didn''t have to dig down far. I hadn''t been all that dedicated as a child, or in the right state of mind. Less than a foot and the solid thunking noise told us that we''d reached the box. It was a little more difficult to get the whole thing out, but with Milo''s help we finished quickly.


    My hand trembled a bit as I reached out to the crate. It had been old and worn when I buried it, something used for moving goods and already coming apart. Now it was nearly rotten, the lit popping off with the slightest touch.


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    ¡°Come out,¡± I said, voice soft.


    Scritches, the cat I''d killed and who''d been here for much of my life left his box. His flesh didn''t stink, preserved by magic in part, with the pieces that would have rotted already gone. There was a small glow in his eyes, the unlife that I''d forced upon him. He looked at me blankly, with nearly nothing there other than the hunger of the dead.


    Milo Greyson


    ¡°I don''t wanna kill him,¡± Thana said, her voice close to breaking. She sounded like a child whose dog had gone rabid.


    ¡°We can''t take him with us, if he''s found before we reach the border... and we certainly can''t leave him, he''d be a danger to the area. If we were staying, if we had some way to store him, maybe, but we''re not Thana.¡±


    ¡°I know, I know I have to. It''s just, I''m able to feel him. On the bad days, the really bad ones when I was close to giving up I felt him in my mind, even through the antimagic, even through everything. It helped Milo, it helped.¡± She looked so sad, nearly ready to cry.


    ¡°You''re not alone,¡± I said with as much kindness as I could. It was clear that getting near this place, this moment had been irritating her. ¡°I''m here,¡± I said, planting my hand on her shoulder.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± she said, then turned to the creature. ¡°And you Scritches, stay still.¡±


    She took the branch we''d been using to dig and with a fast, hard movement clubbed the zombie again and again until it''s head was caved in, and tears poured down her cheeks. I''d thought to help, but it seemed something she wanted to do on her own.


    ¡°It''s okay,¡± I said, pulling her close.


    ¡°Will you help me put him back?¡± she asked, voice tight.


    ¡°Of course,¡± I reassured her.


    I looked down. It was clear the cat was now just dead, not even a zombie could take that kind of a beating and keep going, and besides the light in its eyes was gone now. Returning the animal to the ground was quick, only long enough to place it back in its box and toss the dirt over. The stone went back on top again, to mark the pet''s grave, and we both washed in the creek.


    We briefly stopped back in the village to get some supplies, and for me to get the stink-eye from everyone we met. It took a good five minutes to realize the issue was the girl beside me who looked like she''d been crying, because she had. At least nobody bothered us, since I was in a suit of armor and a strong fighter out here might well cause everyone in town problems.


    As I was paying the owner of the local general store for the handful of basics we were getting a little girl came up to Thana, she couldn''t be more than four.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± she asked sweetly.


    ¡°Yes, I was having some problems earlier, but everything is fine now,¡± she said, bending lower and giving the girl a small smile.


    ¡°Okay, don''t feel bad, sometimes I cry too.¡±


    ¡°I think we all do sometimes,¡± Thana said, patting her hair.


    ¡°Moira, why don''t you head home, it''s getting late,¡± the shopkeep said, clearly trying to get her away in case something went wrong.


    ¡°Okay,¡± the girl said, looking sad but turning and heading out, only stopping to give my companion a small wave.


    ¡°Cute kid,¡± Thana said, returning to join us.


    ¡°Listen sir, miss, we dont'' want no trouble here,¡± the man began.


    ¡°Nor do we,¡± I cut him off. ¡°Though you may get some soon. Highton fell, just so you know.¡±


    ¡°It was bad,¡± Thana observed. ¡°We got out, but it was bad.¡±


    ¡°I''d heard rumors, so you folks are?¡± he questioned.


    ¡°Heading out, away from the fighting.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for letting me know. I was worried you see, last time a knight came through town he roughed a bunch of folks up, didn''t like how people spoke to him or some nonsense,¡± the shopkeeper explained.


    ¡°Shameful, but not me. Unfortunately we do have to go, long way to travel.¡±


    ¡°Right sir, right, have a nice day then,¡± he smiled and nodded, seemingly still unconvinced we might not want trouble, but happy to let us go in peace.


    Over the next week we worked our way north, mostly following the roads with frequent stops. The kid really hadn''t been hiking in years and her feet were blistering almost daily. She could fix it easily enough, but it took a short break to do it. She also spent a bit of time working on some new spells, variants that had occurred to her, or things she''d seen in her dreams.


    Things were fairly quiet and with no trouble we reached the city of Mountain View. It was a medium sized thing, mostly a minor trade hub and well out of the way of any major tactical points. Here was where goods were shipped up into The Free Cities, and their mercenaries came down to work their trade for Liria.


    The set aside location for the wagon trains was bustling and loud, men yelling to unload or reload this good or that, and the various caravan masters all vying for space against one another.


    Thana Mourningjay


    My feet hurt, and I was tired. Milo seemed to know what he was doing as he looked over the various caravans, judging them by some metric I didn''t know. Eventually he approached one.


    ¡°Heading north? Don''t suppose you''re going through The Free City of Orean?¡± he asked the man supervising the workers.


    ¡°Aye, but we''re not a passenger transport,¡± the man replied.


    ¡°I''d never dream it, but perhaps you need some guards for the trip? Never know if there are bandits,¡± he smiled, leaning in.


    ¡°You maybe, but the girl? What''s she gonna do, cry at them?¡± the supervisor chuckled at Milo, and I could feel my hair bristle.


    ¡°I am a mage,¡± I declared, staring him down.


    ¡°Oh? That''s different then, can you show me a spell?¡± Now he was taking me seriously.


    ¡°Most of my magic is pretty unfriendly, but if you''ve got someone willing to take a hit I could do something that won''t hurt them too bad,¡± I offered. ¡°Most of my spells should definitly not be used in town through.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright,¡± he turned and yelled. ¡°HUGO, GET OUT HERE YOU LAZY BUM!¡± at one of the nearby carts. A man, who looked like he was still deep in a hangover came out, looking at us with bleary eyes. ¡°Girl says she''s an spellcaster, needs an example. You''re up, try to resist.¡±


    ¡°Seriously?¡± The sleeply-looking man said, stumbling over. ¡°As long as you don''t hurt me, have at it girly.¡±


    I was damn tired of these two already. It grated having to prove myself just because I was small and female, and so I decided to teach the drunkard a lesson. Normally I''d have just slapped him with one of the strength weakening rays that I liked so much, but no, he was getting one of my new spells. I let my hands snap forwards, bending and turning around a bone hanging from my bracelet. The words came unbidden and as the spell arced into the man I knew it worked.


    His eyes widened instantly as he looked to me. He''d been trying to take a drink from his canteen, but he dropped it to his feet and half-screamed half-whimpered before turning to bolt. He didn''t even seem to be looking all that hard where he was going, just launched himself away as fast as he could, stumbling and pushing through anyone in his way.


    ¡°Alright, I''m sold. We''ll have to discuss your pay, but you''ll both do nicely.¡± His eyes followed the path of his fleeing employee. ¡°Um... is he going to come back?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± I answered. ¡°Spell will end in a bit on its own.¡±

 Sentinel and the Witch- Interlude 1 Chapter 19

    Thana Mourningjay


    My feet were sore, I was tired of walking, and while these shoes fit really well and looked great, the leather in them hadn''t been at all worn in. That was apparently an issue, and why I was in so much discomfort.


    Three days in and most of the other people in the caravan were still avoiding me. It wasn''t like I''d hurt the other guard, or even done something he''d not told me to. Perhaps sending him screaming out of sight had been a tad overmuch. That fact that the coward had taken nearly an hour to tome back hadn''t helped either.


    ¡°See anything?¡± one of the drivers asked. He was letting me sit on the cart just below him, a rather kind gesture.


    ¡°Not a bit, though I''m not much of a scout,¡± I replied.


    Over the next hour or two we finally approached the checkpoint that was the border of Liria. They still had influence outside, and were known to send folks over to deal with issues, but this was where their laws officially ended.


    We passed by the guards in the colors of one of the local cities and they barely looked us over. It sounded like one had spoken to the caravan master, but the rest of us, nothing. The guards in Lirian uniforms on the other hand were checking documents, poking around in carts, everything.


    ¡°They not care if we''re bringing in weird things?¡± I asked the driver. ¡°I don''t know, drugs or whatever?¡±


    ¡°Nah, we won''t be checked for that until we get to the city gates themselves. Never been this way before?¡±


    ¡°Lived in Liria all my life,¡± I responded.


    ¡°The cities here are more independent. Each one has its own rules and laws, and almost all are very permissive. So long as you''re not trying to destroy the city or hurting anyone they let you do pretty much whatever you want. It''s part of why there are so many mercenary companies up here. In Liria you''d need permits to make a fortress, but in one of the cities you only need the gold for it.¡±


    ¡°I''ve heard they''re pretty loose, but castles and stuff?¡± That was odd, normally a government didn''t want anyone powerful enough to oppose them around.


    ¡°Pretty much whatever you want kid. Heck, there''s even a cavalry company out in Lyton that rides undead horses. Some necromancer made them for them decades ago and the things are just tireless.¡± He looked off, pointing at one of the very far off mountains.


    I snapped my head over to him. ¡°Wait, necromancy? That stuff''s legal here?¡± I was glad we were well past the gates when I spoke, or else I might have gotten more attention then was wise.


    ¡°On things that aren''t people, and I think they put a bunch of other restrictions on it too.¡±


    ¡°That''s awesome,¡± I said, smiling despite myself. The look he gave me told me just how bad that response was. ¡°Most of what I can do is debuffing magic, which is all in the same school as that. In Liria many of the higher level spells would be forbidden you see,¡± I tried.


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    The two of us didn''t speak much after that, him just nodding a few times at comments. Eventually I found myself a new cart to walk near, when it became clear that I was no longer welcome.


    Milo Greyson


    The poor kid was not making friends, not at all. Arcanists were rare as it was, and she''d displayed a rather nasty fear spell as her tryout. That was all well and good, at least as far as our employer was concerned, but now I was dealing with something else.


    ¡°Some of the boys are a bit worried about your companion,¡± the boss explained. ¡°You''ve known her for awhile right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what happened?¡± I asked.


    ¡°She got excited learning that some of the nastier magics were legal in The Free Cities. To be frank a fear mage is bad enough, but rumors are building,¡± he demurred.


    ¡°The kid''s a bit weird, and likes things that are a bit on the border, but I''ve personally seen her use her powers to save hospital patients and waylay terrible things.¡± I was clearly going to have to speak with her about whatever happened.


    ¡°So, she''s not going to kill us in our sleep to sacrifice us to evil overlords?¡± one of his nearby men asked.


    ¡°No, decidedly not. Do we need to break from the caravan at the next city?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I was debating that myself. Having a caster of any kind would be a boon if we run into bandits, but you know how people can be.¡± He looked away or a bit. ¡°Of course I would pay you the full amount we agreed on.¡±


    ¡°You know caravaners talk, we''ll have a time getting to Orean if you do that,¡± I observed, locking my eyes on him.


    The man chewed on his lip for a few moments, considering. ¡°Just Orean, no further, and I''ll tell the men you''re keeping her under control, if she stays with you they''ll keep their peace.¡±


    Two weeks later we finally made it, and sat in a tavern in Orean, waiting. Thana had been a bit mopey of late, though it was only her own fault for not schooling her emotions. She had her head resting lightly on her hands as the waitress, a cute young thing came by with a smile.


    ¡°Good afternoon you two, I''m Arisha, get you something to eat? Drink maybe?¡± She had a look that assured her good tips, if unwelcome advances.


    ¡°A round for all of us, and some of those roasted peaches if you don''t mind,¡± a familiar voice said from the side.


    I looked up to see an old friend walking over, armor creaking as I rose and we embraced.


    ¡°Rolond, long time,¡± I said, patting him on the back.


    ¡°You too Milo, didn''t reckon I''d ever see you leaving Liria again. What brings you up this way?¡± He sat down with us, looking us both over.


    ¡°Honestly?¡± I said, a bit regretfully, since this was definitely not my idea of a good time. ¡°Need for jobs, and someone we can trust.¡±


    ¡°Damn, things go that bad?¡±


    ¡°Highton is basically gone, and I may well never be able to return home,¡± I admitted, though it had been years Rolond and I had been like brothers, serving in the same unit our entire time.


    ¡°Liria is overrated anyway friend. Though... look, years ago I could have just assigned you a place, no problem, but you''re older now Milo. If I did that now the men would complain. I can put you in the trials for new recruits, but you''ll have to pass like everyone else.¡±


    ¡°No worries, I''m still here, and those green lads won''t stand a chance,¡± I answered, clapping him on the shoulder. It was all I could ask for to get a go at one of the better companies in the city.


    The waitress came back by, slipping our dish, which did smell delicious, onto the table with a round of frothing beers. ¡°If you need anything else please let me know,¡± she offered as she moved out of the way.


    She got to the next table over, where a man leaned in, taking a full grip on her backside. ¡°You know, I wouldn''t mind some peaches either,¡± he said with a crooked smile.


    I thought about getting involved when the waitress gave her own answer, voice a mix of sickly sweet and burning acid. ¡°You should look at things more in your price range, sadly we don''t serve water. Now get out, and if you don''t leave a good tip, don''t come back.¡±


    The man looked enraged for a second, and then must have realized the looks he was getting. Some were laughing, but a good few of the younger men looked like they were chomping at the bit to show the sexy barmaid just how manly they were. Hands were already moving towards blades as the offender threw down some coins and made a hasty retreat.


    Rolond laughed. ¡°That''s why I come here, that and the food is great.¡± He didn''t bother hiding it as he scooped one of the fruits onto his plate. ¡°I''m guessing your friend needs a job too? I can maybe find an opening in the fortress for a domestic, or if you are any good at it, we can always use another scribe. Oh, and if any of my men pull something like that fool there, tell me, I''ll cure them of it.¡±


    ¡°I''m a mage, and does that happen often?¡± Thana asked, nodding.


    ¡°Arisha gets them all the time, and never fails to put the guy in his place. Almost none of them ever do come back funnily. A mage though huh? Combat magic or something else?¡±


    Thana flicked her eyes at me questioningly and I nodded. ¡°He is someone you should trust.¡±


    ¡°Necromancy, though I can''t raise the dead or anything yet,¡± she answered.


    ¡°And that explains why the two of you are leaving Liria. No worries kid, I can work with that. Someone will have to run you through the rules at some point, but we can always use specialists for certain monster types. We''ll put you in the trials too, though as long as you can cast a few spells you''ll pass, we can never have enough mages.¡± He seemed thoughtful.