An Apocalypse Rising

The party moved on as the first rays of dawn peeked through the thickening blanket of clouds. The wind found some force and bite as the front drew nearer to them. Neral knew there would be rain sooner rather than later and she shivered in anticipatory dread. She conceded to herself that it was likely a combination of things. There was always that tension when she knew they were heading into a fight instead of away from one. Not that she shied away from battle, but she was also not afraid of a retreat if it opened the possibility of a better opportunity later, or, if she was so hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned that their slaughter was assured if she stayed.

She couldn't help but think the latter in this case. She and her handful of troops were going into the den of the beast and it would take ingenuity and probably all of the luck any of them had left in this life to come out of it breathing. She could be clever enough when it counted, but luck was the purview of the Goddess and Neral never did like trusting anything to Her fickle nature. She'd seen too many instances of evil triumphing over good in her life to have much faith in anything so intangible.

She had faith in her family. She had faith in the ones at home and the ones behind her, whether they be the loves of her life or the soldiers she'd fought with, bled with, and had sworn to lead the best she knew how.

Kress read the body language from her right. "Something on your mind, General?"

She decided to keep some of her thoughts to herself. "Eyes sharp everyone. The terrain is going to start turning against us with the dense forest on one side and the rocky beach on the other." She didn't relish worming her way through dense forest and adding who knows how much time to their journey.

Kress looked out upon the massive trees and lush greenery that loomed closer, seemingly just in front of the jagged gray rocks. "Better the woods than the exposed beach that screams, 'Here I am, come kill me.'"

Bryana cut in, cowl firmly in place before the first droplets could attack. "That's not it. It's the rain. She hates fighting in the rain. She hates traveling in the rain. She hates water in general."

The group looked to one another, then to the general, curious to see where it would lead. For the recruits, it was another chance for them to know her outside of the field and she welcomed it. It built camaraderie, and that led to honest loyalty. She demanded respect always, but not only did she feel they needed to see her as more like them than not, she wanted them to. She wasn't a demigod and commanders that projected that eventually started to believe it. And when they started to believe it, streets ran red with blood.

"Dearest, if you had been a brash lieutenant during the Laprem Campaign, you too would hate rain. It rained for weeks straight."

"Not straight," Kress corrected. "There was an hour's break here; another two hours there."

"Everything was wet all the time and you knew you would never be dry again."

"You never said a word about it," Kress said with some pride. "Your face complained all the time, but you never said a word." That elicited some laughter while the recruits still looked a bit nervous trying to figure out when and how much to laugh at their general.

"We wolfed food as fast as we got it so it didn't soak through, too."

"Not as fast as Deres, I'll wager," Maylin said from her place behind him. "His first few days in Adar, if he wasn't trying to burst his cheeks with food, he slept."

Deres defended his honor. "I was hungry and I had never seen so much food in my life. Add to that that most of it was new to me, it had to be tasted. As for sleeping, I could finally do that with my eyes closed, so, of course I did." There was that same lack of bitterness in his tone, what was simply was. Indeed, time let him look upon it with some bit of amusement.

Makleen, daring young soul that she was decided to wonder aloud, "What made you take him home?" The question added some rose red to her very round cheeks.

"He stole from me."

Kestral shook her head. "I'll steal from you, take me to paradise."

Maylin appraised her and smirked. "Manage to steal from me and I'll consider it. That was not my first venture out into the world. That an outlander boy could take something so prized from a Magister of Adar was a feat worthy of note. And there was something in his eyes that suggested he was capable of more. All of that and...I was lonely. "

She saw the look that Kestral gave her. "Surprised that we are more alike than not, outlander? Does it shock you that I feel? I had no mate or children of my own. I just never seemed to have the time and then it seemed too late." She clutched his waist as if to hug. "We gave one another a family."

Dion thought to ask, "Do many travel outside of Adar?"

"Not many. Most believe that we have all we need there and that outlanders have nothing to offer."

"We do seem to be useful when it comes to cleaning up their shit," Kestral said without humor even though she'd gotten some laughter all the same.

Neral could feel the tension escalate slightly and she didn't want to have to mediate a dispute, break up a fight, or, worst case, gather Kestral's ashes. "Maylin, are you up for a bit more in the way of reconnoiter?"

Deres stopped and helped her down. It amused him slightly to see her stumble a bit when she had otherwise always been so graceful. All her movements seemed to remind him of a dance. "I am."

"We'll hold here, and you see if you can see if there's a path through the woods or if we have to risk the beach."

"I can manage that."

"Stay away from a fight, Mother," he warned like a scolding parent.

"That's not really up to me," she said, the train of her dress seeming to catch the breeze before slipping behind a tree and simply not coming out from behind it.

Delles shook her head, eyes filled with wonder, "I'll never get used to that."

Anna countered, "Used to it? I wish I could

do

that. She looked to Deres and Bryana. Can either of you teach me?"

"If you have fifteen years to commit to it, sure."

"Twenty at most," Bryana added.

Neral looked back. "Good luck understanding it. I err and attempt to comprehend it on occasion and all I get is gibberish. 'Blah, blah, blah...tapping into the energy currents that flow through everything.' 'Blah, blah, blah...synergy between mind, body, and that energy.' 'Blah, blah, blah...it's like a symphony in that if you know how it is conducted and played you can change it while still keeping its soul intact.'" She let loose an exaggerated, exasperated sigh.

Deres tried to encourage her. "Don't feel badly, Neral. You already understand more than most do. We each have our gifts, it just so happens that yours is stabbing things with sharp, pointy metal bits."

The unified exclamation from her troops embarrassed her and she took a second to ride that out before responding. "It has served me well in my life, Husband."

"It does tend to keep our disagreements short," he agreed, twinkle in his eye.

Bryana felt the need to clarify things. "That and the fact that, as the man, he is wrong about everything by default."

This time the exclamation made Neral laugh out loud.

He stiffened and turned away, wounded. "If you're all going to be like that, I can just leave."

Then, as quickly as she had disappeared behind the trees, she reappeared from the same one with that elegant glide, but the look of consternation on her features spread and any remaining levity evaporated. Neral stiffened, waiting for her to speak.

"The woods are crawling with the things," she said, giving the report as she thought Neral would want to hear it. We don't get through there without a fight."

Kress looked at her, "Can't we just do the invisibility thing again? That worked splendidly the first time."

Maylin shook her head. "That forest looks, from here, probably two days-ride deep, maybe more. I can't guarantee that even between the three of us that we could hold it without slipping."

"If it slips in the middle of the woods, we're caught in a fight...at the least," Abren said, her tone harsh, though she looked as though she were prepared to accept that outcome if that's what her commander ordered.

"Even if we could guarantee that we could maintain the veil, it's not perfect," Deres admitted. "It's not absolute invisibility. There are flickers of...distortion now and again as light is bent. With so many eyes to potentially see it we run a similar risk as if one of us falters in the casting."

"The beach it is then." Neral didn't relish it, but if they stayed near the rock wall there might be enough concealment to let them squeak through."

"By everywhere, General, that's what I mean," Maylin told her grimly. "I'm not even sure we could make it to the narrow that would let us reach it without the horde trying to swarm us."

"Sir," Pel began, "what if some of us served as a distraction? "We make a loud run for the woods and take our chances. Loud enough and you might make it to the narrow."

Neral looked put towards the thick tree line in distance. "And leave you to them at worst, and, at best, trying to work yourself out of that growth and back to us?" She shook her head.

"General, with respect, there is no other way that I can see. Pel has a decent plan. It has the virtue of being the best choice among no good ones." Kress kept her tone formal but gentle. She knew what the likely outcome was and she knew her commander.

Pel straightened atop her horse. "I volunteer."

In slow but certain succession, every other voice did the same.

"Someone has to have the best chance of getting where we need to be and that needs be you."

Neral looked at Kress with those lines of stress and age beginning to leave deeper furrows at her temples, but those eyes still burning with a zeal for life and it weighed on her as it always did because with all volunteering it was now left to her to choose. If any of the choices could be said to be easy, one was. Kress was the most experienced aside from Neral herself and she would be needed. More than that, she wanted to go. It was in her eyes that Neral had learned to read so long ago.

Neral tilted her head in Maylin's direction without actually looking at her. "Maylin? Are you willing to go with them to scout?"

Before she could answer, Kress shook her head. "No need, General."

"You'll need all the help you can get, Kress."

Her head shook again and she squared her shoulders. "You're going after a mage. If she finds you first, you're probably going to need every spell-caster you can get. We're not going to find anything we can't run through with a blade."

"I like your confidence, Devine. And if you happen across any of those half-mages?"

She shrugged. "We're nimble, we'll just dodge until the bitches get tired, then run them through. I don't expect it to be that difficult."

"You wouldn't." Neral looked out upon her troops, measuring what might be needed, looking each in the eye as she spoke their name. "Hennis...Pell...Zynn...Misha...Makleen. You'll accompany Major Kress, providing a distraction for the rest of to slip past and try to make our way to the beach."

"Good luck, sir," Pel said, swallowing back her fear for her commander and the friends she'd leave behind.

"Thank you, lieutenant. Major, let's get you geared. Take what you think you might need from what there is. And I trust my mages can conjure a few things that will be helpful?"

"We can manage that," Deres told her, looking to his mother and Bryana, knowing they were probably thinking along the same lines. They were indeed as Maylin was already pulling blank spell slips from her pack.

They drew back, using the distance and some cover as the mages worked. There were enough other things for the troops to be doing to prepare that the three worked undisturbed. Even so, there were a few sidelong glances aimed at them as they found their own space to work slightly away from the group.

Half an hour later Deres came to Kress, collection of slips in hand. He deposited them as he spoke, amber ones first. "These are wards. Place these at eight points around camp and they'll work similarly to what we do at night. These are simpler and more passive though. They won't damage anything or anyone."

She nodded. "Only for early warning then."

He nodded back before handing her red ones that were warm to the touch. "These, on the other hand, will. You'll get a nice explosion and fire and they have a good twenty yard radius. Don't use them on anyone you're not upset with."

She was surprised at how much weight the little red slips of glass seemed to have, probably, she surmised for easier throwing. "What keeps one of those half-mages from setting them off by shoving her hand in my pocket and squeezing?"

He shook his head. "They're warded. If you're corrupt, you may as well keep them for jewelry for all the good they'll be."

She liked the thought. "Maybe I'll let you make pendants out of them when we get back."

"I surely will, be promised, the hope he'd be held to that in his eyes. "Good, luck, Major."

"And to you, Deres. Keep the general from trouble, would you?"

He sighed. "Difficult when she runs toward it."

Unable to counter that truth, she didn't try, opting instead to give him a couple hearty slaps on the arm and headed off, silently wishing him more luck. She looked ahead even as she came back to her mount, looking for signs to judge how the creatures might respond if they had thought and how they might if they didn't.

Neral looked to him, noting as they found their mounts again, "Those might have been useful before."

"And if we'd had them before we would have had them before," he said simply. "Taming energy that way is no simple thing. They aren't all that easy to make. Coming up with the spell to keep the energy coherent enough to be tamed and not fade away wasn't easy."

She wanted to make sure there was no misunderstanding. "I wasn't being accusatory by the way."

"I know."

"She's never fully appreciated what we do," Bryana said, wounded.

"I thought I'd made it clear before that I barely

understand

what you do."

Decisions made, Kress said her goodbyes to the others, reminding them for their strengths and offering advice where she could. As she mounted her horse she looked to her group to see them following her lead. They were a good group that she was proud to lead. As much as part of her wanted to stay by the general's side, she was needed this way. She met Neral's dark eyes and the general broke the silence. "See you on the other side of the woods. We'll wait as long as we have to."

"General, you'll wait as long as you

can.

Besides, we'll probably be the ones waiting for you. We'll stick out less and will probably make better time."

Neral let the sarcasm drip. "I have always been humbled by your confidence in me."

"I'm just making sure you're not resting on your laurels." She extended her arm.

She clasped it just below the elbow and felt the same in return. "Never happen with the way you've ridden my ass for what seems like more of my life than is fair."

"Only the ones with at least a glimmer of gift for this life, sir."

"Only a glimmer?"

"Yes, sir," she deadpanned.

The two held their mounts side by side as they waited for the rain.

***

Shortly after noon it came. First in a light drizzle where each drop seemed to have more weight than a drop of water should, smacking everything it touched with a popping sound and it felt to Neral like it did as a girl when her elder sister would flick her on the back of the head as they waited somewhere just to see how much the younger would tolerate. The reminder made Neral even more sour, as if the rain itself and the circumstances weren't enough.

Then it started coming down in sheets, a near literal wall of rain that pressed on her mail and threatened to soak everything beneath. It ran from in little streams, drenching everything as it ran for the ground. Still they waited. If it was making them miserable, it was making the beasts in the distance the same way. Large and small their movements changed. One large beast with a greenish carapace that blended to the grass remind one of a rock from a distance settled in and hunkered down while others trotted, skittered, and lumbered towards the woods for whatever semblance of cover it would provide.

"Your run," Neral said firmly. "You order, I'll follow."

That satisfied her. "As it once was."

Kress hefted one of the red slips in her hand, noting to herself approvingly that she could probably get some good distance with it. She lobbed it toward the path that led to the beach, striking it against the trunk of one of what Neral had taken to thinking of as spire trees as they reminded her of how high Bryana imagined the buildings of Adar.

There was a snap of thunder, high-pitched, then deeper as the shock wave pushed the air outward. Even prepared for it, Neral gripped Stenna's reins more tightly. A red mist seemed to billow outward in all directions before it ignited, setting the trees and grass around it aflame with that same crimson red. Neral looked with satisfaction as the explosion sent bits of smaller beasts about and the flames sent others running, burning in the madness of fire and the unyielding pain that came with it.

Some of the intelligent ones steered clear while others calculated low point of the flames and charged through looking for the source. The lesser ran towards the disturbance, determined to attack until the heat and flame drove them back. The rock creature extended its short limbs as if to move its bulk as it wailed, apparently more annoyed than angry.

"You'll know when, General." She kept her eyes ahead. "Soldiers, follow."

Her troops responded in muted unison. She threw another at the same spot and didn't wait for it to land before charging forward. Neral was pleased at the skill it took for the rock to land only slightly left of the original, catching several full on in the fire and thunder. The horses moved at full gallop making rumblings of their own and, as Kress howled and dared the animals to attack, so did those with her as they made for the tree line. With the sound of the explosion having faded, leaving only the crackle of the crimson flames, the party started gathering attention. The remaining creatures saw something to blame for the disturbance and something they could kill. Even the rock thing turned and started to pick up speed.

When it seemed that everything that was truly dangerous ahead was either dead, on the way to dead, or chasing quarry Neral moved, urging Stenna to full speed. More claps of thunder could be heard in the growing distance. A few smaller creatures gave them chase but Deres and Bryana dispatched them silently, pitching them to the nearest of the slowly drowning walls of flame while Neral put her head down and focused on her black mane and the rhythm of her hooves and the squicking of the mud as she pounded it and Neral let herself be cold from the rain and from the knowledge that she was leaving her troops behind.

The journey over the winding pathway to the beach was treacherous in its own right with the narrow, uneven path. Add to it the mud and the incline they were relegated to a snail's pace for too long for anyone's liking. Eventually though they did reach the gray sand of the beach. Under other circumstances, it would have been lovely with the waves foaming in white plumes against the rocks even as they rode nearly single file against the sheer rock face opposite the waves to help conceal them.

They were soaking wet, chilled to the bone, and somber as they rode. No one spoke, telling themselves it was to stay aware of their surroundings, but in truth it would have seemed disrespectful somehow. After a time Deres broke the silence. "If there's any group that can make it through."