RE: Monarch

“Maya?” I shouted.

“Here!” A voice called back. A few yards away from me, Maya pushed herself to her feet. She looked similar to how I felt, with her expression dazed, her dress torn and smeared with dirt.

The aegis faded. After a brief look to make sure there was no immediate threat, I forced myself to disassociate from the chaos. Catalogue the damage.

A piece of metal shrapnel, about a finger’s-width long, had found its way through a gap in the xescalt armor and embedded itself in my thigh. While the pain was manageable, the location was problematic. It was impossible to tell through the fabric whether it hit anything vital.

I checked to ensure it was firmly lodged, and upon confirming that it was, left it in.

Aside from a few scratches on my face, I was unscathed. My breastplate, on the other hand, was dented around my chest as a result from a massive shard of metal lying nearby in the grass. If it wasn’t for the armor, it would have pierced my heart. And I’d be dead already.

Only then did I allow myself to take it all in. The attackers had detonated the mobile armory, effectively turning it into an improvised bomb.

The resulting damage was catastrophic.

A multitude of bloodied bodies littered the grass, human, and horses alike. Many died from the initial impact. Others were alive and screaming, fountains of blood running freely from jagged wounds that did little to differentiate noble from soldier. There was smoke everywhere, making it impossible to get any sort of handle on the battlefield.

I tensed as a large man in plated armor walked through the smoke, seemingly unharmed, until he fell to his knees and toppled, blood running freely from the hole where his arm had been cut clean off.

“Who’s attacking us? Thaddeus?“

I blinked. The man was gone. I’d protected him with the aegis and now he was nowhere to be seen.

Something was wrong. In any other situation, the military should have closed ranks around the nobility. The few I did see were scattered on the ground, next to their late charges.

Where were all the soldiers?

“Blade.” Maya commanded.

I tossed her my knife, still looking for any trace of an enemy. Maya withdrew the dark blade from the sheath and slashed savagely through the leg of her restrictive dress. I walked backward, covering her with my body. There was too much smoke. It pressed in on us, thick and claustrophobic.

“Something’s wrong.”

“You think?! Shit.”

“What?”

Maya didn’t answer. Instead, she broke from me and dashed across the clearing. I kept pace, scanning the smoke for shadows and silhouettes, finding none.

When I reached her, Maya was kneeling over a woman with dozens of pieces of metal that had shredded through her face, marring her almost beyond recognition. Maya’s hands glowed green, cupping the woman’s face.

Lady Melody

“She’s gone. We need to move.”

“The wounds are localized to one area. I can stop the bleeding and stabilize her.” Maya’s face was a mask of focus.

”Maya!”

“Deny me of this and deny yourself an ally!” Maya bellowed. She lowered her voice, but still stared defiantly up at me. “Think. Do you hear the sounds of battle beneath their cries of pain?

I strained my ears. There was a great deal of movement and another explosion, but no clashing of steel. “No.”

“Then it is likely their intention that we panic and spread out. Rather than complying, we should use this time to save who we can.”

Dammit.

“Work fast.” I hissed. While Maya attended Melody, I seeded several sparks along the charred grass and allowed them to spread, keeping the flame small and hidden. I wanted to avoid drawing attention to us. I’d wait to ignite my sword for as long as possible.

There was another explosion in the distance. And another.

A rabbit wandered into the clearing. Its fur was white as freshly fallen snow, its eyes a dull crimson. I watched out of the corner of my eye as it took a few exploratory hops towards Maya, cautiously sniffing at the air.

All at once it began to swell, it’s stomach ballooning outward, mouth opening in a surprised squeal.

I was moving before I registered why, sprinting towards the rabbit.

Red fissures split down the rapidly inflating skin. The angle was wrong. I wouldn’t be able to get in front of Maya and throw up an Aegis in time.

Instead, I pulled my foot back and kicked it with all my strength, launching it up into the sky.

The rabbit exploded in a flare of orange, showering viscera down on us. The ringing in my ears intensified.

“Alive?” Maya asked. She said it a little too loudly.

“Barely.” I wiped the animal blood from my face.

She pushed herself to her feet, unsteady. “That’s all I can do for her.”

“Then we’re done here.” I clasped Maya’s arm and hauled her away, pushing through the smoke towards the sound of clinking plate and voices.

“Can you clear the smoke?” Maya asked, her voice low.

I considered it. “Not without revealing our position. I saw a humanoid figure on the mountain on the other side of the clearing, holding a staff above his head. He was surrounded by wolves. Ring any bells?”

“No.” Maya said.

“Elves, maybe? They’re using animals.”

“Unlikely. The woodland elves revere animals. They’d never use them like the rabbit, no matter how desperate they were. Light and dark elves are too busy feuding among themselves for this, especially lately.” Maya frowned. “That leaves—“

There was a flash of metal as a curved blade struck out from the smoke. I whipped my head back, narrowly avoiding the clean arc, and retreated several steps, holding the sword out before me.

A woman stepped out of the smoke, smiling widely. For a moment, I mistook her for Thoth. A careful second look revealed the differences. She wasn’t nearly as thin as my nemesis. Her skin was a rosy hue, rather than pale and white. And instead of banded leathers, she wore a wolf’s pelt like a shawl.

“The Den Mother smiles kindly, gifting me the son of the desecrator.” The woman turned her head, her lips pressed together as if she were about to whistle.

I called on the wind, driving air mana down through the inscriptions in my legs, and stomped down. The world itself seemed to shift, the gap between us shortened in seconds.

The woman started and tried to bring her sword to bear.

In my haste, I’d miscalculated, bringing myself far too close to impale her. Instead, I dropped the weapon, entangling her sword arm with mine and clamping my free hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened as a line of flame ignited her tongue and raced down her throat, burning her from the inside. She flailed wildly, trying to wrench away. I clamped down, tightening the hold as I poured mana into the fire, accelerating the burn and increasing the temperature.

Finally, the elf went limp. She didn’t fall to the ground so much as slump, her bones turned to ash.

“Lord below.” Maya was shaking. At first, I thought it was due to the sudden violence of the kill, but she was staring at the woman’s face. “Cairn. That is one of the Drephin.”

The world seemed to hold a great weight to her, as if it was sacrosanct to speak it.

“Drephin?” I asked.

“Abominations.” Maya shuddered. “Celestial elves, transformed by the cruel machinations of the old gods.”

“They all look like her? Light reddish skin? Black veins?”

“No one’s ever seen one. They’re supposed to be extinct.” Maya whispered. I held my hand out to her, and she took it, as we continued through the smoke. “But that fits the description from the legends.”

That wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear. In my countless hours of research, delving into the history of the other races, the Drephin had never warranted so much as a mention.

But I’d seen them before.

“They were there that night. At the coronation.” I whispered grimly.

Maya squeezed my arm. “Are you certain?”

“Without a doubt.”

“Then we are in far greater peril than we realized. The ramifications alone—“

“Let’s, just, stay focused on the present.”

Maya nodded, still deep in thought

Up ahead, the sounds of armored bodies and screams had intensified, accompanied by the clashing impacts of swords and battle cries. I cocked my head. The sounds seemed centered on two separate locations. Straight ahead, and far to the right.

“The humans are split.” I said grimly, knowing all too well what that meant in a situation like this. The fighting was not in our favor.

Finally, the smoke cleared.

The feeling of wrongness grew stronger as I took in the two distinct groups. One was almost entirely rank-and-file. The bulk of my father’s forces, locked in battle with the drephin. A bloody clash, but they’d kept their wits about them and maintained formation.

Nearly a hundred feet away, there was a much smaller group struggling to maintain a single defensive line against the onslaught of scarlet elves, let alone a full formation, their focus hopelessly split between protecting a multitude of nobles and defending themselves. My father’s bannerlords were among them, somehow missing the bulk of the men from their houses.

They were attempting to force their way towards the first group, but making little headway.

The first group made no such effort.

And while there were drephin dividing the two, there wasn’t nearly enough to prevent merging from being the most tactically sound decision.

It’s not a rout. That’s just how it’s supposed to look..

Even the mages on the backline of the first group were focusing their efforts entirely on the enemy in front of them, despite their considerable range. It was possible they were drained of mana, but this close to the beginning of the battle?

No. This was something else.

“What do we do?” Maya asked.

”Vogrin, you awake?” I called him.

No answer. My demonic servant’s increased downtime on the surface was going to take some serious getting used to.

“Cairn?” Maya asked again. She’d taken the moment of respite to summon Kastramoth, a macabre, moose-like demon with transparent skin who towered over us.

“You’re going to have to trust me,” I said.

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