Session 29

I wavered in the fog, scimitar and shield drawn, just circling about aimlessly. Fog wasn’t natural in Illium at this time of year, and it was never this quiet. It felt wrong, but I didn’t know why.

As the rest of my friends got to their feet, I turned to Little Oddie on my shoulder. “Fly up, I need your help.”

The pygmy hawk responded with a chirp, then took off. I closed my eyes, and saw through his vision, a beast’s sense shared. He rose higher and higher until he hovered above the fog. I could see the castle’s spires protruding out of the mist, and in the distance, the mountains loomed. Behind him, the fog obscured the bay, but beyond that the ocean was visible.

As he did another round, a black cloud spilled out from the fog. It drifted toward us slowly at first, then its speed picked up. As it neared, I recognized the shapes: crows--deformed and rotting.

“Dive!” I yelled, sharing my command with the hawk high above. My party, who had been waiting at my side, shrunk back at the sudden cry.

Little Oddie obeyed, and our link was severed.

I blinked, then looked upward, hands extended. “Get ready,” I said aloud.

The hawk burst out of the mist and into my arms, and I immediately threw up my shield. The crows bombarded the wood, and my friends wasted no time in firing off attacks.

Soon, I was surrounded by the rotting corpses of birds.

I turned to my friends. “We have to get to the castle!”

Undead. The city was teeming with undead. How or why alluded me. I only knew I had to fight them and protect Illium to the best of my ability.

We arrived at one of the gates as zombies clawed along the walls. Fires burned in nearby buildings, and soldiers reigned arrows from the ramparts, doing little to slow the overwhelming odds.

“Help the guards,” I told my party, “I’ll deal with the fires.”

They obeyed and we split off.

I called forward a spell once granted to me by Obad-Hai for a mistake very much my fault. Now I was in perfect command, and the sudden sleet storm smothered any flames in the area. I bolted toward the party as they finished dismembering the last of the zombies.

“Open the gates!” A guard yelled from above.

“What the hells is going on?!” I all but screamed at the first guard I came across.

“P-princess, we, um, we don’t know. The f-fog...it came, and the undead...they’re everywhere…. We’re trying to get the civilians to the castle.”

“Where are they coming from?” Maziel stepped up, far calmer than I could have managed. I think I saw relief in the guard's eyes. In the past few weeks, Maziel had taken to training some of Illium’s guards, providing more practical applications in battle. This guard was evidently one of her students.

“We don’t know,” the guard said, “Only that they haven’t stopped...”

“Why aren’t the titans helping?” I growled.

“Their power gems are gone,” a mechanical voice chimed in.

I looked up to find Feeps, the warforged centaur, approach.

I threw my arms around him, and he returned the embrace.

“Thank Erathis you are alive,” he whispered.

“What’s going on?” I said weakly, eyeing the peculiar bard at his side.

“We do not know,” Feeps replied. “At present, our course of action is to safeguard the people.”

I pulled away, taking a deep breath. “How far have you gotten with the district evacuations?” I asked, trying not to let panic set in anymore than it already had.

“We have Crow and Eagle District left.” Feeps replied.

I closed my eyes and bit my tongue. Helping Crow District, the barracks, meant more military support, but Eagle District was home to the nobles, my aunt included…

“That’s a lot of fire,” the guard said, standing apart from us and pointing past my head. I turned, and knew my answer was decided for me. Crow District was burning.

I placed a hand on the guard’s shoulder, and endeavored to appear positive, if only for my sake. “Keep helping everyone to the castle. I’ll figure this out.”

“Taelim,” Feeps called out, “take young Beck, he wishes to be of assistance.”

I raised an eyebrow at the bard called Beck, who smiled tentatively.

“Whatever, c’mon,” I said, about to break into a run. I stopped, then glanced back at my best friend. “I’ll be back”

Feeps smiled. “I know you will.”

I looked toward the open gates, then to my friends, and swallowed. “On we go…”

The two undead ogres that greeted us were halfway through demolishing Crow’s central barracks. Inside, families and veterans had holed up, trying to fend off wave after wave of undead assault. After a brutal skirmish, my party and I had managed to put the dead to rest, then coax the living out of hiding. Like a train of frightened souls, we gingerly made our way back to the castle. A parade of people trying to stealth past hordes of undead. Not of all them made it, and by now my nerves had gnawed away on all my senses.

In the courtyard, we pushed people inside the castle proper. To safety, to hope. That was, until the undead finally found their way past the gates. They had discovered the sewers which connected the city, and spilled out in abundance, scampering toward our hurried attempts at protecting the innocents.

“Get them inside!” I called.

I turned to my friends, but they were already standing between the civilians and the horde ambling our way. Between the fear, hatred, and utter uncertainty, I knew thanks for these people that stayed by my side, time after time. Even in the face of death. How easy it could have been to take their hands and plane shift somewhere tropical and carefree. That wasn’t us though, and we faced the undead with a furious cry.

After the onslaught, the civilians, or what was left of them, made their way inside the castle’s refuge. Again, I raised my head toward Eagle District, trying with every ounce of my fiber not to break down. I could have gone inside the castle, to hide or help where Feeps and Killian were giving commands, but that wasn’t me. I needed to be here, outside, facing the front with the soldiers alongside me.

I peered my friends. Their ragged, beaten faces watched me as if waiting for direction. I shrugged and moved out of the gates.

When we arrived in the heart of Eagle District Klotonk gasped, he had seen what I mistook for an illusion of sorts. No, the Mage’s Guild had, in fact, been wiped out entirely. An entire block where the building once stood was now barren, tendrils of mist crawling across the ground. That might have, in part, explained why Illium fared so poorly against these odds. All of our defenses were gone.

I walked toward Illium University, where I had no doubt most of the nobles, including my aunt, had holed up. An eerie laugh echoed through the empty streets.

Fury overtook me, and by now, I had abandoned reason.

“Come out here and fight me you chicken shit!” My voice rang out in the quiet, and I drew my weapon.

Taelim… My scimitar, Radiant, warned in my head. It vibrated in my hand as I pointed it toward the academy.

The laugh only grew louder.

“You must be mad to fight me! Or maybe it’s the other way around?” The voice tittered, and an invisible form shifted through the mist.

“Come on then, fight!” I taunted, calling out my unseen opponent.

Taelim! Radiant rang in my mind. I think it’s a--

“Is that the princess?” the voice shrieked in delight. “It is!!” It laughed uncontrollably. “Oh! That’s right...Harthoon says hello and thanks you for the power gems!”

Mother fu--

A heavy wind blew past me, and I winded my stance. I was already far ahead of my friends, despite their warnings.

Harthoon! That lich worshipper of Orcus. He took the power gems, that’s why the titans aren’t working!

My mind raced, and I was so focused on a solution that I forgot about the present.

TAELIM! Radiant screamed in my head. Dracolich!

It was too late, I was thrown back, claws ripping up my side. The force swept past me, its chortles echoing all around. As I clutched my wounds, I heard Klotonk shout out a spell, and the form was forced from invisibility. Dracolich indeed. The skeletal form of an ancient dragon hovered above us, grinning. Its webless wings kept it airborne, while traces of rotted blue sinew still clung to pieces of bone.

I will kill it! Radiant swore eagerly.

I gaped down at the blade, Right, you’re a dragon killer. I grinned, part way between frenzy and insanity. That’s just what I need.

By the time I clambered to my feet, everyone else was engaged in battle. Arrows and bolts whizzed by, and spells illuminated the dark. The dracolich continued to swoop down, swiping at my friends, then giggling before going airborne.

Can you get me up there? Radiant asked.

Druid. Hello. I took the form of an eagle and chased the diving dragon, narrowly avoiding Klotonk’s fireball, which exploded off the creature’s side. Down below, I could hear young Beck, strumming his lute and encouraging our battle fever. In a lot of ways, he reminded me of Feeps.

I landed on the dracolich’s back, and it greeted me with a cackle. I dropped my form, drawing Radiant, and drove the sword into its back. All mirth faded from the undead creature, and it cried out savagely. Its tail knocked me off its back, and I fell at least two stories to the ground. My visioned blackened for a moment, and when I opened my eyes, it was Beck who helped me to my feet.

“Not yet, Princess!” the bard grinned, pointing up the dracolich just Cosmo and Maziel unloaded a volley on the creature.

I’ve got energy for one more shape shift, I told Radiant.

Let’s go, the scimitar replied eagerly.

Again, I took to the sky. Waiting for Klo’s spells to stagger the beast. Then I dropped onto the dracolich’s back, and Radiant seemed to shine as I drove it into the beast’s spine. This time I was ready, and leaped off before the tail hit me.

The dracolich crashed to the ground, roaring violently. It eyed our worn group, and laughed weakly.

“You win...this time,” it snickered, and with one last beat of its wings, it leapt skyward.

Maziel and Klotonk didn’t hesitate, and fired away, but both attacks went wide. The dracolich soared out of sight.

It was a worthy opponent...Radiant said at last.

That’s loser talk for failing. I taunted the sword.

I could feel its annoyance, but a voice called out before it replied, distracting all of us.

“Taelim!”

Aunt Tylda had thrown open the doors of the academy and ran toward us. I hurried to meet her, catching her in an embrace.

“You’re safe,” I said softly, clinging to her desperately.

I opened my eyes to see a group forming in the doorway. The gaping faces of Lord Blacktower, Valium and many more nobles watched us. I ignored them for now, and looked at my aunt.

“Let’s get back to the castle.”