The Fell War - Chapter 15

The players from Diamond arrived the next evening, and were quickly informed of the confrontation between the Commander and the Goddess of Light. Alfre was followed around camp by looks of awe and barely concealed whispers. Not that she minded too terribly. At least these whispers weren’t particularly nasty. Though they had needed to break up a few fights between clerics. Some who’d chosen Orli as their patron upon character creation were being harassed by other clerics. Alfre and the others had to make it clear that such things were not welcome, especially since that decision was made before any Fell understood what kind of person Orli was. And it wasn’t something that could be changed now.

“Perhaps if they come across a temple to another god, they could,” Elias explained after one such altercation. “But it doesn’t matter. They’re with us, and we will respect them for that alone.”

Ren and her squad were leaving soon. Just after sunset, they’d take off in the direction of Heart. The rest of the army would move out one day later at dawn. Alfre was still uneasy about going into battle without Spica. She’d gotten far too used to her two best friends being right by her side every step of the way. The idea of fighting without either of them made her stomach turn.

“You’ll be fine, darling,” Spica assured her. “We’ll see each other again soon enough.”

Alfre nodded solemnly. Suddenly, she unclasped her Cloak of Night’s Shadow. She thrust it towards her friend. “Here. Take it. You need it more than I do, since you’re actively trying to be sneaky and all that.”

Spica smiled softly, taking the cloak without complaint. “Thank you, Alfre.”

“Don’t you dare die,” Alfre warned her. “Elias will cry for days and I’d really rather not deal with that.”

The assassin laughed, a pretty, ringing sound. “I’ll do my best.”

They took off into the sunset, their summoned steeds carrying them over sand and yellow-green grass. Ren rode at the head, Spica and Silver right behind her. They rode well into the night, until their steeds refused to carry them any farther. After that, they walked with only moonlight to guide them. It took them the whole night and well into the next morning to even get close enough to see the City.

It was well and truly ruined, they discovered. Three of the original seven walls that ringed the city were completely gone. A fourth was damaged beyond repair. The final three walls still stood, if only because they were the thickest and interwoven with magical barriers. Buildings in the outer four districts were still smoking from the fires that had ravaged the city. None of the original city banners still flew.

“It looks awful,” Silver whispered, his fists shaking with rage.

Makoto nodded sadly. “It looks even worse than when we left it. At least the fourth wall had still been standing then.”

Ren scowled. “C’mon. We have to get in there. Remember the plan.”

They snuck towards the city, protected by the assassin’s stealth spells. They kept to the shadows of the ruined city, holding their breaths every time a Granato patrol passed them by. Other than the Granato and their Fell, the city seemed completely abandoned. No other players dared walk the streets of the ruined districts.

The insurgents made their way through the winding streets of Heart, ducking between ruined houses and smoldering chunks of the former walls. There was very little activity from the Granato in the lower districts, lucky for them.

“Where is the cathedral anyway?” Basil asked quietly as they slipped through an opening in the fourth wall.

“Third district,” Makoto informed them. “Just beyond the wall. We’re lucky that one is still standing. I know of a small side gate that I can almost guarantee won’t be guarded.”

“Lead the way,” Ren ordered.

Makoto ran a few paces ahead of the group, keeping her head down as she peeked around corners and down streets. Ren would wait for the signal to move before leading the rest of the squad to the samurai’s position. They followed this pattern for several city blocks, moving quickly through the not totally destroyed fourth district.

They all froze when someone tripped over a brick, yelping loudly. They scrambled into an abandoned house just as a Granato knight passed by, eyeing the spot they’d all formerly occupied. They barely dared to breath as the knight walked closer to the house, looking over the area. Spica watched through a broken window, hidden by Alfre’s cloak, as the knight finally – finally—left.

“Everyone okay?” Silver whispered.

He waited until he got a nod from every person present before letting Makoto lead them all out of the building. The trek towards the supposedly unguarded gate was long and nerve wracking, taking them well into the evening hours. True, there were very few patrols in the fourth district, especially given it’s huge size, but that didn’t stop them from going as slowly and stealthily as possible. Better safe than sorry, they agreed.

“There it is,” Makoto hissed, stopping everyone. Before them was a small door, no bigger than the average household door. It looked terribly out of place, being set into the giant wall that surrounded the third district like it was. And, luckily for all of them, it was unguarded like Makoto had predicted.

“Let’s go then,” Ren urged. “We’ve taken too long already, Alfre and the others are sure to be on their way in a few hours, and we still need to get to the cathedral itself and lock it down.”

Makoto took one more wary glance about the streets before running towards the door, the rest of the squad close behind her. She gripped the handle and turned, finding it unlocked. She peeked through the door into the passage that led through the wall. It was dimly lit, but even with the low light she could see the two guards at the end of the corridor.

“Two guards,” she whispered to her comrades. “We need to take them out before they can call for help or alert anyone else.”

“I thought you said the gate would be unguarded!” The druid from the Fell of Duty guild hissed accusingly.

“Why would the inside gate be guarded but not the outside?” June wondered aloud.

“Because they’re trying to keep people from getting out,” Ren whispered darkly. “They couldn’t even fathom someone wanting to get in.”

“Whatever their reason, I’ll take care of it,” Spica said, leaving no room for argument. “Alfre’s cloak will keep me hidden until I strike.”

“Be careful, Spica,” Ren warned. “I’d rather not have an angry Alfre murdering me for getting you killed.”

Spica smirked confidently. “There’s no way I’d die now. I’ve got a guild to represent.”

Ren smiled softly. Spica had never said such a thing about the Crystal Moon Kingdom during her time there. To hear her say that about the guild she’d founded with Alfre and Elias…it warmed her heart in ways she couldn’t quite explain. “Good luck.”

Spica threw up the hood of the cloak, hiding her vivid red hair and all but disappearing into the shadows. She slipped through the door, using her assassin’s skills to melt into the shadows and slink along the corridor. She observed the two guards at the inner door. Neither of them were Granato knights, but Fell. One was a monk, with little to no armor to speak of. The other was a summoner, clutching his staff tightly. Neither of them were particularly high level, which made Spica wonder.

She didn’t dwell on it long, sending out a pair of needles dipped in sleeping potion in their direction. The two immediately slumped to the ground, needles sticking out of their necks. Spica hand slipped down to one of her daggers, the highest level one she had – the one she and the others found in the Gates of Death dungeon. She quickly slit the guards throats, watching as they shattered like brilliantly colored glass. They’d respawn in the cathedral in a few minutes, Spica knew, which meant she and the others had to move quickly.

She whistled for the others, who came running down the corridor.

“We’ve got maybe five minutes before they respawn at the cathedral and warn everyone,” Spica warned them. “We need to move fast.”

Makoto nodded. “The cathedral is just a few blocks north of here. C’mon.”

They took the briefest of moments to make sure there were no nearby guards before bolting from the door. Makoto led them north, sticking to back allies as well as she could to keep them moving quickly, but undetected.

The cathedral stood at the far end of an empty square, its tall, white stone bell tower could be seen from miles around. There was a single, large double door made of dark wood and several stain glass windows lined the sides of the building.

“What do we do now?” Einmora’s magician asked in a hushed whisper.

“You, druid,” Ren snapped over her shoulder. “Grow me some vines all over the building or something. Cover every door and window.”

The druid nodded, raising his oaken staff to cast his spell. Just ask ordered, roots or branches or some other woody growth erupted from the ground around the cathedral, blocking every conceivable exit. The woody branches converged atop the cathedral, covering the roof with brilliant green-blue leaves. It looked as if the Wilds had taken back the city.

“How long will that last?” Silver asked.

“As long as my mana does,” the druid said confidently. “I’ll have to renew the spell once every hour or so, but it’s a fairly low level spell and doesn’t take up much mana. The issue will be dealing with the folks on the outside trying to stop us.”

Ren nodded, stepping out into the empty square. Confused, the others followed her. She strode across the open space, shoulders thrown back and royal armor gleaming in the moonlight. She looked like the warrior queen she’d always hoped she could be.

“Surround the building,” she ordered. “Climb up high into the tree if you can. We will hold this position until Alfre and the others get here. No one gets in, no one gets out. We don’t quit until we die, is that understood?”

Silver stared in awe. He’d known Ren for so long, since even before he’d started playing Wonderland. He’d never seen her take charge so thoroughly before, never seen her so righteously angry and determined. In that moment, she truly was a queen.

He grinned wildly sharing a look with the others in the squad. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

The others grinned at his words, and echoed them with vigor that echoed in the abandoned square.

“Yes, Your Majesty!”