The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells Preview Chapter 1

So, no story voting this month- way too overwhelmed with work for release day on the 14th! But, in exchange, you're getting both a short story and Mage Errant previews! Fair warning, I might still make changes to preview chapters up to the literal last minute. And, if you see any typos or errors, let me know! Anyhow, without further ado:


Chapter 1: Fallow Fields

Alustin Haber, the Last Loyal Son of Helicote, stood in a ruined village and hid his doubts.

The Havathi town, not far east of the Skyreach Range, hadn’t been destroyed in battle— it had been torn apart by storms, walls battered down by wind, lightning, and flood.

And before the villagers could finish rebuilding, it had been ravaged by drought.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of villages like this in Havath now, ruined by the climate-warping assault from the Coven. Alustin had been well aware of the consequences for months now, aware of the massive refugee crisis as villagers flooded into provincial capitals. Even with the massive granaries and medical corps of Havath, they were struggling to fend off famine and disease outbreaks.

He hadn’t experienced it so closely before, and even with his hatred for Havath, it was hard to look at.

And it would only get worse from here. Or, at least, it would if Alustin hadn’t been planning to destroy it all.

He let himself, for a moment, try to delude himself into thinking his plan was a mercy, but even he wasn’t foolish enough to buy that idea.

“You’re sure?” Casser Spellstorm asked, shaking him out of his reverie. The Tsarnassan Champion was Alustin’s second most powerful ally, second only to the gorgon queen Karna Scythe. He wielded no less than seven affinities in battle, and was one of the most versatile mages Alustin had ever encountered.

Alustin nodded. “I’ve scryed myself to confirm. The Dominion has begun the process of evacuating civilians from Havath City.”

“What are we going to do about it?” Mattin Kos demanded. The teleporting spatial mage was one of the great powers of the Ruhn Syndicate, an organized crime family who had once ruled the nation of Ruhn before it fell to Havath decades before.

Alustin shrugged. “Nothing. It’s worsening the strain on their resources and diverting troops away from hunting us.”

“What’s the point of destroying Havath City if it’s just buildings?” Kos demanded.

“It’s far more than just buildings,” Zersin Grey said. The smoke mage was tiny for a gorgon— no more than six and a half feet in height. The minor great power’s grey scales blended into the smoke cloud that hovered around her constantly, belched out by the otherworldly serpents on her head. The smoke was a better clue to her mood than her body language, because it shifted in response to her thoughts. “It’s the storehouse for the bulk of the Dominion’s wealth, knowledge, and power. The majority of Havath’s roads and canals all converge on the city, and its defenses are quite literally irreplaceable. Destroying it is an economic and logistical blow the Dominion is incapable of recovering from.”

Sagravaax Scalestorm snorted, sending the gorgon’s smoke fluttering. The scale-mage dragon and the gorgon argued constantly, though it usually remained polite enough— at least, so long as Alustin was around to keep the peace.

“That’s hardly the most important damage,” Sagravaax rumbled. “Havath City is the heart and soul of the Dominion in every way, and its destruction will be an irreparable symbolic blow.”

“The Dominion’s prepared for its loss, though,” Mattin argued. “They don’t want to follow the path of Ithos— their provincial capitals are far better equipped than Ithos’ were to shoulder more of the administrative burden of rule. They’re obsessed with history, and they’ve spent decades laying in plans in case of their capital’s destruction. This won’t be enough. And besides, Ithos was already on the edge of collapse when its capital was destroyed, Havath is far from that point.”

“Perhaps so, but I suspect you mostly just want to inflict as much suffering as possible,” Casser said. The two great powers had taken an immediate dislike to one another when they met— though Mattin, sensibly, did his best to avoid antagonizing the mightier great power when possible.

“We don’t really have a choice,” Alustin said. “Our entire strategy is built around a surgical strike, not a rampage across farmlands. Diverting our forces to harass refugees risks our plan itself.”

When Mattin Kos looked like he was ready to argue more, Alustin raised his hand to forestall him. “I understand your arguments, but I suspect the Dominion is far less stable than you make it out to be. Besides, it faces far worse external threats than the Ithonian Empire ever did.”

That was half a lie— Alustin agreed with the spatial mage on several levels. The Dominion had plenty of problems, but it was far more stable than the Ithonian Empire had ever been. 

Alustin was going to do far more damage to Havath than his allies realized, however.

At that thought, the Tongue Eater stirred in his storage tattoo, and Alustin viciously quashed its attempts to reach into his mind again. He was growing better at resisting it, but it was also steadily increasing the number and severity of its assaults.

“Havath’s refugee crisis is far from the only good news I have today, though,” Alustin said. “Sica is marching to war.”

That got the attention of the others immediately.

“You’re sure?” Casser demanded. “It’s not just raiding?”

Alustin nodded. “I scryed their armies myself. It’s a full mobilization, and at least one Elder is moving with them.”

The great powers accompanying him immediately set to demanding more details and arguing about the implications, and Alustin found himself with time for his doubts once more as the conversation slowly drew away from him.

-------------------------------------------------

Their encampment in the ruined village was different than any of Alustin’s past ones for good reason— 

This one wasn’t real.

Under normal circumstances, they could have launched their invasion weeks ago, could have already arrived at Havath City.

And if they had, they would have failed. They would have broken against the defenses of the Havathi capital— maybe broken against its immense air shield, or its city-scale wards, or against the thousands of siege weapons and battle enchantments. Would have dashed themselves to bits against the massive Havathi military, or against one of the surviving Havathi great powers.

And if not those, they would have been crushed by the Intertwined, like those rare few armies and great powers who had breached deep into Havathi territory over the past half-century.

The Intertwined. Seven of the most powerful liches on the continent, each impossibly occupying the same space. It was immensely painful and ultimately fatal for other liches to overlap, and yet the Havathi had figured out a way to pull it off. The entire city was their demesne, and any attackers would find the very streets they walked on betraying them at every turn.

Alustin had a way to break through those defenses, though. A way to shatter each and every one of them, and even a way to disable the Intertwined.

The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells.

Few actually believed his claims that it was the legendary final spell cast by Helicote’s long-dead echo lich, instead believing one of the countless rumors flooding the continent instead. They were right not to believe his claims, of course, but the rumors were no better— he’d sown many of them himself, mostly around the Last Echo supposedly being another weapon looted from Skyhold’s Vault.

It wasn’t, of course. The only things he’d stolen from Skyhold’s Vault were the Tongue Eater and the chitin wand. No need to plague the continent with yet more magical superweapons— there’d be enough chaos already once Alustin wiped out Havath.

Not to mention the further chaos from the deaths of his allies. They’d failed Helicote before, and Alustin wouldn’t let that go unpunished.

It would be weeks yet until the Last Echo was ready to fire, unfortunately. Weeks with the Havathi hunting them, trying to weaken or destroy their forces, and attempting to seize the magical superweapons. Weeks when everything could go wrong.

Alustin and his allies intended to use their time to create chaos in the Havathi ranks, to wreck their defenses, and to weaken them before the final blow.

Hence the fake encampment in the village. They’d surrounded it with elaborate concealing wards, but left vulnerabilities in them— not obvious ones, but enough to let Havathi seers find them. 

It had taken a couple days longer than expected, but Havathi forces were on their way now. Thousands of mages, dozens of dragons, even some sort of massive levitating siege engine.

When the Havathi arrived, however, they weren’t going to find the ragtag army they’d been dealing with up until now.

No. They were going to find four great powers, dozens of archmages, two hundred sharpshooter mages, almost a hundred siege mages, and thousands of battle mages.

All of which were ready and waiting for them.

Gone were the days of Alustin and his allies being a tiny, desperate force. Tsarnassus had more than doubled Alustin’s army when they’d agreed to aid him, and their alliance not only meant several other city-states agreeed to join them, but also significantly bolstered contributions from their pre-existing allies. 

Everyone loved a winning hand, and the better Alustin’s odds looked, the more others were willing to bet on him.

Of course, Alustin’s newly expanded army wasn’t all that faced the oncoming Havathi force.

The barren, drought-killed fields stretching around for leagues around the abandoned village?

Each and every one of them was filled with buried alchemical explosives, carefully hidden by allied dirt mages. And the whole battlefield was surrounded by a deeply buried and powerful ward, that would trap the Havathi forces inside the killing grounds around the village once they’d entered.

The Havathi were about to have a remarkably bad day. 

Alustin should be looking forward to the battle, should be relishing the one-sided slaughter that was about to happen, but instead he found himself fighting to hide his doubts from his allies. Doubts about whether he was doing the right thing, doubts about whether his plans would succeed, and doubts about what would happen even if he did succeed.

Most of all, Alustin worried whether his revenge had been worth all his betrayals— those already past, and those yet to come.

He didn’t show any of it on his face, however, as his allies argued around him.

Alustin had chosen his path, and stepping off it would only end badly.

Not that there were any happy endings on his personal path either. No, his path would end along with the Dominion.

Havath would die, its multiversal backers would have their plans for the world of Anastis crushed, and Helicote would be avenged. That was all that mattered now.