I sent Val and Lore away. It was in part a selfish measure—with what we had to do next, I wanted Val to be safe, and I trusted nobody more than Lore to look after her. But there was a practicality to it, too; if Val came with us on this mission, then I would be distracted by her wellbeing. I couldn’t afford that.

  I opened a distant portal to Lenktra, where we had been all those months ago, and gave Val and Lore their instructions: find Governor Yua, and convince her to ride to war. We would meet them there when the job was done.

  Arzak recruited no more than five of our allies to join us, as per my advice. We needed the stealthiest among them—even Arzak coming was playing with fire—but also those who could escape if this all went wrong. I was under no illusions that we would all come back alive.

  ‘Do you understand the mission?’ I asked them. The eight of us—myself, Arzak, Corminar and the five new recruits—were standing in the largest of our camp’s tents, the one we’d now earmarked for strategy meetings.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ our crew said, not quite in time with one another.

  ‘I’m not a “sir”,’ I replied. ‘You can drop that bit.’

  ‘What do we call you, then?’ one of the soldiers asked, a woman named Jera that we’d picked up near Tradum. She’d been with Reginald when he’d led them out of the city.

  ‘Call me “oi, you”. Or Styk. Whatever you like; it doesn’t matter.’ I turned to Arzak and Corminar, who were already well up to speed with the plan. They’d helped me perfect it. ‘Anything I haven’t mentioned?’

  ‘Try not die,’ the orc added.

  I nodded. ‘Good advice. Don’t die—that’s an order.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ two of the soldiers said. I groaned.

  Corminar picked up the first of the five explosive potions that we’d taken from Empress Amira, and handed it to the nearest soldier. When all five had their weapons in-hand, Corminar handed me another two mana potions. I only needed to create a distant portal one way, as I had set the camp as my saved portal location, but I wasn’t going to turn down more mana. I could well need it.

  I drew in a deep breath. ‘Then we begin.’

  With the flick of my wrist, I opened a portal within the tent—one that led to a place in Auricia in which we’d stood before. I knew that at this time of night—in the early, early hours before dawn—the records office would be closed. It might even be locked up, but that would be no obstacle for us.

  Corminar stepped through the portal first, bow raised and ready to fire. After the rest of us poured through, I closed the portal behind me. But then an almighty wail rang out, causing many of our number to cry out in turn. At least none of them dropped their potions in the process, as that would’ve been pretty catastrophic at this stage. Without the artifact hanging around my neck, I felt vulnerable. Weak. I needed it back, as soon as I could.

  ‘What is it?’ I shouted at the top of my lungs, over the racket. I had a feeling I knew already, and I didn’t much like my suspicions. It meant that enemies would be here shortly. Before I got an answer, I opened a portal to the street outside, and Corminar led the team through it, bow raised once again.

  Jera’s body language was panicked as she hopped into the portal, almost dropping the glass vial once more. ‘The records office. It must have been enchanted to alert for Worldbending magicks.’

  ‘Hm. Bad luck,’ Arzak replied, standing aside to let me through before her.

  But Corminar had been the first out there, and he stood now, his head leaning back, his eyes on a shimmering purple blanket covering the city. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not the records office.’ Corminar looked to me. ‘They knew we would come.’

  Seven faces looked to me, all paling, all looking for my instruction.

  ‘This changes nothing,’ I said. ‘We do what we do because we have to. There’s no other choice. Move.’ I led the way, sprinting down the street to the east, towards the nearest of the three giant structures that loomed over the Goldmarch capital. Shouts rang out to the left and right, soldiers who’d been alerted to our presence by the enchantment, who now would hunt us down at any cost. We just had to make sure we did what we needed to, then I could get us out of here. As long as I was alive, and as long as we didn’t get separated, everyone had an escape route.

  I felt for the artifact once more. It was a reflex, something that I did when I felt in danger. Usually it reassured me, but now that I was without it, it only served to remind me how fragile I really was.

  I opened a portal in front of us, allowing those bogged down by heavy glass vials to move quickly across the city. At our rear, I glimpsed soldiers approaching. Some of them were slow, others fast. Those that approached quickly had the familiar pale grey skin of corruption. Maybe we could handle normal Goldmarch soldiers, but I didn’t want to less those monsters anywhere near us. If they got close, we were dead. Or worse, we were corrupted.

  I worked hard to get us across the city as quickly as possible, leaving one pair of portals open while I opened the next. This meant we could move as quickly as possible, even nearly matching the pace of the corrupted soldiers, but I had to be careful. If I left any portals open too long then our pursuers could use them to their advantage—and the plan would be over.

  But I’d selected the records office as it wasn’t far from the nearest ritual spire. We didn’t have to sustain this for long.

  As we neared, I switched up the next set of portals to send us stumbling out onto the highest rooftop near the spire. This gave us a vantage point from which to work, as well as buying us a precious couple of minutes as our pursuers tracked us down. I did not intent to waste this advantage.

  ‘The spire,’ Jera said, nodding towards its base. ‘Let’s go.’

  But when I looked at it, my gut twisted. There were people surveying the spire from the scaffolding—people who did not wear the golden uniform of the military. These were civilians. And our plan would kill them. Was this too much of a price to pay? Did they even know what they were helping the Council do?

  ‘Come on!’ Jera cried out again, her eyes darting back the way we’d come.

  ‘There are civilians doing checks up there. I won’t let us hurt them. Not unless we must.’

  Arzak narrowed her eyes. ‘And who you to say when we must?’ She glanced to Corminar, as though looking for backup. ‘Styk, do not turn into Player. You better than them.’

  I held her gaze as I replied. ‘I won’t. But if we do nothing, everyone dies anyway. We have to remember that.’ Without giving my orcish friend a moment to reply, I raised my hands and aimed a portal up into the top of the scaffolding that encompassed the spire. On the first attempt, my aim was off—the portal would have sent us tumbling a long way towards the ground. But the second attempt hovered nicely a couple of feet above the scaffolding’s top floor. ‘Through! Now!’ I cried, gesturing my hands wildly towards the portal.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Jera was first through, followed by Corminar and the other near-strangers, with Arzak and me at the rear.

  ‘There!’ I heard a soldier shout from down below. We didn’t have long. The members of the team with potions placed them down gently at the edge of the scaffolding, taking great care not to let them hit the wood too hard—though Corminar had assured me that they weren’t that sensitive. The wind picked up as one of our team—a young man still in the midst of puberty—was placing the last potion down, and the scaffolding swayed. He would have fallen if Arzak hadn’t grabbed him with her faster, support-free arm, and that potion would have destroyed the scaffolding below us. It was a good job my friend was quick when she needed to be.

  Down below, soldiers began climbing the scaffolding. One of them—a corrupted man with no weapon in his hands—didn’t bother with the ladders, instead climbing the outside of the balcony by leaping from ledge to ledge.

  ‘Go go go!’ I shouted as I opened a portal next to us, just off the edge of this level of scaffolding. A combination of trust in me and fear of the approaching monster meant that the team happily jumped into the portal, despite it being hundreds of yards above the ground. They spilled out onto the street below, leaving Corminar and I as the last on the scaffolding. ‘You got everything you need?’ I shouted over the bitterly cold winter winds.

  ‘Return us to the rooftop!’ Corminar cried back. ‘It is my best vantage point.’

  I nodded, closing the first pair of portals and instead opening another, putting us down onto the rooftop once more. I was about to turn back to the scaffolding when I heard a familiar grunt on the street below—Arzak was under attack.

  I rushed to the edge of the rooftop, my elven friend following at my heels instead of focusing on the objective of our quest, but I didn’t have time to tell him otherwise. As I reached the edge, I saw the street below, and the team of six fighting off soldiers dressed in gold. None of the much stronger, corrupted kind of soldier had reached them yet, but they were only seconds away. I thrust a hand forward and opened a saved portal back to the camp next to them.

  ‘Go!’ I shouted to those on the street below, gesturing to the portal. ‘Get out!’

  Only Jera hesitated, the others quick to follow my instruction. And that hesitation got her killed. Before she could leap through the portal, the brawny arm of a corrupted soldier reached out to grab her. She wailed only for a second, obscured in the huddle of enemy soldiers, and her scream’s abrupt end told me all I needed to know.

  Corminar moved to help her.

  I grabbed him by the arm. ‘She’s gone,’ I said.

  The elf looked to her once more, eyes glum, before nodding.

  I looked up to the scaffolding on the spire, to where we’d stashed the potions. Even from this rooftop, those potions were far away. It would take the greatest ranger in the Tundras to make this shot. Fortunately, we had him. ‘Do it.’

  Corminar raised his bow, drew an arrow, and fired.

  I stood with bated breath as I watched it soar through the air, swaying slightly to the left in the breeze. But Corminar was a clever ranger; he would have accounted for it.

  I saw the explosion before I felt it, before I heard it. For a fraction of a second, all of Auricia was lit up by the inferno. Then all of Auricia felt a wave of power sweep over them—one strong enough that it almost made me take a step back. I blinked the spots of light out of my eyes, hoping—praying—that the potions had been enough to break the spire. When the dust settled, I saw a huge crack in the spire’s side, its line of vibrant symbols obliterated. We’d done damage.

  We’d done significant damage.

  Pieces of exploded scaffolding emerged from the sky, falling down on the civilian workers below. I flung out one hand, then the other, making use of my high portal limit to catch pieces of falling debris and save those underneath from all but the smallest pieces. But even these tiny fragments were enough to do damage, and those below cried out in pain as they were cut or pierced by these falling pieces of wood.

  The city would have to heal them; I’d done what I could. Turning away, I saw a corrupted soldier on the next rooftop, bellowing our position to the rest of the standing army. Without waiting for another second, I opened our saved portal back to camp.

  ‘How much time do you think we’ve bought?’ I asked, as I stepped through.

  ‘Enough, I can only hope,’ Corminar replied.

  I closed the portal behind us.