Chapter 25:

The Heavens Retaliate

The Wolf Among Rats (Old)


She’s casting her gaze to the ground and fiddling with her hands. This may pose a
slight problem for my plans. “What are you talking about?”

She doesn’t look up at me. “I mean the spell. I’m not sure I can cast it.”

“Then why did you say you could?”

“Be-because. I think you could.”

Hmm? “Explain.”

She looks up to me briefly before looking back towards the ground. Her black hair
concealing her face. “You have an unusually large mana pool. Astronomical really.
It's how I was able to heal everyone in that building! If I speak true, it’s envying.
Only you could cast a spell of that magnitude in such a short time. You wouldn’t have
to do anything. I would merely use your mana pool as a catalyst and I would invoke
magic words and cast the spell.”

That sounds easy enough. But the way she’s acting is concerning me. “I have a
question. Will this kill me?”

She shakes her head wildly. “Of course not! I understand your concern, but I can cast the spell safely without harming either of our bodies. The reason your hands were… Injured was because you were ignorant on channeling magic and mana.”

“Then why are you so nervous?”

She hides back behind her veil. “I… I have been dishonest with you… May we discuss this when the danger has passed?”

I already know of her ‘dishonesty,’ but something tells me there’s more. I want to
pressure her into spilling her secrets now, but we have a time limit. Instead, I just
sigh and ask. “I assume you need me with you. Where do we need to go?”

She lets out her own sigh of relief and beckons me to follow her. On the way she
explains that she had some jarcoban messengers draw up her magic circles in a ring around the western slums that will empower the spell. She also tries to explain how the magic circles work, but it just goes over my head. Something about a tribute and enhancement. I was more focused on the view.

The inner wall stands a good deal higher than the outer, but is still easily dwarfed by the castle. Further upriver to the west stood Alister’s castle. It’s essentially one
central spire surrounded by towers and each of those towers have buildings
protruding out of them. The rest of the city is a collection of bridges spreading out
like a spider web over the river. The corners of the city didn’t have streets or
bridges. They had canals. The Skecargi river flowed through the buildings like
streets with too many people now crowding the entire canal. I thought river
monsters lived in the Skecargi? They must be filtered out somehow.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Aroura noticed me looking out over the city.
“My room sits at one of the highest points in the castle so I’m fortunate enough to
gaze upon the entire splendor of Solaris.”

“You must not of had a good view of where I lived then. I can’t imagine anyone
seeing my house and seeing splendor.”

She begins to say something but falters. Her words die out and after a moment she
tries again. “Are you feeling alright? Psychologically? You’ve been acting strangely
since we last spoke.”

That’s a kind way to put it. I’ve been dismissive and hostile because I don’t trust her.
Instead of answering her question I just ask how much further we need to travel.

She gives me a sideways stare before saying. “Not far. A few hundred more paces. I understand your distrust in the royal family and thus in me, but Kar. I’m not your
foe. We’re friends, are we not? I promise to tell you everything once the battle has
concluded, so please place your trust in me. It would… It would make me feel much
less uneasy.”

I finally glance over at her. I’m not sure what she’s plotting, but its hard to stay silent when I see her. Head hung low and embarrassed like Maheed when he makes a bad joke. I place my hand on her shoulder and lie. “I trust you. I wouldn’t have included
you in my plans if I didn’t trust you. Despite that, I’m nervous. If this doesn’t work,
then I just gave our enemy a strong foothold in the city.”

She brightens at that. “Fret not! I have full confidence in your scheme! I’ll make sure
it comes to fruition!”

I feign a smile at that and she brightens further. At least she’s in good spirits now.
Finally, we reach the location she had someone prepare. Straight across from the
western gate, there were two cushions and six knights surrounding them, each with a halberd. I suppose its only fair that they mistrust me as well. She kneels on the
cushion facing the slums and motions for me to join her.

She lets out a long breath before asking. “Shall we begin?”

I merely nod and she takes my hands. I only just noticed that the light rain had
washed away all the mud and blood on my hands. The rest of my body wasn’t so
lucky. Blood and mud stained my surcoat and mud coated my legs up to my knees.
For the second time I feel like an actual rat when facing her.

After she takes my hands, she lets out another long breath and then begins
chanting. When she does, she begins to glow slightly and I can actually feel the
flow of mana as she leaches my mana through our hands. Then I’m left there. With
nothing to occupy me but my thoughts and nothing to fill my vision but
Aroura.

Normally I would have taken this chance to eye her up and down. I may be in a
life-or-death situation, but a good body should still be appreciated. Except two of
her guards were staring at me. So, I couldn’t stare at her. But I don’t have anywhere
else to look while we sit here. I try to look past her at the city but the faint magical
glow emanating from her eventually grows too bright to see past.

Okay. They can’t blame me for looking at her now, right? I can’t see anywhere else! I encountered another obstacle on my journey to please my eyes. She was wearing
her armour… Which meant that one of the best aspects of the womanly
appearance were blocked! Damn it!
Is this really what you should be focusing on right now?
What else should I focus on? How uncomfortable I am after kneeling here for less
than an hour?
No, we have a fight to win. And you’re thinking about boobs. The boobs of someone who tried to have you killed no less.
Boobs are boobs. Who are you anyway? You did this last time too.
I’m what little control your actual head has left. Basically, the smart you.
Demon! I cast thee out! Let the second head lust in peace! There may not be breast, but there is still a face to ogle.
Did you listen to what you just said!?
No. And I don’t care how creepy it is. Goodbye.

Speaking of, her face looks different. I can’t quite pin down exactly what, but it’s as
though the magic aura has made her even more attractive. The only difference I can see is that her hair is levitating slightly and has become less black and greyer. But
not an old lady grey, I’m not that ruttish. That’s all the observations I can make
before an axe head blocks my view.

“Cast your lecherous gaze elsewhere fiend. I’ll not tolerate your lustful stares.” My
glare seems to reach him through his helmet because the knight flinches when
my head whips around to look at him. Lords be damned if a man can’t appease his
eyes. I'll remember you, Black Feather. Either way I let my glare down and close my
eyes. I should get lost in thought if I can’t do anything else.
‘They can’t blame me for looking now, right?’
Shut up. I’m going to bed.

I couldn’t focus my thoughts on anything in particular, except how my knees and
ankles ached from kneeling for so long and the sound of Aroura’s chanting. Hours
pass and my legs have gone numb. I could hear the sound of combat behind me
and it’s killing me that I’m not there fighting with my men, but if this plan works it’ll
save much more people than I ever could fighting down there. My anxiety only
grows as time passes and the sounds of war rage on. Screams, clashing metal, and
explosions from flying rocks fill the air. Finally, after what seems like an eternity the
retreat horn blares. Now we have to wait for the second horn.

By now, Aroura may as well be a roaring white flame from the glow she’s producing. Her hair began acting like fire and turned snow white. Her eyes open to reveal pale white irises staring at me.

“Not yet. A little longer.” She nodded and kept chanting. The seconds pass on forever while she stares at me with worry in her eyes. I give her a slight smile and she
lightens up a bit.

An eternity passes, but the sounds of fighting has been replaced by shouts and mass marching. We wait. We wait. Then it blares. The second horn rumbles and shakes in my ears. I pray to the Lords that everyone has escaped by now. “Release the spell.”

She closes off the chant. All of the pale white magical energy around us floods into
the ground before blasting up into the sky in an enormous spire of white. I glance
back over my shoulder and see that more spires were blasting through the clouds,
leaving a ring of heavenly holes in the grey storm clouds. When the spires were
finished assaulting the heavens, I could see the pale blue sky where a storm had
just been!

Aroura began stuttering. “T-t-that’s not the spell I…”
Her speech began slowing down and she slowly fell backwards. With my sleeping
legs, I lunged forward and caught her head before it slammed into the stone wall.
After making sure her head gently hit the floor I turned back around to the slums.
A magical barrier began forming in the sky just above the Karvithian invaders. We all stare at the city waiting for the heavens to retaliate. Then the sky fell.

The Earth rumbled and the sky shook just before an impossibly large beam crashed
through the storm and erased all clouds as far as the eye could see. The Moon
shone brighter than the Sun as it cast its holy spear into the Earth. It hammered
against the pathetic magical barrier the Karvithian mages cobbled together and after only a second the barrier collapsed letting the Moon’s spear impale the Earth. The
roar of the Moon's fury, like the end of the world was all anyone could hear
overtop the Earth shattering beneath us. A second or two later, the spear was
retracted and flew back up to the Moon, who’s glow began to fade, until the Sun
overtook it once more.

Nothing but ashes and rubble remain. Where there was once city, now stood the
aftermath of the Moon’s wrath. I tried again and again to get up before shouting
at the gawking knights. “A viewing glass! Do any of you have one?”

One behind me blurted out. “Y-you mean a spy glass?”

“Yes! Hand it over!”
He fumbles in his pouch for a minute. My patients is running dry. “NOW!”

The knight cowers for a second before I snatch the spy glass out of his hand and
peer unto the aftermath. The ground had been blasted into ash and all building
were now little more than stones and the occasional broken log scattered among
the ground. Somehow, I spotted saurians carrying other demi-humans out of the
ashes and rubble. How did they survive? I can ask that later. I continued to survey
the ashes and began to panic when I didn’t spot any Karvithian bodies. My worried
were laid to rest and new ones took their place when I found the Karvithian
survivors. A small circle where the spell was unable to touch held all three
remaining mages, the two remaining ogres, and a good collection of full-plated
knights. The fight isn’t over.