Instinct

Commander Mercer led the charge straight toward the front battery. The rest of his force caught up behind him, roughly a hundred riders collapsing into a loose, uneven formation. Muskets and cutlasses were drawn, and some soldiers shouted as they rode. Whether from confidence or fear, nobody could tell.

“A head-on cavalry charge?” River tightened the grip on his reins.

“What are they doing?” Warui asked.

“Go on my command.”

“Captain, we’re going into that too?”

“We can't waste the slim opening this creates. Chena, Sarah, you two keep your distance and cover us from behind.”

“Warui, if—”

“Chena, I’m fine. Focus on covering us.”

Chena watched his face for another moment, letting his words settle before slowly turning forward.

Ahead, soldiers inside Fort Avelorn’s front battery scrambled around the guns, cannon crews taking their positions while riflemen leveled their weapons toward Mercer’s approaching formation.

Mercer never looked back.

A coordinated volley cracked across the field. Two horses went down. Three soldiers were thrown from their saddles, and the formation faltered.

“DO NOT STOP!” Mercer’s voice carried back over them.

The riders pushed forward again.

Then all six cannons fired.

The field erupted. Round shot tore through the center of the Tirian formation, kicking up dirt and bodies. Five more horses crashed to the ground, and the mass of cavalry began to wobble.

At exactly that moment, Mercer hauled his horse hard to the right.

The soldiers followed.

Not together.

In waves.

The entire formation sheared sideways across the field while the battery began reloading.

“NOW!” Zay drove his horse forward. The riders kicked their horses into motion and surged after him. Chena and Sarah fell farther behind, flintlock long rifles already raised.

The soldiers in the battery saw them coming, but they were still reloading. Chena and Sarah fired, dropping two cannon operators.

Warui and River raised their muskets as the distance closed. Two Avelorn soldiers aimed toward them, and Warui and River fired, hitting both men in the neck. The rest of Zay’s squad fired into the battery.

One cannon crew finished loading and the cannon fired.

“INCOMING!”

The round shot tore into the ground nearby, throwing dirt into the air before bouncing violently through the field.

Zay launched himself from his saddle and landed on the rear of the left ravelin outwork in a shoulder roll, came up immediately, and drove his cutlass through an Avelorn soldier’s chest.

Another soldier turned and fired, and Zay twisted the dying man into the path of the shot before ducking. The musket ball tore through the soldier’s head.

Zay ripped his cutlass free, lunged forward, and buried it in the shooter’s chest. He pulled his flintlock handgun from his right hip.

Turned.

Fired.

A third soldier collapsed while trying to reload. Across the battery, Kiel and Khyrie were already standing among the soldiers they had taken down. The rest of the Tirian riders poured through the opening between the structures. Cannons thundered from the walls above while the squad drove toward the gate.

Mercer’s force raced alongside the flank of the fort. Light guns on the walls opened fire. Two horses fell and a soldier was hit, yet the rest kept moving. They swept around toward the rear, where solid ground gradually gave way beneath them.

Wet earth.

Reeds.

Marsh.

The horses slowed, hooves sinking and slipping through the damp terrain. Some struggled awkwardly to keep pace. The rear defenses began firing, hitting six horses and dropping three soldiers. The surviving riders crashed into the lightly defended rear battery and overwhelmed it within moments as they pushed toward the gate.

“DO NOT KILL ANY CIVILIANS! YOU HEAR ME? AND PRESERVE CIVILIAN REGISTRIES!”

The soldiers followed Mercer through. “YES, SIR!”

The force disappeared inside the fort.

Through the front.

Gunfire followed Zay's squad.

Zay jumped from his horse and sprinted toward a two‑story building, slamming his shoulder into the wooden door as it burst inward. Warui abandoned his horse and rushed in after him. Chena, Khyrie, Kiel, River, and Sarah followed close behind.

By the time they reached the second floor, everyone was breathing hard. Some leaned against the walls. Others bent forward with their hands on their knees. Those still standing stayed well away from the two windows.

“Where’s the rest of the squad?”

“We got separated,” Warui said between breaths. “I think I saw them go into a building too. What’s the plan, Captain?”

A cannonball ripped through the first floor with a deafening crash, jolting the building hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.

“We’ve got to move,” Zay said. “Remember, locate their commander. We find the rest of the squad if possible.”

Everyone followed, with Zay reaching the bottom first. Musket fire cracked through the stairwell, forcing him backward as shots tore through the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. He collided with Warui and knocked him off balance.

Zay twisted toward him. “Get back up there!”

At the top, Kiel drew his cutlass. “We have to guard the staircase.”

The group crowded cautiously around the opening, steel whispering free of scabbards.

Zay moved past them and crouched beneath one of the windows, rising just enough to look outside. Around twenty soldiers were closing in on the building. “We’re pinned down. We'll have to hold our ground up here. A few of you use your guns.”

Chena and Sarah backed away from the stairwell and brought their rifles around, with River moving beside them as he pulled the musket from his back.

Khyrie looked to Kiel, but a small shake of his head gave her the answer.

No.

Zay stopped near the two of them. “Warui, stay between the three of us at the stairs and those three back there. Catch anyone who slips through.”

Footsteps thundered from below as the first Avelorn soldiers charged up the staircase, only to meet Kiel and Khyrie at the top. Four fell before the rest could push through.

Zay surged forward as a bayonet drove toward him. He slipped beneath the thrust, buried his cutlass in the soldier’s abdomen, and ripped it free.

Another bayonet thrust up from farther down the stairs. Zay twisted aside, opened the man’s throat, and kicked him backward into the soldiers behind him, forcing them to catch the body and stumble under its weight. Zay backed away from the stairs with Kiel and Khyrie. “We keep doing that.”

Voices came from below.

“Let’s not kill them.”

Another answered immediately. “Have you lost your mind?! We’ve got them where we want them.”

“Commander Vance wants one more chance at negotiation. They can be leverage... they brought a small unit. I’m sure their commander values each life.”

The next charge came in a disorganized rush, fourteen soldiers crowding the staircase at once. Three gunshots cracked behind Warui, and three of them dropped with rounds to the chest.

Chena.

River.

Sarah.

Kiel cut diagonally across the first man. Zay drove his blade through another soldier’s chest, then the rest hit them. 

Too many. 

Musket stocks slammed into Zay, Kiel, and Khyrie, driving them backward into Warui. He lost the space he needed to swing.

Four Avelorn soldiers forced their way around the group and leveled muskets toward Chena, Sarah, and River.

Nine Avelorn soldiers remained inside the room, nine guns trained on Zay's squad. 

“Drop your weapons.”

Zay tossed his cutlass and handgun several steps across the floor. “Drop them.” For a moment, nobody moved. Then one by one, the rest of the weapons hit the floor.

“Get metal wrist restraints,” one of the Avelorn soldiers ordered. A soldier who had been aiming at Chena lowered his weapon and headed downstairs.

“Shit.” Warui kept his voice low. “What do we do, Captain?”

“We can’t do anything. Just comply.”

“Pat them down before we restrain them.”

One soldier searched Zay for any remaining weapons, then moved to Warui. His hands pressed along Warui’s uniform.

His sides.

His waist.

“Bastards.”

“Kid. Calm yourself down. You’ll make the situation worse.”

"We’re getting out of here," Warui insisted.

Something dark red appeared in the room.

No warning.

No movement.

It simply existed.

A sword-like shape pierced through the heads of two soldiers aiming their muskets at the group.

Vein-like structures ran across its surface.

The bodies stiffened.

The remaining Avelorn soldiers turned toward it, and Warui’s eyes widened along with everyone else’s.