CHAPTER 2: The Soul of the Night
Esther was startled awake by the sound of Derwin's pitiful cries for help outside the cave.
"That damnable idiot," she muttered as she pulled out her harp from under her cloak. "I told him not to wander off!"
She lurched forward, shaking the sleep from her limbs and rushed outside. Derwin, however, was not being attacked, to her surprise. There was instead a shocking sight a little ways off and further down the slope from their cave in the mountainside. Esther slid down half the rocky slope to where Derwin was standing. They were still elevated from the floor of the valley below.
In the pale moonlight, she could see a large group of haunted beasts and gremlins, about the size of a small army, amassed in the center of the valley. Their shrieks and bone chilling cries were probably what drew Derwin out in the first place. Esther was surprised that her magical senses had not noticed their presence while she was sleeping. She could only conclude that she was too exhausted to care.
She was about to tell Derwin to go back into the cave and get some rest, since the beasts and magical creatures were not interested in attacking them, but paused when she soon saw the reason they had gathered. Across the valley, at the opposite end, she saw a moving mass of mechanical creatures, tanks and soldiers. The metal and armor glinted of silver steel and polished iron in the moonlight. At the vanguard of the army were soldiers riding atop wheeled vehicles that spewed white smoke into the air, with large teal and gold banners flying.
"It's the Hamelin army," said Esther in a low voice as she watched in wonder. She had not seen them in action for years, not since the attack on the White Fortress, but Esther was still equally impressed by their movement's uniformity and precision.
"They're going to annihilate the creatures?" demanded Derwin in a shrill voice. Esther pondered the army's purpose for a moment.
"The Hamelin population has been enjoying peace and expanding into the old deserted lands for a few years now ever since the threat of the White Witch ended. The people must have been harassed by the ghouls out here. It's up to their Emperor to do something about that, I guess."
"But they could kill off rare finds that we haven't researched yet! It's barbaric!" protested Derwin.
"What's barbaric is allowing people to suffer when you have the power to help them," snapped Esther back at him. "The Emperor understands that he can never be rid of the indigenous life here. They spring up from everywhere. He's just pushing them back and re-drawing the boundaries," she explained calmly. It was not until the tail end of the Wizard Wars and the Black Wizard Shadar that they started flourishing here. These types feed on inherent darkness, but they thrive on human despair and fright. This entire continent used to be populated with kingdoms and villages wiped out practically overnight by the Wars. People have been afraid to venture out for centuries. Now, only Hamelin remained in this region, along with a sprinkle of small villages. Ever since the days of Shadar, the dark aura of the fallen dwell in the shadows, lingering in everything everywhere. The only other inhabited establishment is the town of Perdida, in the northern mountainous region. "If he doesn't push back the dark creatures, his people can't expand, work the land, or mine its resources safely. They can't survive forever in the enclosed Hamelin fortress. This is a matter of survival for his empire."
"Are you just going to stand here and watch them destroy our potential research?" her companion demanded.
"I'm tired, Derwin, and my socks are still wet," sighed Esther in response. "I'm not about to throw myself in the midst of a fray in the middle of nowhere that I can't hope to stop."
But just as she spoke these words, Derwin sputtered something under his breath and ran off in the direction of the battle, against her wishes. The reach of her arm could not pull back his collar in time. She called out after him that she was not about to go save him and if he had any last words he wanted carved on his epitaph he should tell her now. Her words were unheeded. But as Esther watched his figure grow smaller in the distance she tied her bracers tight and adjusted her harp strings to tune them. She could feel her familiars hovering about her, awaiting her call to arms.
Esther was one of those people who could not sit back and do nothing if someone in front of her was in danger. Idiots like Derwin were counted among those people. She could not return and face Queen Cowlipha back in Al-Mamoon if she willingly lost half her research team. With a great heaving breath of reluctance, Esther jumped from the ledge where she was standing and ran off after Derwin.
Soon she found herself amid a melee of man-made metal machines and slimy ghouls. She cast Gogo first to beat away some of the creatures with his magic staff, and have it cast minor wind spells to blow them aside. Similar to Derwin's beliefs, Esther was not interested in destroying them without a purpose, and so she would not kill them unless they charged at her with malicious intent. Regardless, the ghouls where not particularly concerned with the cloaked young woman trying to move through the throng. They were more concerned with the tanks and weapons spewing searing light and molten balls of fire at them.
Esther ignored the screeching cries of conflict between metal and magic when she found Derwin huddled in a shivering mass on the floor, very much in danger of being trampled. She immediately went to him and patted his body to check that everything was still attached and he was unharmed.
"Can you get up?" she asked in a hurry as she helped him up.
"N-no," he stammered. "I don't think I can stop them."
"Seriously," she retorted. "Did you think you could? Both sides are out to club each other senseless. There's no way an outsider can stop this and no reason we should even be involved."
"But the research-!" he continued.
"There are hundreds if not thousands more magical creatures out there. We can come back to this region of Autumnia later, when it's settled down a bit," she reasoned. Before he could rebut, she had Jean cast a spell to toss Derwin up into the branches of a barren tree where he would not be trampled.
Just as she looked around for a foothold to leverage herself up to higher ground she heard something that caught her attention. It was the commanding voice of a young man she had not seen for years. Esther looked up and saw the proud and slim figure of the Emperor of Hamelin standing atop a very large mechanical tank on metal tracked wheels.
"Shields up!" he shouted. "Steady men! Here comes the attack!" Just as he said this a large group of bone warriors cast curses onto the vanguard. Esther had enough sense to have Gogo cast a ward just in time to avoid being struck.
"Tanks! Focus your attack to the left where they are beginning to scatter! Soldiers! Do not let them get past you, else they will attack our flank! You must defend at all costs!" the Emperor shouted. "For home and country!" he rallied and his cries were met with the exuberant cheers of the men he led. He bounded over the tank's cannon to cast a light spell to repel an onslaught of death maidens. Esther could never cease to be impressed by his skill at casting. It was certainly something she did not have talent for. Second only to the Pure Hearted One, her friend Oliver who had returned to his own world several years ago, Prince Marcassin was the best continuous spell caster she had ever been acquainted with.
She was almost sure that the Prince could handle himself and was about to focus her attention back to the task of getting out of the way when a large, ear splitting cry echoed against the walls of the valley. The soldiers shrank back and looked around to see what on earth it could be. To their horror, a Darkwing, a dragon with hatred-filled, ruby red eyes and a large, gaping mouth that spit blue flame with incredible force, started to char the forefront of the army. Only partially protected by their armor and shield charms, many of the tank handlers abandoned their weapons to get away from the oppressive heat that threatened to roast them alive.
In the old tomes, the blue flames that came forth from a Darkwing were called "ever-burns," as they were not easily extinguished and burned hotter than a regular fire. Had the soldiers not been wearing armor with magical wards to protect them, most would have been killed instantly. Esther could see that some were not so fortunate and had already fallen still on the ground.
"Oh my! A Darkwing!" exclaimed Derwin excitedly from his perch. Esther too was fascinated by the size of the mysterious creature she had only read about in ancient scrolls dating back thousands of years to the middle era of the Wizard Wars. Surely it had to be more than a handful of centuries old, the remnants of an old beast of the dragon race, who had died a death horrible enough to hold a grudge that still burned hot centuries later. Its spirit had reincarnated into something that was not quite dead, and not quite alive.
Her researcher's instincts immediately kicked in and she was taking mental notes and measurements of its length, body mass, general composition and magic reserves. When she finally resurfaced from her thoughts Esther had enough sense to quickly hide behind a large boulder just as the creature charged. A spew of flame licked at the top of the boulder singeing wisps of her golden hair and spiraled out over her head into the throng of soldiers closest to her. One of the vehicles nearby was hit in the blast radius of the conflagration and its fuel tank exploded, only to send soldiers flying in every direction and leaving a large, blackened hole in the ground. Her familiar, Jean, had cast a protection spell just in time to save her from the repercussions and Esther dodged behind a large boulder for safety.
They aren't going to last very long like this. Prince Marcassin needs to cast a power light spell against a creature of this magnitude, she thought. But those spells took a few minutes to cast and in the meantime, someone needed to protect him and the army with a barrier spell.
There were no wizards in Hamelin that she knew of who had that sort of power to assist the Emperor at such a critical time. Aside from the Emperor, she was not aware that the present court of Hamelin housed any formally trained wizards or witches. Though the current world order showed a renewed interest in wizardry, compared to the time of the Wizard Wars that ushered the near annihilation of the magical populace, Hamelin did not have a magical Academy. Their focus was on science and technology. Even Al-Mamoon's Academy housed less than fifty individuals who were interested in studying magical history and weaponry, or practicing magic. Here in southeast Autumnia, only the Emperor was known to have any magical prowess. It had always been so with Hamelin.
She peeked over the top of the boulder to see what Marcassin would do next on his own.
As she predicted, he was already on the ground, beginning to cast a light spell, but it left him wide open to outside attack at the same time. Members of his vanguard stood around him with their large steel shields raised to protect him. Esther knew it would take more than that to protect them all.
A loud, crippling roar soon that rumbled off the mountains and caused small landslides on either side of the valley brought half of the soldiers protecting Marcassin to their knees, leaving their Emperor exposed. Both Esther and the Darkwing realized this at the same time and simultaneously they both lunged towards Marcassin.
As if a time spell had warped the space they were in, everything started to move at a thickened pace. Harp in hand, Esther maneuvered gracefully through a group of bone soldiers as Gogo clubbed them and badgered them with a crosswind that sent them flying off into the distance. Her Eldritch Empress froze a few skeleton warriors into place while others were held back by thick icicles piercing through their hollow ribs and fixing them in place.
She could hear her heart pounding in her ears above her labored breathing as she felt her feet could not move fast enough. Esther made it just in time as the Darkwing hurled a large, blue fireball in their direction. With a strum from her harp, Jean cast a very powerful shield that covered the entire army. The fire ball broke and shattered into many parts and the pieces bounced off the barrier burning the nearby shrubbery, but otherwise leaving the army unharmed. The shield then broke from the sheer force of the attack after it had fulfilled its task.
Before anyone could even wonder where the shield spell had come from, the Emperor had completed his casting and shot a great ball of light in counter-attack, sending the dragon spiraling off into the opposite direction. Boulders and pieces of the valley tumbled down onto the combatants below as the Darkwing crashed into the mountainside.
As if gaining its second wind, the creature scraped its bony talons into the face of the rock and pushed off the walls of the valley to begin another violent charge at them. The soldiers scrambled back into formation and tanks shot fiery projectiles at the dragon but every missile missed and could not assail the creature in its frightening speed. Everyone knew there was no time for their leader to cast another light spell and they braced for the worst.
Esther took notice of the creature's eyes and saw they had changed from an angry red to a pale green. Something in the chemistry of the light spell had awakened its consciousness. This was the soul of the original being that once lived as a member of the dragon race; the soul that still existed deep in the current husk of the Darkwing. Esther felt it was still a wild animal, fighting for its right to exist. Her telepathic empathy could relate a mixture of desperation intermingled determination in the Darkwing's heart. A warm glow surrounded Esther's heart as she began to understand it a little.
It was true that such a creature had never been tamed. However, if a familiar tamer could see into the heart of a magical creature and understand it, any creature could be tamed...in theory.
She took a deep breath and stood up, unhooking the clasp of her cloak to let it fall behind her and drop silently to the ground. Her body began to emanate a soft, rosy light, similar to the color of the sun of her home village at dusk in the outskirts of Al-Mamoon. Esther closed her eyes and the sound of her harp strings suddenly stirred the valley to silence as the notes were amplified, and bounced off the rock walls of the valley and faded upward into the still night. Esther opened her mouth to sing.
"Still your cries,
Rest in peace at last;
Time that flows in life
falls away so fast;
Release your grudge and fly free,
Earthly cares all gone;
The light that bids you come to me
is yours, and yours alone."
Her song was intermingled with the sorrow this place had called forth from her childhood memories, and Esther willingly let the timbre flow into her carefully chosen lyrics as she serenaded the great beast. With this feeling, their hearts joined and she hoped, more than actually knew, that it would work.
The creature's charge slowed and then halted until it hovered over her. Its wings beat against the damp air and stirred the loose earth at her feet. It then opened its jaws wide and it answered with a lament of its own in a low, throaty voice, and the Darkwing beheld the golden haired girl with calm eyes. Esther smiled at him as his form shimmered, and disappeared into a pale, glowing green orb that dropped onto the dirt and rolled to her feet. The Soul of the Night was hers.
Around her the silence swelled as the soldiers took hold of their senses again and made note of her presence for the first time. Even the magical creatures and wild beasts who had loosely gathered to fight Marcassin's army seemed to have lost their nerve and were dispersing back into the darkness.
"Miss Esther!" shouted the Emperor as he immediately realized who she was. "That was simply splendid!" he exclaimed, rushing to her side, his words tumbling over his excitement at what he just saw. "Why are you here? How did you accomplish that? Are you all right?"
Esther turned to look at him and gave him a small smile. Her body felt drained of strength and her mind was growing fuzzy with lack of sleep and overexertion as the adrenaline was leaving her. Something wet and warm rolled down her cheek. She touched her face and realized it was a tear.
"How strange," she whispered, bewildered, just before she lost consciousness and collapsed into Marcassin's arms.