Shadowguard

There were only two survivors.

Everna found them huddled inside a small pocket in the cliff face, their faces smeared with dirt and soot and streaked with tears. The oldest of the two, a scrawny young man named Dain, escaped the worst of the flames. Tiny holes, blackened at the edges, dotted the sleeves of his rough-spun shirt. The exposed skin beneath was raw and angry. A large blistering burn covered most of his left cheek, but he was otherwise unharmed.

His younger sister Adela wasn't as lucky. The flames had eaten away at her skirt until the ends stopped mid-thigh; blistering burns covered the fronts of both her legs. The backs of her thighs that had taken the brunt of the flames, the skin blackened and the flesh beneath browned. She slumped against her brother's side, head lulling and eyelids fluttering.

Everna had seen many a gruesome sight, but to see a child reduced to such a state was enough to turn her stomach.

"I need to contact Osain," Lisette said. She pulled her cloak from her shoulders and carefully draped it over Adela's legs, then motioned for Everna to follow her down the mountain. When they were far enough away, she continued, "We need Leah, or, at the very least, a healing potion, and soon. The girl likely won't last the night, if she makes it another few hours."

"How? We're two days out," Everna said. "She'd never make it in time."

Lisette reached into her leathers and withdrew a small badge. Made of polished silver and simplistic in design, it featured a simple shield behind a downward-pointing longsword. Magic, strong enough for her to feel even without contact, radiated from the emblem.

"Shadowguard has a few tricks up its sleeve," she explained. "Our badges have many enchantments, one of which is a one-use communications spell. It's an emergency precaution."

"That doesn't explain how Leah would get here."

“The safe houses have teleportation circles, which are connected to the badges. Whoever’s at the safe house can be here in seconds if need be.”

Everna frowned. “Why didn’t we do that in the first place? We could’ve just teleported to the informant and been done with it.”

“You don’t have a badge, so you wouldn’t be able to use the circle. Besides, its a one-way trip. There’s no circle in Windhollow. We’d have to ride back anyway.”

“You couldn’t just give me one?”

Lisette shook her head. “Too much of a liability.”

Everna pursed her lips. She supposed it would be, if she understood correctly. If Shroud had somehow gotten their hands on a badge, they’d have unrestricted access to Shadowguard’s members — unrestricted access to her. Osain had said their main goal was to keep her away from Shroud; it would be foolish to give them the means to reach her.

"See if Dain knows anything else. It's almost certain Shroud's responsible, but until we're sure, we can't ignore the possibility that this may be an unfortunate coincidence."

With that, Lisette returned to the village.

Everna followed the narrow, meandering path up the side of the mountain. When she reached the mouth of a shallow cave, she found Dain standing at the entrance, staring down at the burning village, his hands curled into fists at his side. It was a horrific sight that left her with a hollow ache in her chest that refused to abate. She could only imagine how he must feel; Windhollow was his home.

"Hopefully, someone should be here soon with something to help your sister," Everna said, trying to emulate the Leah’s soothing tone. She’d never been good at dealing with people in distress. "I know it's unpleasant, but in the meantime, I need to know what happened."

He shook his head, strands of singed blond hair falling in his face. "I don't know. Honest. Adela an' I were playin' ball on the edge of the village when this big ol' ball of flame came flyin' down from the mountains. I barely pulled her out of the way of the damned thing before it swallowed her up."

An unsettling weight pitted in her gut. Limited as her understanding of magic was, she knew the spell he described. Fireballs were devastating, and for that reason, they were highly favored by mages. She'd learned the hard way to avoid sitting in the front row during duels hosted by the academy, but the smoking remains of a village served as a pointed reminder of how destructive magic was.

Half-burnt chunks of wood, singed stone, and large pieces of roof lay scattered along the edge of the village, as if propelled outwards by a massive, fiery explosion. The stone foundations of the outermost houses bore damage consistent with a sudden burst of force, cracked and pushed several inches off their original position.

"Did you see what caused it? A caster, perhaps? Or possibly some creature that lives in the mountains? Something or someone carrying something that looked odd?"

"I didn't see nothin' but the fireball, miss. It just came streakin' out of the rock and, boom! the entire village's burnin'." Dain looked up to the sky for a moment, then added, "Though, I saw a couple of strange folk in black robes, hoods and the likes, wanderin' 'round a few hours 'fore it happened. Ma said they looked like some cultist types an' told us to stay 'way from 'em."

The description sounded more apt of the Inquisitors, but given they were well beyond Inverness's borders, she could only assume Shroud's agents dressed similarly. They must've tracked down the informant and moved to silence him before he could pass on the information regarding her importance to them.

A bitter taste flooded her mouth and, suddenly, she found it difficult to look at the siblings. Dain was not as calm as he appeared. She saw it in his eyes, hollow and haunted, as he looked between the remains of his village and his sister, now lying on the floor of the cave. His hands shook at his sides, and more than once he swayed on his feet as if he might collapse at any moment.

"Is she... She's gonna be alright, ain't she?" he asked.

"We'll do everything we can to help her," Everna assured him.

Adela did not look well. It seemed within the last few minutes, her condition deteriorated. Sweat slicked her pallid skin, strands of sandy blonde waves clinging to her face and neck. Her chest rose and fell in sharp bursts, her breathing strained and uneven. Darkened splotches stained Lisette's cloak.

And it was all Everna’s fault.

"I don't know what we're gonna do," Dain said with a shuddering sigh. His foot tapped frantically against the ground. "There ain't no other villages 'round here. There ain't nowhere for us to go."

Swallowing the bitter taste of guilt, Everna drew in a deep breath. Then, she forced what she hoped was a calming smile and said, "Inverness is a two-day ride to the east. If nothing else, I can send you to someone who'd take the two of you in."

After indirectly destroying their lives, it was the least she could do.

Dain frowned. "You'd do that? Ma said kingdom folk don't care for us Wilders. Ain't their land, ain't their problem."

"My parents used to be adventurers. It wouldn't be the first time they've helped someone in need," she said. "Even if they couldn't take you in, there's always a farm or two looking for extra help."

Her parents wouldn't turn them away, especially not Adela. Not when they learned of what happened. They'd encountered something similar in the past; Mayor Ashburn had told her the story, as her parents refused to speak of it. She could only hope fate was kinder to Dain and Adela.

"For now, you need to rest," she continued. "Your injuries might not be as severe as Adela's, but you're certainly not okay."

"I’m fine," Dain argued. He reached up to prod at his burnt cheek. "It don't even hurt."

Everna bit back a sigh. Shock was an odd phenomenon, one that varied between individuals. Some people froze up,, while others carried on, laughing and joking as if they weren't bleeding out on the floor. She saw it in the tavern after brawls; patrons who punched through windows and cut themselves to the bone or took a bottle to the head and insisted they were fine.

It happened to her when she shot herself in the foot. It took a full minute before she'd realized what had happened, and another for the pain to set in. By the time she and Andryll reached the town's walls, she'd been a sobbing mess. Then came an inexplicable bout of irritation, and her father had to restrain her while her mother removed the arrow. She couldn't look at her foot for a week.

"I know what shock looks like," she argued. "I know you might not feel it now, but I promise you, you will soon enough."

"Then I suppose it's good I got here when I did."