Erica sat against the head of her bed, legs outstretched and engrossed in a leatherbound book. Her village guard uniform and armour sat neatly folded and stacked on the vanity by the door of her small but cozy room. Cobbled stone walls denoted the building's age, with hardwood flooring and simple yet effective wooden furniture filling the space. A maiga powered lamp hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room and Erica's book in a soft yellow glow. As it flickered, she remembered that she needed to change the lamp's charge soon.
"Erica," the warm voice of her mother filtered through the closed door, "can you come out and help me with the laundry? You've been cooped up in there all day."
"Coming!" Erica put her steel bookmark in place and closed her book, hopping to her bare feet off the bed and checking her hair in the reflection of the vanity's mirror. A fair face with soft features stares back at her with deep blue eyes, framed with wavy brown locks that fell past her shoulder blades. Satisfied after fussing with her hair briefly, Erica pulls on some socks and the combat boots that were part of her guard's uniform before opening the door and clomping her way to the back yard.
The afternoon summer air greeted her face as she opened the back door and stepped out into the fenced-in green yard. On two sides of the fence, the left and in front, fields of golden wheat spread out, her family's farm. On the right was the dirt road, and her neighbors' homes and fields beyond that. Her mother, in a plain white ankle-length skirt and blouse and wearing her auburn hair in a ponytail, was hunched over a washbasin with two piles of clothes next to her, one dry and the other wet.
"Help me and hang those up, would you?" Erica's mother asked as she scrubbed dirty clothes against a washboard in the basin. As Erica began sorting through the wet pile of clothes and started hanging them on one of several lines strung across the yard, her mother looked up at her, "You're wearing another blue shirt? With your pajamas and combat boots?"
"I like the blue shirts!" Erica joke-protested, "And the pajamas and boots are comfortable. It's my day off, so why not be cozy?"
"You could at least be presentable for the day," Her mother sighed, "I know you're pretty, but men won't take you seriously if they see you in that get-up."
"Like I care what the men of Copperwood think of me," Erica scoffed.
"What if someone new moves in who tickles your fancy? You'll be sorry if he decides you're not worth his time because he sees you like this."
"Mom, I'm not going to live my life worrying about 'what if' the mythical perfect man doesn't find me suitable to marry. I know I'm a bit late with that -"
"Twenty-seven, and ticking..."
Erica huffed, "- but, no one here is right for me.”
"Then maybe it's time you looked beyond Copperwood. You've been here pretty much your whole life. It'd be good to expand your horizons, visit other places, maybe settle down somewhere else with a less dangerous job?"
"Wait, you think being a Copperwood guard is dangerous?"
Erica's mother shrugged, "You carry around that sword and gun everywhere on the job, that's inviting danger, isn't it? I know you have armour too, but that won't save you from the worst things you can come up against here..."
"Mom, in all the time I've served as a village guard, the worst thing I've seen have been wild guhr attacks and some particularly brazen highwaymen thinking they could rob the place. We haven't even had a sawt problem for the last ten years!"
"And last time we had one, it took fourteen lives before it was dealt with. Just one sawt, mind you. It could have been a lot worse. It's also why the guard was so eager for new recruits, and I'm sure why you were able to get in."
"What, you're saying I wasn't good enough for them?"
"If I were the guard captain, you wouldn't have been my first pick. But the sixth, seventh? They were down a lot of manpower, and there weren't a lot of volunteers like you."
Erica pouted, "What's wrong with wanting to serve the village? It's only been my dream job since I was little..."
"While it's nice to have what you wanted, it doesn't hurt to dream bigger."
"Like replacing that old fart Gerard as guard captain?"
"No, like learning a trade, or going to one of the cities to do administrative work. Finding a job abroad wouldn't hurt." Erica's mother tossed another shirt onto the slowly diminishing pile of wet clothing. "You won't find any better prospects here, both for a career or a partner."
"That again? I already have a good job here, there's just no one right for me in Copperwood. I'm not you or dad, who found each other within the village and were all sappy 'love at first sight' or whatever. I'm me, who's been around the block with this village, and nothing stuck."
"Your father and I were not 'love at first sight', as you put it, but we're not talking about me and him, we're talking about you. You're not getting any younger, and people want to settle down a little past your age. I just worry about you," Erica's mother said softly, "You're my daughter, I want you to be happy."
A small but heartfelt smile crept across Erica's face. "I know, mom. Let me worry about me and my future, while you finish the laundry so I can hang it up then go for a walk."
"If you're heading out, can you get some fresh bread and a wheel of cheese from the market? Dinner will be roast chicken with baked potato and string beans. The bread and cheese should compliment that well enough, no?" Her mother finished with the last of the laundry and went to dump the washbasin in the ditch by the road.
"Sure! Is dad still working?" Erica shouted over her shoulder as she hung up the last of the laundry after her mother went into the house.
"He should be," Her mother's voice echoed from inside, "along with your brother. They should be back from the field in an hour, hour and a half or so."
"Got it." Erica said as she walked inside to get properly dressed to go into the village. After donning some trousers instead of her pajamas, she grabbed her pouch of stellars and a woven basket, then wound her way through the hallway, through the kitchen, past the common area and out the front door into the rest of Copperwood.
As she left the family home behind her, Erica felt some measure of relief that the well-meaning but grating questions from her mother had ceased. She relished in the freedom of being outside and able to go wherever she chose, savouring the fresh air and the sun on her skin. As she reveled in these small pleasures, she took in the buildings and people she passed. Copperwood was mostly farmsteads out this way, with the village's functional center being north-west of where she was now.
That's where she would find the market as well, and she figured that while she was there she'd see if they had anything of note beyond bread and cheese. Perhaps a new book for her sizeable collection? Though it was rare to get titles that weren't the most popular publications in Bladefell, the continent-spanning country she lived in. Sometimes Sadie would try and get something more unique in for Erica, as her and the merchant were on good terms after she stopped some of the more delinquent youths of the village from stealing several books from the stall. Sadie dealt in other things as well, namely curios and a handful of paintings Erica never saw change, but it was the books that interested them both the most.
As she reached the square, Erica was greeted by the sight of eight stalls of varied goods arrayed on the north and south sides of the square, and the scents of smoked meats wafting from the stall closest to her. She got some polite greetings from villagers going about their shopping, all of whom she recognized. The ones she remembered for misdemeanors avoided her gaze and kept to themselves. Erica didn't like being treated like a guard when she was off duty, but figured it was difficult for people to separate Blaine the guard from Erica the villager.
She moved past the stall of smoked meats, making a note that she needed to get the cheese wheel from there, but after she checked in on Sadie's wares. Erica found the older blonde woman standing next to her stall of books and curios, looking bored at the passing crowd. When her eyes settled on Erica, they lit up as she stood a little straighter.
"Well, if it isn't my favourite customer!" Sadie exclaimed in a nasally voice as Erica approached, "How are things? Day off, by the looks of it?"
"Yup!" Erica said cheerily, "Running an errand, and figured I'd stop by to see if you have anything new and exciting for me."
"Well, I have something of interest, but it isn't a book. But! Before you get too disappointed, take a look at this..." Sadie pulled a necklace from its display stand on the stall, dangling it from her raised hand. It was a simple silver chain with a faintly glowing light blue crystal at the end, attached by a cap of silver at the crystal's base. The crystal was largely a single three-inch length with a nest of offshoots sprouting from the cap. As Erica took a closer look, she thought she could see tiny lines within the crystal, pathways with flickers of light moving through.
"It's very pretty, why is it glowing?"
"You don't know what this is?" Sadie asks, flabbergasted.
Erica looked between the merchant and the necklace. "No...?"
"This is a matrix maigum, from the Altean Army! You simply can't get these from them!"
"No way! That can't be right. There's no way they'd let that out of their sights! It's gotta be fake."
"There's a story that came with it! Supposedly, General Joshua lost this in a game of sevens in Trent! Then the winner used it to pay off some gambling debts of their own, and after several deals, I have it here."
"That makes too much sense if what they say about the general is true," Erica mused, "Won't the Alteans be looking for that?"
Sadie scoffed, "If they were gonna find it, it would have been shortly after the general lost it in the first place. So, do you want this ultra-rare collector's item?"
Erica regarded the crystal again, looking for the internal pathways that crisscrossed its entirety. If the yarn Sadie spun was true, this was an entirely unique piece of jewelry, if not particularly flashy. While the idea of the Altean Army coming knocking for it still put her ill at ease, the thought of having something this unique was enticing.
"How much for it?" Erica heard herself asking before she could stop herself.
Erica closed her eyes, raised her eyebrows, then blinked twice. "Seventy-five thousand? That's half my annual salary!"
"Hey, I'm giving you a discount. You don't want to know what I paid to get this."
"Too much, if that's the discounted price!" Erica shook her head. "While it would be nice to have, it isn't seventy-five thousand stellar nice."
“Ah well.” Sadie sighed. “So, anything else I can help you find?"
"Any new novels roll in lately? I'm nearly done with the first volume of the Serras saga."
"I don't have the second volume, but let me have a look..." Sadie muttered as she began flipping through a crate of books she kept under the stall. Erica looked back at the necklace, unable to shake the feeling that she should keep it close. Something about it kept drawing her in, and she didn't like that she didn't know what it was. She wasn't big on jewelry most of the time, so why-
"Hey!" Sadie was waving her arm in front of Erica's face, snapping her back to the present. "Welcome back to planet Tarsis. That matrix got its claws in you, huh?"
"It's just... I've got a feeling about it. Can't tell if it's good or bad, and that worries me."
"Hmm... well, I didn't see anything that jumped out to me as new in my stock for books. Look," Sadie switched to a low whisper, leaning in conspiratorially, "I'll be honest, you're not just my favourite customer, you're my best customer. You've spent I don't know how much with me, and I know you'll keep buying from me. I can knock another five thousand stellars off the price of the matrix before it becomes not worth my time to have bought it in the first place. I can even set up a payment plan for you, you know I never do that! Here, how much do you have on you right now?"
"Woah, hold on! I appreciate you going to these lengths, but seventy thousand stellars is still a lot! I need to think on it," Erica said, trying to wrest some control over herself, but her gaze was still firmly on the matrix. It wouldn't leave her alone, not until it was hers. She tried to look back at Sadie, but the faint blue glow of the crystal still held her attention.
A knowing grin crept over Sadie's face, "I think you already know that you want it, you just have to come to terms with the cost."
“I’m not even sure I want it!”
"Oh, you want it, alright. You haven’t taken your eyes off it this whole time."
Erica's face contorted in the pain of knowing that Sadie was ultimately right, "I do. Fine. I can pay you thirty thousand now, and do the other forty thousand over the next four months as I get paid. But this stays between us! My family would have my hide if they knew I bought this without really sitting down and thinking about it."
"Sold! Wouldn't dream of telling anyone!” Sadie winked at Erica as she sifted through her pouch to find what she owed the shopkeep. “If anyone asks, I'll just say it went to a very lucky, not to mention pretty, lady."
"I can't believe I'm doing this..." Erica muttered as she counted out coins of five hundred stellars, handing an eye-watering sixty of them to Sadie. As Sadie put the coins in her own pouch, Erica gave hers a shake. It was depressingly light, with a much-diminished jingle coming from it than she remembered it making when she picked it up earlier.
"Here you go, one one-of-a-kind bit of Altean memorabilia!" Sadie handed over the matrix maigum.
Erica held it gently, holding the chain up in her right hand and cradling the crystal in her left. This felt... right. She didn't know why, and that still bothered her, but having the matrix in her hand was soothing some of the unease and anxiety she was having before. Pushing the thought of having the Army show up to reclaim it to the back of her mind, she pocketed the necklace.
"Thanks, Sadie. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get much else from you for a while..."
"Bah, this is fine. If I didn't like having to wait for my money, I wouldn't have offered to let you pay over time. Just don't be a stranger, okay?"
"Sounds good. I'll see you later!" Erica smiled at the merchant as she stepped away, mind racing. What had she done?! Promised away most of the money she'd be getting for the next four months, on top of a solid chunk of her savings, that's what! All for this glowing blue crystal that she couldn't feasibly do anything with besides wear. A shaper, a talent at bending maiga, the binding of the world, and producing all manner of wondrous effects, could do some creative things with this, she was sure. But her? She had no hope of getting any kind of reaction from the matrix.
So why did it vex her so? Why did it nearly demand to be obtained by her? Erica mulled over this as she went to the baker's stall and bought a loaf of crusty white bread before going to the smoked meat stall and picking up a smaller wheel of cheese than she had originally planned on, suddenly aware of how much they cost. Having what she came for, and a very expensive piece she didn't, she set off for home.
"I'm home," She said as she entered the house, looking into the kitchen. Two men in overalls and thin shirts sat at the table while her mother was busy behind them. One was slightly younger than Erica, with short black hair and a five o'clock shadow. He was talking with the other man, who was her mother's age. He had hair that had started to grey, a bit longer and slightly messier than the other man's, along with a pronounced beard. Both had similarly blue eyes to Erica's, with skin that had seen more sun than hers.
"Our champion of Baatmoor returns!" The older man, noticing Erica, boomed in a deep voice.
Erica suppressed a laugh but couldn't contain a smile, "Hardly. I'm a village guard, dad, not some champion of the god of justice."
"Eh, close enough," her father said jovially, "I see you've brought the last of dinner with you?"
"Yup!" Erica said, acutely aware of the other purchase she made that he didn't see. She set the basket's contents onto the table, noticing the other man's dour expression before asking him, "What?"
The man sighed in an exaggerated manner, "We were talking about how the crops were doing until you showed up."
"Sorry I live here," Erica said completely unapologetically, "Does this mean you don't want any of the bread and cheese, then?"
"Hey, that's not what I-"
He was interrupted by a bark of laughter from her father, "That's what you get for being a grouch, Rico! No need to be so sour, let alone with your sister. She was kind enough to go out and get us some fine bread and... can I even call this cheese a wheel? It's so small!"
"I'm still trying to save, so I admit I skimped a bit on that," Erica said sheepishly, hoping that lie would keep them off the fact she overspent at Sadie's. There was no way for them to know, of course, but that didn't stop her guilty mind from fixating on it.
"Cheapskate," Rico muttered.
"Maybe call it a plate of cheese, with how thin it is," her father was flipping over the cheese in his weathered hands, looking at the proportions, "That's an exaggeration I suppose. Cheese is cheese, just might have to cut a couple of slices for every slice of bread, then."
"I'll get a bigger one next time," Erica assured them. As she sat down, her mother began bringing dinner to the table; the roast chicken, followed by a plate of baked potatoes and a pot of string beans, as she told Erica earlier. While sitting, Erica felt a jab in her thigh where the protrusions of the matrix maigum were digging in.
"Time to give thanks for the meal," her mother said as she sat down. Everyone put their hands together in their laps, bowed their heads and closed their eyes. "To the gods, we give thanks for the meal we are about to partake in this evening. In particular, we thank Calatumn for the bountiful vegetables and grains, and Vylkar for providing the egg that became the chicken we have before us. May you watch over us in perpetuity, the seventeen bless."
"The seventeen bless," everyone else concluded the prayer. The clattering of cutlery filled the air as everyone began taking food and placing it on their plates.
"So, Erica," her mother asked as she was spooning beans onto her plate, "Have you given any thought to getting a job abroad?"
"Really, mom?" Erica said, slightly exasperated, "A walk to the market and back isn't a lot of time to think about that sort of thing."
"Are you going to be a guard for our rinky-dink village your whole life?" Her father added, "You're still young enough you could do something elsewhere, and probably more exciting too!"
"Not you too..."
"You're not helping on the farm," Rico said, attempting to hide the pointedness of the statement behind a nonchalant tone, "so it's not like there's anything really tying you down here."
"I don't help on the farm, because last time I did, everything I planted died. That wasn't a great year for us. Needless to say, guard work is a better fit for me." Erica speared a baked potato with her fork and deposited it onto her plate.
"Just because you can't plant for crap doesn't mean you can't help in other ways," Rico mumbles, but he chose to begin eating rather than continue that line of thought.
"Be nicer to your sister," their father said, "she's saved your and our butts a few times, and helped the village plenty over the years. There was a time before you two that I was tending the fields on my own, you know? I'm sure you can manage when I retire."
"It's too early to talk about retirement, dear," their mother said in between bites, "Besides, both of them need to find partners before too much longer."
Rico perked up, "Oh, that reminds me - Astrid and I are dating now, forgot to tell you."
"Attaboy!" Their father raucously banged the table and clapped Rico's back, "The baker's daughter, eh? What took the two of you so long?"
"Congrats!" Erica beamed, pushing down a pang of loneliness. She should be happy for her brother, though the thought of him potentially having a stable partner before she did bothered her, if only a little.
"When's the wedding?" Their mother asked jokingly.
"Mom. We just started dating." Rico said as he shoveled a forkful of beans into his mouth.
Dinner continued with questions about Astrid and generally pulling teeth to get answers of any depth out of Rico, which Erica engaged with. After dinner was finished, dishes were washed and put away, some light conversation persisted in the common room, then everyone retired to their rooms for the night.
As per usual, Erica stayed up a bit to read, though this time was sidetracked by staring at the matrix maigum she had purchased earlier, dangling it by its chain while lying down and staring at the faint lights within following internal pathways she otherwise couldn't see. What was it about this thing that allured her so? She hadn't merely wanted this, she needed it, as though she was parched in a desert and the matrix was the oasis she stumbled upon after days of searching. Why? She had no affinity for using it, no greater ties or interest in the Altean Army. It was by all accounts a useless bauble, a string of jewelry with an admittedly very unique crystal at the end of it, at least to her. But here it was, in her hands, after demanding to be gained. She wondered if this was how Sadie came across it, some other vendor having fallen prey to this call trying to make back what they spent to get it. If that was true, that simply made Erica the first schmuck to be shown it who didn't intend to turn around and sell it again.
Erica shook her head as she set the necklace down on the lip of her bookshelf next to her bed. She turned off her flickering lamp and laid down, closing her eyes and preparing for a day of work ahead of her.
Opening her eyes, Erica found herself floating in a starry void. She tried moving, finding she couldn't as she pumped her arms and kicked her legs. As one, several figures gradually came into view, solidifying from the vast blackness of the void. Turning her head, Erica counted seventeen in all. Each had a different robe from the last, each carried something different. A sword, a scythe, a sickle, a hammer, a trident, a child of indeterminate species, a pickaxe, appraisal tools, among others.
These couldn'tbe... Erica thought, both in awe of what she was seeing and wondering how she got here in the first place. All she remembered was drifting off to sleep... was this a dream?
"So," The largest figure, taller than a mountain, clad in alabaster armour, face hidden behind a helmet and wielding a double-headed glaive, rumbled in a voice that Erica could only describe as divinity itself, "this is our candidate?"
"Yes," A feminine figure, a good deal shorter than the first, clutching a bundle of scrolls and rulers, said with a voice that told Erica that they had schemes beyond count, "she was the one chosen."
"This is a farce," A hooded figure, hunched and twisting a dagger between its fingers, its voice the promise of things going wrong, "The selection was a farce, what you propose we do is a farce. We already have pieces in play, and you'd all throw a wildcard into the game?"
"With respect," The alabaster-clad one spoke, "your opinion holds little sway. Be thankful you and the other... upstarts, are still allowed here."
The hooded figure harrumphed but said nothing more. A tiny shape Erica had nearly missed in her count earlier giggled in a high-pitched voice, flittering about the void excitedly, swinging what looked like a sewing needle around like a sword, "Are we gonna do it then? It looks like she sees us."
Erica could swear she could feel the intensity of seventeen sets of eyes all at once. She gulped, completely vulnerable in this empty space.
"Balahaad's experiment is on the move," A being in light armour and holding a sword and shield at ease announced, some measure of anticipation in its deep feminine voice.
"It will not interfere," said the alabaster one, "This one... Yes, this one will do nicely."
It outstretched a finger on its free hand, and a golden drop of light flitted from it. Each of the other figures did the same, drops of light of differing colours floating toward the space above Erica. They coalesced, merging into a single point of white. Before she could protest, the light dove straight for Erica, piercing her chest. She gasped, but searing pain immediately gave way to a new sensation. Energy, power, flowed through her veins, spreading from her chest and filling every corner of her body. It pulsed, out of sync with her body, but gradually lined up with her heartbeat, her breath, until it was one with her. She was energized, capable of so much more than she was a moment ago, she reached out-
Erica bolted upright in her bed, gasping for air, flinging the covers off as her hand reached for something that was no longer there. She was in her room, gravity holding her to the bed. No stars, no looming robed figures. But, the energizing feeling lingered. It wasn't just her, though. She could feel latent energy in nearly everything around her, from the bed to the walls to the furniture. She could see, if not light, motes of power drifting by like dust. Erica tried to make sense of it, looking for a spot uncluttered by this noise. She was startled by her mother slamming the door to her room open.
"We have to go. Now!" Her mother hissed, clearly flustered and panicked. She hadn't even gotten dressed and was still in a nightgown.
"W-what's goin' on?" Erica managed to say through a mouth that felt like it hadn't been used in days.
"Houses are catching fire. It's only a matter of time before they come for us!"
Erica swung her legs over the edge of her bed, steadying herself against the wall as she willed her body into compliance. It protested, unsure what to do with this alien energy flowing through it, as she stood. She reached for the matrix maigum on her bookshelf instinctively, almost too distracted with herself to notice.
"Leave it! We don't have time!"
Erica still grabbed the silver chain, but forced herself forward. "My weapons-"
"Will do nothing! We have to run!"
Erica's blood ran cold. Fire, needing to run, weapons being ineffective. No guhr raid or sawt attack combined all of these things. No, there was something that was covered in her guard training, a plan for what to do when this time came. There would be no heroics, no standing one's ground and fending off whatever threat came their way, simply an evacuation plan to be followed to the best of their ability. The worst-case scenario.
Diezens. The Diezens had come for Copperwood.
Erica stumbled toward the door, steadied by her mother when she reached it. Her mother looked at the glowing matrix, standing out in the dark, "What is that? Why are you stumbling around like you're drunk?"
"It's nothing, mom," Erica pushed through to the hallway, pocketing the matrix, determined to get where she needed to go. She had to get people out, starting with her own household. The static snow of energy particles floating across her vision was distracting, making it hard to focus on anything further in the house. She thought she could see a couple more figures in the common area. Gaining some stability, she and her mother made their way to the room by the front of the house.
"Everyone accounted for? Good," Erica's father said as they entered, holding a pump shotgun at the ready. Next to him, Rico stood brandishing a hammer.
"Those won't help, not enough," Erica said, gripping a chair with one hand and her forehead with the other.
"Better than nothing," Rico said.
"We ready then? We don't have the luxury of time," their father said, "Run for town hall, meet up with others, and then head for Zellas. Got it?"
There was a quick sound of affirmation from everyone. Their father nodded, then led them all into the night.
It was hell. Houses all along the street were ablaze, illuminating everything in an orange glow. Smoke choked the sky. Screams, shouting, gunfire, all of this echoed in Erica's head as she became all too aware that she was stepping on the dirt road with her bare feet. As she bumped into her father, she looked around to see why he stopped. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw what he did.
A mechan loomed over one of her neighbors who was on the ground, attempting to crawl away from the humanoid machine. If a person was made from a metal carapace, lacked a face except for two round red lenses protruding slightly from the head, and painted black, they would be exactly like the mechanical being that was now plunging a sword into the hapless neighbor. As they breathed their last, the Diezen mechan planted a foot on their body and yanked its sword out, a spray of blood accompanying the forceful removal of the blade. Its head then snapped to the Blaine family.
"Murder. For murder's sake!" It said in a mechanical voice tinged with maniacal glee.
"Run!" Erica shouted as she pushed her family into a sprint towards the center of town. She dared not look back as she heard rapid heavy footfalls behind her. "Don't stop!"
There was a bloodcurdling scream, a familiar voice crying out in pain. Erica spun around to see her mother fall forward after the Diezen slashed her across the back.
"Mom!" Erica was powerless, frozen in place by the pooling crimson spreading from the gash across her mother's back. Training told her to fight, but natural instinct told her there was nothing she could do. It seemed like an eternity, but in the follow-through of the Diezen's murderous cut, the mechan enacted the same plunging strike on her mother as it did on her neighbor with practiced efficiency, a piercing blow to the heart. Her mother screamed out once more, then was silenced as the Diezen wrenched its sword out sideways, spattering the road in blood.
"No! Marigold!" Erica's father bellowed with pain and fury. He leveled the shotgun at the Diezen and fired, blowing off its sword arm. Unperturbed by the loss of its limb, the Diezen began stalking toward them. Erica's father racked the shotgun and fired again, and again. The Diezen recoiled with each hit, the third shot blowing its other arm off at the elbow. Her father fired again, and the left half of its head disappeared, but still the Diezen advanced on them. It was only the following two shots to the chest that the mechan finally slowed before keeling over.
Everyone tried to catch their breath, tried to process what had just happened. The screaming and shooting in the rest of the village sounded far away as they all looked at the still body of the one they had just known as mother or wife. Erica looked to her father, the man she knew as a rock steady pillar when things were bleak. He was now a man broken, tears streaming down his face as he looked upon his wife's body with eyes that no longer shone.
"Dad..." Erica had no other words to give, choking on that alone as tears began to well in her own eyes.
"You and Rico go on ahead," Her father croaked out in a quiet voice as he stepped over the fallen form of the Diezen, "I'll be right with you."
Rico was frozen in place, "Dad, we can't-"
Erica grabbed him by the front of his shirt and started to drag him away toward town hall. "He'll come," she said, more to herself than to Rico, then with more force, "He'll come back!"
Rico resisted being dragged away at first, but quickly turned and continued to run with his sister. Tears ran freely down both of their faces while they made their way through the inferno that was Copperwood. Bodies lay strewn about as the Diezens went about in haphazard patterns seeking victims. Faces Erica recognized, eyes staring vacantly into the smoked-out sky or face-down in pools of their own blood. They saw a few be killed down offshoot streets, and the sights of corpses sometimes missing heads or limbs was something Erica knew she would live with for the rest of her life. However long that was.
As they ran, a blade lashed out at Erica from the darkness of the shadow of a building. It bit into the left of her chin, and dug its way under and past her cheekbone before exiting her flesh just shy of her ear. Burning pain exploded across her face, but Erica simply broke into a sprint, dragging her reeling brother behind her. Mechanical laughter echoed behind them as the mechan who'd attacked her turned its attention elsewhere.
Erica and Rico reached the market square, where some of the village guards were funneling people to town hall at the other end of the square. They weren't in uniform, dressed in sleepwear with a few pieces of armour hastily donned before storming out. They were firing on mechans who came close, and Erica noticed some bodies here that she didn't recognize. Robed individuals, who were carrying firearms and blades of various kinds, lay where they were felled by the guards.
"Diezen cultists!" A rotund, mustachioed figure shouted at the two siblings as he noticed them looking at the corpses of strangers. He had his guard's uniform on, minus the pants. Erica would have relished the absurdity of witnessing guard captain Gerard in his boxers in any other context, but for now the gravity of the situation drained the humour from the sight. "Blaine! What took you so long? Where are your weapons? What happened to your face?"
"Sir! There was no time-"
"Hmph! No time indeed! Well, grab a cultist's gun, go defend town hall and, more importantly, the people there! The rest of us will buy you time before you depart for Zellas."
Erica didn't protest. Instead, she looked around the bodies of the cultists, finding a repeater rifle in the clutches of one. She liberated it and checked the magazine. It was nearly full, some-odd thirty rounds ready to be fired. The pain in her cheek wasn't subsiding. Putting a hand up to it, she pulled it away to see it coated in blood. Wiping it off on her shirt, she looked back to her brother. Rico looked dazed, staring ahead blankly rather than try to find a replacement for the hammer he dropped a little ways back. She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him along as they made their way to town hall.
The largely wooden structure was ablaze, its large bell tower having collapsed in the fire, explaining why its warning toll was silent. Several villagers huddled a distance from the burning building, looking outward to spot any incoming danger. Some mechans had already been felled here, but so had some of the villagers. Erica and some of the other guards formed a perimeter after she shoved Rico toward the baker's family, noting that Astrid began fussing over him immediately. She turned her attention to the stark darkness of the outer reaches of the square, repeater raised and ready to fire.
It was only now that she remembered the alien flow of energy through her body. It was more natural now, still felt but less intrusive. If she focused a little, she could see the motes of power flickering by, agitated by the fire behind her. She noticed that in some places in the dark, the free-floating energy would swirl toward a large point before disappearing, only to reappear flowing away from the light vortex. As she stared at one such point, trying to make sense of it, a Diezen mechan came stalking out of the darkness, holding a rifle in one hand and firing it at the defenders.
Ferris, one of the guards who joined around the same time as Erica, fell first, a bullet piercing his skull despite his helmet. Erica fired at the Diezen, round after round. The shots pinged and panged off of its metal shell, denting it, occasionally piercing it, but to no visible effect. The mechan languidly turned its gun on Vivian, a guard under Erica's command, killing her in three shots.
"Its chest, damn it! Focus fire on its chest!" Trevor, another guard, and Erica's first kiss years back, shouted as the Diezen ripped into him with its rifle. Erica tried, but the repeater was just not meant to punch through armour like this. As the guards finally managed to focus enough fire into the Diezen's chest to bring it down, Erica had emptied the repeater's magazine. She tossed the firearm aside, picking up Vivian's carbine. Villagers kept flowing in, but as Erica noticed the vortexes of energy moving around in the dark, she had the sinking feeling that they were being led into a meat grinder.
Another Diezen charged out of the dark, tossing aside a presumedly empty light repeater and booking it for a cluster of villagers. The village blacksmith stepped up from the crowd with a hammer, pulling back to swing it at the mechan. The Diezen was faster, driving its fist into his face, caving it in with a sickening crunch. It laughed as the blacksmith fell, even as Erica and the other guards lay into it with their carbines. They were more focused after Trevor's callout and managed to fell it after it only claimed two more lives with its bare hands.
Erica's heart was racing. Adrenaline was spiking as death surrounded her. She was scared, if not for herself, then for everyone around her. The Copperwood guard were failing in the face of the mechanical horror of the Diezens. Vivian's carbine was spent, and as Erica went to get a fresh magazine from her body, she noticed that one of the vortexes of power motes in the dark started moving. She wasn't prepared for another mechan, none of them were.
Fear turned to anger. Why? Why had the Diezens come to Copperwood? They've left the village alone for the past three years, why attack now? Why did so many have to die? Why did her mother have to die? Rage filled her, and as it did, the flow of energy within her accelerated. She was vaguely aware of the motes of energy now floating toward her, into her. The sensation of power within her grew, welling up and almost telling her that she could unleash it. She raised a hand toward the vortex in the dark. Now, the power said, all you have to do is picture the energy forming in your hand and cast it forth...
She did so, and when it rapidly reached what she felt was a suitable level, thought of it bolting out to the vortex. Lightning lanced forth from her hand, illuminating the night in a blinding flash and ripping through the Diezen at the heart of the particle vortex. The boom deafened all nearby momentarily as the mechan collapsed.
Erica looked at her hand in surprise. That was shaping! Turning the maiga inherent to the world into elemental effects! Was that what she felt coursing through her veins? She'd never been capable of this before. In the past, she'd struggled to charge her room's lamp in a timely manner. The energy she just unleashed was so many times that kind of power. Plus, she felt empowered. Energy now flowed freely through her, and she felt she could start to control the flow a bit, directing it to her other hand now.
"Blaine!" Gerard shouted from the market stalls, "What by the seventeen was that!?"
"I... I don't know, sir!" Erica replied, aware that all eyes were on her now. The Diezens seemed to register her as a threat, and she could sense them, their maiga consumption, shifting in the shadows beyond the blazing town hall, moving in to end her.
They could try.
Emboldened by this new power, Erica started throwing lightning at every vortex in the dark or Diezen that presented themselves in the light. Thunderous cracks echoed through the night as mechans fell left and right. The other guards stood agog, having never seen such a display of power. In all she heard of charging or shaping, it was supposed to drain the user as they exercised their power. However, as Erica pierced a cultist with a bolt of maiga, she felt energized. More aware, more awake, more alive. She was almost throwing lightning at enemies before they showed themselves.
Breathing heavily, Erica looked around for hostiles, both with her eyes and her new maiga sense. Nothing presented itself. The night was largely silent. No more gunfire. Little to no screaming. Just the stunned silence of the people behind her. She tried to calm herself, feeling that the nightmare was over. However, the power within her kept building. She could feel it starting to leak out of her, and saw little arcs of electricity dance across her body. She was still tense, a snake coiled and ready to strike. She was trying to uncoil this energy, this growingly dangerous, unwanted, pent-up maiga, when...
"Erica! Rico!" A deep man's voice rang out from the square. Erica looked and saw her father, covered in cuts and scrapes, carrying the motionless body of her mother, approaching with a limp.
"Dad!" Erica started running toward him, reaching out to him.
The maiga responded without her will. Lightning lanced out from her outstretched palm, piercing her father's chest like so many Diezens before him. He didn't cry out, didn't react, but simply collapsed, smoke raising from his burnt clothing. Erica stopped and shrieked.
"What did you do!?" Rico's voice cracked as he screamed at her over the cries of the villagers behind her.
"I-I didn't-" Erica spun around, tears clouding her vision, only to see everyone flinch away as she turned to face them. Some of the guards had guns trained on her, trembling.
"Don't make me do it, Blaine!" Gerard was aiming a revolver her way as Erica turned to face his challenge, "Stand down, or it's to Mortemhiem with you!"
Erica stammered, looking for words, but none came. There was even more rampant energy in her body now than before, threatening to consume everything nearby. It was ramping up still, so she did the only thing she could think to do.
She ran.
Burning buildings flew by as Erica put one foot in front of the other as fast as she could. Tears rolled off her face and mixed with the blood on her cut cheek.
Her parents were both gone, in one night. And her father had died by her hand. How could she ever forgive herself? How could anyone else forgive her? She hadn't meant to do it, it just happened. The lack of control wasn't her fault, she shouldn't even have the abilities of a shaper to begin with!
That dream she had... seventeen figures, and the hooded one was even called out as Balahaad. The god of betrayal. The Traitor. Did that make all of them the gods of Tarsis? She thought back to the light piercing her chest in the dream, the feeling of energy flowing through her, the same as she felt when shaping earlier. Did they bestow this power upon her? Why? It always came back to "why"!
The maiga ahead became dense and foreboding, a miasma of tainted power. She had run past the borders of Copperwood and was in the forest surrounding the village that gave it its name. Darting past trees, Erica ran forth blindly, evading branches and trunks as best she could. Suddenly, one trunk moved into her path, and she collided bodily with it, bouncing off and sprawling across the ground. Confused and disoriented, Erica got up and tried to run past the tree, only for it to reach out and grab the back of her shirt before throwing her back to where she started.
Erica hopped to her feet, but this time wiped away the tears and blood to get a sense of what was ahead of her. She instantly wished she had gone any direction other than this. In front of her stood a mountain of a man rather than a tree, nearly seven feet tall and covered in bulging muscle. Bare feet poked out from red plaid trousers held in place with a metal plated belt. A hairy torso that nearly resembled a bear's more than a human's was uncovered save for a single leather pauldron on his left shoulder and the straps holding it in place, and a ragged deep red cape. A huge beard with a long braided mustache obscured the lower half of his weathered face, while a mess of matching long red hair sprouted from his head. A bull's skull sat on top of his head like a hat, though it had a sinister countenance, with fangs, horns, angry-looking eye sockets and sharper angles than it otherwise should. In one hand, he held a massive double-headed axe whose blades could cover much of his torso, with a haft about as long as Erica was tall, with its heads planted firmly on the ground. A menacing aura radiated from him, quite literally as the maiga that came off of him was tainted, sinister. This demonic being pierced her form with eyes crimson as blood.
Everyone on Tarsis knew who this was: Angor, founder of his Diezens, and the murder blight upon the world.
Angor eyed Erica lazily, tilting his head to one side then the other. When he spoke, his deep voice rumbled with the promise of death.
"You... The lightning was your doing. I thought I had all the shapers here killed at the outset. You weren't nearby enough to make it in to help the village, or were you here already and hiding your power..."
Erica was panicking. There was no way she could take this monster on, even with the power running through her now. But she had to try, she wasn't going to die here if she could help it. Actively focusing all the wild energy in her body into a focal point in her palm, she threw the ball of lightning at the huge man, where it exploded with such force she was knocked back two paces.
Angor didn't even make a move to defend himself, he watched uninterested as the ball was thrown at him and simply took the hit head on as it speared him with countless bolts of electricity. When Erica could see again, the lord of the Diezens was standing just like he had before, a tinge of annoyance crossing his eyes.
"While you cannot truly harm me, that still hurt. Now," He took a thunderous step forward, hefting his axe into his grip and off the ground, "swear fealty, or die."
Erica's mind raced. She may as well have been in a corner. Even with the forest at her back, there was nowhere she could go that would save her. This beast had her in his sights, and would have her life one way or the other.
"What would y-you have me do?" She managed, trying to buy time for her brain to come up with something, anything.
"You have killed before, I can smell it on you," Angor growled in a voice that said what patience he had was wearing thin, "I would have you do it again. And again. And again. Until there are none left to kill. Send all before you to Mortemhiem. Murder, for murder's sake. Now, choose. I tire of your pointless game."
Erica's thoughts turned to her mother, to her father. "No," she said, "I can't do that. Not again!"
Angor sneered beneath his facial hair, "Then die yourself."
In a single motion, Angor closed the distance between them and hefted his axe skyward. Pain flared from Erica's right shoulder, and as she turned to look, her arm was sailing through the moonlit air, trailing blood before it landed by the roots of a tree. She screamed and clutched the stump, trying to stem the bleeding. She turned and ran again, leaving Angor in the woods as she tried dodging trees and branches once more. She didn't know where she was going, shock was setting in. She stumbled and fell onto her back. She started hyperventilating, consciousness threatening to leave her as she felt blood seep from her wound. She saw Angor casually stroll up to her, axe poised to strike a finishing blow. In the sky above, Erica thought she was hallucinating the white fireball coming their way. As it exploded into Angor, knocking him back, Erica's exhaustion finally took over as the world turned black.
