faerie rift chronicles 01 - faerie rift

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Chapter 1

T
he ground shuddered beneath my feet. The army was off in the distance still, but even as they approached, the planet marked their approach.

Huge red ants, larger than most I had seen closer to the Capitol, all scurried into their holes.

They were going underground, and I knew that if we were wise, we too would follow.

It is only the petulant and the foolhardy who fight their wars on the surface in spite of so great a force.

We were the Fae Resistance. Fighters who held close to their ideals, and even though we didn’t have a very good statistical chance of success, we were ready to both kill and die for what we believed in. The problem was that we could no longer continue to live as we had been living. We had reached a breaking point. There was nothing more to lose beyond the physical forms that we held, and even those were beginning to wane.

The enemy had so much more than us in almost every regard. The only thing that we had an abundance of was self-righteous pride, and determination. It served us well, because when you think that you are in the right, and that your cause is just, you can draw on stores that previously hadn’t existed.

The heat was unbearable, even from my position sequestered amongst the rocks. I was holed off to the side of the primary theater. The whole scenario was a last stand attempt to draw the troops out from the Capitol, and then assassinate their chain of command — starting with the leader of their army, Lord Xan.

First, the shots came down over my position. It was all Fae Magic, which is what made this whole battle so sickening. A country should never have to sustain the hells of a civil war, but when the flames exploded in dangerous circumference around the incendiary projectiles, I wasn’t thinking about the cruelties of war any longer.

None of us were.

Just then, there was a tear in my vision and I was in another place altogether.

The clang of the battle was moving forward in a volley of arrows. They blotted out the dim light of the sun, and created phantoms in the smoke that hung in the air. I watched from the sides while the smoke made the shapes of cruel tentacled monsters, and fierce serpents.

As though they were mocking us, which they most certainly were, the illusionists took hold of the scene. The dragons of my hallucinations took form and began to soar through the sky on serpentine currents of air.

We were all hidden, and we knew well enough that the arrows themselves were more dangerous than the phantoms, but I felt the effect of the illusions regardless. The sight of them reminded me of the posh aristocratic sorcerers who inhabited the Capitol. We were fighting so hard for equality, and they stood for every form of cruel and vindictive entitlement I could think of. Xan, our target for the day, was their leader.

I recall watching the places where my friends were holed up and waiting. They were far away, and their actual positions were obscured by the shadows of monsters from above. Rage swelled up within me and I struggled to retain the level of composure that I knew would be required of me moving forward in our mission.

Another visual tear, followed by the sound of static and a high pitch ringing in my ears.

The carrier tone is the aftermath of an explosion that went off too close for comfort. We finally erected some deflection spells, but I was caught on the wrong side of them. I got lucky. No other way to frame the situation.

My body is full of adrenaline, and I am using every bit of my physical ability in order to move quickly. I have to close a great distance in a short period of time. Explosions around me spray my body with chunks of rocks. We have nearly missed the mark of what we were aiming to achieve.

In the distance, I can see Thane. He is supposed to be at my side but is caught up in an unfavorable battle. There are too many of them, and things are not going as smoothly as we had hoped they might.

I don't even have the presence of mind to wish that I as elsewhere.

My path to Thane is blocked, and I am pushed into the rear end of the fray. The rocks around me look like they have been lashed and marked by some furious storm. Rain pours down soot and debris from overhead. As the toxins are purged from the sky, I survey the field, and find our target -- the very reason for all of this sacrifice. Even as I see him, Xan is raining fire down from the heavens.

My vision widens as I consider what must be done. Without my consent, my senses have heightened to an exponential degree. Not only can I hear Thane's blade slide through the armor plating of the opponents he fights, but I can smell the seared flesh of our brothers and sisters on the far side of the battle lines. A vision of Xan grows in my head, and I realize that this is the future he wanted to achieve. Burning people alive who dared to disagree with his beliefs.

Without thinking, I took a step forward.

My role in all of this was supposed to be ancillary. I was supposed to create value. Provide information. I was not an action asset. That was Thane's job. However, every moment I continued to censor myself, was one more moment when I had to watch the world deteriorate around me. There wasn't enough time for things to unfold as we had planned, and it became increasingly clear to me that I needed to take a drastic step forward, and go at it alone.

The plan was complex, which is why my services were needed.

I had been studying Xan on an undercover level for years now. I knew his movements, and his habits. I knew everything that I could learn about him, given the fact that he was my sole point of focus for this entire assignment. Importantly, I had also uncovered his point of weakness.

Men like Xan took refuge in the complexities of their own minds. There is a level of arrogance there which prohibits them from thinking clearly about matters which might be better handled via other pathways.

Xan had mapped out the geometric pathways of power on which he drew his strength. He had planned out all of the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of retaining a full shield, versus retaining full attack power. In a field of battle like this, he was going to be more outwardly focused than inwardly defensive. That much was evident. The trick in knowing how to disable a person's magical shields has to do with knowing which geometrical structures to dislocate. In a complex system, removing one fundamental structural element can be the difference between relative impermeability and systemic collapse.

My job was to know the pathways forward, disable the shields, and let Thane follow up with the killing strike.

"Aria, STAND DOWN!"

Thane's voice rang clear in my head through private telepathic channels. The two of us had spent so time training together that our bodies and souls had fused. We could share thoughts, which was another reason why our placement together was crucial.

I saw out the corner of my eye as Thane struggled to free himself from his entanglements. He was a proficient fighter -- one of the best, but he was covered. There was no way for him to get there in time, and now, as Xan was preparing to launch another devastating attack, I had no choice. I had to strike.

I brought our psychic link to a close, and zeroed in on the pathway before me.

Every step I took, every subtle twitch of muscles and distribution of weight was correct. One foot planted on the base of a boulder, and the next followed with a swift step after the first. I leaped up into the air and drew my dagger from its sheath. Closing my eyes, I reached out with sensitivity, and felt for the swirling geometrical patterns which composed Xan's shield. I knew that to make a mistake at this point would be the equivalent of forfeiting our entire cause. The weight of the moment was daunting, but the pressure was all focused on locating a single point of entry.

The blade, magically imbued to disassemble psychic shields, slid between the first orbit. My feet landed on the ground, and my body began moving through the complex dance of motions necessary to achieve my purpose. One by one the orbiting shields around Xan fell, all while he was in the midst of his spell.

I could feel the raw anger and power emanating off from his body. He knew that I was approaching, but to interrupt his casting at this point could bring dire consequences. Whatever dark forces were being marshaled by his will could easily turn on him if he was not in control of every aspect of his attack.

The dim light faded from the sky and the ground beneath my feet began to shake. Still I pressed forward, finding myself in the final move of my dance with death. The dagger in my hand was now pressed up against my chest -- hilt first, elbows out, prepared to deliver the final blow to Xan's shields.

Diving forward from fifteen feet behind his position, I sank the blade into Xan's spine, disconnecting the meridian flow from where his power stemmed.

The shield was down but the spell had already been finished. I was too late.

Xan's entire attention turned on me with the quickness of a viper. All I needed to do was remove the blade, and puncture his heart. The killing stroke would have been so easy, but Xan prided himself on being not only magically powerful, but a physical warrior as well. He overwhelmed me with little effort, pulled the blade out by my wrist, and then spun me around onto the ground.

Static.

"Aria, so sweet..."

His voice was a growl in my ear. I wanted to curse in response, but his knee came strong into my back, and knocked all of the wind out of me. Choking on the dust of the ground, stars swam before my eyes.

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